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Relationship Between Psychosocial And Interpersonal Factors And Implicit Sex-Submission Associations In Hispanic/Latina And White Women, Myriel Rodríguez Boissén

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate implicit sex-submission associations for Hispanic /Latina and White women. Furthermore, this study examined how childhood sexual abuse, anticipated negative partner reaction-refusal, psychosexual functioning, sexual assertiveness-refusal and communication, and hyperfemininity are associated with women's implicit sex-submission associations. These interpersonal and psychosocial factors were analyzed for Hispanic/Latina and White women to help us determine if these associations are found for two different groups of women.

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals associate sex with power and aggression at an unconscious level (Bargh et al., 1995; Mussweiler & Forster, 2000; Zurbriggen, 2000). For men, implicit …

Studies Toward The Synthesis Of Lomaiviticins A And B And Englerin A, Srinivas Achanta

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Part I: Studies toward the central core of lomaiviticins A and B Lomaiviticins A and B are novel C2-symmetric dimeric molecules with profound cytotoxic activity. The most challenging feature of these molecules is the densely functionalized central core. Despite the effort by several research groups, the total synthesis of lomaiviticins has not been reported so far. We envisioned the synthesis of the lomaiviticin core by an unprecedented Diels-Alder dimerization of ortho-quinols and masked ortho-benzoquinones, followed by the fragmentation of the extra carbon-carbon bond. This chapter describes the stereoselective elaboration of the ortho-quinol and masked ortho-benzoquinone dimers to the fragmentation precursors …

Essays On Macro-Finance Relationships, Azamat Abdymomunov

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In my dissertation, I study relationships between macroeconomics and financial markets. In particular, I empirically investigate the links between key macroeconomic indicators, such as output, inflation, and the business cycle, and the pricing of financial assets. The dissertation comprises three essays. The first essay investigates how the entire term structure of interest rates is influenced by regime-shifts in monetary policy. To do so, we develop and estimate an arbitrage-free dynamic term-structure model which accounts for regime shifts in monetary policy, volatility, and the price of risk. Our results for U.S. data from 1985-2008 indicate that: i) the Fed's reaction to …

Physics Of Ultrasonic Wave Propagation In Bone And Heart Characterized Using Bayesian Parameter Estimation, Christian Anderson

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This Dissertation explores the physics underlying the propagation of ultrasonic waves in bone and in heart tissue through the use of Bayesian probability theory. Quantitative ultrasound is a noninvasive modality used for clinical detection, characterization, and evaluation of bone quality and cardiovascular disease. Approaches that extend the state of knowledge of the physics underpinning the interaction of ultrasound with inherently inhomogeneous and isotropic tissue have the potential to enhance its clinical utility. Simulations of fast and slow compressional wave propagation in cancellous bone were carried out to demonstrate the plausibility of a proposed explanation for the widely reported anomalous negative …

A Geometric Approach For Deciphering Protein Structure From Cryo-Em Volumes, Sasakthi Abeysinghe

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Electron Cryo-Microscopy or cryo-EM is an area that has received much attention in the recent past. Compared to the traditional methods of X-Ray Crystallography and NMR Spectroscopy, cryo-EM can be used to image much larger complexes, in many different conformations, and under a wide range of biochemical conditions. This is because it does not require the complex to be crystallisable. However, cryo-EM reconstructions are limited to intermediate resolutions, with the state-of-the-art being 3.6A, where secondary structure elements can be visually identified but not individual amino acid residues. This lack of atomic level resolution creates new computational challenges for protein structure …

Effects Of Attention Allocation On Habituation To Food Cues In Normal Weight And Overweight Children, Vandana Aspen

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ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Effects of Attention Allocation on Habituation to Food Cues in Normal weight and Overweight Children by Vandana Passi Aspen Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Washington University in St. Louis, 2010 Professor Denise Wilfley, Chairperson Despite the rising prevalence of pediatric overweight, minimal research has been conducted to understand the basic biological processes underlying overweight in children. The present study assesses changes in physiological response: i.e., salivation) to food over time. The primary aims were to examine whether salivation patterns in children vary based on weight status and/or allocating attention to a distracter task. It was hypothesized …

Tandem, Oxidative Cyclizations By Anodic Electrochemistry And The Use Of Solar Power As An Alternate Energy Source, Laura Anderson

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Cyclization reactions are a significant pursuit in organic synthesis. Unfortunately, many cyclization reactions are either reductive in nature or redox neutral. This can force post-cyclization manipulations to add functional groups and continue the total synthesis. These additional reactions create excess waste and decrease the efficiency of a synthetic scheme. In these cases, it would be nice to do the cyclization in an oxidative fashion. Oxidative cyclizations have been performed, but are currently limited in nature and scope. One way to address this issue is with the use of organic electrochemistry. Electrochemistry appears to be an ideal choice for initiating oxidative …

Development Of Atomistic Potentials For Silicate Materials And Coarse-Grained Simulation Of Self-Assembly At Surfaces, Brian Barnes

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This thesis is composed of two parts. The first is a study of evolutionary strategies for parametrization of empirical potentials, and their application in development of a charge-transfer potential for silica. An evolutionary strategy was meta-optimized for use in empirical potential parametrization, and a new charge-transfer empirical model was developed for use with isobaric-isothermal ensemble molecular dynamics simulations. The second is a study of thermodynamics and self-assembly in a particular class of athermal two-dimensional lattice models. The effects of shape on self-assembly and thermodynamics for polyominoes and tetrominoes were examined. Many interesting results were observed, including complex clustering, non-ideal mixing, …

Now That's Promising: A Social Influence Model Of Innovation Evaluation, Peter Boumgarden

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Identifying and investing in innovative initiatives is a fundamental challenge for individuals in the contemporary organization. And yet, while we know a good deal about the psychology of innovation evaluation, we know decidedly less about how such processes are influenced by the formal and informal structures within which individuals in this setting operate. To address these limitations, I first draw from work on the psychology of idea evaluation to identify and develop a heuristic of evaluation relevant to the evaluation of innovation--that of an initiative's promise. I then suggest that such promise evaluations will be simultaneously influenced by the formal …

Synthetic Ion Transporters: New Analytical Approaches For The Investigation Of Ion Binding And Transport, Ionut Carasel

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Synthetic ion transporters: new analytical approaches for the investigation of ion binding and transport by Ionut Alexandru Carasel Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry Washington University in St. Louis, 2010 Dr. George W. Gokel, co-Chair Dr. Kevin Moeller, co-Chair The work reported in this dissertation focuses on synthetic ion transporters: SATs). SATs have a relatively simple chemical structure but they aggregate, self-assemble and insert in biological membranes much in the same way as their much more complex naturally occurring analogs. This makes SATs valuable tools for the investigation of these supramolecular and membrane related processes with the final goal of developing …

Impact Of Second Messenger Modulation On Activity-Dependent And Basal Properties Of Excitatory Synapses, Chun Yun Chang

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Cognitive processing in the central nervous system relies on accurate information propagation; neurotransmission is the fundamental mechanism underlying network information flow. Because network information is coded by the timing and the strength of neuronal activity, synaptic properties that translate neuronal activity into synaptic output profoundly determine the precision of information transfer. Synaptic properties are in turn shaped by changes in network activity to ensure appropriate synaptic output. Activity-dependent adjustment of synaptic properties is often initiated by second messenger signals. Understanding how second messengers sculpt synaptic properties and produce changes in synaptic output is key for elucidating the interplay between network …

Towards Real-Time Wireless Sensor Networks, Octav Chipara

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Wireless sensor networks are poised to change the way computer systems interact with the physical world. We plan on entrusting sensor systems to collect medical data from patients, monitor the safety of our infrastructure, and control manufacturing processes in our factories. To date, the focus of the sensor network community has been on developing best-effort services. This approach is insufficient for many applications since it does not enable developers to determine if a system's requirements in terms of communication latency, bandwidth utilization, reliability, or energy consumption are met. The focus of this thesis is to develop real-time network support for …

Drilling Induced Fatigue Damage In Ti-6al-4v, James Castle

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The objective of this work is to develop an understanding of the relationship between hole drilling processes and the fatigue performance of the resulting part in Ti-6Al-4V. This problem is significant, as on the order of one-hundred thousand to a million holes are created in a typical large aircraft, and the limiting performance criterion is usually the fatigue lifetime. The path between the drilling process parameters and the fatigue performance has two main steps: characterization of the thermo-mechanical drill process and assessment of the relationship between the hole integrity left by the drill process and the fatigue performance. Development has …

Quantitative Phosphoproteomics Through Β-Elimination And Michael Addition With Natural Abundance And Stable Isotope Labeled Thiocholine, Meng Chen

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The reversible covalent phosphorylation of cellular proteins is widely believed to be the most important mechanism for the regulation of multiple signal transduction pathways in cell growth, division, and death by acting as a molecular switch at multiple nodes in metabolic networks. In this dissertation, first, a novel mass spectrometric strategy is reported that exploited the unique chemical properties of thiocholine that was introduced into protein phosphosites through alkaline beta-elimination and Michael addition: BEMA), allowing the specific detection, identification and quantitation of phosphorylated serine/threonine containing peptides. Through replacement of the phosphate with thiocholine as the Michael donor, this strategy resulted …

Light-Harvesting And The Primary Photochemistry Of Roseiflexus Castenholzii, Aaron Collins

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Photosynthetic organisms have evolved diverse antennas to harvest light of various qualities and intensities. Anoxygenic phototrophs can have bacteriochlorophyll Q_y antenna absorption bands ranging from about 700-1100 nm. This broad range of usable wavelengths has allowed many organisms to thrive in unique environments. Roseiflexus castenholzii is a niche-adapted, filamentous anoxygenic phototroph: FAP) that lacks chlorosomes, the dominant antenna found in all green bacteria. Light-harvesting is realized only in the membrane with BChl a and a variety of carotenoids. Through biochemical and spectroscopic methods, a model for the size and organization of the photosynthetic antenna is presented. Despite the wide …

The Hematopoietic Compartment Regulates Osteoblast Differentiation And Apoptosis During Cytokine Treatment, Matthew Christopher

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Adult hematopoiesis normally occurs in bone marrow, where hematopoietic stem cells: HSC) reside within a specialized microenvironment. At steady state, hematopoiesis state is regulated such that immature hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells: HSPC) are restricted to the bone marrow and are rarely observed in peripheral blood. Under certain circumstances, however, this regulation is loosened and significant numbers of HSPC are released to the circulation, a process termed "mobilization." Mobilization can be induced pharmacologically by a wide range of agents. Of these, the best characterized and most widely used mobilizing agent is Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor: G-CSF). G-CSF is widely used clinically …

The Relationship Between Hand-Nearness, Emotional Arousal, And Visual Processing, Christopher Davoli

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When an observer holds his or her hands near an object: hand-nearness), visual processing of that object differs in several ways from visual processing of an object far from the hands. Interestingly, the changes that visual processing undergoes during hand-nearness are the same as those that occur when an observer is emotionally aroused. In the present dissertation, three experiments examined whether hand-nearness and emotional arousal affect visual processing through a shared cognitive mechanism. More specifically, it was proposed that hand-nearness activates the same visual processing mechanism that is engaged during arousal. All experiments included replications of studies that have shown …

Stress Reactivity, Stress Appraisal And Coping Responses In Schizophrenia, Zainab Delawalla

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Psychosocial factors have long been recognized as important to the etiology of schizophrenia. According to the stress-vulnerability model, the experience of stress is critical to the onset and/or maintenance of schizophrenia. Although there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that people with schizophrenia experience more stressful events than the general population, there is ample evidence that stress is linked with the course of illness. Traditionally, two lines of research have examined stress processing mechanisms: one focusing on the biological response to stress by studying the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal: HPA) axis and the other focusing on the psychological mechanisms delineated in the transactional …

Brain Insulin Action Regulates Hypothalamic Glucose Sensing And The Counterregulatory Response To Hypoglycemia, Kelly Diggs-Andrews

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The brain is the primary organ that senses blood glucose levels and initiates a stress response when blood glucose levels are too low: hypoglycemia). Insulin-dependent people with Type 1 diabetes: T1DM) have an impaired ability to sense hypoglycemia and an impaired ability to activate this counterregulatory response: CRR) to hypoglycemia. As a result, T1DM are at a greater risk of experiencing insulin induced severe hypoglycemic episodes, which can result in seizures, brain damage, or even death. Since hypoglycemia is a major barrier that limits intensive blood glucose control, important research initiatives are needed to prevent or reduce the burden of …

P38 Phoshporylates Rb On Ser567 By A Novel, Cell Cycle-Independent Mechanism That Triggers Rb-Hdm2 Interaction And Apoptosis, Rachel Delston

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The retinoblastoma protein: Rb) inhibits both cell division and apoptosis, but the mechanism by which Rb alternatively regulates these divergent outcomes remains poorly understood. Cyclin dependent kinases: Cdks) promote cell division by phosphorylating and reversibly inactivating Rb by a hierarchical series of phosphorylation events and sequential conformational changes. The stress-regulated mitogen activated protein kinase: MAPK) p38 also phosphorylates Rb, but it does so in a cell cycle-independent manner that is associated with apoptosis rather than with cell division. Here, we show that p38 phosphorylates Rb by a novel mechanism that is distinct from that of Cdks. p38 bypasses the cell …

Equivariant Deformations Of Horospherical Surfaces, Michael Deutsch

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The classical Goursat transform for minimal surfaces is interpreted as conformal transformation of the Gauss map, allowing us to "bend" these surfaces for certain geometric purposes. A simple analogue of this deformation is defined for CMC1 surfaces which makes the Goursat transform equivariant with respect to the Lawson correspondence, thereby increasing the number of explicitly computable examples of minimal/CMC1 cousin pairs. We then indicate how the Goursat transformation law and integrability conditions for the "spin curve" of a horospherical surface are analogous to the Lorentz transformation law and equations of motion for the wavefunction of a massless fermion.

Ionic Mechanisms Of Action Potential Rate Dependence, Conduction And Block In Normal Epicardium And In Remodeled Epicardium Post-Infarction, Keith Decker

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In this work, detailed computational models are used to study the electrophysiology of normal epicardium and the arrhythmogenic effects of epicardial cell remodeling post-infarction. The canine epicardial myocyte model described here reproduces a wide range of experimentally observed rate dependent phenomena in cell and tissue. Model behavior depends on updated formulations for the 4-AP sensitive transient outward current: Ito1), the slow component of the delayed rectifier potassium current: IKs), the L-type Ca2+ channel: ICa,L) and the sodium-potassium pump: INaK) fit to data from canine ventricular myocytes. The model shows that Ito1 plays a limited role in potentiating peak ICa,L and …

Local And Systemic Consequences Of Reducing Notch Signaling In Skin Keratinocytes, Shadmehr Demehri

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Notch is a transmembrane receptor that mediates short-range signaling between neighboring cells. Notch signaling has been implicated in various cellular and developmental processes essential in the life of metazoans. Specifically, Notch signaling plays a critical role in mammalian skin. Removal of Notch alleles in skin keratinocytes has been associated with an array of phenotypes with varying severity based on the identity and number of remaining Notch receptors. Phenotypes include carcinogenesis: in the case of Notch1 loss), transformation of hair follicles to epidermal cysts and neonatal lethality, the latter seen in the absence of all Notch signaling. Although these phenotypes were …

Impossible Whiteness: Race, Gender, And American Identity In Early Twentieth-Century American Literature, Tarah Demant

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In Impossible Whiteness, I reveal whiteness--though oftentimes still an implicit critical assumption of normalcy--as a complex, shifting category in the literature of early twentieth-century America, and show how gender, particularly, disrupts American whiteness. I deconstruct the various ways in which whiteness is defined legally, culturally, and in the marketplace, and demonstrate how Edith Wharton, Anzia Yezierska, and F. Scott Fitzgerald trace these standards of whiteness and the inevitable failure of such racial: and implicitly gendered) refinement. Though critical literature has been slow to consider the role of race for these authors, I reveal them as actively participating in contemporary dialogues …

Sizing Up The Competition: Quantifying The Influence Of The Mental Lexicon On Auditory, Visual, And Audiovisual Spoken Word Recognition, Julia Feld

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A central question in research on spoken word recognition is whether spoken words are recognized relationally, in the context of other words in the mental lexicon: McClelland & Elman, 1986; Norris, 1994; Luce & Pisoni, 1998). The current research evaluated metrics for measuring the influence of the mental lexicon on spoken word recognition in auditory-only: A-only), visual-only: V-only) and audiovisual: AV) conditions, and assessed the extent to which lexical properties influence recognition similarly across modality of input. Lexical competition: the extent to which perceptually similar words influence recognition of a stimulus word) was quantified using metrics that are well-established in …

The Staggered Chiral Perturbation Theory In The Two-Flavor Case And Su(2) Chiral Analysis Of The Milc Data, Xining Du

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As a part of the Standard Model: SM), Quantum Chromodynamics: QCD) is a widely accepted theory to describe the physics of quarks and gluons. Formulating QCD on finite discrete lattices in Euclidean space-time not only enables one to study the theory non-perturbatively, but also provides a framework analogous to statistical systems, in which numerical methods can be applied. In this work, we concentrate on one specific fermion formalism, staggered fermions. To interpret the data obtained from numerical simulations with staggered fermions, a particular version of chiral perturbation theory: χPT), rooted staggered χPT: rSχPT), is needed to incorporate the discretization effects, …

Mitotic Cell Cycle Progression And Differentiation Of Germline Stem Cells In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Paul Fox

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In the C. elegans germline, stem cells make a decision to retain the germline proliferative cell fate or differentiate by entering meiosis. Importantly, this decision must be coordinated with progression through the mitotic cell cycle. Previous work has shown that the conserved GLP-1/Notch signaling pathway promotes the proliferative fate while two downstream and redundant pathways are repressed by GLP-1 and promote entry into meiosis: the GLD-1 and GLD-2 pathways. To better understand how the switch to enter meiosis is coordinated with progression through the mitotic cell cycle, I investigated mitotic cell cycle progression among germline proliferative cells. Proliferative cells cycle …

Mechanisms Of Copper-Dependent Notochord Formation In Zebrafish, John Gansner

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The interplay of genes and nutrition during early development profoundly impacts fetal outcome. Copper is an essential nutrient required for the redox activity of many enzymes, and recent work in our laboratory has elucidated the phenotype of copper deficiency in zebrafish, which includes a strikingly distorted notochord. The studies described here establish the specific genetic etiology of this distortion and reveal a number of gene-gene and gene-nutrient interactions critical to notochord morphogenesis. We first demonstrate that the notochord distortion observed in copper-deficient zebrafish results from lysyl oxidase cuproenzyme inhibition. Four lysyl oxidase family members are expressed throughout the developing zebrafish …

Leveraged Buyouts, Long Term Relationship And Financial Contracting, Lei Gao

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In the first chapter of my dissertation, I study private equity sponsored leveraged buyouts. In this study, I identify and estimate two components of the created value: benefits of debt and influence of private equity. In the second chapter of my dissertation, I study repeated games with private monitoring in continuous time. I apply stochastic filtering theory to characterize the evolution of players' beliefs, which is difficult to do in discrete time. In the third chapter of my dissertation, I study the connection between financial contracting and staged financing in venture capital.

A Laboratory-Based Study Of Mood And Eating Behavior In Overweight Children, Andrea Goldschmidt

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Loss of control over eating refers to the sense that one cannot control what or how much one is eating. Loss of control eating is prevalent among overweight children and is associated with psychosocial impairment. Self-report data suggest that pediatric loss of control eating may be related to the experience of aversive emotions, with investigators theorizing that loss of control eating is a maladaptive means of alleviating negative mood. However, these data need to be substantiated using more objective methodology. The current study utilized a feeding laboratory paradigm to further explore the relation between mood and eating in 46 overweight …