Digital Commons Network^™

Studies Of Specific Gene Expression Of Phosphate Transporters In Sawgrass (Cladium Jamaicense Crantz) And Cattail (Typha Domingensis Pers.), Li Lin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

In the Florida Everglades, sawgrass has been displaced by cattail, predominantly resulting from phosphate enrichment. It has been found that phosphate transporters and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play an important role in phosphate uptake in the plants. This study aimed to reveal the symbiosis between AM fungi and sawgrass and cattail and identify the phosphate transporters, especially AM-specific phosphate transporters in these two species. AM colonization was only found in sawgrass roots, not cattail, at low phosphate concentrations in lab and field samples by trypan blue staining. AM fungi could increase sawgrass growth and had little effect on cattail growth. …

Task Allocation And Path Planning For Acoustic Networks Of Auvs, Yueyue Deng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Controlling the cooperative behaviors of a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles in a stochastic, complex environment is a formidable challenge in artificial intelligence. The complexity arises from the challenges of limited navigation and communication capabilities of underwater environment. A time critical cooperative operation by acoustic networks of Multiple Cooperative Vehicles (MCVs) necessitates a robust task allocation mechanism and an efficient path planning model. In this work, we present solutions to investigate two aspects of the cooperative schema for multiple underwater vehicles under realistic underwater acoustic communications: a Location-aided Task Allocation Framework (LAAF) algorithm for multi-target task assignment and a mathematical …

Teaching Night In The Secondary Classroom, Dyanne K. Loput

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

As a secondary-level educator of literature and writing, I have observed the fundamental need for a sensitive, well-developed curriculum in the art of teaching Eliezer Wiesel's Night to high school students. This thesis contextualizes Wiesel's memoir by examining the history of Jewish persecution, the Holocaust itself, and Wiesel's background. Educational strategies and activities that use both literary analysis and creative writing to engender a comprehensive and thorough realization of the history as expressed through the literature are elucidated. Additionally, several ways in which teachers may lead students to examine the effects, implications, and ramifications of Wiesel's legacy are supplied.

Technoeconomic Aspects Of Next-Generation Telecommunications Including The Internet Service, Sardenberg Renata Cristina Tourinho

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This research is concerned with the technoeconomic aspects of modern and next-generation telecommunications including the Internet service. The goal of this study thereof is tailored to address the following: (i) Reviewing the technoeconomic considerations prevailing in telecommunication (telco) systems and their implicating futures; (ii) studying relevant considerations by depicting the modern/next-generation telecommunications as a digital ecosystem viewed in terms of underlying complex system evolution (akin to biological systems); (iii) pursuant to the digital ecosystem concept, co-evolution modeling of competitive business structures in the technoeconomics of telco services using dichotomous (flip-flop) states as seen in prey-predator evolution; (iv) specific to Internet …

Vision Of Theophilus, Fatin Morris Guirguis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This study is a literary and ethnographic examination of The Vision of Theophilus, a fourth century Coptic narrative, as influential counter-narrative and source of counterdiscourse against the narrative created by the historically dominant Egyptian Arab Muslim state. It shows that The Vision has provided the Copts with the means to articulate their identity as different from their oppressors through its function as a repository of Coptic ideology, history and knowledge. Specifically, it has helped them resist the erosion of those aspects of their cultural identity targeted by colonial practices through its promotion of the Coptic language, pride in Coptic history, …

Minimalism And Deliberative Democracy: A Closer Look At The Virtues Of "Shallowness", Matthew J. Steilen

Journal Articles

Cass Sunstein has long argued that judicial minimalism promotes democracy. According to Sunstein’s view, a court can encourage the political branches of government to address an issue by using doctrines such as vagueness, nondelegation, and desuetude. Although much has been written about minimalism, very little has been said about the democracy-promotion thesis in particular. Yet it is one of the central claims of contemporary minimalism. This article attempts to remedy the deficiency. It argues that minimalism does not promote democracy because minimalist decisions lack the depth necessary to trigger democratic deliberation. The argument occurs in three steps. First, the article …

Why Federalism And Constitutional Positivism Don't Mix, James A. Gardner

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 4 in New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law: Dual Enforcement of Norms, James A. Gardner & Jim Rossi, eds.

This chapter places the book's approach in its interpretational context by linking the federal structure of constitutional norm production to the ever-present problem of interpretational methodology. It begins by arguing that previous approaches to the interpretation of subnational constitutions have failed because they improperly attempted to apply the dominant jurisprudence of national constitutional interpretation—constitutional positivism—to the constitutions of the states. Yet constitutional positivism as a technique only makes sense where subnational units are autonomous, as independent nations are. …

Anti-Regulatory Absolutism In The Campaign Arena: Citizens United And The Implied Slippery Slope, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

Perhaps the most striking feature of the Supreme Court’s constitutional campaign jurisprudence is its longstanding, profound hostility to virtually any government regulation whatsoever of campaign speech and spending. Such an approach is highly unusual in constitutional law, which typically tolerates at least some level of regulatory intervention even with respect to strongly protected rights. The Court’s behavior in this respect is consistent with – and, I argue, is best understood as – the kind of behavior in which a court engages when it fears a slide down a slippery slope. But what lies at the bottom of the slope? And …

Copyright And The First Amendment: Comrades, Combatants, Or Uneasy Allies?, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

The copyright regime and the First Amendment seek to promote the same goals. Both seek the creation and dissemination of more, better, and more diverse literary, pictorial, musical and other works. But, they use significantly different means to achieve those goals. The copyright laws afford to the creator of a work the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, transform, and perform that work for an extended period of time. The First Amendment, on the other hand, proclaims that Congress "shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech or of the press," thus at least nominally indicating that limitations on the reproduction …

Disordered Eating In Male College Students And The Associated Risk Factors, Kathryn A. Feltman

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Approach To Understanding Audience's Perceptions Of Creativity In Online Advertising, Andrew Mcstay

The Qualitative Report

In this paper I seek to inquire upon audience's perceptions of creativity in online advertising - a heretofore poorly understood area. This paper initially outlines current academic understanding of creativity in online advertising, mainly derived from quantitative assessments. It then advances a qualitative methodology including diary-interviews and ethnographic online interviews across 41 participants. My starting point is a critique of the most comprehensive conceptual intervention in the area of advertising creativity - Smith and Yang's (2004) typology of "relevance" and "divergence". I assess to what extent this typology emerges from my participants' data. Two key features of relevance - contextual …

A Case Of One Professor's Teaching And Use Of Nature Of Science In An Introductory Chemistry Course, Mehmet Karakas

The Qualitative Report

In this article I provide a qualitative analysis of one faculty's teaching and answer the following research question: How does one chemistry professor who teaches introductory science incorporate aspects of the nature of science (NOS) into his course? This study concentrates on a single case in one private higher institution in the Northeastern United States. The participant's teaching style is presented through a combined presentation of interviews, classroom observations, and classroom activities. Six main themes emerged from the field notes in the areas of teacher actions, student teacher interactions, start of the lecture, incorporating NOS language in instruction, class size, …

Theoretical Versus Grass-Roots Development Of A Community Partnership, Socorro Escandón

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine Bracht, Kingbury, and Rissel's five-stage community development model as applied to a grass-roots community action group. The sample consisted of low-income, predominantly Hispanic women in a community action group in a Southwestern barrio, some of whom were experiencing domestic violence. The community group organizer was interviewed, and a content analytic table was constructed. Results showed that the community group's efforts would have benefited from a theoretically organized approach. The window of opportunity continues to be open for community development researchers to offer theoretical assistance to groups that are forming and to …

Incorporating Mythic And Interpretive Analysis In The Investigation Of Hearing Loss On The Family Farm, Mark Meister, Theresa Hest, Ann Burnett

The Qualitative Report

Despite knowing about the dangers of hearing loss, farmers typically choose not to protect their hearing. Examining the myth of farm life, this study aims to discern whether rhetorical myths influence farmers' decisions to wear hearing protection. Researchers conducted 40 interviews with farmers regarding farm life and hearing loss. Results suggest that farmers typically do not use hearing protection; their answers reflect the myths of sacrifice and safety. Analysis demonstrates that knowledge of the relationship between myth and practice should impact future attempts to change farmers' behaviors

Arts Voices: Middle School Students And The Relationships Of The Arts To Their Motivation And Self-Efficacy, Heather Moorefield-Lang

The Qualitative Report

This study explores the question "Does arts education have a relationship to eighth-grade rural middle school students' motivation and self-efficacy?" Student questionnaires, focus-group interviews, and follow-up interviews were data collection methods used with 92 eighth-grade middle school students. Strong emphasis was placed on gathering personal narratives, comments, and opinions directly from the students. Content analysis was used to analyze the student interviews. Middle school students felt that there were both positive and negative relationships between their arts education classes and their motivation and self-efficacy. The students in this study had much to share on the arts courses offered in their …

Geographic Distribution Of Natural And Anthropogenic Noise In Selected Grand Forks Parks, Erin A. Pederson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Integration Of Geospatial Technologies Into K-12 Curriculum, Donna L. Goldstein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The purpose of this study was to explore outcomes of a GIS/GPS integration process: to (a) examine student responses to GIS and GPS inclusion in their curriculum, (b) determine whether a relationship exists between inclusion of GIS into existing K-12 curriculum and student achievement, (c) examine the effectiveness of GIS professional development for teachers, and (d) evaluate teacher perceptions of the value of integrating GIS into their existing curricula. This study was quantitative and quasi-experimental in design. The samples consisted of 1,425 students from one middle school and 62 teachers from Palm Beach County School District. Two instruments were used …

Online Disclosure: An Analysis Of Egyptian Listed Companies, Aa El-Masry, A Elsayed, I Elbeltagi

Plymouth Business School

The internet becomes a very useful information disclosure tool in the recent years. Many corporations begin to disseminate their information on their websites to support the different needs of their stakeholders. Internet financial reporting has unique characteristics. These include, the ability to disseminate the information to wide audience on more timely basis and using different types of information format such as (hypertext, multiple file format (PDF, HTML) and using multimedia). As the internet financial reporting practices are voluntary, many companies can improve their disclosure with both the content and presentation of the disclosed information. Consequently, many studies in developed countries …

Some Will Pay For What Others Will Pay To Avoid): Vernacular Typography And Popular Culture: Part Of Portfolio Kurl Up N Dye, I Rae

School of Art, Design and Architecture

No abstract provided.

The Experience Of Students Who Identify As Jewish And Greek : Influences On Spiritual Development, Alexandra D. Froehlich

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Seven percent of the national four year college population is involved in Greek Life (Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia, 2008, ~5) with over sixty percent on some campuses (Finkel, 201 0). An often unexamined aspect of collegiate learning pertaining to this context is students' spiritual development, yet this is a vital part of a student's life throughout college and critical to whole student learning (Love & Talbot, 2005). Students report a high level of interest in spiritual activities while struggling with existential questions on a regular basis (Higher Education Research Institute, 2003). Most social fraternities and sororities embrace Christian ideals, making …

Infants’ Discrimination Of Familiar And Unfamiliar Accents In Speech, Caroline Floccia, Jeremy Goslin, Joseph Butler, Robin Panneton

School of Psychology

This study investigates infants’ discrimination abilities for familiar and unfamiliar regional English accents. Using a variation of the head-turn preference procedure, 5-month-old infants demonstrated that they were able to distinguish between their own South-West English accent and an unfamiliar Welsh English accent. However, this distinction was not seen when two unfamiliar accents (Welsh English and Scottish English) were presented to the infants, indicating they had not acquired the general ability to distinguish between regional varieties, but only the distinction between their home accent and unfamiliar regional variations. This ability was also confirmed with 7-month-olds, challenging recent claims that infants lose …

Perfluorodecalin Enhances In Vivo Confocal Microscopy Resolution Of Arabidopsis Thaliana Mesophyll, George R. Littlejohn, João D. Gouveia, Christoph Edner, Nicholas Smirnoff, John Love

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Gesturing Meaning: Non-Action Words Activate The Motor System, P Bach, D Griffiths, M Weigelt, Sp Tipper

School of Psychology

Across cultures, speakers produce iconic gestures, which add - through the movement of the speakers' hands - a pictorial dimension to the speakers' message. These gestures capture not only the motor content but also the visuospatial content of the message. Here, we provide first evidence for a direct link between the representation of perceptual information and the motor system that can account for these observations. Across four experiments, participants' hand movements captured both shapes that were directly perceived, and shapes that were only implicitly activated by unrelated semantic judgments of object words. These results were obtained even though the objects …

Bio-Informatics Analysis Of A Gene Co-Expression Module In Adipose Tissue Containing The Diet-Responsive Gene Nnat., X Li.X, Pa Thomason, Dj Withers, J Scott

Peninsula Medical School

Obesity causes insulin resistance in target tissues - skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, liver and the brain. Insulin resistance predisposes to type-2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Adipose tissue inflammation is an essential characteristic of obesity and insulin resistance. Neuronatin (Nnat) expression has been found to be altered in a number of conditions related to inflammatory or metabolic disturbance, but its physiological roles and regulatory mechanisms in adipose tissue, brain, pancreatic islets and other tissues are not understood.

Background On The Aicpa/Nasba Uniform Accountancy Act-What Does It Mean?, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Association Sections, Divisions, Boards, Teams

No abstract provided.

Framing Hamas: A Case Study Of U.S. Foreign Policy And Media Coverage, Jessica Hoffman

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Officials of the United States government have, at least rhetorically, made peace in the Middle East a priority in every administration for the six decades. However, despite the premium being placed on peace agreements, foreign policy enacted by the United States often seems to be focused on more short-sighted goals, often at the expense of long-term peace. In no case is this truer than with standing policies regarding Hamas. These policies have failed to bring the Palestinians and Israelis any closer to a peace agreement. If policies fail to achieve their stated goals, one must ask why they remain in …

The Legal Ecology Of Resistance: The Role Of Antibiotic Resistance In Pharmaceutical Innovation, Kevin Outterson

Cardozo Law Review

Antibiotic effectiveness is a common pool resource that can be prematurely depleted through resistance. Some experts warn that we may face a global ecological collapse in antibiotic effectiveness.

Conventional wisdom argues for more intellectual property rights to speed the creation of new antibiotics. Recent theoretical literature suggests that conservation-based approaches may yield superior results. This Article describes a novel typology for organizing these emerging theories and provides an early empirical test of these models using proprietary data on the sales of vancomycin, an important hospital antibiotic for the last three decades.

The results challenge the assumptions in several models and …

Behavioral Decision Theory And Implications For The Supreme Court's Campaign Finance Jurisprudence, Molly J. Walker Wilson

Cardozo Law Review

America stands at a moment in history when advances in the understanding of human decision-making are increasing the strategic efficacy of political strategy. As campaign spending for the presidential race reaches hundreds of millions of dollars, the potential for harnessing the power of psychological tactics becomes considerable. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has characterized campaign money as "speech" and has required evidence of corruption or the appearance of corruption in order to uphold restrictions on campaign expenditures. Ultimately, the Court has rejected virtually all restrictions on campaign spending on the ground that expenditures, unlike contributions, do not contribute to corruption or …

Presidential Succession Scenarios In Popular Culture And History And The Need For Reform, William F. Baker, Beth A. Fitzpatrick

Fordham Law Review

This Article looks at the issue of presidential succession through the lens of the popular imagination, attempting see what in the nation’s laws needs changing. Many of the movies and television shows that have made plots or subplots out of presidential succession imagine what would happen if the president was killed in a nuclear attack (Jericho and By Dawn’s Early Light), a natural disaster (The Day After Tomorrow), or even an alien invasion (Mars Attacks!). Other common plotlines feature nefarious vice presidents or other officials seizing presidential office by murdering the chief executive or …

Presidential Disability And The Twenty-Fifth Amendment: The Difficulties Posed By Psychological Illness, Robert E. Gilbert

Fordham Law Review

This article describes occasions when presidents have suffered from psychological illness and analyzes the challenges posed by psychological illness in presidents. It begins with an explanation of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment’s provisions and an overview of significant cases of presidents suffering physical illnesses. Next, the Article turns its focus to two presidents, Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) and Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929), who suffered psychological illnesses that were perhaps even more debilitating than the physical ailments that other presidents suffered. These cases are then contrasted with President Abraham Lincoln, who, unlike Pierce and Coolidge, had a highly successful presidency despite appearing to suffer from …