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 105241 - 105270 of 108210

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

A Study On The Biochemical And Cellular Effects Of Enviormental Tobacco Smoke On Adult And Developing Rat Brain Biochemistry, Brian Fuller Jan 2011

A Study On The Biochemical And Cellular Effects Of Enviormental Tobacco Smoke On Adult And Developing Rat Brain Biochemistry, Brian Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has been recognized as a significant health risk for adults and children. In adults, ETS exposure has been linked to increased incidences of cardiovascular disease and dementia. In children, exposure has been linked to behavioral and cognitive deficits. Studies on the effects of ETS in the brain have been largely epidemiological, and have lacked a defined explanation of the molecular/biochemical effects of ETS. The present dissertation aims to test whether ETS exposure leads to altered biochemistry in the adult and developing mammalian brain. A rat ETS exposure model was employed to investigate changes at …

Go to article

New Insights Into The Outlet Conditions Of Late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Southeastern Idaho, Usa, Susanne U. Janecke, R. Q. Oaks Jr. Jan 2011

New Insights Into The Outlet Conditions Of Late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Southeastern Idaho, Usa, Susanne U. Janecke, R. Q. Oaks Jr.

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Geologic, geomorphic, and geophysical analyses of landforms, sediments, and structures in northern Cache Valley, USA, document a revised history of flooding and recession of Lake Bonneville, the world's premier pluvial lake. Crosscutting relationships suggest that the Riverdale fault produced a surface-rupturing earthquake ∼25 km southeast of Zenda shortly before, during, or after the Bonneville flood, as well as possible younger surface ruptures. Thus fluctuating stresses and pore pressure induced by changing lake levels may have triggered a large earthquake that, in turn, triggered the Bonneville flood. The flood scoured ∼25 km of Cache and Marsh Valleys and activated landslides during …

Go to article

Renal Epithelial Sodium Channel (Enac) Regulation Of Pregnancy Mediated Hemodynamic Adaptations: Mechanistic Insights, Crystal West Jan 2011

Renal Epithelial Sodium Channel (Enac) Regulation Of Pregnancy Mediated Hemodynamic Adaptations: Mechanistic Insights, Crystal West

Theses and Dissertations

Pregnancy-mediated sodium (Na) retention is required to provide an increase in plasma volume for the growing fetus. The mechanisms responsible for this Na retention are not clear. In the first study, we generated a renal tubule protein profile indicating α ENaC as the only sodium transport protein upregulated in mid and late pregnancy. To determine the in vivo activity of ENaC we conducted in vivo studies in late pregnant rats (day 18-20) and virgin rats to measure the natriuretic response to ENaC blockade (with benzamil). The in vivo activity of ENaC (UNaV post benzamil - UNaV post vehicle) was markedly …

Go to article

Approaches For Enhancing Therapeutic Efficacy Of A Novel Il-10 Gene Family Member: Mda-7/Il-24, Belal Azab Jan 2011

Approaches For Enhancing Therapeutic Efficacy Of A Novel Il-10 Gene Family Member: Mda-7/Il-24, Belal Azab

Theses and Dissertations

Melanoma differentiation associated gene-7 (mda-7) was discovered in the Fisher laboratory by subtraction hybridization of temporally spaced subtracted cDNA libraries prepared from terminally differentiated human melanoma cells treated with human fibroblast interferon (IFN-β) and the protein kinase C activator mezerein (MEZ), an approach called ‘differentiation induction subtraction hybridization’ (DISH). mda-7 is located in human chromosome 1q32–33 and based on sequence homology, chromosomal localization, and its functional properties, the mda-7 gene is now classified as a member of the IL-10 family of cytokines and named IL-24. The mda-7/IL-24 cDNA encodes a protein of 206-amino acids with a predicted size of ~24-kDa, …

Go to article

Cyclic-Di-Gmp Signaling In The Borrelia Spirochetes, John Freedman Jan 2011

Cyclic-Di-Gmp Signaling In The Borrelia Spirochetes, John Freedman

Theses and Dissertations

Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in North America, with approximately 35,000 cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control in 2008. The genome of its causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi, encodes for a set of genes involved in the metabolism and regulatory activities of the second messenger nucleotide, cyclic-di-GMP (c-di-GMP). Rrp1 is a response regulatory-diguanylate cyclase, and its regulatory capability is likely mediated via production of c-di-GMP, as it lacks a DNA-binding domain. One known class of c-di-GMP effector/binding proteins are those that harbor a PIlZ domain. The genome of B. burgdorferi strain 5A4 encodes for one chromosomally-carried …

Go to article

Functional Consequences Of Cytosine Methylation In Mitochondrial Dna Catalyzed By Dna Methyltransferase 1, Lisa Shock Jan 2011

Functional Consequences Of Cytosine Methylation In Mitochondrial Dna Catalyzed By Dna Methyltransferase 1, Lisa Shock

Theses and Dissertations

Cytosine methylation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was first described several decades ago, but neither the mechanism generating this modification nor its functional significance was known. Because mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark characteristic of numerous human diseases, including neurological and cardiovascular disease, aging and cancer, this dissertation addressed whether epigenetic modification of mtDNA regulates mitochondrial function. We show that mtDNA contains not only 5-methylcytosine (5mC), but also 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), suggesting that previous reports likely underestimated the degree of epigenetic modification within the mitochondrial genome. We questioned how these modifications were generated by looking for mitochondrial isoforms of the nuclear-encoded DNA methyltransferases. …

Go to article

Development Of Novel Copolyoxetanes: Antimicrobial Agents, Allison King Jan 2011

Development Of Novel Copolyoxetanes: Antimicrobial Agents, Allison King

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on solution antimicrobial effectiveness for copolyoxetanes with quaternary ammonium and PEG-like side chains. Ring opening copolymerization of 3-((4-bromobutoxy)methyl)-3-methyloxetane (BBOx) and 3-((2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethoxy) methyl)-3-methyloxetane (ME2Ox) yielded random copolymers with 14-100 (m) mole% BBOx designated P[(BBOx-m)(ME2Ox)]. Reaction of P[(BBOx-m)(ME2Ox)] with dodecyl dimethylamine gave the corresponding quaternary P[(C12-m)(ME2Ox)] polycation salts, designated C12-m. Mole ratios and molecular weights were obtained from 1H-NMR and end group analysis. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies showed Tg’s between 69 and -34 °C. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed MIC decreasing with increasing C12 mole% reaching a minimum between …

Go to article

Rit Influenza Virus Database And Evidence For Differential Selection Pressures On Geographically Distinct Human Influenza A/H3n2 Virus Populations, Bindhu Satheeshkumar Jan 2011

Rit Influenza Virus Database And Evidence For Differential Selection Pressures On Geographically Distinct Human Influenza A/H3n2 Virus Populations, Bindhu Satheeshkumar

Theses

Increasing amounts of data available from influenza virus genome sequencing projects have necessitated the need for centralized repositories for the collection, integration, and dissemination of these data to researchers for further research. The RIT Influenza Virus Database, a complete genome database for influenza viruses, has been created with a web interface so that users could query for viruses of interest and download complete genome sequences and metadata of isolates. The interface of the database is publicly accessible at http://bucatini.bioinformatics.rit.edu/bindhuURMC/. Even though it is known that influenza viruses are under constant evolution at the surface glycoproteins to develop drug resistance or …

Go to article

Cloth Simulation Using Hardware Tessellation, David Huynh Jan 2011

Cloth Simulation Using Hardware Tessellation, David Huynh

Theses

Cloth simulation has long been a topic of interest in computer graphics since the early works of Terzopoulos et al. Over the years many techniques have been developed to simulate cloth. Though the general concern has been on the physical accuracy of the simulation. As the simulation gets closer to computational sciences the complexity also increases which at times may come at the cost of real-time performance. With newer and more powerful graphics hardware coming out each year, researchers are starting to shy away from the traditional CPU implementation and turning towards the GPU to offload work. As the parallel …

Go to article

Ray-Traced Simulation Of Radiation Pressure For Optical Lift, Timothy Peterson Jan 2011

Ray-Traced Simulation Of Radiation Pressure For Optical Lift, Timothy Peterson

Theses

When light refracts at a surface, it changes the direction and intensity of the light rays. By Newton's 3rd law, this process imparts a small momentum to the object. This effect can be exploited to manipulate very small objects, by carefully selecting the shape and optical properties of the object. This thesis describes a computational model based on the laws of physics to determine the forces and torques resulting from light interacting with a hemicylindrical particle. This model has been successfully used to predict for the first time a phenomenon called optical lift.

Go to article

Reconfiguring Phenomena Of Presence, Erika Strickland Jan 2011

Reconfiguring Phenomena Of Presence, Erika Strickland

Theses

Not included

Go to article

Influence Maximization On Families Of Graphs, Andrei Mouravski Jan 2011

Influence Maximization On Families Of Graphs, Andrei Mouravski

Theses

We examine computing the maximum expected influence on paths and trees using the independent cascade model. We designed a polynomial time method for determining the expected influence from any initial state on the independent cascade model on acyclic influence graphs in O(|V(G)|² · max {|V(G)|,|V(E)|}) time. We designed a polynomial time program that would computes the maximum expected influence and optimal initially selected nodes on arbitrary paths in O(|V(T)|⁶/[epsilon]) on approximating the maximum expected influence on arbitrary trees with absolute error of at most ([epsilon] · 2|V(T)|).

Go to article

Audience Feedback As An Influence On Graphic Design Problem Solving, Christopher Petrides Jan 2011

Audience Feedback As An Influence On Graphic Design Problem Solving, Christopher Petrides

Theses

User-generated feedback is arguably the most efficient tool to evaluate a specific product or service. Even though it is widely used to evaluate and subsequently improve video game design, it is not commonly used for graphic design applications. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how user-generated feedback can be utilized to improve existing graphic design applications. Specifically, three types of feedback collection vehicles were selected for use in graphic design: personal observation, evaluation polls, and existing video game design feedback. In order to demonstrate the advantage of using user generated feedback, information collected through the feedback collection vehicles …

Go to article

Navigating The Space Of My Body, Ferwa Ibrahim Jan 2011

Navigating The Space Of My Body, Ferwa Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores my process of orienting myself within spaces and inhabiting them. It focuses on how I use my own body as an instrument for developing a relationship between the two. A ritual is a social conditioning of the body and Authentic Movement is discovering body’s own route. This paper reviews my process of situating myself within a space by using both of them as the language of my body. It also discusses the development of some of my recent work through understanding the language of my own body.

Go to article

Space: A Discovery Of Visual Language, Kelley White Jan 2011

Space: A Discovery Of Visual Language, Kelley White

Theses and Dissertations

Space is a visual communicator. The act of perceiving space is a neurological soiree that projects and negotiates meaning in our constructed world. The poetry that we observe within space is tied directly to our emotions and to previous experience. Within ourselves, we each have particular feelings, unconscious or not, relating to height, length, and depth, as well as light and shadow. For example, a long, narrow hallway may elicit anxiety, while an open, sunlit nave in a cathedral may bring about feelings of serenity and joy. Our observations and interactions within the perceptual confines of space reveal clues to …

Go to article

Genetic Manipulation Of The Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia Hermsii Permits Novel Investigation Into The Role Of Factor H Binding In Borrelial Virulence, Lindy Fine Jan 2011

Genetic Manipulation Of The Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia Hermsii Permits Novel Investigation Into The Role Of Factor H Binding In Borrelial Virulence, Lindy Fine

Theses and Dissertations

Borrelia hermsii, an etiologic agent of tick-borne relapsing fever, binds negative complement regulator factor H (FH) via its FhbA protein. Direct demonstration of the role of FhbA in the disease process has been hindered by the lack of genetic manipulation systems for the relapsing fever Borrelia. Here, we demonstrate successful generation of a B. hermsii strain YOR fhbA deletion mutant (Bh YORΔfhbA) that constitutively produces green fluorescent protein (GFP). Genetic manipulation did not affect growth rate or plasmid composition. Bh YORΔfhbA lost factor H-binding and C3b-inactivation capabilities, but retained resistance to killing in human serum and infectivity in mice. Stable …

Go to article

Renditions, Nathan Halverson Jan 2011

Renditions, Nathan Halverson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis includes ideas and explorations behind my MFA thesis work and the work that that preceded it in late 2010 and early 2011. In it, I use a creative text by Gertrude Stein, in which she reveals ways that writing reveals and creates language and culture, to illustrate similar ideas regarding field recording and appropriation in my art practice. I use this thesis writing to investigate practices and relationships between media and how these practices can encourage an active, participatory, listening and looking. It also contains discussion of the use of popular music in torture, which inspired Rendition(s), and …

Go to article

Sodexo Nutrition Services Enhances Communication With Patients And Health Care Team (Poster), Melissa Faura Rd, Ldn, Ann Flickinger Ms, Rd, Ldn Jan 2011

Sodexo Nutrition Services Enhances Communication With Patients And Health Care Team (Poster), Melissa Faura Rd, Ldn, Ann Flickinger Ms, Rd, Ldn

Clinical Nutrition Service

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Environmental Imaginaries Of The Middle East And North Africa, Diana K. Davis, Edmund Burke Iii Jan 2011

Environmental Imaginaries Of The Middle East And North Africa, Diana K. Davis, Edmund Burke Iii

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

The landscapes of the Middle East have captured our imaginations throughout history. Images of endless golden dunes, camel caravans, isolated desert oases, and rivers lined with palm trees have often framed written and visual representations of the region. Embedded in these portrayals is the common belief that the environment, in most places, has been deforested and desertified by centuries of misuse. It is precisely such orientalist environmental imaginaries, increasingly undermined by contemporary ecological data, that the eleven authors in this volume question. This is the first volume to critically examine culturally constructed views of the environmental history of the Middle …

Go to article

How Does Leadership Affect Information Systems Success? The Role Of Transformational Leadership, Jeewon Cho, Insu Park, John W. Michel Jan 2011

How Does Leadership Affect Information Systems Success? The Role Of Transformational Leadership, Jeewon Cho, Insu Park, John W. Michel

Research & Publications

We examined the positive impact of transformational leadership on IS success in organizations via two psychological mechanisms of system users’—perceived organizational support and systems self-efficacy. Our conceptual model was assessed using a sample of 251 employees from a multi-national bank in Korea. Overall, our results supported the hypothesized relationships: transformational leadership was positively related to system users’ IS success, and both perceived organizational support and systems self-efficacy of the system users mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and IS success. The results call for manager’s attention to the importance of transformational leadership development in organizations.

Go to article

Decision-Enabled Dynamic Process Management For Networked Enterprises, Amit Deokar, Omar F. El-Gayar Jan 2011

Decision-Enabled Dynamic Process Management For Networked Enterprises, Amit Deokar, Omar F. El-Gayar

Research & Publications

In todays networked economy face numerous information management challenges, both from a process management perspective as well as a decision support perspective. While there have been significant relevant advances in the areas of business process management as well as decision sciences, several open research issues exist. In this paper, we highlight the following key challenges. First, current process modeling and management techniques lack in providing a seamless integration of decision models and tools in existing business processes, which is critical to achieve organizational objectives. Second, given the dynamic nature of business processes in networked enterprises, process management approaches that enable …

Go to article

Beyond Meaningful Use: A Model For Evaluating Electronic Health Record Success, Matthew J. Wills, Omar F. El-Gayar, Surendra Sarnikar Jan 2011

Beyond Meaningful Use: A Model For Evaluating Electronic Health Record Success, Matthew J. Wills, Omar F. El-Gayar, Surendra Sarnikar

Research & Publications

This paper presents a conceptual model for the evaluation of electronic health records. The model is grounded in IS models for evaluating system success and task-technology fit, and integrates concepts of meaningful use and outcome research to arrive at a holistic conceptualization of evaluating the success of EHR. The paper presents numerous issues and challenges to the practice of health care outcomes research, and offers practical solutions for overcoming them.

Go to article

Online Health Social Networks And Patient Health Decision Behavior: A Research Agenda, Corey Allen Heidelberger, Omar F. El-Gayar, Surendra Sarnikar Jan 2011

Online Health Social Networks And Patient Health Decision Behavior: A Research Agenda, Corey Allen Heidelberger, Omar F. El-Gayar, Surendra Sarnikar

Research & Publications

Patients and health care practitioners alike are using the Internet and specifically online health social networks to gain access to knowledge and social support that they could not obtain as quickly or efficiently from their traditional face-to-face social networks. Given concerns about the quality of information available on the Internet and the differences between social interaction online and offline, it is important to determine whether this new phenomenon influences health decision behavior. We propose a framework for investigating the influence online health social networks may have on the health decisions that patients and their physicians make. We also propose a …

Go to article

Introduction To Information Systems And Decision Technologies For Sustainable Development Minitrack, Omar F. El-Gayar, Pingsun Leung, Arno Scharl Jan 2011

Introduction To Information Systems And Decision Technologies For Sustainable Development Minitrack, Omar F. El-Gayar, Pingsun Leung, Arno Scharl

Research & Publications

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Information Security Policy Compliance: A User Acceptance Perspective, Ahmad Al-Omari, Omar F. El-Gayar, Amit Deokar Jan 2011

Information Security Policy Compliance: A User Acceptance Perspective, Ahmad Al-Omari, Omar F. El-Gayar, Amit Deokar

Research & Publications

Compliance with information security policies (ISPs) is a key factor in reducing an organization’s information security risks. As such, understanding employees’ compliance behavior with ISPs is an important first step to leverage knowledge worker assets in efforts targeted toward reducing information security risks. This study adapts the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine users’ behavioral intention to comply with ISPs. The impact of information security awareness on behavioral intentions to comply is also considered in the research model. This is a research in progress, and an instrument is being developed to conduct a survey study to gather data from employees …

Go to article

Increasing Research Relevance In Dss: Looking Forward By Reflecting On 40 Years Of Progress, Karen Vizecky, Omar F. El-Gayar Jan 2011

Increasing Research Relevance In Dss: Looking Forward By Reflecting On 40 Years Of Progress, Karen Vizecky, Omar F. El-Gayar

Research & Publications

Decision Support Systems (DSS) is a field that has made rapid progress in establishing itself and maturing into seven key sub-fields. However, there are continued concerns about the relevancy and growing disconnect between academic contributions and professional applications of DSS. This paper serves to review the existing literature, and propose a Research Relevance Framework meant to serve as a guideline to ensure future DSS research has a consistent standard upon which relevance can be assessed.

Go to article

Toward A Maturity Model For Dss Development Processes, Omar F. El-Gayar, Amit Deokar, Jie Tao Jan 2011

Toward A Maturity Model For Dss Development Processes, Omar F. El-Gayar, Amit Deokar, Jie Tao

Research & Publications

Despite recent progress with Decision support systems (DSS) development methodologies, a gap still exist in terms of theability to assess the maturity of an organization with respect to its DSS development process. A need exist to be able todescribe DSS development processes at a meta-level. Equally important is the ability to provide organization withprescriptions to increase the maturity of their DSS development processes.In this paper, we propose a Decision Support System Maturity Model (DSS-MM). The model draws on extant literaturerelated to DSS development methodologies, practices and processes to identify pertinent DSS development practices anddefine maturity models for these practices. From …

Go to article

The Development Of An Edss: Lessons Learned And Implications For Dss Research, Omar F. El-Gayar, Lucas Michels, Gene Fosnight, Amit Deokar Jan 2011

The Development Of An Edss: Lessons Learned And Implications For Dss Research, Omar F. El-Gayar, Lucas Michels, Gene Fosnight, Amit Deokar

Research & Publications

The Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) project is focused on providing renewable energy (RE) planning resources to the public. Examples include wind, solar, and hydro assessments. SWERA DSS consists of three major components. First, SWERA Product Archive provides for a discovery DSS upon which users can find and access renewable energy data and supporting models. Second, the Renewable Resource EXplorer (RREX) component serves as a web-based, GIS analysis tool for viewing RE resource data available through the SWERA Product Archive. Third, the SWERA web service provides computational access to the data available in the SWERA spatial database through …

Go to article

Students' Acceptance Of Tablet Pcs And Implications For Educational Institutions, Omar F. El-Gayar, Mark Moran, Mark Hawkes Jan 2011

Students' Acceptance Of Tablet Pcs And Implications For Educational Institutions, Omar F. El-Gayar, Mark Moran, Mark Hawkes

Research & Publications

This research develops and empirically tests a factor model for understanding college students’ acceptance of Tablet PC (TPC) as a means to forecast, explain, and improve their usage pattern in education. The analysis involved more than 230 students from a regional Midwestern institution. Overall, our model exhibited a good fit with the data and provided satisfactory explanatory power for students’ acceptance of TPC in an educational setting. Analysis of the results suggests a number of implications to educational institutions. Most notably are the need for programs aimed at influencing students’ attitudes and perceptions towards TPC, creating an environment of a …

Go to article

Application Of Spatial Bandwidth Concepts To Mas Pole Location For Dielectric Cylinders, James Richie Jan 2011

Application Of Spatial Bandwidth Concepts To Mas Pole Location For Dielectric Cylinders, James Richie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The concept of effective spatial bandwidth (EBW) is extended from the case of an MAS solution for perfectly conducting (PEC) cylinders to dielectric cylinders. It is shown that the ideas and results for the conducting cylinder apply in a straightforward manner to the dielectric case. For the dielectric case, there are two auxiliary surfaces. Because the EBW calculations are independent of the scatterer material, the auxiliary surface for the scattered field will follow the same guidelines for both the PEC and dielectric cases. The guidelines for the second auxiliary surface are described and verified here. Guidelines for both a plane …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last