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Proteomic Approaches To Elucidate Molecular Mechanisms Of Metal Accumulation In Plants With Focus On Arsenic, Chamari Hasintha Walliwalagedara Kiribandage

ETD Archive

No abstract provided.

The Renaissance Teacher: Identifying Students Perceptions Of Exemplary Teachers, Erica P. Wigton

ETD Archive

The focus on the achievement gap for minority students is an issue facing many school districts across the county. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation highlighted the fact that many minority students are not achieving at or above expected levels in classrooms across America. Teacher quality is found to be an important ingredient of a thriving school. This reflects the NCLB requirement that all schools employ effective and highly qualified teachers. However, teachers cannot be evaluated merely on their credentials, such as attaining graduate degrees or the number of years of teaching experience. Furthermore, politicians, teachers, and economists have …

Purification And Characterization Of Blood Aspirin Hydrolases, Gang Zhou

ETD Archive

Aspirin prophylaxis suppresses major adverse cardiovascular events, but its turnover in blood is rapid, which limits its inhibitory effects on platelet cyclooxygenase and thrombosis. Inter-individual variability of platelet responses to aspirin clinically presents as treatment failure, and this increasing clinical phenomenon is frequently named aspirin "resistance". However, the molecular mechanisms behind this are unclear. Blood aspirin hydrolases are believed to control aspirin survival in vivo, but the identity of the circulating enzyme(s) that hydrolyzes aspirin remains unknown. In this thesis, blood aspirin hydrolases were identified and characterized. The relationship between blood aspirin hydrolases and aspirin efficacy was investigated. RP-HPLC analysis …

Effects Of Magnesium Sulfate, Digestate And Other Inorganic Nutrients On The Phototrophic Growth Of The Green Microalga Scenedesmus Dimorphus, Jacob R. Schwenk

ETD Archive

The individual components of the growth media, notably magnesium, have a profound impact on the growth and lipid production of the green microalgae, Scenedesmus dimorphus. The goal of this work was to investigate these effects and explain the causes via multiple experiments. It is important to understand the aspects of algal growth because they have a significant impact on the commercial viability of microalgal lipids as a potential feedstock for biofuel production. Digestate, derived from bovine waste and a potential cost effective nutrient replacement for conventional media types, was found to maximize growth and lipid concentration in S. dimorphus at …

What Factors Predict Falls In Cognitively Impaired Older Adults?, Nicole T. Dawson

ETD Archive

A significant amount of research has been conducted to identify possible risk factors and causes of falls in older adults as well as implementing interventions in efforts to reduce the incidence of falls in this population. Falls accounted for 2 million non-fatal injuries to adults over the age of 65 in 2007 while over $19 billion is spent annually on direct medical costs. Most of the literature is representative of healthy, community-dwelling adults while a much smaller amount is reserved for the subpopulation of older adults with cognitive impairment. Cognitively impaired adults are twice as likely to fall as healthy …

The Changing Face Of The Western: An Analysis Of Hollywood Western Films From Director John Ford And Others During The Years 1939 To 1964, Jeffrey A. Spicer

ETD Archive

This content analysis uses the entire selection of John Ford's Westerns from 1939 to 1964, as well as top Westerns by other directors over the course of the same years in order to see more universal trends in the Western genre that are not unique only to John Ford. Items involving character portrayals and plot themes are used to ascertain how the films changed during those years. The psychological dimensions of the characters are also important, and it was speculated that a gradual change would take place in the types of character traits that were exhibited in the films. The …

Normative Data Collection And Comparison Of Performance On The Poreh Naming Test To The Boston Naming Test, Orion R. Biesan

ETD Archive

Although word-finding difficulty is commonly self-reported by older adults, there are no clinical instruments able to reliably distinguish normal age-related effects from pathology in word-finding impairments. The purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) design and evaluate the validity of the Poreh Naming Test, a novel electronic confrontation naming test used to evaluate naming difficulties in demented populations and (2) to investigate the effect of normal aging word-finding abilities on confrontation naming tests, using both accuracy and response latency as performance indices. A community sample was used with each participant being administered the Boston Naming Test, the Poreh Naming Test, …

A Finite Element Approach To Stress Analysis Of Face Gears, Lokamanya Siva Manohar Rampilla

ETD Archive

Face Gears have alternative gear-teeth configuration compared to Bevel Gears. Face Gear have a standard spur pinion as opposed to a bevel Gear. This work concentrates on modeling of a Face-gear, Meshed with a spur gear, using CAD Software and Finite Elements Analysis. The bending stress developed at the gear teeth is determined. Numerical results are validated using the bending stress developed between two involute spur gears

Sports Fandom: A Study Of Basking In Reflected Glory, Spiral Of Silence, And Language Use Via Online Social Networks, Shawna L L. Jackson

ETD Archive

Emerging technologies and the ever-changing climate of the Internet has helped social networking sites to foster relationships between sports fans and professional sports teams. This study focused on identification a Cleveland Browns fan feels with the team as a predicting factor of emotions, actions, self and group identity, and pronominal usage. An online survey was given to Cleveland Browns fans to determine their level of fandom, Cleveland Browns knowledge, overall media habits, feelings toward the city of Cleveland, personality traits, and demographic information. A content analysis was conducted to determine the pronominal usage, used to indicate a specific distance from …

Distributed Biogeography Based Optimization For Mobile Robots, Arpit Shah

ETD Archive

I present hardware testing of an evolutionary algorithm (EA) known as distributed biogeography based optimization (DBBO). DBBO is an extended version of biogeography based optimization (BBO). Typically, EAs require a central computer to control the evaluation of candidate solutions to some optimization problem, and to control the sharing of information between those candidate solutions. DBBO, however, does not require a centralized unit to control individuals. Individuals independently run the EA and find a solution to a given optimization problem. Both BBO and DBBO are based on the theory of biogeography, which describes how organisms are distributed geographically in nature. I …

Restoring James Agee: A Textual Analysis Of The Original And Restored Versions Of James Agee's A Death In The Family, Matthew P. Rother

ETD Archive

James Agee's A Death in the Family, the semiautobiographical book chronicling the death of a young boy's father in 1916, was published postumously in 1957, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Literature the following year. The book was nearly complete at the time of the author's death in 1955, and for nearly half a century editor David McDowell's version of the book was the accepted one. Throughout the intervening years, critics took note of the myriad shortcomings of this edition. Mcdowell's edition utilizes a previously published sketch, "Knoxville: Summer 1915," as the prologue and presents events out of sequence in a …

Boronic Acid Macroligands For Glycomics Applications, Poornima Pinnamaneni

ETD Archive

Cell surface carbohydrates existing as glycoproteins and glycolipids represent the first information about the cell with the outside world and are closely involved in various biological processes such as cell communication, and the molecular recognition and cell targeting. However, the mechanisms of most of the processes at the molecular level are still unclear. It is therefore very important to develop specific carbohydrate-binding molecules for a fast, efficient, sensitive and accurate analysis of complex carbohydrates structures and functions, known as glycomics. In addition, certain carbohydrate-binding molecules can be used in medical applications such as biomarkers for diseases diagnosis and targeted drug …

Structural Basis Of Lman1 Cargo Capture In Er & Release In Ergic, Vaijayanti Das

ETD Archive

No abstract provided.

The Dark Is Melting: Narrative Persona, Trauma And Communication In Sylvia Plath's Poetry, Jessica J. Feuerstein

ETD Archive

This thesis examines the poetry of Sylvia Plath to identify a new perspective that looks at the function of narrative voice in her poetry. This perspective identifies the ways Plath's narrator is given a distinct voice, separate from that of the poet herself. The narrative voice interacts with a listener, the audience, to express a traumatic experience and explores how Plath's narrators share their horrific internal worlds with the audience to make a direct connection to the audience. In past scholarship, Plath is figured as a confessional poet, and the speaker in her poems are treated as the personal confessions …

Backstage, Ron Hull

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Born in 1930 in “Diddlin’ Dora’s” establishment on the banks of Rapid Creek and carried by the Madam herself to a social worker at the Alex Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, Ron Hull was destined from the outset to live an interesting life. And interesting it has indeed been, at the very least. A well-known and much-loved figure after six decades in television, Hull sets out in Backstage to tell his story—from playing a bellhop in a junior class play in South Dakota (and meeting his “real” mother backstage) to initiating the American Experience series for the Corporation for Public …

The Archaeology Of The Caddo, Chester P. Walker, Timothy K. Perttula

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

This landmark volume provides the most comprehensive overview to date of the prehistory and archaeology of the Caddo peoples. The Caddos lived in the Southeastern Woodlands for more than 900 years beginning around A.D. 800–900, before being forced to relocate to Oklahoma in 1859. They left behind a spectacular archaeological record, including the famous Spiro Mound site in Oklahoma as well as many other mound centers, plazas, farmsteads, villages, and cemeteries. The Archaeology of the Caddo examines new advances in studying the history of the Caddo peoples, including ceramic analysis, reconstructions of settlement and regional histories of different Caddo communities, …

Hoosh, Jason C. Anthony

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Antarctica, the last place on Earth, is not famous for its cuisine. Yet it is famous for stories of heroic expeditions in which hunger was the one spice everyone carried. At the dawn of Antarctic cuisine, cooks improvised under inconceivable hardships, castaways ate seal blubber and penguin breasts while fantasizing about illustrious feasts, and men seeking the South Pole stretched their rations to the breaking point. Today, Antarctica’s kitchens still wait for provisions at the far end of the planet’s longest supply chain. Scientific research stations serve up cafeteria fare that often offers more sustenance than style. Jason C. Anthony, …

Positive Pollutions And Cultural Toxins, John Blair Gamber

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

In this innovative study, Positive Pollutions and Cultural Toxins, John Blair Gamber examines urbanity and the results of urban living—traffic, garbage, sewage, waste, and pollution—arguing for a new recognition of all forms of human detritus as part of the natural world and thus for a broadening of our understanding of environmental literature. While much of the discourse surrounding the United States’ idealistic and nostalgic views of itself privileges “clean” living (primarily in rural, small-town, and suburban settings), representations of rurality and urbanity by Chicanas/Chicanos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans, on the other hand, complicate such generalization. Gamber …

Embracing Fry Bread, Roger Welsch

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

When he was out playing Indian, enacting Hollywood-inspired scenarios, it never occurred to the child Roger Welsch that the little girl sitting next to him in school was Indian. A lifetime of learning later, Welsch’s enthusiasm is undimmed, if somewhat more enlightened. In Embracing Fry Bread Welsch tells the story of his lifelong relationship with Native American culture, which, beginning in earnest with the study of linguistic practices of the Omaha tribe during a college anthropology course, resulted in his becoming an adopted member and kin of both the Omaha and the Pawnee tribes.

With requisite humility and a …

Frémont's First Impressions, John C. C. Frémont

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

In 1842 John C. Frémont led a party of twenty-five men on a five-month journey from Saint Louis to the Wind River Range in the Rocky Mountains; his goal: to chart the best route to Oregon. In 1843 Frémont was commissioned for another expedition, to explore the Great Salt Lake, Washington, eastern California, Carson Pass, and the San Joaquin Valley, places that did not yet belong to the United States.

His journals from these expeditions, edited in collaboration with his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, and published by Congress, thrilled the nation and firmly established Frémont’s persona as the Great Pathfinder. …

The Ojibwe Journals Of Edmund F. Ely, 1833-1849, Edmund F. Ely

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Twenty-four-year-old Edmund F. Ely, a divinity student from Albany, New York, gave up his preparation for the ministry in 1833 to become a missionary and teacher among the Ojibwe of Lake Superior. During the next sixteen years, Ely lived, taught, and preached among the Ojibwe, keeping a journal of his day-to-day experiences as well as recording ethnographic information about the Ojibwe. From recording his frustrations over the Ojibwe's rejection of Christianity to describing hunting and fishing techniques he learned from his Ojibwe neighbors, Ely’s unique and rich record provides unprecedented insight into early nineteenth-century Ojibwe life and Ojibwe-missionary relations. Theresa …

From Gods To God, Avigdor Shinan, Yair Zakovitch

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

The ancient Israelites believed things that the writers of the Bible wanted them to forget: myths and legends from a pre-biblical world that the new monotheist order needed to bury, hide, or reinterpret. Ancient Israel was rich in such literary traditions before the Bible reached the final form that we have today. These traditions were not lost but continued, passed down through the ages. Many managed to reach us in post-biblical sources: rabbinic literature, Jewish Hellenistic writings, the writings of the Dead Sea sect, the Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and other ancient translations of the Bible, and even outside the ancient …

From Ambivalence To Betrayal, Robert S. Wistrich

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

From Ambivalence to Betrayal is the first study to explore the transformation in attitudes on the Left toward the Jews, Zionism, and Israel since the origins of European socialism in the 1840s until the present. This pathbreaking synthesis reveals a striking continuity in negative stereotypes of Jews, contempt for Judaism, and negation of Jewish national self-determination from the days of Karl Marx to the current left-wing intellectual assault on Israel. World-renowned expert on the history of antisemitism Robert S. Wistrich provides not only a powerful analysis of how and why the Left emerged as a spearhead of anti-Israel sentiment but …

Almost Somewhere, Suzanne Roberts

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Day One, and already she was lying in her journal. It was 1993, Suzanne Roberts had just finished college, and when her friend suggested they hike California’s John Muir Trail, the adventure sounded like the perfect distraction from a difficult home life and thoughts about the future. But she never imagined that the twenty-eight-day hike would change her life. Part memoir, part nature writing, part travelogue, Almost Somewhere is Roberts’s account of that hike.

John Muir had written of the Sierra Nevada as a “vast range of light,” and this was exactly what Roberts was looking for. But traveling with …

We Monks And Soldiers, Lutz Bassmann

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

From one of the most original French writers of our day comes a mysterious, prismatic, and at times profoundly sad reflection on humanity in its darker moments—one of which may very well be our own. In a collection of fictions that blur distinctions between dreaming and waking reality, Lutz Bassmann sets off a series of echoes—the “entrevoutes” that conduct us from one world to another in a journey as viscerally powerful as it is intellectually heady.

While humanity seems to be fading around them, the members of a shadowy organization are doing their inadequate best to assist those experiencing their …

Little Sinners, And Other Stories, Karen Brown

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, Karen Brown’s Little Sinners, and Other Stories features a sad, strange mosaic of women and men grappling with the loss and pain of everyday existence, people inhabiting a suburban landscape haunted by ghosts: a mother who leaps from a ridge, a mistress found at the bottom of the Connecticut River, a father who dresses in a pale blue-custom suit—and disappears. The dead leave behind postcards, houses, bottles of sherry, bones. They become local legends, their stories part of the characters’ own: an expectant mother in an isolated cottage on Long Island …

A Mind Like This, Susan Blackwell Ramsey

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, Susan Blackwell Ramsey’s A Mind Like This is a work of humor and wit, unexpectedly delightful and full of surprises as it reflects on the oddness of everyday life, the natural world, literary history, popular culture, and more. Everything is fair game for Ramsey, who finds poetry in love and sickness and life, of course, but also in knitting and unreliable bladders and the peculiar name of Kalamazoo. Neruda makes an appearance, as do Eric Clapton and Brahms, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, and Jimmy Stewart.

Whether observing the pickled heads of …

Inheritance Of Humeral Spotting In The Croaking Gourami (Osphronemidae: Trichopsis Vittatus), Jack Frankel, Lisa Alder-Golden, Andre Porter

Department of Biology Faculty Publications

The croaking gourami (Trichopsis vittatus) exhibits two phenotypes associated with humeral spotting. Fish possess a prominent, dark humeral patch or spot located behind the operculum or lack this spotting pattern. Segregation patterns observed from the progenies of eleven different crosses support the hypothesis that the inheritance of humeral spotting in T. vittatus is controlled by the action of a single autosomal locus, with complete dominance of the allele controlling the spotted phenotype.

Proportional Mouse Model For Aerosol Infection By Influenza, R. S. Mcdonald, A. R. Sambol, B. K. Heimbuch, T. L. Brown, S. H. Hinrichs, J. D. Wander

United States Air Force: Publications

Aims: The aim of this study was to demonstrate a prototype tool for measuring infectivity of an aerosolized human pathogen – influenza A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) virus – using a small-animal model in the Controlled Aerosol Test System (CATS). Methods and Results: Intranasal inoculation of nonadapted H1N1 virus into C57BL, BALB/c and CD-1 mice caused infection in all three species. Respiratory exposure of CD-1 mice to the aerosolized virus at graduated doses was accomplished in a modified rodent exposure apparatus. Weight change was recorded for 7 days postexposure, and viral populations in lung tissue homogenates were measured post mortem by DNA …

A Synoptic Perspective Of The Record 1-2 May 2010 Mid-South Heavy Precipitation Event, Joshua D. Durkee, Lee Campbell, Kyle Berry, Dustin Jordan, Gregory Goodrich, Rezaul Mahmood, Stuart Foster

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

During 1–2 May 2010, a series of strong thunderstorms led to 41, 57, and 43 tornado, severe wind, and severe hail reports, respectively, across portions of the southern United States. In addition to severe weather, these storms also distributed recordsetting rainfall amounts across the mid-South region, which contributed to historic flooding across portions of central and western Kentucky and Tennessee (Fig. 1). This heavy precipitation event was sampled by multiple surface observational networks, including (but not limited to) 48 research-grade automated stations from the Kentucky Mesonet (www.kymesonet .org), first-order automated stations from the National Weather Service (NWS; www.ncdc.noaa.gov /oa/ncdc.html), and …