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Tax Gross-Ups: A Practical Guide To Arguing And Calculating Awards For Adverse Tax Consequences In Discrimination Suits, Tim Canney

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Efficiency Of The Polymerase Chain Reaction, Christine S. Booth, Elsje Pienaar, Joel R. Termaat, Scott E. Whitney, Tobias M. Louw, Hendrik J. Vijoen

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has found wide application in biochemistry and molecular biology such as gene expression studies, mutation detection, forensic analysis and pathogen detection. Increasingly quantitative real time PCR is used to assess copy numbers from overall yield. In this study the yield is analyzed as a function of several processes: (1) thermal damage of the template and polymerase occurs during the denaturing step, (2) competition exists between primers and templates to either anneal or form dsDNA, (3) polymerase binding to annealed products (primer/ssDNA) to form ternary complexes and (4) extension of ternary complexes. Explicit expressions are provided …

Efficacy Of Methoprene For Control Of Five Species Of Psocids (Psocoptera) On Wheat, Rice, And Maize, Christos G. Athanassiou, Frank H. Arthur, James E. Throne

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The insect growth regulator methoprene was evaluated for control of Liposcelis bostrychophila Badonnel, Liposcelis decolor (Pearman), Liposcelis entomophila (Enderlein), Liposcelis paeta Pearman (Psocoptera: Liposcelididae), and Lepinotus reticulatus Enderlein (Trogiidae) at application rates of 1, 5, and 10 ppm on maize, wheat, and rice. Methoprene did not completely suppress progeny production during the 40-day test period, but did cause a significant reduction in adult progeny in all psocid species at the application rates of 5 and 10 ppm. At 1 ppm, numbers of adults were reduced for all species on wheat and maize, but only for L. paeta on rice. Nevertheless, …

Development Of Soft Computing And Applications In Agricultural And Biological Engineering, Yanbo Huang, Yubin Lan, Steven J. Thomson, Alex Fang, Wesley C. Hoffmann, Ronald E. Lacey

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Soft computing is a set of “inexact” computing techniques, which are able to model and analyze very complex problems. For these complex problems, more conventional methods have not been able to produce cost-effective, analytical, or complete solutions. Soft computing has been extensively studied and applied in the last three decades for scientific research and engineering computing. In agricultural and biological engineering, researchers and engineers have developed methods of fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, decision trees, and support vector machines to study soil and water regimes related to crop growth, analyze the operation of food processing, and support decision-making …

Russia’S Agricultural Imports: Will The High Growth Of The 2000s Continue?, William M. Leifert, Olga Liefert, Mathew Shane

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Russia’s agricultural imports during the 2000s have grown substantially, from €7.4 billion in 2000 to €19.2 billion in 2007 (Figure 1). The import growth has made Russia the second largest agricultural importer among emerging market economies, after China. The main imports are meat, highly processed products, fruits and vegetables (Figure 2). Russia’s agricultural exports have also grown during this time, though from a much lower base in value terms (and with most of the increase coming just from grain).

Europe has benefited strongly from the rise in Russia’s agricultural imports. During this decade, Russia has been the EU’s second largest …

Drivers Impacting The Adoption Of Sustainable Agricultural Management Practices And Production Systems Of The Northeast And Southeast United States, G. F. Sassenrath, J. M. Halloran, D. Archer, R. L. Raper, J. Hendrickson, P. Vadas, J. Hanson

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Agricultural production responds to social, political, economic, environmental, and technological drivers that influence producers’ decisions and shape the individual systems through modification of management practices, crop and livestock mix, and marketing strategy. We use an interview and discussion approach with producer panels to examine production systems in the eastern United States and explore key drivers impacting their unique characteristics and development. The internal social driver that values the farming lifestyle is a principle factor that leads people to choose farming. Irrespective of location, farming is first and foremost a lifestyle choice. The choice of type of production system is partly …

Cloning, Expression, And Immunogenicity Of Flavobacterium Columnare Heat Shock Protein Dnaj, Oscar Olivares-Fuster, Jeffery S. Terhune, Craig A. Shoemaker, Covadonga R. Arias

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The Flavobacterium columnare heat shock protein (HSP) gene dnaJ* was isolated, cloned, expressed, and used as an antigen in a recombinant vaccine strategy for channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. The F. columnare dnaJ* sequence was obtained from genomovars I and II and showed intraspecies variability. Recombinant protein was expressed and purified from Escherichia coli cultures and injected intraperitoneally (12 lg of purified DnaJ/fish) into fingerling channel catfish. In addition, induced (expressing the recombinant DnaJ) and uninduced (no recombinant protein being produced) E. coli cultures were also used to immunize fish. At 28 d postimmunization, antibody response was evaluated and the …

Expression And Self-Assembly Of Virus-Like Particles From Two Genotypes Of Marine Vesiviruses And Development Of An Elisa For The Detection Of Antibodies, Shasta D. Mcclenahan, Karin Bok, Stanislav V. Sosnovtsev, John D. Neill, Kathy A. Burek, Kimberlee B. Beckmen, Alvin W. Smith, Kim Y. Green, Carlos H. Romero

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Sequences encoding the major and minor capsid proteins (VP1 and VP2) from two marine vesivirus isolates (Steller sea lion viruses V810 and V1415) were engineered for expression of virus-like particles (VLPs) in the baculovirus system. The resulting VLPs were morphologically similar to native vesivirus virions. Purified VLPs were probed in immunoblots with pooled antisera specific for nine San Miguel sea lion virus (SMSV) types, and a predominant protein of approximately 60 kDa was detected. An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of antibodies was developed in which the VLPs served as antigen. The VLPs were adsorbed to the …

Groundwater Nutrient Concentrations During Prairie Reconstruction On An Iowa Landscape, M.D. Tomer, K.E. Schilling, C.A. Cambardella, P. Jacobson, P. Drobney

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

One anticipated benefit of ecosystem restoration is water quality improvement. This study evaluated NO₃-N and phosphorus in subsurface waters during prairie establishment following decades of row-crop agriculture. A prairie seeding in late 2003 became established in 2006. Wells and suction cup samplers were monitored for NO₃-N and phosphorus. Nitrate-N varied with time and landscape position. Nondetectable NO₃-N concentrations became modal along ephemeral drainageways in 2006, when average concentrations in uplands first became <10mg NO₃-N L⁻¹. This decline continued and upland groundwater averaged near 2mg NO₃-N L⁻¹ after 2007. The …

Structure-Activity Relationships Of 33 Carboxamides As Toxicants Against Female Aedes Aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae), Julia Pridgeon, James J. Becnel, Ulrich R. Bernier, Gary G. Clark, Kenneth J. Linthicum

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Aedes aegypti L. is the primary vector of dengue and yellow fever viruses, and use of aerosolized insecticides is one of the primary ways to control this medically important mosquito. However, few new insecticides have been developed for mosquito control in recent years. As a part of our effort to search for new insecticides to control mosquitoes, toxicities of 33 carboxamides were evaluated against female A. aegypti by topical application. This group included nine different categories of compounds, namely benzamides, phenyl-propenamides, propanamides, butanamides, butenamides, pentanamides, pentenamides, hexanamides, and hexenamides, that exhibited varying levels of toxicity against this mosquito species. The …

Efficacy Of Commercial Mosquito Traps In Capturing Phlebotomine Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) In Egypt, D. F. Hoel, D. L. Kline, Jerome Hogsette, Ulrich R. Bernier, S. S. El-Hossary, H. A. Hanafi, N. Watany, E. Y. Fawaz, B. D. Furman, P. J. Obenauer, D. E. Szumlas

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Four types of commercial mosquito control traps, the Mosquito Magnet Pro (MMP), the Sentinel 360 (S360), the BG-Sentinel (BGS), and the Mega-Catch Ultra (MCU), were compared with a standard Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light trap for efficacy in collecting phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in a small farming village in the Nile River Valley 10 km north of Aswan, Egypt. Each trap was baited with either carbon dioxide (CO₂) from combustion of butane gas (MMP), dry ice (CDC and BGS traps), light (MCU and S360), or dry ice and light (CDC). Traps were rotated through …

Runoff Losses Of N And P After Low Phosphorus Swine Slurry Application To No-Tillage Sorghum, Brian J. Wienhold, John E. Gilley

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Swine (Sus scrofa) manure can serve as a fertilizer source for crop production, but it typically contains more P relative to N than the crop requires, creating the potential for P losses in runoff. A 3-year study was conducted to compare runoff losses of NO₃-N, NH₄-N, total N, dissolved P, and total P under natural rainfall conditions from no-tillage sorghum plots [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] receiving inorganic fertilizer, manure from swine fed low-phytate corn (Zea mays L.) diet, or manure from swine fed a traditional corn diet. Runoff (26.5 mm in 1999, …

Evaluation Of Three Experimental Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus Killed Vaccines Adjuvanted With Combinations Of Quil A Cholesterol And Dimethyldioctadecylammonium (Dda) Bromide, Julia F. Ridpath, Paul Dominowski, Ramasany Mannan, Robert Yancey Jr., James A. Jackson, Lucas Taylor, Sangita Mediratta, Robert Eversole, Charles D. Mackenzie, John D. Neill

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) infections cause respiratory, reproductive, and enteric disease in cattle. Vaccination raises herd resistance and limits the spread of BVDV among cattle. Both killed and modified live vaccines against BVDV are available. While modified live vaccines elicit an immune response with a broader range and a longer duration of immunity, killed vaccines are considered to be safer. One way to improve the performance of killed vaccines is to develop new adjuvants. The goal of this research was evaluate new adjuvants, consisting of combinations of Quil A cholesterol and dimethyldioctadecylammonium (DDA) bromide, for use in killed vaccines. …

Ethnographic Reflection On Group Formation In Blizzard's "World Of Warcraft", John Christopher Spottke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cyberanthropology or the anthropology of cyber space/culture is an emerging subfield of cultural anthropology that deals with the varied integration of human beings and technology. This specialized area of study focuses on topics ranging from new technologies used in ethnographic research to information and communication technologies utilized by specific societal groups. Communication technology encompasses the World Wide Web, email, and online multiperson interactive spaces such as chatrooms and video games. In this work, I ethnographically investigate human social interactions in the online gaming realm of World of Warcraft. On the whole, the expanding numbers of virtual communities in existence today …

Religion And Identity Formation A Cross National Comparison Of College Students In India & The Usa, Niyatee Sukumaran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the exception of a few studies (Leak, 2009; Fulton, 1997), psychological research on religion has not been studied from an Eriksonian identity status perspective (Erikson, 1959; Marcia, 1966). Further, Erikson’s (1963) concept of identity appears to be inherently individualistic and may be conceptualized differently in Eastern/Asian cultures (Cloninger, 2008; Paranjpe, 2010). This study aims to understand the relationship of religiosity and quest to identity development across two cultures: USA and India. A total of 326 undergraduate students (mean age= 19.47, sd= 1.58) participated from two urban colleges in Mumbai, India (n= 159) and one in Orlando, USA (n= 167). …

Characterization Of Arsd: An Arsenic Chaperone For The Arsab As(Iii)-Translocating Atpase, Jianbo Yang

Wayne State University Dissertations

Arsenic is a metalloid toxicant that is widely distributed throughout the earth's crust and causes a variety of health and environment problems. As an adaptation to arsenic-contaminated environments, organisms have developed resistance systems. In bacteria and archaea various ars operons encode ArsAB ATPases that pump the trivalent metalloids As(III) or Sb(III) out of cells. In these operons, an arsD gene is almost always adjacent to the arsA gene, suggesting a related function. ArsA is the catalytic subunit of the pump that hydrolyzes ATP in the presence of arsenite or antimonite. ArsB is a membrane protein which containing arsenite-conducting pathway. ArsA …

A Study Of The Associations Between Childhood Obesity And Three Forms Of Social Capital, Cynthia Bala-Brusilow

Wayne State University Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to expand the understanding of childhood obesity in American children by examining the associations between obesity in children and measures of social capital.

Context: Persons between 2 and 20 years of age are categorized as "obese" if their BMI is in 95th percentile or above for their age and sex using the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) BMI-for-age growth charts. Obesity prevalence has more than quadrupled in the last 40 years in the United States for children. Social capital, in the study of health, can be defined as resources accrued and/or …

Is Private Long-Term Care Insurance Affordable For Older Adults?, Nayoung Kim

Wayne State University Dissertations

Nationwide there are fewer than 7 million long-term care (LTC) insurance policies in force. Why do so few Americans buy private long-term care (LTC) insurance? Several theories have been offered as possible explanations, including the availability of Medicaid, misperceptions that Medicare or other policies cover LTC, beliefs that one's own risk of needing LTC services is small, or desires to simply rely on children and spouses for LTC. This study examines another possible explanation - that private LTC insurance is simply "unaffordable" for most older Americans, which may be why they don't buy it.

This study begins by investigating the …

Defensins In Ocular Immunity, Minhao Wu

Wayne State University Dissertations

Corneal infection with P. aeruginosa results in corneal perforation in susceptible

B6, but not resistant BALB/c mice. This study explored their role mBD 1-4 in corneal

infection, and their potential synergy. Immunostaining and real-time RT-PCR data

demonstrated that their expression was either constitutive (mBD1 and mBD2) or

inducible (mBD3 and mBD4) in normal BALB/c and B6 corneas, and disparately

regulated in BALB/c vs B6 corneas after infection. Knock down studies using siRNA

treatment indicated that mBD2 and mBD3, but neither mBD1 nor mBD4, is required in

ocular defense. Moreover, in vivo studies demonstrated individual and combined effects

of mBD2 and …

Alcohol Use Disorders And Labor Market Outcomes: An Analysis Using 2001-02 National Epidemiology Survey On Alcohol And Related Conditions, Shammima Jesmin

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

ALCOHOL USE DISORDERS AND LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES: AN ANALYSIS USING 2001-02 NATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGY SURVEY ON ALCOHOL AND RELATED CONDITIONS

by

SHAMMIMA JESMIN

May 2010

Advisor: Dr. Allen Goodman

Major: Economics

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

BACKGROUND

Attempt of this research to explore the impact of alcohol use disorders on labor market outcomes is justified on the following grounds. First, alcohol use disorders (alcohol abuse and dependence) became more prevalent among the working age population over the decades (NIAAA: 2004). Second, existence of a large body of research on the nature and extent of relationship between alcohol use and labor market …

The Impact Of Self-Efficacy, Locus Of Control, And Perceived Parental Influence On The Academic Performance Of Low And High Achieving African-American High School Students, Frances Ernestine Curtis-Fields

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of self-efficacy, locus of control, and perceived parental influence on the academic achievement of African-American high school students from low socioeconomic levels. A nonexperimental, descriptive research study was used to collect the data needed to address the research questions posed for this study. High school students enrolled in one high school in a large urban school district were asked to participate in the study. These students completed three instruments, Self in School, Importance of Parent Involvement, and the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility questionnaire (IAR), along with a short demographic survey developed …

Argument Construction, Argument Evaluation, And Decision-Making: A Content Analysis Of Argumentation And Debate Textbooks, Neil Stuart Butt

Wayne State University Dissertations

Critical thinking abilities, especially the advanced critical thinking abilities required for decision-making, are important to both individuals and democratic policy making processes. Previous studies have indicated that argumentation and debate instruction can improve critical thinking abilities, but there are reasons to believe that current approaches are not as effective at developing decision-making ability as they could be, in part because they focus too heavily on argument construction, rather than argument evaluation and decision-making. In order to test which approaches to teaching argumentation and debate best encourage decision-making abilities, researchers need to know which elements are included in current argumentation and …

Fighting For Survival: Coal Miners And The Struggle Over Health And Safety In The United States, 1968-1988, Richard Fry

Wayne State University Dissertations

My dissertation focuses on coal mining and occupational health and safety in the United States from 1968 to 1985. In the late 1960s, coal miners faced the constant risk of injury, occupational disease, and death. The dangerous conditions in the coal industry resulted in a massive explosion at the Farmington mine in West Virginia in 1968, which killed 78 miners. The Farmington disaster spurred miners to campaign for the reform of state and federal coal mine health and safety laws in the United States. They rejected the national leadership of their union, the United Mine Workers (UMW), which they perceived …

Media Effects: Cultural Appropriation And Attitudes Towards Cosmetic Surgery, Darlene Shauntanese Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

The current study investigates media's influence on Caucasian women to culturally appropriate the physical features generally ascribed to African American women through non-surgical and or surgical cosmetic procedures and vice versa. Participants were 26 African American women and 54 Caucasian women who had previously undergone either non-surgical or surgical cosmetic procedures. Results indicate that African American women were more likely to culturally appropriate than Caucasian women. For African American women high media exposure to cosmetic surgery media messages played a significant role in the cultural appropriation process. Results also indicated that Caucasian women culturally appropriate at the same level, whether …

Bewitching The Stage: Elizabethan And Jacobean Witch-Lore And Witch-Hunt, Kyoung H. Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

This project hypothesizes that the early modern stage witch's grotesque femininity and her masculine presumption of agency were the effective signifiers of the feminine covert, what men fantasized about the reproductive secrets of womanhood and their control over the feminine activities. My investigation of late Elizabethan and Jacobean drama indicates that the fictional witch is postulated as the negative example of female fertility and feminine nurture: the witch not only interferes in the natural process of fertility in humans as well as in nature but she also contaminates maids and mistresses with her mismanagement and overconsumption of household resources. I …

Online News Media Use And Political Tolerance, Jessi Mccabe

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between online news media use, selectivity in media content, and political tolerance. Tolerance develops as result of exposure to a diversity of ideas and perspectives, which the media provide. Online news use encourages and requires users to selectively expose and navigate through information based on personal choice. Online news permits individuals to choose information based on personal opinion and preference in ways traditional forms of mainstream media do not allow. Therefore, it was expected that online news use and selectivity in media content would negatively relate to tolerance.

A total of 305 participants were surveyed …

Communicative Competence In Persons With Aphasia: The Impact Of Executive Function, Judy Marie Mikola

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between executive function and performance on selected linguistic tasks in persons with aphasia secondary to left frontal lesions.

A group of 15 persons with aphasia (PWA) completed three communication board tasks of varying levels of complexity and structure. The subject's functional use of the picture/word communication board was tested during a Story Retelling task. In addition, the PWA's executive function skills were examined using six nonverbal tests. The PWA group performance scores were compared to that of the neurologically healthy control group.

Results demonstrated that the control group performed significantly …

The Influence Of Transfer System Factors And Training Elapsed Time On Transfer In A Healthcare Organization, Beverly Jo Mihalko

Wayne State University Dissertations

Organizations and other sponsors of training face increasing pressure to demonstrate the value or impact of their training programs on individual and organizational performance. A critical element in the validation of training effectiveness is the permanent transfer of learned knowledge, skills, and behaviors to the workplace. The generalization of learned material to the job and maintenance of trained skills, are greatly influenced by training design, trainee characteristics, and work environmental factors. Using a multidimensional approach to identify all factors that promote or inhibit transfer could provide performance technologists and instructional designers with the insight necessary to design and develop strategic …

Development And Validation Of A Measurement Scale To Analyze The Environment For Evidence-Based Medicine Learning And Practice By Medical Residents, Fangqiong Mi

Wayne State University Dissertations

A growing number of residency programs are instituting curricula to include the component of evidence-based medicine (EBM) principles and process. However, these curricula may not be able to achieve the optimal learning outcomes, perhaps because various contextual factors are often overlooked when EBM training is being designed, developed, and implemented. The purpose of the study was to develop and validate an instrument, the EBM Environment Scale, to analyze the environment for EBM learning and practice as perceived by medical residents.

The development of the EBM Environment Scale underwent the process of content domain identification, item generation, review by content experts …

University Students' Attitudes Towards Body Hair And Hair Removal: An Exploration Of The Effects Of Background Characteristics, Socialization, And Societal Pressures, Bessie Rigakos

Wayne State University Dissertations

Body hair removal is a behavior that is taken for granted by many women in the United States. Existing feminist literature suggests that body hair removal is a major component of societal norms. This study aimed to contribute to the literature by exploring the social factors that influence the extent of women's depilation from public/visible body areas and private/hidden body areas, and the number of depilatory methods utilized. A total of 303 female students from Wayne State University completed questionnaires asking about their attitudes towards body hair/hair removal. It was confirmed that the vast majority (291 or 96%) remove their …