Digital Commons Network^™

The Oddity As Commodity: Television And The Modern Day Freak Show, Robin Marie Cecala

Dissertations

A new genre of documentary and reality program has appeared on cable television in recent years. Suddenly, little people, conjoined twins, the morbidly obese, Treeman and Mermaid Girl are the new stars of cable. This latest genre features people with medical conditions once exhibited in the turn of the century freak shows.

The goal of this dissertation is to argue that documentary programming on cable is becoming a modern version of the P.T. Barnum-style freak shows. The analysis uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine representations of race, culture and disability. The dissertation also discusses the history of the …

The Effects Of Facial Expression On Out-Group Discrimination, Charles Brendan Clark

Dissertations

The current paper sought to test the hypothesis that the facial expression of smiling would mitigate the effects of out-group discrimination. Study 1 examined the influence of facial expression (smiling or frowning), gender (man or woman), and race (Black or White) on resource allocation decisions. Participants were shown arrays of facial photographs. The arrays all contained eight photographs and were counterbalanced to contain all combinations of the variables of interest (i.e., each group had a smiling man of each race, a smiling woman of each race, a frowning man of each race, and a frowning woman of each race). The …

Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Of 5th And 8th Grade Science Teachers, Susan Melony Hanson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine which, if any, variables had a significant relationship to personal science teaching efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies. The independent variables tested were number of undergraduate science methods courses taken, level of teacher education, number of years as a classroom teacher, number of years as a science teacher, teacher beliefs regarding instructional strategies in science, and teacher beliefs regarding student engagement in the science classroom. Through surveys completed by 5th and 8th grade science teachers, the researcher analyzed data via multiple regressions to determine significance. Results of the data analysis showed the greatest …

The Role Of Attachment And Language In Analogical Reasoning, Tamra Elizabeth Beckman

Dissertations

The present study examined the relationships between attachment and analogical reasoning within two domains: social reasoning and physical reasoning. Verbal reasoning was assessed as a possible mediator of these relationships. This study was conducted with 67 typically-developed children between the ages of nine to 11 years of age who were recruited from The University of Southern Mississippi's student population and from schools in Hattiesburg, MS and Ocean Springs, MS. Attachment security was assessed using the Kerns Security Scale (Kerns, Klepac, & Cole, 1996), and verbal reasoning was assessed with the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children-3rd edition (Weschler, 1991). Analogical reasoning …

Mentoring During Adolescence And Adult Resilience, Pola Christina Jakacki

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between mentoring and adult resilience, specifically adults that were mentored as adolescents. The study sample comprised of 657 adults from various locations across the country. For this quantitative study, they completed a two-part questionnaire made up of the Resilience Scale-14 created by Gail M. Wagnild and Heather M. Young (1993) and author created questions regarding demographics and mentor relationships.

The responses were analyzed using frequencies, means, standard deviations, independent samples t tests, and a Pearson correlation. Results of the study showed that there was a significant …

Real-Time Riverine Particle Image Velocimetry, David William Dobson

Dissertations

A modular particle image velocimetry program was developed and optimized to read and process video of river surface flows from different sensor types. The program was designed for long-term deployment with the ability to sample data continuously in realtime and save the results in a compact format. The time needed to compute a velocity measurement from video input was reduced by using concurrent processing techniques, multi-threading, and a graphics hardware-based correlation algorithm. When used to process field data on a low power Intel Atom based computer the PIV system was capable of computing up to 64 velocity measurements at a …

Creating A Therapeutic Milieu In Retirement Communities, Abir K. Bekhet, Jaclene A. Zauszniewski

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Elderly persons’ relocation to retirement communities is a stressful event that requires person-milieu adjustment. Research has shown differences in relocation adjustment for elders residing in different retirement communities. A secondary analysis used findings from a study of relocated elders in order to determine whether certain therapeutic factors were lacking in retirement communities where elders had difficulty in adjusting. Study participants were 104 elders who relocated to six retirement communities in Northeast Ohio. This study analyzed qualitative data from the researchers’ observations and field notes and narratives obtained from the elders who participated in the original study. The analysis focused on …

The Relationship Between Readability Level Of Mississippi's Middle Schools' Websites And Seventh Grade Language Arts Mct2 Scores, Anna Marlene Graves Pickard

Dissertations

Today’s educators face the unprecedented challenge of increasing achievement for all students. One response has been to increase and improve parent involvement and school-to-home communication through the use of school websites. The quantitative section of this study analyzed the readability grade level of the website as it relates to state test scores. For the qualitative section of the study, a sample of middle school principals’ levels of interest and involvement with parents through the website and other methods of communication for student achievement were examined through the use of principal interviews.

Seventh grade Language Arts MCT2 scores from 205 Mississippi …

Microarray Data Mining And Gene Regulatory Network Analysis, Ying Li

Dissertations

The novel molecular biological technology, microarray, makes it feasible to obtain quantitative measurements of expression of thousands of genes present in a biological sample simultaneously. Genome-wide expression data generated from this technology are promising to uncover the implicit, previously unknown biological knowledge. In this study, several problems about microarray data mining techniques were investigated, including feature(gene) selection, classifier genes identification, generation of reference genetic interaction network for non-model organisms and gene regulatory network reconstruction using time-series gene expression data. The limitations of most of the existing computational models employed to infer gene regulatory network lie in that they either suffer …

Beespace Navigator: Exploratory Analysis Of Gene Function Using Semantic Indexing Of Biological Literature, Moushumi Sen Sarma, David Arcoleo, Radhika S. Khetani, Brant Chee, Xu Ling, Xin He, Jing Jiang, Qiaozhu Mei, Chengxiang Zhai, Bruce Schatz

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the rapid decrease in cost of genome sequencing, the classification of gene function is becoming a primary problem. Such classification has been performed by human curators who read biological literature to extract evidence. BeeSpace Navigator is a prototype software for exploratory analysis of gene function using biological literature. The software supports an automatic analogue of the curator process to extract functions, with a simple interface intended for all biologists. Since extraction is done on selected collections that are semantically indexed into conceptual spaces, the curation can be task specific. Biological literature containing references to gene lists from expression experiments …

Illinois State Alumni Magazine, May 2011, Illinois State University, University Marketing And Communications

State: The Magazine of Illinois State University (1999-present)

Illinois State University alumni magazine

Propagating Bigtooth Maple, Melody Richards

All Current Publications

Native plants are playing an increasing role in sustainable landscapes that use fewer resources such as water and fertilizer

Moletest: A Web-Based Skin Cancer Screening System, Jonathan Blackledge, Dymitiy A. Dubovitskiy

Conference papers

This paper reports on a research and development programme undertaken in the Bioengineering Research Group http://teapot.dit.ie/ at Dublin Institute of Technology which led to the launch, in September 2010, of a new SME called Moletest UK Limited. Based on an exclusive license awarded by Dublin Institute of Technology in 2010, we report of the development of the world’s first remote skin cancer screening system which is based on a customer uploading a good quality digital image of a suspect mole. A ‘background to the case’ is given and the concept of the approach discussed together with an overview of the …

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Erin Petrizzo, Diane G. Alston

All Current Publications

Brown marmorated stink bug (Order Hemiptera: Family Pentatomidae) (BMSB) was accidentally introduced into the eastern U.S. from Asia in the late 1990s. In 2001 it was officially identified in Pennsylvania, and has since spread along the eastern seaboard and westward into the Great Lakes region.

Development Of Cerium Dioxide Coated Alumina Adsorbent To Study The Removal Of Arsenic From Ground Water, Laura Herder

Theses

Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a major problem in both developing and developed countries as it is quite dangerous at extremely low concentrations and prevalent in many water supplies. Although there are many removal techniques for arsenic, the most promising for developing countries appears to be adsorption, since it is relatively low in cost, is easy to implement, requires no electricity, and can remove trace amounts of materials from solutions. Current adsorbents that have a high affinity for arsenic, but are costly because they have slow adsorption rates, low capacities, limited pH ranges, are affected adversely by competing ions, and …

The Merit Of Merit Pay, Melissa May Pemberton Albright

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of Missouri educators and state education leaders toward merit pay. In addition, a secondary purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of educators on the impact of merit pay on recruiting and retaining highly-qualified teachers. Due to the current economic situation, districts are looking at ways to compensate teachers while recruiting and retaining highly-qualified teachers. Districts must continue to meet federal and state mandates to increase student achievement, and researchers have identified teacher quality as one such influence. Therefore, many believe the traditional salary schedule, which has been …

A Phase I/Iia Clinical Trial Of A Recombinant Rho Protein Antagonist In Acute Spinal Cord Injury., Michael G Fehlings, Nicholas Theodore, James Harrop, Gilles Maurais, Charles Kuntz, Chris I Shaffrey, Brian K Kwon, Jens Chapman, Albert Yee, Allyson Tighe, Lisa Mckerracher

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

Multiple lines of evidence have validated the Rho pathway as important in controlling the neuronal response to growth inhibitory proteins after central nervous system (CNS) injury. A drug called BA-210 (trademarked as Cethrin(®)) blocks activation of Rho and has shown promise in pre-clinical animal studies in being used to treat spinal cord injury (SCI). This is a report of a Phase I/IIa clinical study designed to test the safety and tolerability of the drug, and the neurological status of patients following the administration of a single dose of BA-210 applied during surgery following acute SCI. Patients with thoracic (T2-T12) or …

Multiple Scale Landscape Pattern Index Interpretation For The Persistent Monitoring Of Land-Cover And Land-Use, Alvin Spivey

Theses

Mapping land-cover land-use change (LCLUC) over regional and continental scales, and long time scales (years and decades), can be accomplished using thematically identified classification maps of a landscape--a LCLU class map. Observations of a landscape's LCLU class map pattern can indicate the most relevant process, like hydrologic or ecologic function, causing landscape scale environmental change. Quantified as Landscape Pattern Metrics (LPM), emergent landscape pat- terns act as Landscape Indicators (LI) when physically interpreted. The common mathematical approach to quantifying observed landscape scale pattern is to have LPM measure how connected a class exists within the landscape, through nonlinear local kernel …

Memory And Punishment, O. Carter Snead

Vanderbilt Law Review

Developments in cognitive neuroscience-the science of how the brain enables the mind--continue to prompt profound scholarly debate and reflection on the practice and theory of criminal law. Advances in the field have raised vexing questions relating to lie detection, interrogation methods, the Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination, competency to stand trial, defenses to guilt (such as diminished capacity and insanity), sentencing, and the relationship between moral responsibility and punishment. Similarly, for the past decade, philosophers, scientists, clinicians, and legal scholars have been engaged in a major debate about the cognitive neuroscience of memory and new capacities to modify it …

The Association Between Hydroxyurea Treatment And Pain Intensity, Analgesic Use, And Utilization In Ambulatory Sickle Cell Anemia Patients., Wally R Smith, Samir K Ballas, William F Mccarthy, Robert L Bauserman, Paul S Swerdlow, Martin H Steinberg, Myron A Waclawiw, Investigators Of The Multicenter Study Of Hydroxyurea In Sickle Cell Anemia

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Background.  We compared daily pain, home analgesic use, and utilization among ambulatory adults in the randomized Multicenter Study of Hydroxyurea in Sickle Cell Anemia (MSH). We related the fetal hemoglobin (HbF) hydroxyurea response to these response variables. Methods.  Patients rated their sickle cell pain intensity (0-9), use of analgesics, and visits for pain daily. Diaries were collected biweekly, and intensity was collapsed into single interval ratings. The interval proportions of days of analgesic use and medical visits for pain were also calculated. Group comparisons were made by intention to treat as well as by HbF change levels from baseline to …

The Interplay Between Nf-Kappab And E2f1 Coordinately Regulates Inflammation And Metabolism In Human Cardiac Cells., Xavier Palomer, David Álvarez-Guardia, Mercy M Davidson, Tung O Chan, Arthur M Feldman, Manuel Vázquez-Carrera

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4) inhibition by nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is related to a shift towards increased glycolysis during cardiac pathological processes such as cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. The transcription factors estrogen-related receptor-α (ERRα) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) regulate PDK4 expression through the potent transcriptional coactivator PPARγ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α). NF-κB activation in AC16 cardiac cells inhibit ERRα and PPARβ/δ transcriptional activity, resulting in reduced PGC-1α and PDK4 expression, and an enhanced glucose oxidation rate. However, addition of the NF-κB inhibitor parthenolide to these cells prevents the downregulation of PDK4 expression but not ERRα and PPARβ/δ DNA binding activity, …

Competition For Hydrogen-Bond Formation In The Helix-Coil Transition And Protein Folding, A. V. Badasyan, S. A. Tonoyan, Y. S. Mamasakhlisov, A. Giacometti, Albert S. Benight, V. F. Morozov

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The problem of the helix-coil transition of biopolymers in explicit solvents, such as water, with the ability for hydrogen bonding with a solvent is addressed analytically using a suitably modified version of the Generalized Model of Polypeptide Chains. Besides the regular helix-coil transition, an additional coil-helix or reentrant transition is also found at lower temperatures. The reentrant transition arises due to competition between polymer-polymer and polymer-water hydrogen bonds. The balance between the two types of hydrogen bonding can be shifted to either direction through changes not only in temperature, but also by pressure, mechanical force, osmotic stress, or other external …

The Variable Presentations Of Anaplastic Spindle Cell Squamous Carcinoma Associated With Tall Cell Variant Of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma., Pallavi P Gopal, Kathleen T Montone, Zubair Baloch, Madalina Tuluc, Virginia Livolsi

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: In 1976, Hawk and Hazard described the tall cell variant (TCV) of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). While the lesions they described had cytologic features of papillary carcinoma, they showed more aggressive behavior with a greater propensity for extrathyroid extension and lymphovascular invasion than classic PTC. In 1991, Bronner and LiVolsi described a series of patients with TCV that progressed to spindle cell squamous carcinoma (SCSC), a unique form of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. This study describes the variable clinical and pathologic presentations in 31 patients with anaplastic SCSC arising in association with TCV.

METHODS: The surgical pathology archives as well …

Breeding Migrations, Survivorship, And Obligate Crayfish Burrow Use By Adult Crawfish Frogs (Lithobates Areolatus), Jennifer L. Heemeyer

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Movements are risky behaviors to animals, and amphibians are no exception. Being unable to cover long distances quickly, amphibians may find migrations challenging, yet many if not most species exhibit cyclic annual migrations. Crawfish Frogs (Lithobates areolatus), are a relatively understudied species of North American amphibian listed as endangered in Indiana and Iowa, and considered a species of conservation concern throughout much of their range. To better understand the biology of this species, and in particular, to assess the role that movements play in affecting survivorship, I radio tracked 48 Crawfish Frog adults, in 2009 and 2010. My study encompassed …

How Defining Planetary Boundaries Can Transform Our Approach To Growth, W. L. Steffen, Johan Rockström, Robert Costanza

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

The article focuses on the importance to identify safe boundaries based on the fundamental characteristics of our planet to address the growing threats of climate change. It highlights the rapid transition of the planet from the stable Holocene state to an unknown future state of significantly different conditions. In addition, climate change, biodiversity loss and phosphorus production were already transgressed by humanity and require innovative frameworks and effective solutions.

Direct, Physically-Motivated Derivation Of The Contagion Condition For Spreading Processes On Generalized Random Networks, Peter Sheridan Dodds, Kameron Decker Harris, Joshua L. Payne

Dartmouth Scholarship

For a broad range of single-seed contagion processes acting on generalized random networks, we derive a unifying analytic expression for the possibility of global spreading events in a straightforward, physically intuitive fashion. Our reasoning lays bare a direct mechanical understanding of an archetypal spreading phenomena that is not evident in circuitous extant mathematical approaches.

Multiple And Long-Term Effects Of An Introduced Predatory Crab, Catherine E. De Rivera, Edwin D. Grosholz, Gregory M. Ruiz

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the importance of invasions, few studies have explored their long-term consequences in marine systems or examined multiple types of population-level effects. Initial effects, however, may not persist over longer time frames; effects have been shown to wane in freshwater systems. We combined 14 yr of field surveys (1993 to 2006) with manipulative experiments to examine the potential for multiple effects of a nonindigenous crab Carcinus maenas on the native shore crab Hemigrapsus oregonensis over time in central California. H. oregonensis abundance was negatively correlated with C. maenas abundance. However, H. oregonensis abundance rebounded to pre-invasion levels once C. maenas …

Demographic And Socio- Economic Attributes As Determinants Of Information And Communication Technology Use For Scholarly Communication In Nigerian Universities, Alice M. Okore

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper seeks to determine the influence demographic / socio-economic attributes ( rank, years of experience and gender) have on information and communication technology use for scholarly communication. One research question and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted ex-post facto research design and utilized a questionnaire to generate data. Data was analyzed using mean, chi-square and analysis of variance. Findings revealed, among others, a positive relationship between years of experience and level of ICT use (P=.03 < 0.05). Rank and gender had no significant influence on ICT use for scholarly communication. The paper recommends training and retraining of senior academics in the use of ICT so as to make them compete favourably with the middle and junior academics. Further investigation should be carried out to find other factors that are responsible for rank not having any significant influence on ICT use for scholarly communication. Gender should not constitute any impediment to appointment of female academics to leadership positions that are technologically biased.

Public Perception Of Desalinated Produced Water From Oil And Gas Field Operations: A Replication, Gene L. Theodori, Mona Avalos, David B. Burnett, John A. Veil

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This study is a replication of Theodori et al.’s (2009) research on public perception of desalinated produced water from oil and gas field operations. The data used in this paper were collected in twelve Texas counties. Overall, the findings of this investigation paralleled those uncovered in Theodori et al.’s original exploration. Our data reveal that small percentages of respondents are extremely familiar with the process of desalination and extremely confident that desalinated water could meet human drinking water quality and purity standards. Our data also indicate that respondents are more favorably disposed toward the use of desalinated water for purposes …

Analisis Adduct Dna Setelah Pemberian Natrium Nitrit Dan Dimetilamin Secara Berulang Pada Tikus, Sherly Meilianti, Yahdiana Harahap, Hayun Hayun

Majalah Ilmu Kefarmasian

Nitrosodimethylamine is a carcinogenic compound which can be formed from the reaction of nitrite and dimethylamine that is found in food. Nitrosodimethylamineis activated in liver and alkylates the DNA base and producing a DNA adductssuch as O6-methylguanine and N7-methylguanine that have a role incarcinogenesis. In this research, DNA was isolated from rat’s blood which waspreviously given nitrosodimethylamine’s precursor, sodium nitrite anddimethylamine. DNA adducts can be obtained from hydrolysis in hydrochloricacid 0.1 N for 30 minutes at 7000C. Then the adducts were analyzed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), with a strong cation exchangecolumn (Supelcosil LC-SCX, 5 μm, 250 x 4.6 …