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

Digital Commons Network™

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

2011

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 1651 - 1680 of 31117

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Modelling Β2ar Regulation, Sharat J. Vayttaden Dec 2011

Modelling Β2ar Regulation, Sharat J. Vayttaden

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The β2 adrenergic receptor (β2AR) regulates smooth muscle relaxation in the vasculature and airways. Long- and Short-acting β-agonists (LABAs/SABAs) are widely used in treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and asthma. Despite their widespread clinical use we do not understand well the dominant β2AR regulatory pathways that are stimulated during therapy and bring about tachyphylaxis, which is the loss of drug effects. Thus, an understanding of how the β2AR responds to various β-agonists is crucial to their rational use. Towards that end we have developed deterministic models that explore the mechanism of drug- induced β2AR regulation. These mathematical models …

Go to article

Change Detection Memory In Rhesus Monkeys And Humans, Lauren C. Elmore Dec 2011

Change Detection Memory In Rhesus Monkeys And Humans, Lauren C. Elmore

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is the storage of visual information over a brief time period (usually a few seconds or less). Over the past decade, the most popular task for studying VSTM in humans has been the change detection task. In this task, subjects must remember several visual items per trial in order to identify a change following a brief delay interval. Results from change detection tasks have shown that VSTM is limited; humans are only able to accurately hold a few visual items in mind over a brief delay. However, there has been much debate in regard to the …

Go to article

Definition Of The Landscape Of Chromatin Structure At The Frataxin Gene In Friedreich’S Ataxia, Eunah Kim Dec 2011

Definition Of The Landscape Of Chromatin Structure At The Frataxin Gene In Friedreich’S Ataxia, Eunah Kim

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) is caused by the transcriptional silencing of the frataxin (FXN) gene. FRDA patients have expansion of GAA repeats in intron 1 of the FXN gene in both alleles. A number of studies demonstrated that specific histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) affect either histone modifications at the FXN gene or FXN expression in FRDA cells, indicating that the hyperexpanded GAA repeat may facilitate heterochromatin formation. However, the correlation between chromatin structure and transcription at the FXN gene is currently limited due to a lack of more detailed analysis. Therefore, I analyzed the effects of the hyperexpanded GAA …

Go to article

The Dissociation Of Location And Object Working Memory Using Fmri And Meg, Antony Passaro Dec 2011

The Dissociation Of Location And Object Working Memory Using Fmri And Meg, Antony Passaro

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Visual working memory (VWM) involves maintaining and processing visual information, often for the purpose of making immediate decisions. Neuroimaging experiments of VWM provide evidence in support of a neural system mainly involving a fronto-parietal neuronal network, but the role of specific brain areas is less clear. A proposal that has recently generated considerable debate suggests that a dissociation of object and location VWM occurs within the prefrontal cortex, in dorsal and ventral regions, respectively. However, re-examination of the relevant literature presents a more robust distribution suggestive of a general caudal-rostral dissociation from occipital and parietal structures, caudally, to prefrontal regions, …

Go to article

Role Of The Gcn5 Histone Acetyltransferase In Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 7 And In Immature Neurons, Yi Chun Chen Dec 2011

Role Of The Gcn5 Histone Acetyltransferase In Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 7 And In Immature Neurons, Yi Chun Chen

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Spinocerebellar Ataxia type 7 (SCA7) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by expansion of a CAG repeat encoding a polyglutamine tract in ATXN7, a component of the SAGA histone acetyltransferase (HAT) complex. Previous studies provided conflicting evidence regarding the effects of polyQ-ATXN7 on the activity of Gcn5, the HAT catalytic subunit of SAGA. Here I showed that reducing Gcn5 expression accelerates both cerebellar and retinal degeneration in a mouse model of SCA7. Deletion of Gcn5 in Purkinje cells in mice expressing wild type Atxn7, however, causes only mild ataxia and does not lead to the early lethality observed in SCA7 mice. …

Go to article

Bmp-Signaling Regulates A Common Transcriptional Program To Control Facial Form And Skeletal Morphogenesis, Margarita Bonilla-Claudio Dec 2011

Bmp-Signaling Regulates A Common Transcriptional Program To Control Facial Form And Skeletal Morphogenesis, Margarita Bonilla-Claudio

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Much of the craniofacial skeleton, such as the skull vault, mandible and midface, develops through direct, intramembranous ossification of the cranial neural crest (CNC) derived progenitor cells. Bmp-signaling plays critical roles in normal craniofacial development, and Bmp4 deficiency results in craniofacial abnormalities, such as cleft lip and palate. We performed an in depth analysis of Bmp4, a critical regulator of development, disease, and evolution, in the CNC. Conditional Bmp4 overexpression, using a tetracycline regulated Bmp4 gain of function allele, resulted in facial form changes that were most dramatic after an E10.5 Bmp4 induction. Expression profiling uncovered a signature of …

Go to article

The Role Of Cell Sterilization In Population Based Studies Of Radiogenic Second Cancers Following Radiation Therapy, Annelise Giebeler Dec 2011

The Role Of Cell Sterilization In Population Based Studies Of Radiogenic Second Cancers Following Radiation Therapy, Annelise Giebeler

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Advances in radiotherapy have generated increased interest in comparative studies of treatment techniques and their effectiveness. In this respect, pediatric patients are of specific interest because of their sensitivity to radiation induced second cancers. However, due to the rarity of childhood cancers and the long latency of second cancers, large sample sizes are unavailable for the epidemiological study of contemporary radiotherapy treatments. Additionally, when specific treatments are considered, such as proton therapy, sample sizes are further reduced due to the rareness of such treatments. We propose a method to improve statistical power in micro clinical trials. Specifically, we use a …

Go to article

The Expression Profile Of A Gwas Detected Gene (Ninj2) In The Brain Of A Mouse Model Of Ischemic Stroke, Antonio Joel Tito Jr., Antonio Joel Tito Jr. Dec 2011

The Expression Profile Of A Gwas Detected Gene (Ninj2) In The Brain Of A Mouse Model Of Ischemic Stroke, Antonio Joel Tito Jr., Antonio Joel Tito Jr.

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and a major debilitating disease in the United States. Multiple factors, including genetic factors, contribute to the development of the disease. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have contributed to the identification of genetic loci influencing risk for complex diseases, such as stroke. In 2010, a GWAS of incident stroke was performed in four large prospective cohorts from the USA and Europe and identified an association of two Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 12p13 with a greater risk of ischemic stroke in individuals of European and African-American ancestry. These SNPs are located 11 …

Go to article

The Cytoplasmic Tail Of Mhc Class I Molecules Plays A Critical Role In Dendritic Cell-Induced T Cell Immunity, Tania G. Rodriguez-Cruz Dec 2011

The Cytoplasmic Tail Of Mhc Class I Molecules Plays A Critical Role In Dendritic Cell-Induced T Cell Immunity, Tania G. Rodriguez-Cruz

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The presentation of MHC class I (MHC-I)/peptide complexes by dendritic cells (DCs) is critical for the maintenance of central tolerance to self and for the regulation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL)-mediated adaptive immune responses against pathogens and cancer cells. Interestingly, several findings have suggested that the cytoplasmic tail of MHC class I plays a functional role in the regulation of CTL immune responses. For example, our previous studies demonstrated that exon 7-deleted MHC-I molecules not only showed extended DC cell surface half-lives but also induced significantly increased CTL responses to viral challange invivo. Although exon 7-deleted variant of MHC-I does …

Go to article

An Original Take On Originalism, Christopher Slobogin Dec 2011

An Original Take On Originalism, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The argument that Professor Orin Kerr proffers in An Equilibrium-Adjustment Theory of the Fourth Amendment' is simple: Fourth Amendment law ought to be structured to ensure that the balance of power between government and citizenry remains constant. This equilibrium-adjustment theory is elegant and, because it rests on a relatively "neutral" historical foundation, might be attractive to judges and scholars from different perspectives. Contrary to Kerr's assertion, however, it does not easily explain many of the Court's cases, nor does it help address the most difficult Fourth Amendment issues facing the Court today. The historical foundations on which it rests are …

Go to article

To Dollars From Sense: Qualitative To Quantitative Translation In Jury Damage Awards, Valerie P. Hans, Valerie F. Reyna Dec 2011

To Dollars From Sense: Qualitative To Quantitative Translation In Jury Damage Awards, Valerie P. Hans, Valerie F. Reyna

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article offers a new multistage account of jury damage award decision making. Drawing on psychological and economic research on judgment, decision making, and numeracy, the model posits that jurors first make a categorical gist judgment that money damages are warranted, and then make an ordinal gist judgment ranking the damages deserved as low, medium, or high. They then construct numbers that fit the gist of the appropriate magnitude. The article employs data from jury decision-making research to explore the plausibility of the model.

Go to article

Diffusion Tensor Imaging Data Reveals Grm3 Polymorphism's Association With White Matter Integrity In Schizophrenia, Joanna Mounce Dec 2011

Diffusion Tensor Imaging Data Reveals Grm3 Polymorphism's Association With White Matter Integrity In Schizophrenia, Joanna Mounce

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

While the functional disconnectivity hypothesis of schizophrenia has been the subject of much study, very little is known about the contribution of individual genotypes to connectivity between brain regions in either schizophrenia patients or in healthy controls. In this study, we obtained diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) maps and genome-wide SNP data from 74 cases and 87 age- and gender-matched controls. Correlations were performed between loading coefficients obtained from fractional anisotropy (FA) values in networks of regions representing 6 maximally independent components and 134 SNPs in genes that have been found to be important in myelination and/or schizophrenia. By using independent …

Go to article

Life History Tradeoffs And Phenotypic Plasticity: The Tale Of A Flight Polyphenic Field Cricket, Chandreyee Mitra Dec 2011

Life History Tradeoffs And Phenotypic Plasticity: The Tale Of A Flight Polyphenic Field Cricket, Chandreyee Mitra

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Most organisms are resource limited. Such limitations can result in tradeoffs between life history traits -- any traits that affect survival or reproduction. Flight polyphenic field crickets are thought to be a classic example of such a life history tradeoff, in which individuals tradeoff investment in flight capability and investment in reproduction. This polyphenism results from the interaction of two morphological traits: wing morphology (short or long) and flight muscle morphology (functional pink or non-functional white), and is affected by both genes and the environment. I examined life history traits of a flight polyphenic field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps. First, …

Go to article

Contributions Of Financial Sector Reforms And Credit Supply To Nigerian Agricultural Sector (1978-2009), Anthony O. Onoja, M. E. Onu, S. Ajodo-Ohiemi Dec 2011

Contributions Of Financial Sector Reforms And Credit Supply To Nigerian Agricultural Sector (1978-2009), Anthony O. Onoja, M. E. Onu, S. Ajodo-Ohiemi

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study analyzed the trends and pattern of institutional credit supply to agriculture during pre- and post-financial reforms along with their determinants. It then compared the effects of reform policies on access to institutional credits in Nigerian agricultural sector before and after the reforms (1978 - 1985; and 1986 -2009). Relying mainly on time series data from CBN and NBS, it used ordinary least squares method (linear, semi-log and double log) to model the determinants of banking sector lending to the agricultural sector during the review period. The models were subjected to several econometric tests before accepting one. Chow test …

Go to article

Determinants Of Foreign Reserves In Nigeria: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Approach, David Irefin, Baba N. Yaaba Dec 2011

Determinants Of Foreign Reserves In Nigeria: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Approach, David Irefin, Baba N. Yaaba

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

On global scale, central banks’ holdings of foreign reserves have escalated sharply in recent years. World international reserves holdings have risen significantly from US$1.2 trillion in 1995 to nearly US$10.0 trillion in June 2011. Dominant among these reserves are concentrated in the hands of few countries. Ten major holders of foreign reserves are mostly from Asia. Oil exporting countries in Africa and the Middle East are not left out in this trend. Nigeria’s foreign reserves rose from US$5.5 billion in 1999 to US$62.40 billion in July 2008, making Nigeria the twenty-fourth largest reserves holder in the world. This pace of …

Go to article

Effects Of Exchange Rate Movements On Economic Growth In Nigeria, Eme O. Akpan, Johnson A. Atan Dec 2011

Effects Of Exchange Rate Movements On Economic Growth In Nigeria, Eme O. Akpan, Johnson A. Atan

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study investigates the effect of exchange rate movements on real output growth in Nigeria. Based on quarterly series for the period 1986 to 2010, the paper examines the possible direct and indirect relationship between exchange rates and GDP growth. The relationship is derived in two ways using a simultaneous equations model within a fully specified (but small) macroeconomic model. A Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) technique was explored. The estimation results suggest that there is no evidence of a strong direct relationship between changes in exchange rate and output growth. Rather, Nigeria’s economic growth has been directly affected by …

Go to article

Exchange Rate Volatility In Nigeria: Consistency, Persistency & Severity Analyses, Babatunde Adeoye, Akinwande A. Atanda Dec 2011

Exchange Rate Volatility In Nigeria: Consistency, Persistency & Severity Analyses, Babatunde Adeoye, Akinwande A. Atanda

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The adoption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986 resulted in the transition from fixed exchange rate regime to floating exchange rate regime in Nigeria. Ever since, the exchange rate of naira vis-à-vis the U.S dollar has attained varying rates all through different time horizons. On this basis, this study examines the consistency, persistency, and severity (degree) of volatility in exchange rate of Nigerian currency (naira) vis-a-vis the United State dollar using monthly time series data from 1986 to 2008. The standard Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) model was used to analyze the long-run consistency of …

Go to article

Foreign Private Investment And Economic Growth In Nigeria: A Cointegrated Var And Granger Causality Analysis, F. Z. Abdullahi, S. Ladan, Haruna R. Bakari Dec 2011

Foreign Private Investment And Economic Growth In Nigeria: A Cointegrated Var And Granger Causality Analysis, F. Z. Abdullahi, S. Ladan, Haruna R. Bakari

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This research uses a cointegration VAR model to study the contemporaneous long-run dynamics of the impact of Foreign Private Investment (FPI), Interest Rate (INR) and Inflation rate (IFR) on Growth Domestic Products (GDP) in Nigeria for the period January 1970 to December 2009. The Unit Root Test suggests that all the variables are integrated of order 1. The VAR model was appropriately identified using AIC information criteria and the VECM model has exactly one cointegration relation. The study further investigates the causal relationship using the Granger causality analysis of VECM which indicates a uni-directional causality relationship between GDP and FDI …

Go to article

Banking Sector Credit And Economic Growth In Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation, Aniekan O. Akpansung, Sikiru J. Babalola Dec 2011

Banking Sector Credit And Economic Growth In Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation, Aniekan O. Akpansung, Sikiru J. Babalola

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The paper examines the relationship between banking sector credit and economic growth in Nigeria over the period 1970-2008. The causal links between the pairs of variables of interest were established using Granger causality test while a Two-Stage Least Squares (TSLS) estimation technique was used for the regression models. The results of Granger causality test show evidence of unidirectional causal relationship from GDP to private sector credit (PSC) and from industrial production index (IND) to GDP. Estimated regression models indicate that private sector credit impacts positively on economic growth over the period of coverage in this study. However, lending (interest) rate …

Go to article

Splitting Hairs: What Subtle Distinctions Teach Us About Authority, Benjamin J. Keele Dec 2011

Splitting Hairs: What Subtle Distinctions Teach Us About Authority, Benjamin J. Keele

Library Staff Publications

Legal researchers constantly deal with issues of authority. Did the police have authority to search the car? Is this court of appeals decision binding authority on my case? What statutes are authoritative in my jurisdiction? These questions are important, and librarians often help find answers. The question of authority that librarians are best equipped to answer, however, is “How authoritative is this source?”

Go to article

Joseph Smith Encounters Calvinism, Robert L. Millet Dec 2011

Joseph Smith Encounters Calvinism, Robert L. Millet

BYU Studies

In seventeenth-century Europe, followers of John Calvin debated with followers of Jacob Arminius about five main doctrinal points: the total depravity of man, God's unconditional election of certain people, the limited nature of the Atonement, the irresistibility of God's grace, and the perseverance of the Saints. This article gives a brief account of that controversy and then compares the teachings of Joseph Smith and Mormonism on these same five points of doctrine.

Go to article

Modeling Parental Provisioning By Red-Winged Blackbirds In North Dakota, George M. Linz, Richard S. Sawin, Mark W. Lutman, William J. Bleier Dec 2011

Modeling Parental Provisioning By Red-Winged Blackbirds In North Dakota, George M. Linz, Richard S. Sawin, Mark W. Lutman, William J. Bleier

The Prairie Naturalist

Male red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) exhibit a difference in nest provisioning rates along an east-west gradient in North America. North Dakota is located in the center of North America and harbors a large population of breeding red-winged blackbirds (RWBL). This location provided an opportunity to compare provisioning rates in the central U.S. with those reported for the eastern and western populations. We placed video cameras at RWBL nests to record male and female feeding trips. Thirty-four nests were located on territories with original males and 30 were on territories where a replacement (floater) male had taken over a …

Go to article

Exploring The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scales-Revised (Ecers-R) Evaluation On Preschool Children's Pre-Academic Progress, Jennifer L. Fundus Dec 2011

Exploring The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scales-Revised (Ecers-R) Evaluation On Preschool Children's Pre-Academic Progress, Jennifer L. Fundus

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to determine the physical, social, cognitive, and language outcomes of targeted Title I preschool students participating in programs not meeting and programs meeting Nebraska Department of Education, Early Childhood Evaluation Rating Scales-Revised (ECERS-R) requirements. As more requirements are being required for preschools to require, the exploration of the effectiveness of these requirements needs to be explored.

Go to article

The Effect Of Varying Levels Of Reading Delimitations On The Ability Of Students With Disruptive Behavior Disorders Admitted To A Residential Treatment Center To Demonstrate Language-Based Pro-Social Behavior Replacement Skills, Tanya D. Wright. Dec 2011

The Effect Of Varying Levels Of Reading Delimitations On The Ability Of Students With Disruptive Behavior Disorders Admitted To A Residential Treatment Center To Demonstrate Language-Based Pro-Social Behavior Replacement Skills, Tanya D. Wright.

Student Work

Group 1 students (n = 18) with Disruptive Behavior Disorders and co-occurring reading delimitations with measured reading comprehension scores greater than one standard deviation below the mean, pretest beginning compared to posttest ending 12-week behavioral treatment Core Behavior Occurrence measures were all observed in the direction of lower posttest mean scores and student core behavior improvement with eight of the 11 Core Behavior Occurrence measures (73%) found to be significantly different. Group 2 students ( n = 22) with Disruptive Behavior Disorders and co-occurring reading delimitations with measured reading comprehension scores equal to but not more than one standard deviation …

Go to article

Application Oriented Analysis Of Large Scale Datasets, Prashant Shivaji Paymal Dec 2011

Application Oriented Analysis Of Large Scale Datasets, Prashant Shivaji Paymal

Student Work

Diverse application areas, such as social network, epidemiology, and software engineering consist of systems of objects and their relationships. Such systems are generally modeled as graphs. Graphs consist of vertices that represent the objects, and edges that represent the relationships between them. These systems are data intensive and it is important to correctly analyze the data to obtain meaningful information. Combinatorial metrics can provide useful insights for analyzing these systems. In this thesis, we use the graph based metrics such as betweenness centrality, clustering coefficient, articulation points, etc. for analyzing instances of large change in evolving networks (Software Engineering), and …

Go to article

Moral Mandate Or Personal Preference? Possible Avenues For Accommodation Of Civil Servants Morally Opposed To Facilitating Same-Sex Marriage, Matthew Chandler Dec 2011

Moral Mandate Or Personal Preference? Possible Avenues For Accommodation Of Civil Servants Morally Opposed To Facilitating Same-Sex Marriage, Matthew Chandler

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Go to article

The New Resident Evil? State Regulation Of Violent Video Games And The First Amendment, James Dunkelberger Dec 2011

The New Resident Evil? State Regulation Of Violent Video Games And The First Amendment, James Dunkelberger

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Letting The Legislature Decide: Why The Court's Use Of In Loco Parentis Ought To Be Praised, Not Condemned, Tyler Stoehr Dec 2011

Letting The Legislature Decide: Why The Court's Use Of In Loco Parentis Ought To Be Praised, Not Condemned, Tyler Stoehr

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Hydraulic Fracturing And "Spotty" Regulation: Why The Federal Government Should Let States Control Unconventional Onshore Drilling, Matt Willie Dec 2011

Hydraulic Fracturing And "Spotty" Regulation: Why The Federal Government Should Let States Control Unconventional Onshore Drilling, Matt Willie

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Creating A Self Learning Module For Nurses Caring For Patients Undergoing Angioplasty And Receiving Anticoagulation Therapy, Stacy Incardone Dec 2011

Creating A Self Learning Module For Nurses Caring For Patients Undergoing Angioplasty And Receiving Anticoagulation Therapy, Stacy Incardone

Nursing Masters

Nurses in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab (CCL or commonly referred to as the Cath Lab) play a critical role in the delivery of high quality care to their patients. Being knowledgeable and current on evidence based practice is the key to being an effective and efficient nurse. Every year there are annual competencies that nurses must demonstrate to prove that they are capable of performing these patient tasks independently. These annual competencies are institution and unit specific and may include tasks such as demonstration of inserting an intravenous catheter, drawing a blood specimen from an arterial line, and reading and …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last