Digital Commons Network^™

Criminal (Cartel & Gang) Insurgencies In Mexico And The Americas: What You Need To Know, Not What You Want To Hear, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

We need this basic premise to be clear—that Mexico is facing something way beyond an organized crime threat. With this as the premise from which it starts, this congressional testimony will posit that the Mérida Initiative as it stands is too myopic in nature given the on-the-ground realities currently present in Mexico. These two contentions will herein be discussed in more detail and their merits supported by evidence from my own work and that of other area and subject specialists. Of necessity, therefore, the testimony will focus upon the broader security environment and the policy and strategic levels of analysis. …

Long-Term Effects Of Self-Control On Alcohol Use And Sexual Behavior Among Urban Minority Young Women, Kenneth W. Griffin, Lawrence M. Scheier, Bianca Acevedo, Jerry L. Grenard, Gilbert J. Botvin

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

High risk alcohol use and sexual behaviors peak in young adulthood and often occur in the same individuals. Alcohol use has been found to impair decision-making and contribute to high risk sexual activity. However, the association between alcohol use and risky sexual behavior may also reflect enduring individual differences in risk taking, sociability, self-control, and related variables. Both behaviors can serve similar functions related to recreation, interpersonal connection, and the pursuit of excitement or pleasure. The present study examined the extent to which high risk drinking and sexual behavior clustered together in a sample of urban minority young adult women, …

Metanoia (2011 Travel Edition), Taylor University

Metanoia (2011-2012)

The 2011 travel edition of Taylor University’s Metanoia.

Timber Talk, Vol. 49, No. 1, February 1, 2011

Timber Talk: Nebraska Forest Industry Newsletter

Lumber Market News; Hardwood Lumber Price Trends—Green; Hardwood Lumber Price Trends—Kiln Dried; Hardwood Lumber Market History—Green; Nebraska “Primary Processors” Directory; Long Time Nebraska Sawmiller Will Be Missed; What Is That Log Worth?; Nebraska Forestry Industry Spotlight; The Trading Post; Timber Sales;

An Epichromatin Epitope: Persistence In The Cell Cycle And Conservation In Evolution, Ada L. Olins, Markus Langhans, Marc Monestier, Andreas Schlotterer, David G. Robinson, Corrado Viotti, Hanswalter Zentgraf, Monika Zwerger, Donald E. Olins

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Interphase nuclear architecture is disrupted and rapidly reformed with each cell division cycle. Successive cell generations exhibit a “memory” of this nuclear architecture, as well as for gene expression. Furthermore, many features of nuclear and mitotic chromosome structure are recognizably species and tissue specific. We wish to know what properties of the underlying chromatin structure may determine these conserved features of nuclear architecture. Employing a particular mouse autoimmune anti-nucleosome monoclonal antibody (PL2-6), combined with deconvolution immunofluorescence microscopy, we present evidence for a unique epitope (involving a ternary complex of histones H2A and H2B and DNA) which is localized only at …

Metaphorizing Grammar And Writing: Visual Learning In The English Classroom, Kulsoom F. Rizvi

MA TESOL Collection

My goals for this thesis include exploring how metaphors are used in the classroom and, in doing so, providing ways in which to help both teachers and students transcend their understanding. I will: (1) analyze and respond to the research on metaphors in the classroom, (2) illustrate and discuss the rationale of different metaphors I have collected from teachers as well as some I created for the English classroom, and (3) share student generated metaphors in the English classroom.

Creating Avid Readers Across Content Areas: Explicit Reading Instruction In The Esl Classroom, Rashmi Koushik

MA TESOL Collection

Colleges are experiencing budget crises on a paramount scale and are funding programs that place higher demands on students to be able to read academic texts in specific fields of study. Unfortunately, students are often overwhelmed with the level of reading and the types of content that they encounter. Even more often, L2 (Second Language) learners are often left out of academic reading instruction in the college-level ESL classroom, and therefore rarely advance into academic pathways. This paper seeks to define and articulate the use of explicit reading instruction to help L2 learners become better readers in English, particularly of …

2011-12 Women's Golf Guide, Ole Miss Athletics. Women's Golf

Women's Golf

No abstract provided.

A New Class Of Haemophilus Ducreyi? Molecular Characterization Of Samoa Strains Sb 5755, Sb 5756,Sb 5757, And Be 3145, Nichol S. Murray

Theses

Haemophilus ducreyi is a Gram negative, strict human pathogen that causes the genital ulcer disease chancroid. Chancroid is a sexually transmitted infection that may aid in transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Haemophilus ducreyi can be categorized into two strain classes, class I (CI) and class II (CII), based on variations in DNA sequence and protein expression of several virulence determinants including Ducreyi Serum Resistance protein A (DsrA) and the Necessary for Collagen Adhesion protein (NcaA). Recently, the first description of non-sexually associated chancroid transmission in children with chronic lower limb ulcerations was reported. Bacteria isolated from the children were …

Spring 2011, Full Issue

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Full Issue.

Enhancing Simulation Composability And Interoperability Using Conceptual/Semantic/Ontological Models, Andreas Tolk, John A. Miller

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Two emerging trends in Modeling and Simulation (M&S) are beginning to dovetail in a potentially highly productive manner, namely conceptual modeling and semantic modeling. Conceptual modeling has existed for several decades, but its importance has risen to the forefront in the last decade (Taylor and Robinson, 2006; Robinson, 2007). Also, during the last decade, progress on the Semantic Web has begun to influence M&S, with the development of general modeling ontologies (Miller et al, 2004), as well as ontologies for modeling particular domains (Durak, 2006). An ontology, which is a formal specification of a conceptualization (Gruber et al, …

Minimizing Stormwater Pollution (Fact Sheet), Casco Bay Estuary Partnership

Publications

Water that flows along the ground after a rainfall (or during snowmelt) is known as stormwater runoff. As it crosses roofs, roads, and parking lots, stormwater picks up pollutants like oil, pesticides, bacteria, sediments, and heavy metals. These pollutants are washed into the storm sewers, streams, and rivers that eventually drain into Casco Bay. Polluted runoff can contaminate drinking water, degrade water quality, impair fish and wildlife habitat, and reduce biological diversity.

Osprey Nest Abundance, Distribution, And Productivity In Casco Bay, Chris Desorbo

Publications

Ospreys are one of the most well-established ecological bioindicator species because their nest distribution and productivity reflect patterns and changes in the foodweb that supports them. Osprey tissues (eggs, blood, feathers) reflect contaminants in aquatic ecosystems and as a result, they are regularly sampled throughout their range to monitor geographic and temporal contaminant patterns.

University Of Southern Maine Undergraduate Catalog 2011-2012, University Of Southern Maine

Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Hear My Voice: An Examination Of The Views Of Parents Who Are Raising Children Of African American Descent, Chavez Phelps

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have demonstrated that children who attend early childhood education programs benefit academically and socially (National Institute for Early Education Research, 2003). However, other researchers have shown that African American students may still lag behind their counterparts when they enter school (National Center for Education Statistics ([NCES], 2004). To explain this phenomenon, scholars and practitioners have relied on deficit theories, such as Ruby Payne's (2005) culture of poverty theory or John Ogbu's (1992) oppositional culture identity theory, which shift the blame solely on the child or their parents. However, there are other researchers who have stressed the importance of examining …

The Anthropocentric Advantage? Environmental Ethics And Climate Change Policy, Nicole Hassoun

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

Environmental ethicists often criticize liberalism. For, many liberals embrace anthropocentric theories on which only humans have non-instrumental value. Environmental ethicists argue that such liberals fail to account for many things that matter or provide an ethic sufficient for addressing climate change. These critics suggest that many parts of nature -- non-human individuals, other species, ecosystems and the biosphere have a kind of value beyond what they contribute to human freedom (or other things of value). This article suggests, however, that if environmental ethics are inclusive and also entail that concern for some parts of nature does not always trump concern …

Evaluation Of Syracuse Healthy Start’S Program For Abnormal Flora Management To Reduce Preterm Birth Among Pregnant Women, Emilia H. Koumans, Sandra D. Lane, Richard Aubry, Kathleen Demott, Noah Webster, Brooke A. Levandowski

Falk College Research Center

Randomized trials of bacterial vaginosis (BV) treatment among pregnant women to reduce preterm birth have had mixed results. Among non-pregnant women, BV recurs frequently after treatment. Randomized trials of early BV treatment for pregnant women in which recurrence was retreated have shown promise in reducing preterm birth. Syracuse’s Healthy Start (SHS) program began in 1997; in 1998 prenatal care providers for pregnant women living in high infant mortality zip codes were encouraged to screen for abnormal vaginal flora at the first prenatal visit. Vaginal swabs were sent to a referral hospital laboratory for Gram staining and interpretation. SHS encouraged providers …

Phosphorus Release From Bottom Sediments At Lake Wister, Oklahoma, Summer 2010, B.E. Haggard, J.T. Scott

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

A previous reservoir model of Lake Wister, Oklahoma suggested that internal P sources were dominant, and that a watershed management plan need not be developed to address external sources. The objectives of this study were to collect intact sediment cores from three sites at Lake Wister and measure sediment O₂ demand (SOD) and soluble reactive P (SRP) release to the overlying water during lab incubations under quiescent conditions. The measured SOD rates were between 9.9 and 22.6 mg m⁻² hr⁻¹ on average across the three sites, where the shallow headwaters site had the least SOD. The SRP release rates were …

Comparative Phylogeography Of The Coral Triangle And Implications For Marine Management, Kent E. Carpenter, Paul H. Barber, Eric D. Crandall, Ma. Carmen A. Ablan-Lagman, Ambariyanto, Gusti Ngurah Mahardika, B. Mabel Manjaji-Matsumoto, Marie Antonette Juinio-Menez, Mudjekeewis D. Santos, Craig J. Starger, Abdul Hamid A. Toha

School of Natural Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Extreme concentration of marine biodiversity and exploitation of marine resources in the Coral Triangle pose challenges to biogeographers and resource managers. Comparative phylogeography provides a powerful tool to test biogeographic hypotheses evoked to explain species richness in the Coral Triangle. It can also be used to delineate management units for marine resources. After about a decade of phylogeographical studies, patterns for the Coral Triangle are emerging. Broad connectivity in some species support the notion that larvae have maintained gene flow among distant populations for long periods. Other phylogeographic patterns suggest vicariant events resulting from Pleistocene sea level fluctuations, which have, …

The Influence Of Macrophage Depletion On Ligament Healing, Connie S. Chamberlain, Ellen M. Leiferman, Kayt E. Frisch, Sijian Wang, Xipei Yang, Nico Van Rooijen, Geoff S. Baer, Stacey L. Brickson, Ray Vanderby

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Despite a complex cascade of cellular events to reconstruct damaged extracellular matrix (ECM), ligament healing results in a mechanically inferior, scar-like tissue. During normal healing, the number of macrophages significantly increases within the wound site. Then, granulation tissue expands into any residual, normal ligamentous tissue (creeping substitution), resulting in a larger region of healing, greater mechanical compromise, and an inefficient repair process. To study the effects of macrophages on the repair process, bilateral, surgical rupture of their medial collateral ligaments (MCLs) was done on rats. Treatment animals received liposome-encapsulated clodronate, 2 days before rupture to ablate phagocytosing macrophages. Ligaments were …

A Text-Critical Comparison Of The King James New Testament With Certain Modern Translations, Lincoln H. Blumell

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

This article renders a text-critical comparison of the King James New Testament and select modern translations of the New Testament. Specifically, it surveys twenty-two passages in the King James New Testament that have been omitted in most modern translations. The article then clarifies and explains why these verses have been omitted and asks whether such omissions ought to be accepted. While this study demonstrates that in most cases the readings in the King James Version are inferior in a text-critical sense and that they likely represent interpolations into the biblical text, there are a few cases where the King James …

Peripheral Wonders: Nature, Knowledge, And Enlightenment In The Eighteenth~Century Orinoco: Book Review, Laura Miller

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Margaret R. Ewalt's Peripheral Wonders: Nature, Knowledge, and Enlightenment in the Eighteenth-Century Orinoco responds to several essential topics in eighteenth-century studies, including the connections between scientific work and socioeconomic forces, the interpenetration of colonial powers and Amerindian populations, the recasting of the Enlightenment, and the variable uses of rhetoric to address print audiences. Peripheral Wonders centers on Jesuit missionary Joseph Gumilla's El Orinoco ilustrado ( 17 41, 17 45), a natural history that offers a narrative in which Catholicism and scientific inquiry mutually engage. In El Orinoco ilustrado, natural history remains informed by religious beliefs as well as local …

Age-Corrected Beta Cell Mass Following Onset Of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Correlates With Plasma C-Peptide In Humans, David J. Klinke Ii

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

The inability to produce insulin endogenously precipitates the clinical symptoms of type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, the dynamic trajectory of beta cell destruction following onset remains unclear. Using model-based inference, the severity of beta cell destruction at onset decreases with age where, on average, a 40% reduction in beta cell mass was sufficient to precipitate clinical symptoms at 20 years of age. While plasma C-peptide provides a surrogate measure of endogenous insulin production post-onset, it is unclear as to whether plasma C-peptide represents changes in beta cell mass or beta cell function. The objective of this paper was to …

Molecular Cloning And Expression Of Bovine Nucleoplasmin 2 (Npm2): A Maternal Effect Gene Regulated By Mir-181a, Brandon M. Lingenfelter, Swamy K. Tripurani, Jyothsna Tejomurtula, George W. Smith, Jianbo Yao

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Nucleoplasmin 2 (NPM2) is an oocyte-specific nuclear protein essential for nuclear and nucleolar organization and early embryonic development. The aims of this study were to clone the bovine NPM2 gene, determine its temporal expression during oocyte development and early embryogenesis, and evaluate the potential role of miRNA-181a in regulation of its expression.

Methods

A 329 bp cDNA fragment was amplified from bovine fetal ovary using primers designed based on the conserved regions of the human and mouse NPM2 cDNA sequences. RACE experiments were performed to obtain the 5' and 3' ends of the bovine NPM2 cDNA. Real time PCR …

Combining Clinical, Pathological, And Demographic Factors Refines Prognosis Of Lung Cancer: A Population-Based Study, Joseph Putila, Scot C. Remick, Nancy L. Guo

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

In the treatment of lung cancer, an accurate estimation of patient clinical outcome is essential for choosing an appropriate course of therapy. It is important to develop a prognostic stratification model which combines clinical, pathological and demographic factors for individualized clinical decision making.

Methodology/Principal Findings

A total of 234,412 patients diagnosed with adenocarcinomas or squamous cell carcinomas of the lung or bronchus between 1988 and 2006 were retrieved from the SEER database to construct a prognostic model. A model was developed by estimating a Cox proportional hazards model on 500 bootstrapped samples. Two models, one using stage alone and …

A Statistical Design For Testing Transgenerational Genomic Imprinting In Natural Human Populations, Yao Li, Yunqian Guo, Jianxin Wang, Wei Hou, Myron N. Chang, Duanping Liao, Rongling Wu

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Genomic imprinting is a phenomenon in which the same allele is expressed differently, depending on its parental origin. Such a phenomenon, also called the parent-of-origin effect, has been recognized to play a pivotal role in embryological development and pathogenesis in many species. Here we propose a statistical design for detecting imprinted loci that control quantitative traits based on a random set of three-generation families from a natural population in humans. This design provides a pathway for characterizing the effects of imprinted genes on a complex trait or disease at different generations and testing transgenerational changes of imprinted effects. The design …

Generation Of A Reference Transcriptome For Evaluating Rainbow Trout Responses To Various Stressors, Cecilia C. Sanchez, Gregory M. Weber, Guangtu Gao, Beth M. Cleveland, Jianbo Yao, Caird E. Rexroad

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Fish under intensive culture conditions are exposed to a variety of acute and chronic stressors, including high rearing densities, sub-optimal water quality, and severe thermal fluctuations. Such stressors are inherent in aquaculture production and can induce physiological responses with adverse effects on traits important to producers and consumers, including those associated with growth, nutrition, reproduction, immune response, and fillet quality. Understanding and monitoring the biological mechanisms underlying stress responses will facilitate alleviating their negative effects through selective breeding and changes in management practices, resulting in improved animal welfare and production efficiency.

Results

Physiological responses to five treatments associated with …

Pulmonary Fibrotic Response To Aspiration Of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Robert R. Mercer, Anna F. Hubbs, James F. Scabilloni, Liying Wang, Lori A. Battelli, Sherri Friend, Vincent Castranova, Dale W. Porter

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are new manufactured nanomaterials with a wide spectrum of commercial applications. To address the hypothesis that MWCNTs cause persistent pulmonary pathology, C57BL/6J mice were exposed by pharyngeal aspiration to 10, 20, 40 or 80 μg of MWCNTs (mean dimensions of 3.9 μm × 49 nm) or vehicle. Lungs were preserved at 1, 7, 28 and 56 days post- exposure to determine the potential regions and target cells for impact by MWCNT lung burden. Morphometric measurement of Sirius Red staining was used to assess the connective tissue response.

Results

At 56 days post-exposure, 68.7 ± 3.9, …

Convergence Of Developmental Mutants Into A Single Tomato Model System: 'Micro-Tom' As An Effective Toolkit For Plant Development Research, Rogerio F. Carvalho, Marcelo L. Campos, Lilian E. Pino, Simone L. Crestana, Agustin Zsogon, Joni E. Lima, Vagner A. Benedito, Lazaro E P Peres

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plant is both an economically important food crop and an ideal dicot model to investigate various physiological phenomena not possible in Arabidopsis thaliana. Due to the great diversity of tomato cultivars used by the research community, it is often difficult to reliably compare phenotypes. The lack of tomato developmental mutants in a single genetic background prevents the stacking of mutations to facilitate analysis of double and multiple mutants, often required for elucidating developmental pathways.

Results

We took advantage of the small size and rapid life cycle of the tomato cultivar Micro-Tom (MT) …

Connections Of The Superior Paraolivary Nucleus Of The Rat: Ii. Reciprocal Connections With The Tectal Longitudinal Column, Antonio Vinuela, M-Auxiliadora Aparicio, Albert S. Berrebi, Enrique Saldana

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The superior paraolivary nucleus (SPON), a prominent GABAergic center of the mammalian auditory brainstem, projects to the ipsilateral inferior colliculus (IC) and sends axons through the commissure of the IC (CoIC). Herein we demonstrate that the SPON is reciprocally connected with the recently discovered tectal longitudinal column (TLC). The TLC is a long and narrow structure that spans nearly the entire midbrain tectum longitudinally, immediately above the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) and very close to the midline. Unilateral injections of biotinylated dextran into the SPON of the rat label abundant terminal fibers in the TLC of both sides, with an …