Digital Commons Network^™

A Re-Evaluation Of The Pleistocene Hellbender, Cryptobranchus Guildayi, And An Overview Of Cryptobranchus Remains From Appalachian Caves., Keila Elaine Bredehoeft

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cryptobranchus guildayi is described as an extinct species of large salamander that is closely related to the hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis. The validity of this extinct taxon has been questioned, so an expanded osteological sample of modern hellbenders was used for comparative purposes with the C. guildayi fossil material. Based on this analysis, all supposed distinguishing morphological characteristics used to define C. guildayi can be observed in specimens of C. alleganiensis, or are based on misidentifications. Therefore, Cryptobranchus guildayi is considered to be conspecific with C. alleganiensis and taxonomically should be considered a junior synonym of the latter. The …

Comparative Morphometrics Of The Sacral Vertebra In Aneides (Caudata: Plethodontidae)., Lisa Nicole Schaaf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The genus Aneides (Caudata: Plethodontidae) is an arboreal salamander with a prehensile tail and a distribution that spans North America. It is hypothesized that adaptations for arboreality will be visible in the osteology of the sacral vertebra either by qualitative analysis or linear and morphometric analysis in comparison with other plethodontid salamanders. This study demonstrates that while qualitative and quantitative analyses are successful at making genus-level distinctions between taxa, identification to lower taxonomic levels remains inconclusive. Linear morphometrics and dorsal Procrustes landmarks were the most successful metrics to identify known taxa. Two unidentified fossil salamander sacral vertebrae from Oregon Caves …

A Predictive Model For Secondary Rna Structure Using Graph Theory And A Neural Network., Denise Renee Koessler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this work we use a graph-theoretic representation of secondary RNA structure found in the database RAG: RNA-As-Graphs. We model the bonding of two RNA secondary structures to form a larger structure with a graph operation called merge. The resulting data from each tree merge operation is summarized and represented by a vector. We use these vectors as input values for a neural network and train the network to recognize a tree as RNA-like or not based on the merge data vector.

The network correctly assigned a high probability of RNA-likeness to trees identified as RNA-like in the RAG database, …

Total Domination Dot Critical And Dot Stable Graphs., Stephanie Anne Marie Mcmahon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two vertices are said to be identifed if they are combined to form one vertex whose neighborhood is the union of their neighborhoods. A graph is total domination dot-critical if identifying any pair of adjacent vertices decreases the total domination number. On the other hand, a graph is total domination dot-stable if identifying any pair of adjacent vertices leaves the total domination number unchanged. Identifying any pair of vertices cannot increase the total domination number. Further we show it can decrease the total domination number by at most two. Among other results, we characterize total domination dot-critical trees with total …

Access To Algebra I, Gateway To Success: The Impact Of Eighth-Grade Algebra I., Emily Jean Skelton Darling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An understanding of Algebra I and the role that this foundational course plays as an entry to the college preparatory pathway in secondary education and its influence on mathematical achievement is an integral component for the education of American youth in the global world of science and technology. Achievements in high school curricula are cumulative; each course completed determines which paths will be open to the student and which postsecondary education options will be available. In today's world, these options are necessary for the competitive world market. Algebra I is the prerequisite course for subsequent high school math pathways. Students …

Use Of Cone Beam Computed Tomography In The Determination Of Mental Foramen Location In Relation To Mandibular 1st And 2nd Premolars, Sanjay Bhagchandani

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to use existing Cone Beam Computer Tomography images to determine the vertical and horizontal location of the mental foramen in relation to the mandibular first and second premolars, as well as the distance in millimeters from the apex of each. The distance from the inferior border of the foramen to the inferior border of the mandible was also recorded. The average distance from the apices of the mandibular first and second premolars to the mental foramen was 7.43mm (SD= 1.97) and 5.30mm (SD=1.65) respectively. The foramen was located 11.44mm (SD=1.49) from the inferior border …

2010 Lynn University Commencement Program - Undergraduate Day Students, Lynn University

Commencement Programs

The commencement program for Lynn University's 2010 Undergraduate Day Students, held on Saturday, May 8, 2010 in the Count and Countess de Hoernle Sports and Cultural Center.

The commencement speaker was Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent.

Investigation Of The Link Between Media Acidity And Pi In Obtaining Optimum Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering For Proteins, Dylan Sorber, Brian Gilbert

Science and Social Sciences

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an important tool in the characterization of proteins, which can lead to vital information pertaining to biological functions. Spectra of lysozyme, bovine serum albumin (BSA), catalase, and hemoglobin were obtained using SERS on silver colloids with sodium sulfate as the aggregating agent. Optimization of the SERS was attempted through adjustment of the acidity of sulfate aggregating agent. A link was investigated between the pI (pH at which there is no net charge on the molecule) of the proteins and the pH of the solutions needed for optimum SERS. It was found that any pH higher …

The Effects Of Large Terrestrial Mammals On Seed Fates, Hoarding, And Seedling Survival In A Costa Rican Rain Forest, Erin K. Kuprewicz

Open Access Dissertations

Terrestrial mammals affect numerous aspects of plant demography, colonization, and community structure in Neotropical forests. Granivorous mammals destroy seeds via seed predation and seedlings through herbivory, negatively affecting plant fitness. Mammals can also positively affect plants by dispersing or hoarding seeds. Seed fate outcomes are contingent on the interaction between mammal seed handling strategies and the intrinsic anti-predation defenses possessed by seeds. In field experiments at La Selva Biological Station, I investigated how collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) and Central American agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata) affect five species of large seeds that have various defenses against predation. Overall, peccaries consumed and killed …

Water Table And Nutrient Dynamics In Neotropical Savannas And Wetland Ecosystems, Randol M. Villalobos-Vega

Open Access Dissertations

The Tropical savannas of central Brazil (cerrado) and the Everglades wetland (Florida) ecosystems are ideal systems to study landscape spatial mosaics and their interactions. Both ecosystems show a variety of plant physiognomies distributed within small spatial scales and elevation gradients. Such variety of plant physiognomies provide an opportunity to investigate the roles of climate, topography, nutrient availability and water table dynamics as determinants of plant physiognomic distributions, and their role in shaping regional systems. South Florida Wetlands and the tropical savannas of central Brazil are examples of hydrologically-controlled ecosystems. In hydrologically-controlled ecosystems water sources, the availability of nutrients, and the …

On The Green Vol. 38 No. 24 May 7, 2010, Gallaudet University

2001-2010

On the Green is an internal publication of Gallaudet College, which later became Gallaudet University. It notified employees of updates around the campus and in the broader community, including new construction and the establishment of new academic programs. Running until 2010, it was supplanted by various forms of online mass communications across multiple audiences.

Board Of Trustees Meeting Minutes 2010-05-07, Bowling Green State University

Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

The official meeting minutes of Bowling Green State University's Board of Trustees.

Scalability Study For Robotic Hand Platform, Melissa Monahan

Theses

The goal of this thesis project was to determine the lower limit of scale for the RIT robotic grasping hand. This was accomplished using a combination of computer simulation and experimental studies. A force analysis was conducted to determine the size of air muscles required to achieve appropriate contact forces at a smaller scale. Input variables, such as the actuation force and tendon return force, were determined experimentally. A dynamic computer model of the hand system was then created using Recurdyn. This was used to predict the contact (grasping) force of the fingers at full-scale, half-scale, and quarter-scale. Correlation between …

Volume 45 - Issue 25 - Friday, May 7, 2010, Rose Thorn Staff

The Rose Thorn Archive

The Rose Thorn, Rose-Hulman's independent student newspaper.

Commencement Program 2010 May Graduate, Gcsu Special Collections

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

The River And The Factory: Momentum And Shifting Dynamics Between The Shenandoah River And Avtex Fibers, 1939-1989, Christina Wulf

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

From 1940-1989, a huge rayon factory—at one time the largest in the world—operated on the banks of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River in the Town of Front Royal, Virginia. Three different companies owned the facility: American Viscose Corporation (AVC) built it in 1939 and ran it until 1963 when the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC Corp.) conglomerate purchased AVC. In 1976, an FMC executive bought the rayon plant in Front Royal in a leveraged buyout, renaming the facility Avtex Fibers, Inc. From early on, the plant had serious problems with waste materials—including many toxic substances—produced when manufacturing rayon. During …

The Correlates Of Computer Use And Academic Achievement Among College Students From Low Income Backgrounds, George Darwin Banks Jr.

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The following is a mixed method research study that explores the correlates between computer use and academic achievement among low-income college students at James Madison University. A sample of 42 sophomore, junior and senior students served as participants in this study. All participants were members of the university’s Centennial Scholars Program, an initiative created by the university in 2004 to give high school students from low-income backgrounds the opportunity to go to college on full-tuition scholarship. Using a theoretical framework that incorporated situated cognition theory (Brown, Duguid & Collins, 1989), communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and the digital divide (Attewell, …

Effect Of Deep Oscillation Therapy On The Reduction Of Swelling And Pain Following Acute Ankle Sprain, Lisa Marie Friesen

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Context: Deep oscillation therapy is a novel form of therapy that claims to reduce the amount of pain and swelling in acute orthopedic injuries. However, these claims are based on anecdotal evidence and there have not been any published studies on the efficacy of deep oscillation therapy in reduction of pain and swelling. Due to the prevalence of ankle sprains in physically active individuals, this study compared the effect of deep oscillation therapy in reduction of pain and swelling to conventional treatment. Objective: To compare the effect of deep oscillation therapy on pain and swelling resulting from acute ankle sprains …

Changes In Light Levels With Loss Of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis) At A Southern Appalachian Headwater Stream: Implications For Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis), Leigh A. Siderhurst

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The exotic invasive insect, hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand), is causing mortality in eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis [L.] Carr.) throughout the eastern U. S. Hemlocks are being replaced by hardwood species that cannot fill the structural and functional role of hemlock in forest ecosystems. Because hemlocks produce dense shade, their loss may increase understory light levels. In the southern Appalachians, increases in understory light could cause changes in stream ecosystems because riparian hemlocks may help maintain cool stream temperatures for cold water species such as brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). I studied changes in light levels with eastern hemlock decline …

Investigation Of The Roles Of Kinesin-5 Motor Protein Family Members In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Bareza Abbas Rasoul

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Eukaryotic cells contain a cytoskeleton that performs a range of essential functions, including intracellular transport, nuclear division and shaping the cell. There are various kinesin motor proteins involved in organizing the microtubule cytoskeleton during interphase and mitosis. The plant Arabidopsis thaliana has the largest number of kinesins amongst all sequenced organisms. Many of those kinesins have not been studied. Members of the Kinesin-5 family cross link microtubules and are crucial for separation of mitotic spindle poles. There are 4 members of this family in Arabidopsis: Kinesin-5 A, B, C and D, but only Kinesin-5 C has been studied previously. Each …

Chemotaxis Of Amphibian Pathogen Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis In The Presence And Absence Of Antifungal Metabolites Produced By Amphibian Skin Bacteria, Brianna Ashlyn Lam

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Chytridiomycosis is an amphibian skin disease that threatens amphibian biodiversity worldwide. The infectious fungal agent of chytridiomycosis, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, can affect amphibians differently in that some amphibian populations can co-exist with the fungus and others quickly succumb to disease. Amphibians in populations that co-exist with the B. dendrobatidis are shown to have sub-lethal infections on their skins. Several co-existing populations have also been shown to have higher proportions of individuals with antifungal skin bacteria suggesting the role of skin bacteria in disease outcome. Little is known about the mechanism(s) that antifungal skin bacteria use to ameliorate the effects of B. …

Activation Of Gabaa And 5ht1a Receptors In The Raphe Pallidus Abolish The Cardiovascular Responses To Stress In Conscious Rats, Nhut Minh Pham Le

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Serotonergic neurons of the raphe pallidus area of the brainstem are involved in the cardiovascular responses to stress. However, the manner in which they mediate these responses is not well understood and severe abnormalities in this system have been associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In the current study, microinjections of muscimol and 8-OH-DPAT (GABAA and 5HT1A receptor agonists, respectively) into the raphe pallidus abolished the increase in mean arterial pressure and the tachycardiac responses following air jet, handing, and restraint stress that were observed following microinjections of artificial cerebrospinal fluid. The stress responses following muscimol microinjections suggest that this …

Fish Community Response To The Addtion Of Wood In Smith Creek, Virginia, Chastine Daniel Kyger

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Large woody debris (LWD) is an important component of healthy stream ecosystems. LWD shapes stream physical habitat features, captures and stores organic matter, and serves as shelter, feeding sites, and reproductive substrate for fish and other aquatic organisms. Loss of in-stream LWD and sources of LWD as a result of human activities has negatively impacted many streams. Recently, restoration of in-stream LWD and riparian sources of LWD have become important facets of stream restoration, though many projects involving LWD restoration lack monitoring and evaluation. I evaluated the effects of adding LWD on the fish community in Smith Creek, a small …

Investigation Of The Role Of Bam9 In Starch Metabolism In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Elizabeth Ann Steidle

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Beta-amylases play an essential role in night time starch degradation in leaves. There are nine known beta-amylases (BAMs) in Arabidopsis thaliana. This research is focused on BAM9, which is localized in the chloroplasts but is unique compared to active BAM proteins. First, alignments of BAM9 orthologs and catalytically active paralogs suggest that BAM9 may not be catalytically active and may not bind to starch, but it may bind to another molecule at a remote site. Secondly, microarray data shows a peak of BAM9 expression at the dark/light transition which is contradictory to what one would expect for an active BAM …

The Relationship Between Blood Iron Markers, Nutritional Intakes And Bone Mineral Density, Leah Dawn Morrison

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between serum ferritin (sFer) levels, nutrient intake of iron, calcium and vitamin D and bone mineral density (BMD) in female collegiate athletes. It was hypothesized that if an individual had low sFer (20µg/L. An independent T-test also showed no mean differences in BMD levels at any site when the group was divided into high and low sFer levels. CONCLUSION: There was no correlation between sFer level and BMD or between BMD and intake levels of iron, calcium or vitamin D, in female collegiate athletes participating in weight bearing sports. …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 85, No. 52, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Wilson, Laurel. Value of a Degree: Students Confident About Life After College – Chase McNulty, Kristin Guthrie
• Alleyne, Zirconia & Katherine Wade. Students Uncertain About Post-graduation Plans – Amanda Brown, Allison Taylor
• Wadley, Emily. Student Government Association Gives Most of Organizational Aid
• Barczak, Mary. Bowling Green Crews Clean Up After Flood – Weather, Rain
• Simpson, Mandy. Barbara Burch Just Focusing on Tomorrow – Provost, Educational Leadership
• Erskine, Anne. Editorial Cartoon re: Marsupial Awards – Kangaroo & Big Red
• Marsupial Awards
• Kriz, Lindsay. Laura Chaney Memorial Set for Tuesday …

English As A Second Language: The Impact Of Teacher Responsiveness To Implementing The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model, Diana Meza

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher attitudes towards and resistance to the implementation of the SIOP model in their classrooms at Thomas Harrison Middle School, Skyline Middle School, and Harrisonburg High School. Caused by the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 which has required school administrators make changes in the curricula and implement a variety of teaching methods to meet student needs and help them to succeed in school. This paper reviews how language, signs, and symbols affect and influence how a person learns and acquires new knowledge. This study is analyzed through …

The Effects Of Study Abroad Programs On Teachers' Professional Development, Bahar Mikael

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Globalization and the state of the world today increase the demands and pressures on nations. The preparation of teachers requires the elevation of international knowledge and experiences to address the diverse needs of societies. This study investigated the effects of study abroad programs on teachers’ personal and professional development. A mixed of data collection methodology consisting of quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized in this study. Thirty-two teachers who experienced a study abroad program were surveyed and 3 educators who accompanied teachers abroad were interviewed. The findings of this study suggested that international experiences have significant effects on teachers’ professional …

Are Dental Hygiene Faculty Meeting Suggested Educational Adea Guidelines For Dental Hygiene Faculty Members?, Mary Sailo

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The ADEA has created policy and also suggested guidelines for dental hygiene faculty qualified to teach within dental hygiene education. Within the policy and guidelines statements, the ADEA has included a background in education and specific degree levels for dental hygiene faculty that support educationally prepared faculty members. To determine if dental hygiene faculty are following policy and guidelines suggested by the ADEA, a survey to collect data regarding type of degree and specific educational coursework was sent to dental hygiene program directors of dental hygiene programs across the United States. A total of 228 full time and part time …

Reporter - May 7th 2010, Rit Reporter Staff

University Publications

No abstract provided.