Digital Commons Network^™

Socially Responsible Investment In Asia, Geoffrey Williams

Social Space

Recent worries about product safety, transparent corporate governance and the social and environmental impact of corporate activity have been the drivers of “Socially Responsible Investment” (SRI) in Europe and North America. Geoffrey Williams delves into the rise of SRI in Asia, where opportunities for strong investment returns are wide and growing.

Commemorative Book For The New Campuses Of Hkdi And Ive (Lee Wai Lee), Hkdi & Ive (Lee Wai Lee)

Staff Publications

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Located in Tiu Keng Leng, the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) and IVE (Lee Wai Lee) mega-campus is an open and dynamic environment conducive to creative learning and innovative exploration. Based on the award winning design from the International Architectural Design Competition, the campus blends an open outlook with teaching and learning spaces that encourage interaction and the cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Using Games In A Foreign Language Classroom, Amy Talak-Kiryk

MA TESOL Collection

This independent professional project researches the value of games in a classroom setting. The research focuses on the educational benefits as well as on recommendations how to incorporate games into a learning environment. Also included are games that can be used in a foreign language classroom to enhance student learning. The games were developed by various sources and used in a Spanish classroom in an American high school with teenagers ages fourteen to eighteen.

For Better Or Verse – Poetry In The Esl Classroom, Fredrick Schroeder

MA TESOL Collection

This Independent Personal Project considers the use of poetry with regard to reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. The first part of the paper deals with the author’s background in poetry and journey to using it in class. The next part is concerned with the reasons for using poetry in the ESL classroom. Then the paper focuses on general concerns using poetry in class, which segues into a more specific discussion of assessment and correction. The final part of the paper presents twenty activities that can be used in the classroom. The …

Basic Social Math: A Linguistic Upgrade For Decision Analysis And Social Dynamics Research., Jared Hanson

MA TESOL Collection

There are foundational errors in the mathematical frameworks currently used in Economic and Decision Theories. Recent systemic failures in the interdependent business and educational sectors also show that many practices based on these theories are unsustainable in the changing dynamics of the global economy. A new approach is needed in social science research and systems engineering. This paper examines how the new understandings of complex systems, the role of emotion in cognition, and the core dynamics of decision making can help us correct these errors and to create a general framework for systemic innovation. It argues for the development of …

Lamin B Receptor, Ada L. Olins, Gale Rhodes, David B. Mark Welch, Monika Zwerger, Donald E. Olins

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Lamin B Receptor (LBR) is an integral membrane protein of the interphase nuclear envelope (NE). The N-terminal end resides in the nucleoplasm, binding to lamin B and heterochromatin, with the interactions disrupted during mitosis. The C-terminal end resides within the inner nuclear membrane, retreating with the ER away from condensing chromosomes during mitotic NE breakdown. Some of these properties are interpretable in terms of our current structural knowledge of LBR, but many of the structural features remain unknown. LBR apparently has an evolutionary history which brought together at least two ancient conserved structural domains (i.e. Tudor and sterol reductase). This …

Building Lexical Awareness Through Sustained Authentic Text, Jeff Puccini

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes an experiment to implement a lexical approach in the context of a High-intermediate ESL classroom. The vehicle for building students’ lexical awareness was Sustained Authentic Text (SAT). SATs, a term I coined, refers to texts like newspapers, TV programs, etc. covered for a prolonged period—a month or more, as opposed to one-off lessons, or traditional textbooks. The students were young adults studying in a non-credit Intensive English Program (IEP) in San Francisco and the paper focuses on one two-month period during which time the SAT was the TV sitcom, Two and a Half Men. The paper …

Attempting To Analyse (Language) Awareness: A Foray Into The Realm Of People's Perceptions Of, Attitudes Towards, And Conceptions About Language, Evan Zelezny-Green

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents the process and results of a written questionnaire administered online to 200 individuals, designed to elicit their perceptions of, conceptions about, and attitudes toward language, The questionnaire was based on similar questionnaires presented orally in small groups to European pupils in the context of Language Awareness curriculum projects. The author presents respondents' answers to each question, grouped according to major patterns and underlying themes in the responses. Finally, possible questions for further research are posed, based on the patterns that emerged in the current study.

Contingency Theory Perspective On Management Control System Design Among U.S. Ante-Bellum Slave Plantations;, Louis J. Stewart

Accounting Historians Journal

This paper examines the management control-system design of mid-19th century U.S. slave plantations using a contingency theory framework. Large rice plantations that relied on forced labor and tidal-flow agricultural technology were very profitable for their owners. This paper presents a model that links these favorable operating results to a close fit between the control-system design and three key contingent environmental variables. Absentee owners hired managers to provide on-site oversight and periodic operational reporting. These managers relied on slave drivers to assign individualized daily tasks to the plantation's field hands and monitor their performance. Productive field slaves were rewarded with greater …

Intersecting & Intertwining Processes: Student-Directed Service Learning And The Demystification Of Special Education, Michael T. Farrell

Graduate Student Independent Studies

High school graduation rates depend in part on successful transitions from middle school to high school. For Special Education students in particular, programs are needed to address their academic, social, and personals needs in preparation for this important developmental shift. Service Learning and the Demystification of Special Education process are two approaches that have proven helpful. The purpose of this paper is to identify the intersecting and intertwining ways that these two approaches can be combined for student success. After reviewing the history and research related to service learning and programs designed to demystify the concept of Special Education, the …

Slope-Driven Goal Location Behavior In Pigeons, Daniele Nardi, Kristian P. Nitsch, Verner P. Bingman

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

A basic tenet of principles of associative learning applicable to models of spatial learning is that a cue should be assigned greater weight if it is a better predictor of the goal location. Pigeons were trained to locate a goal in an acute corner of an isosceles trapezoid arena, presented on a slanted floor with 3 (Experiment 1) or 2 (Experiment 2) orientations. The goal could be consistently determined by the geometric shape of the arena; however, its position with respect to the slope gradient varied, such that slope position was not a good predictor of the goal. Pigeons learned …

Ducks, Geese, And Swans Of The World: Sources Cited, Paul A. Johnsgard

Ducks, Geese, and Swans of the World by Paul A. Johnsgard

350+ citations

Portland Waterfront Sign: Estuaries Of Casco Bay: Salt And Fresh Waters Hard At Work, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Montgomery Designs

Graphics, Maps, and Posters

No abstract provided.

Maine Healthy Beaches Program: Working Together To Improve Coastal Water Quality (2010 State Of The Bay Presentation), Mark Margerum, Sarah Mosley, Keri Lindberg

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Gulf Of Maine Council On The Marine Environment Action Plan 2012-2017, Gulf Of Maine Council On The Marine Environment

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Pneumococcal Serine-Rich Repeat Protein Is An Intra-Species Bacterial Adhesin That Promotes Bacterial Aggregation In Vivo And In Biofilms, Carlos J. Sanchez, Pooja Shivshankar, Kim Stol, Samuel Trakhtenbroit, Paul M. Sullam, Karin Sauer, Peter W.M. Hermans, Carlos J. Orihuela

Biological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

The Pneumococcal serine-rich repeat protein (PsrP) is a pathogenicity island encoded adhesin that has been positively correlated with the ability of Streptococcus pneumoniae to cause invasive disease. Previous studies have shown that PsrP mediates bacterial attachment to Keratin 10 (K10) on the surface of lung cells through amino acids 273-341 located in the Basic Region (BR) domain. In this study we determined that the BR domain of PsrP also mediates an intra-species interaction that promotes the formation of large bacterial aggregates in the nasopharynx and lungs of infected mice as well as in continuous flow-through models of mature biofilms. Using …

Integrating Resources: A Cataloging Manual - Appendix A To The Bibco Participants' Manual And Module 35 Of The Conser Cataloging Manual, Program For Cooperative Cataloging

AALL Legal Website of the Month

The Integrating Resources: A Cataloging Manual was first issued in 2003 and represented a significant milestone in the development of cataloging documentation. The manual was later revised in 2005 and 2008 to incorporate new practices and changes in the technical services landscape. In 2010 guidelines for repeatable 260 field were added to section 7.3.

Molecular Profiling Of The Developing Mouse Axial Skeleton: A Role For Tgfbr2 In The Development Of The Intervertebral Disc, Philip Sohn, Megan Cox, Dongquan Chen, Rosa Serra

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Very little is known about how intervertebral disc (IVD) is formed or maintained. Members of the TGF-β superfamily are secreted signaling proteins that regulate many aspects of development including cellular differentiation. We recently showed that deletion of Tgfbr2 in Col2a expressing mouse tissue results in alterations in development of IVD annulus fibrosus. The results suggested TGF-β has an important role in regulating development of the axial skeleton, however, the mechanistic basis of TGF-β action in these specialized joints is not known. One of the hurdles to understanding development of IVD is a lack of known markers. To identify genes …

Neurotrophins Regulate Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Il-6 Expression Through The Mapk Pathway, Fariba Rezaee, Stephanie L. Rellick, Giovanni Piedimonte, Stephen M. Akers, Heather A. O'Leary, Karen Martin, Michael D. Craig, Laura F. Gibson

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

The host's response to infection is characterized by altered levels of neurotrophins and an influx of inflammatory cells to sites of injured tissue. Progenitor cells that give rise to the differentiated cellular mediators of inflammation are derived from bone marrow progenitor cells where their development is regulated, in part, by cues from bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC). As such, alteration of BMSC function in response to elevated systemic mediators has the potential to alter their function in biologically relevant ways, including downstream alteration of cytokine production that influences hematopoietic development.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In the current study we investigated BMSC …

Characterization Of The Rainbow Trout Transcriptome Using Sanger And 454-Pyrosequencing Approaches, Mohamed Salem, Caird E. Rexroad Iii, Jiannan Wang, Gary H. Thorgaard, Jianbo Yao

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Rainbow trout are important fish for aquaculture and recreational fisheries and serves as a model species for research investigations associated with carcinogenesis, comparative immunology, toxicology and evolutionary biology. However, to date there is no genome reference sequence to facilitate the development of molecular technologies that utilize high-throughput characterizations of gene expression and genetic variation. Alternatively, transcriptome sequencing is a rapid and efficient means for gene discovery and genetic marker development. Although a large number (258,973) of EST sequences are publicly available, the nature of rainbow trout duplicated genome hinders assembly and complicates annotation.

Results

High-throughput deep sequencing of the …

Response And Transcriptional Regulation Of Rice Sumoylation System During Development And Stress Conditions, Vijay Chaikam

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Modification of proteins by the reversible covalent addition of the small ubiquitin like modifier (SUMO) protein has important consequences affecting target protein stability, sub-cellular localization, and protein-protein interactions. SUMOylation involves a cascade of enzymatic reactions, which resembles the process of ubiquitination. In this study, we characterized the SUMOylation system from an important crop plant, rice, and show that it responds to cold, salt and ABA stress conditions on a protein level via the accumulation of SUMOylated proteins. We also characterized the transcriptional regulation of individual SUMOylation cascade components during stress and development. During stress conditions, majority of the SUMO cascade …

From 'Omics' To Complex Disease: A Systems Biology Approach To Gene-Environment Interactions In Cancer, Sarah S. Knox

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Cancer is a complex disease that involves a sequence of gene-environment interactions in a progressive process that cannot occur without dysfunction in multiple systems, including DNA repair, apoptotic and immune functions. Epigenetic mechanisms, responding to numerous internal and external cues in a dynamic ongoing exchange, play a key role in mediating environmental influences on gene expression and tumor development.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis put forth in this paper addresses the limited success of treatment outcomes in clinical oncology. It states that improvement in treatment efficacy requires a new paradigm that focuses on reversing systemic dysfunction and tailoring treatments to specific …

Distribution And Persistence Of Pleural Penetrations By Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Robert R. Mercer, Ann F. Hubbs, James F. Scabilloni, Liying Wang, Lori A. Battelli, Diane Schwegler-Berry, Vincent Castranova, Dale W. Porter

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) are new manufactured nanomaterials with a wide spectrum of commercial applications. The durability and fiber-like dimensions (mean length 3.9 μm long × 49 nm diameter) of MWCNT suggest that these fibers may migrate to and have toxicity within the pleural region. To address whether the pleura received a significant and persistent exposure, C57BL/6J mice were exposed by pharyngeal aspiration to 10, 20, 40 and 80 μg MWCNT or vehicle and the distribution of MWCNT penetrations determined at 1, 7, 28 and 56 days after exposure. Following lung fixation and sectioning, morphometric methods were used to …

Dispersion Of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes By A Natural Lung Surfactant For Pulmonary In Vitro And In Vivo Toxicity Studies, Liying Wang, Vincent Castranova, Anurag Mishra, Bean Chen, Robert R. Mercer, Diane Schwegler-Berry, Yon Rojanasakul

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Accumulating evidence indicate that the degree of dispersion of nanoparticles has a strong influence on their biological activities. The aims of this study were to develop a simple and rapid method of nanoparticle dispersion using a natural lung surfactant and to evaluate the effect of dispersion status of SWCNT on cytotoxicity and fibrogenicity in vitro and in vivo.

Results

The natural lung surfactant Survanta® was used to disperse single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) in a biological medium. At physiologically relevant concentrations, Survanta®produced well dispersed SWCNT without causing a cytotoxic or fibrogenic effect. In vitrostudies show that Survanta®-dispersed SWCNT …

Agt M235t Genotype/Anxiety Interaction And Gender In The Hypergen Study, Sarah S. Knox, Xinxin Guo, Yuqing Zhang, G Weidner, Scott Williams, R Curtis Ellison

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Both anxiety and elevated heart rate (HR) have been implicated in the development of hypertension. The HyperGen cohort, consisting of siblings with severe and mild hypertension, an age-matched random sample of persons from the same base populations, and unmedicated adult offspring of the hypertensive siblings (N = 1,002 men and 987 women), was analyzed for an association of the angiotenisinogen AGTM235T genotype (TT, MT, MM) with an endophenotype, heart rate (HR) in high and low anxious groups.

Methodology

The interaction of AGTM genotype with anxiety, which has been independently associated with hypertension, was investigated adjusting for age, hypertension status, …

Association Of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (Pfoa) And Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (Pfos) With Uric Acid Among Adults With Elevated Community Exposure To Pfoa, Kyle Steenland, Sarah Tinker, Anoop Shankar, Alan Ducatman

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are compounds that do not occur in nature, have been widely used since World War II, and persist indefinitely in most environments. Median serum levels in the United States are 4 ng/mL for PFOA and 21 ng/mL for PFOS. PFOA has been associated with elevated uric acid in two studies of chemical workers. Uric acid is a risk factor for hypertension and possibly other cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study of PFOA and PFOS and uric acid among 54,951 adult community residents in Ohio and West Virginia, who lived or …

Odors Pulsed At Wing Beat Frequencies Are Tracked By Primary Olfactory Networks And Enhance Odor Detection, Shreejoy J. Tripathy, Oakland J. Peters, Erich M. Staudacher, Faizan R. Kalwar, Mandy N. Hatfield, Kevin C. Daly

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Each down stroke of an insect’s wings accelerates axial airflow over the antennae. Modeling studies suggest that this can greatly enhance penetration of air and air-born odorants through the antennal sensilla thereby periodically increasing odorant-receptor interactions. Do these periodic changes result in entrainment of neural responses in the antenna and antennal lobe (AL)? Does this entrainment affect olfactory acuity? To address these questions, we monitored antennal and AL responses in the moth Manduca sexta while odorants were pulsed at frequencies from 10–72 Hz, encompassing the natural wingbeat frequency. Power spectral density (PSD) analysis was used to identify entrainment of neural …

Modeling The Aneuploidy Control Of Cancer, Yao Li, Arthur Berg, Louie R. Wu, Zhong Wang, Gang Chen, Rongling Wu

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Aneuploidy has long been recognized to be associated with cancer. A growing body of evidence suggests that tumorigenesis, the formation of new tumors, can be attributed to some extent to errors occurring at the mitotic checkpoint, a major cell cycle control mechanism that acts to prevent chromosome missegregation. However, so far no statistical model has been available quantify the role aneuploidy plays in determining cancer.

Methods

We develop a statistical model for testing the association between aneuploidy loci and cancer risk in a genome-wide association study. The model incorporates quantitative genetic principles into a mixture-model framework in which various …

The Dauphin Island Sea Lab – A Tale Of Four Laboratories, George F. Crozier, Michael R. Dardeau

Gulf of Mexico Science

No abstract provided.

Profile Of The Gulf Ecology Division, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Stephen J. Jordan, Raymond G. Wilhour

Gulf of Mexico Science

No abstract provided.