Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2010

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 28501 - 28530 of 29164

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Novel Algorithms For Structural Alignment Of Non-Coding Rnas, Diana Kolbe Jan 2010

Novel Algorithms For Structural Alignment Of Non-Coding Rnas, Diana Kolbe

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Non-coding RNAs are biologically important molecules, with a variety of catalytic and regulatory activities mediated by their secondary and tertiary structures. Base-pairing interactions, particularly at the secondary structure level, are an important tool for identifying and studying these structural RNAs, but also present some unique challenges for sequence analysis. Probabilistic covariance models are effective representations of structural RNAs, with generally high sensitivity and specificity but slow computational speed. New algorithms for dealing with structural RNAs are developed to address some of the practical deficiencies of covariance models. A new model of local alignment improves accuracy for fragmentary data, such as …

Go to article

Magnetic Resonance Imaging And Surface-Based Analysis Techniques To Quantify Growth Of The Developing Brain, Andrew Knutsen Jan 2010

Magnetic Resonance Imaging And Surface-Based Analysis Techniques To Quantify Growth Of The Developing Brain, Andrew Knutsen

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Human brains, and those of most higher mammals, are gyrencephalic: folded) to accommodate a large cortical surface within the limited volume of the skull. Abnormal folding of the cerebral cortex in humans is associated with a number of neurological dysfunctions and diseases such as schizophrenia and Williams syndrome. To understand the mechanism of gyrification, and to illuminate the underlying causes of abnormal folding, objective, quantitative methods to characterize normal and abnormal development must be developed. The ferret is an excellent model in which to study the development of convolutions in the brain because folding occurs post-natally over a period of …

Go to article

A Study Of Published Journal Articles On Brain-Based Learning From 1985 To 2009, Janece Shaffer Jan 2010

A Study Of Published Journal Articles On Brain-Based Learning From 1985 To 2009, Janece Shaffer

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Educators are required to implement scientifically-based research interventions in their classrooms, but teachers and administrators may not be aware of the current laws and requirements of NCLB legislation. NCLB (2001) requires that educators implement research-based interventions. Brain-based learning programs have been implemented in classrooms throughout the country, even though the research base for such programs may be inadequate. This study presents the results of educational database searches for empirical studies involving brain-based or brain-compatible learning published in educational journals between 1985 and 2009. A total of 77 articles on brain-based learning were published during this time period but only 5 …

Go to article

Day Therapy Programs For Adolescents With Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review, Yamini Deenadayalan, Saravana Kumar, Zuzana Machotka, Luke Perraton Jan 2010

Day Therapy Programs For Adolescents With Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review, Yamini Deenadayalan, Saravana Kumar, Zuzana Machotka, Luke Perraton

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Day therapy programs are one of many interventions available for adolescents with mental health issues. Day therapy programs utilise a multi-disciplinary community-based approach to the treatment of mental health issues and allow adolescents to remain under the care of their family. To date, no review has specifically investigated the effectiveness of day therapy programs for adolescents. This review aims to investigate both the effectiveness of day therapy programs for adolescents with mental health problems and highlight the key components underpinning these programs. A systematic review of peer- reviewed literature was undertaken, using recognised processes. Eight studies were included in this …

Go to article

An Investigation Of The Cognitive And Perceptual Mechanisms Involved In Mania-Proneness, Kimberly Mercer Jan 2010

An Investigation Of The Cognitive And Perceptual Mechanisms Involved In Mania-Proneness, Kimberly Mercer

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The present research investigates the cognitive and perceptual mechanisms involved in mania-proneness. Building on the work of Depue and colleagues: Depue & Iacono, 1989; Depue & Zald, 1993) and Gray: 1994), which identifies links between the Behavioral Activation System: BAS) and the symptoms observed in mania, this research investigates the hypothesis that people who are prone to mania exhibit cognitive and perceptual biases in information processing when presented with achievement-oriented stimuli both at baseline, and after the receipt of a reward. These hypothesized biases were measured via an affective flanker task, a suboptimal priming task, and a judgment task about …

Go to article

Virtue, Practical Guidance, And Practices, Carrie Vodehnal Jan 2010

Virtue, Practical Guidance, And Practices, Carrie Vodehnal

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Fcs Analysis Of Pore Formation By The Human Protein Bax In Lipid Membranes, Olena Ivashyna Jan 2010

Fcs Analysis Of Pore Formation By The Human Protein Bax In Lipid Membranes, Olena Ivashyna

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Bax is a pro-apoptotic member of the BCL-2 protein family and its paramount function during apoptosis is to form pores in the mitochondrial outer membrane: MOM). In a simplified apoptosis model, upon apoptotic stimulation, Bax is activated via an unresolved mechanism, translocates to the MOM, where it changes conformation, inserts into the membrane as a monomer, and finally undergoes in-membrane oligomerization to form a pore. Once the Bax pore is formed, cytochrome c and other mitochondria-resident proteins escape into the cytoplasm where they activate the cascade of caspases, which dismantle the cell. To date, the structure of the inactive cytoplasmic …

Go to article

Textural Functions In Schoenberg's Second Chamber Symphony, Zachary Colonius Jan 2010

Textural Functions In Schoenberg's Second Chamber Symphony, Zachary Colonius

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Go to article

The Small Animals Of Maasai Settlements: Ethnoarchaeological Investigations Of The Commensalism Model, Lior Weissbrod Jan 2010

The Small Animals Of Maasai Settlements: Ethnoarchaeological Investigations Of The Commensalism Model, Lior Weissbrod

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This research was designed to test Tchernov's model of commensalism and the idea that remains of commensal species that today coexist with humans in settlement environments could be used to detect early sedentism in the archaeological record. The validity of the model has been questioned due to the lack of empirical knowledge on commensalism in a wide range of settlement environments including sedentary and more mobile ones. This study examined the commensalism model by focusing on seasonally occupied settlements of Maasai pastoralists in East Africa. Methods from ecology, ethnography, and archaeology were used to document the impact of Maasai settlements …

Go to article

A Geometric Approach For Deciphering Protein Structure From Cryo-Em Volumes, Sasakthi Abeysinghe Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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 …

Go to article

Now That's Promising: A Social Influence Model Of Innovation Evaluation, Peter Boumgarden Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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 …

Go to article

On Motion Parameterizations In Image Sequences From Fixed Viewpoints, Manfred Georg Jan 2010

On Motion Parameterizations In Image Sequences From Fixed Viewpoints, Manfred Georg

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation addresses the problem of parameterizing object motion within a set of images taken with a stationary camera. We develop data-driven methods across all image scales: characterizing motion observed at the scale of individual pixels, along extended structures such as roads, and whole image deformations such as lungs deforming over time. The primary contributions include: a) fundamental studies of the relationship between spatio-temporal image derivatives accumulated at a pixel, and the object motions at that pixel,: b) data driven approaches to parameterize breath motion and reconstruct lung CT data volumes, and: c) defining and offering initial results for a …

Go to article

Perception And Nonconceptual Apprehension, Arnon Cahen Jan 2010

Perception And Nonconceptual Apprehension, Arnon Cahen

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

My dissertation articulates and resolves a problem at the heart of debates about how perception guides our actions and deliberations. The problem arises from the independent plausibility but mutual inconsistency of the following theses: * Some perceptions provide us reasons * Only belief-like states provide us reasons * No perception is belief-like I argue that this problem is deeper than has been acknowledged. Simply rejecting any one thesis leads to serious challenges. Nonetheless, I argue that we can unravel the link between having reasons and having belief-like states in a way that explains the initial plausibility of the first thesis. …

Go to article

Electrospray Methodologies For Characterization And Deposition Of Nanoparticles, Luis Balam Modesto Lopez Jan 2010

Electrospray Methodologies For Characterization And Deposition Of Nanoparticles, Luis Balam Modesto Lopez

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Electrospray is an aerosolization method that generates highly charged droplets from solutions or suspensions and, after a series of solvent evaporation - droplet fission cycles, it results in particles carrying multiple charges. Highly charged particles are used in a variety of applications, including particle characterization, thin film deposition, nanopatterning, and inhalation studies among several others. In this work, a soft X-ray photoionization was coupled with an electrospray to obtain monodisperse, singly charged nanoparticles for applications in online size characterization with electrical mobility analysis. Photoionization with the soft X-ray charger enhanced the diffusion neutralization rate of the highly charged bacteriophages, proteins, …

Go to article

Genetic Influences On Preterm Birth, Jevon Plunkett Jan 2010

Genetic Influences On Preterm Birth, Jevon Plunkett

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Preterm birth: PTB) is a leading cause of mortality and disease burden globally; however, determinants of human parturition remain largely uncharacterized, making prediction and prevention of difficult. Genetic studies are one way in which we can attempt to better understand this disorder. We first sought to develop a model for the genetic influences on PTB to facilitate gene discovery. Study of standard measures of familial aggregation, the sibling risk ratio and the sibling-sibling odds ratio, and segregation analyses of gestational age, a quantitative proxy for preterm birth, lend support to a genetic component contributing to birth timing, since preterm deliveries …

Go to article

Response Mapping In Evaluative Priming, Laura Scherer Jan 2010

Response Mapping In Evaluative Priming, Laura Scherer

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Recently, Scherer and Lambert: 2009) proposed a new model of priming, which they called the Response Mapping: RM) Model. That model assumes that under some circumstances, priming effects are the result of an unintentional tendency for participants to impose the target categorization task onto the primes: which they are supposed to ignore). In the present dissertation, the RM model is reviewed, and the implications and boundary conditions of the model are explored. In Experiments 1 and 2, it was predicted and found that response mapping processes can result in evaluative conditioning effects. That is, priming tasks do not always simply …

Go to article

Biologically Inspired Sensing And Mimo Radar Array Processing, Murat Akcakaya Jan 2010

Biologically Inspired Sensing And Mimo Radar Array Processing, Murat Akcakaya

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The contributions of this dissertation are in the fields of biologically inspired sensing and multi-input multi-output: MIMO) radar array processing. In our research on biologically inspired sensing, we focus on the mechanically coupled ears of the female Ormia ochracea. Despite the small distance between its ears, the Ormia has a remarkable localization ability. We statistically analyze the localization accuracy of the Ormia's coupled ears, and illustrate the improvement in the localization performance due to the mechanical coupling. Inspired by the Ormia's ears, we analytically design coupled small-sized antenna arrays with high localization accuracy and radiation performance. Such arrays are essential …

Go to article

Effects Of Attention Allocation On Habituation To Food Cues In Normal Weight And Overweight Children, Vandana Aspen Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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 …

Go to article

Towards Real-Time Wireless Sensor Networks, Octav Chipara Jan 2010

Towards Real-Time Wireless Sensor Networks, Octav Chipara

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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 …

Go to article

The Effect Of Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (Ecae) And Boron Additions On The Mechanical Properties Of A Biomedical Ti-Nb-Zr-Ta (Tnzt) Alloy, Gian Colombo Jan 2010

The Effect Of Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (Ecae) And Boron Additions On The Mechanical Properties Of A Biomedical Ti-Nb-Zr-Ta (Tnzt) Alloy, Gian Colombo

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

New metastable-beta type titanium alloys based on the biocompatible elements Ti-Nb-Zr-Ta: TNZT) have been developed to address the shortcomings: e.g. incomplete biocompatibility, high modulus, etc.) of the traditionally used materials in joint replacement prostheses. Equal channel angular extrusion: ECAE) processing has the capability to improve the mechanical properties of these alloys to broaden their potential biomedical applications. The focus of this investigation is to evaluate and optimize the ECAE process to produce maximum property improvement, and explore the effectiveness of boron as a grain refining agent. Deformation mechanisms are identified for various processing conditions, and the strain distribution induced during …

Go to article

Modeling And Dynamic Resource Allocation For High Definition And Mobile Video Streams, Abdel-Karim Al-Tamimi Jan 2010

Modeling And Dynamic Resource Allocation For High Definition And Mobile Video Streams, Abdel-Karim Al-Tamimi

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Video streaming traffic has been surging in the last few years, which has resulted in an increase of its Internet traffic share on a daily basis. The importance of video streaming management has been emphasized with the advent of High Definition: HD) video streaming, as it requires by its nature more network resources. In this dissertation, we provide a better support for managing HD video traffic over both wireless and wired networks through several contributions. We present a simple, general and accurate video source model: Simplified Seasonal ARIMA Model: SAM). SAM is capable of capturing the statistical characteristics of video …

Go to article

The Relationship Between Hand-Nearness, Emotional Arousal, And Visual Processing, Christopher Davoli Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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 …

Go to article

Light-Harvesting And The Primary Photochemistry Of Roseiflexus Castenholzii, Aaron Collins Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Photosynthetic organisms have evolved diverse antennas to harvest light of various qualities and intensities. Anoxygenic phototrophs can have bacteriochlorophyll Qy 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 …

Go to article

The Staggered Chiral Perturbation Theory In The Two-Flavor Case And Su(2) Chiral Analysis Of The Milc Data, Xining Du Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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, …

Go to article

Regulation Of Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Infection And Replication, Gunjan Choudhary Jan 2010

Regulation Of Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Infection And Replication, Gunjan Choudhary

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Retroviruses have evolved complex mechanisms to regulate their cellular tropism and gene expression. It is generally accepted that productive infections proceed via interactions between viral envelope molecules and specific receptors on the host cell surface. Currently, there is no known receptor for HTLV-1, though a number of factors that enhance entry have been identified. In an effort to identify a cellular receptor or attachment factor for HTLV-1, we carried out a retroviral cDNA library screen, in which cDNA from permissive HeLa S3 cells was introduced into poorly susceptible NIH 3T3 cells. These cells were selected after infection with HTLV-1 envelope …

Go to article

Development Of Atomistic Potentials For Silicate Materials And Coarse-Grained Simulation Of Self-Assembly At Surfaces, Brian Barnes Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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, …

Go to article

Leveraged Buyouts, Long Term Relationship And Financial Contracting, Lei Gao Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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.

Go to article

Mechanisms Of Copper-Dependent Notochord Formation In Zebrafish, John Gansner Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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 …

Go to article

Tandem, Oxidative Cyclizations By Anodic Electrochemistry And The Use Of Solar Power As An Alternate Energy Source, Laura Anderson Jan 2010

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

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 …

Go to article

Cultural Anxieties And Institutional Regulation: "Specialized" Mental Healthcare And "Immigrant Suffering" In Paris, France, Stéphanie Larchanché Jan 2010

Cultural Anxieties And Institutional Regulation: "Specialized" Mental Healthcare And "Immigrant Suffering" In Paris, France, Stéphanie Larchanché

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation looks at "specialized" mental healthcare expertise in France as a lens through which to address the institutional management and representations of cultural difference in France today. By "specialized" mental healthcare centers, I refer structures that provide culturally-sensitive mental health services to immigrants specifically. I identify and explore three contemporary expert approaches: namely, transcultural psychiatry, clinical medical anthropology, and ethnoclinical mediation. By providing a genealogy of specialized mental healthcare institutions, and by construing them as "meta-discursive nodes"--that is, as points of encounter between state, institutional, and individual ideologies--I provide an analysis of the cultural anxieties, contradictions and double-binds that …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last