Digital Commons Network^™

Sex Differences In Marital Satisfaction And Happiness: The Contribrution Of Children, Attractiveness, And Financial Status, Lisa Marie Dillon

Wayne State University Dissertations

Though numerous studies in the evolutionary psychology literature have investigated how humans select mates in order to successfully reproduce and raise progeny to reproductive maturity, few have examined if factors involved in mate selection matter in marital satisfaction and individual happiness. Being youthful and attractive are indices of reproductive viability and are traits preferred by men universally while women are most known to prefer a mate of high financial status (Buss, 1989), thus underscoring the importance of a male's ability to offer financial investment to potential mates. In addition, women are more likely to evaluate the parental ability of potential …

Nature And Nurture: Revisiting The Infant Adoption Process, Barbara L. Atwell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Adopted children constitute approximately two percent of the United States' childhood population, but are disproportionately represented in mental health settings, where they make up an estimated four to fifteen percent of the population. Science suggests that for those adopted at birth, this discrepancy may be due in part to their abrupt removal from the biological parents. We are now beginning to understand the importance of the bonding that takes place in utero and the infant's awareness at birth. This article suggests three changes to the infant adoption process to align it with scientific knowledge. First, all adults involved in the …

Use Of The Phrase “That’S So Gay” As A Heteronormative Microaggression, Mary K. Ross

All NMU Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Child, Parent, And Healthcare Professionals' Perspectives On Hiv Infection Status Disclosure To Children, Grace Gachanja

Presidential Alumni Research Dissemination Award

HIV infected parents face great challenges when contemplating and performing disclosure of theirs and their children's illnesses to their infected and noninfected children. HIV disclosure guidelines for a parent's and child's illness do not exist in resource-poor nations. This hinders and impedes the delivery of disclosure from parent to child. This qualitative phenomenological study, based on the disease progression theory and the consequence theory of HIV disclosure, was conducted to understand the lived experiences of HIV-infected parents and their children living in Kenya before, during, and after disclosure of a parent's and child's HIV infection status. Thirty four participants consisting …

Speciation Of The House Mouse: Gene Flow And Molecular Evolution In A Hybrid System, Matthew R. Lindeman

All NMU Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Land Use, Landscapes, And Biological Invasions, Karie L. Decker, Craig R. Allen, Leonardo Acosta, Michelle L. Hellman, Christopher F. Jorgensen, Ryan J. Stutzman, Kody M. Unstad, Amy Williams, Matthew Yans

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

The negative effect of invasive species on native species, communities, and ecosystems is widely recognized, and the economic effects in the United States are estimated to be billions of dollars annually. Studies often examine traits of nonnative species or examine what makes a particular habitat invasible. To better understand the factors governing invasions, we used the flora of Nebraska to characterize and compare native and nonnative plant occurrences throughout the state. In addition, we assessed four critical landscape predictors of nonnative plant richness: human population size and three land cover attributes that included percentage of grassland, percentage of agriculture, and …

Predictions And Retrodictions Of The Hierarchical Representation Of Habitat In Heterogeneous Environments, Jurek Kolasa, Craig R. Allen, Jan Sendzimir, Craig A. Stow

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Interaction between habitat and species is central in ecology. Habitat structure may be conceived as being hierarchical, where larger, more diverse, portions or categories contain smaller, more homogeneous portions. When this conceptualization is combined with the observation that species have different abilities to relate to portions of the habitat that differ in their characteristics, a number of known patterns can be derived and new patterns hypothesized. We propose a quantitative form of this habitat–species relationship by considering species abundance to be a function of habitat specialization, habitat fragmentation, amount of habitat, and adult body mass. The model reproduces and explains …

Latitudinal Influence On Age Estimates Derived From Scales And Otoliths For Bluegills, Lucas K. Kowalewski, Alexis P. Maple, Mark A. Pegg, Kevin L. Pope

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Scales are perceived to give reliable estimates of age of fish in northern latitudes and unreliable estimates of age in southern latitudes, whereas otoliths are perceived to give reliable estimates of age regardless of latitude. The objective of our study was to assess the influence of latitude on the estimates of ages derived from scales and otoliths for bluegill Lepomis macrochirus. Our hypothesis was that a south-to-north gradient exists for precision between scales and otoliths with partial agreement between age estimates derived from scales and otoliths for fish in southern latitudes and nearly complete agreement between age estimates derived …

Land Use, Landscapes, And Biological Invasions, Karie L. Decker, Craig R. Allen, Leonardo Acosta, Michelle L. Hellman, Christopher F. Jorgensen, Ryan Stutzman, Kody M. Unstad, Amy R. Williams, Matthew W. Yans

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

The negative effect of invasive species on native species, communities, and ecosystems is widely recognized, and the economic effects in the United States are estimated to be billions of dollars annually. Studies often examine traits of nonnative species or examine what makes a particular habitat invasible. To better understand the factors governing invasions, we used the flora of Nebraska to characterize and compare native and nonnative plant occurrences throughout the state. In addition, we assessed four critical landscape predictors of nonnative plant richness: human population size and three land cover attributes that included percentage of grassland, percentage of agriculture, and …

Ferruginous Hawk And Golden Eagle Habitat Suitability Indices, Andy Bishop, Roger Grosse, Ele Nugent, Christopher Jorgensen

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Nebraska’s panhandle was analyzed for potential nesting habitat of ferruginous hawks (Buteo regalis) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) using known nesting site locations to develop a Habitat Suitability Index (HSI). Landcover habitat indices used to identify potential ferruginous hawk and golden eagle nests included a topographic ruggedness index (TRI), percent grassland in the landscape within 2km radius (GRASS2km) and 5km radius window (GRASS5km), the percent of surrounding landscape that is undeveloped within 2 km radius (UNDVLP2km) and 5km radius window (UNDVLP5km), and the percent of surrounding landscape that is woodland within 2 km radius (WOOD2km) and …

The Feasibility Of Switchgrass For Biofuel Production, Rob Mitchell, Kenneth P. Vogel, Daniel R. Uden

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Switchgrass research has been conducted cooperatively by the US Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska since the mid-1930s, with a primary focus on bioenergy since 1990 at several institutions. Progress has been made in switchgrass breeding and genetics, molecular genetics, establishment, fertility management, production economics, production energetics, harvest and storage management, ecosystem services and ethanol yield. A complete field-validated biomass production system has been developed for the Midwest and Central Plains. Even with favorable economic and sustainability results from field trials, switchgrass for bioenergy has not been adopted on a large scale. Lack of adoption is likely due …

Saliendo Del Circulo Vicioso: Gestiones Alternativas Para Garantizar La Sostenibilidad De La Pesca., David G. Angeler, Kevin L. Pope, Craig R. Allen

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

The management of fisheries has historically focused on maintaining maximum sustained yields of single species. This approach generally ignored the broader social-ecological context that consists of coupled systems of people and nature, and resulted in the overexploitation of many fisheries globally, including many in Latin America. There are severe negative repercussion of overfishing, on both ecosystems and humans that rely on food and income provided by fisheries. Traditional management schemes based on maximizing should be replaced with approaches that explicitly recognize the coupling of social and ecological systems. We suggest a resilience approach that focuses on tradeoffs as a means …

Fire Ecology Monitoring Protocol For The Heartland Inventory And Monitoring Network, Sherry A. Leis, Lloyd W. Morrison, Jennifer L. Haack, Maria S. Gaetani

United States National Park Service: Publications

Fire has played an important role in shaping the plant and animal communities of the Central Great Plains region. Lightning fires as well as those of anthropogenic origin were frequent during the period of historical interest for most parks. An era of fire suppression has led to changes in natural communities, however. Current prescribed fire programs in the region aim to restore or maintain ecosystems and reduce fuel loads in hopes of preventing catastrophic wildfire.

The fire ecology program for the Central Great Plains region, embedded within the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN), is multifaceted. It serves as an …

Metabolic And Gene Expression Changes Triggered By Nitrogen Deprivation In The Photoautotrophically Grown Microalgae Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii And Coccomyxa Sp. C-169, Joseph Msanne, Di Xu, Anji Reddy Konda, J. Armando Casas-Mollano, Tala Awada, Edgar B. Cahoon, Heriberto Cerutti

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Microalgae are emerging as suitable feedstocks for renewable biofuel production. Characterizing the metabolic pathways involved in the biosynthesis of energy-rich compounds, such as lipids and carbohydrates, and the environmental factors influencing their accumulation is necessary to realize the full potential of these organisms as energy resources. The model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii accumulates significant amounts of triacylglycerols (TAGs) under nitrogen starvation or salt stress in medium containing acetate. However, since cultivation of microalgae for biofuel production may need to rely on sunlight as the main source of energy for biomass synthesis, metabolic and gene expression changes occurring in Chlamydomonas and …

Effect Of Fires On Soil Organic Carbon Pool And Mineralization In A Northeastern China Wetland, Hongmei Zhao, Daniel Q. Tong, Qianxin Lin, Xianguo Lu, Guoping Wang

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Fire occurs frequently over wetland, but little is known of its impact on soil carbon variations and carbon mineralization, process that are potentially important in global carbon cycle. To investigate this issue, we have designed and implemented a two-year field campaign to quality the effects of fire seasonality and frequency on soil carbon abundance and carbon mineralization in a wetland of the Sanjiang Plain in Northeastern China. A total of 4 burning experiments were conducted over 12 wetland plots from autumn 2007 to spring 2009. Our results show that after burning soil organic carbon (OC) increased in the burned soils …

Harmful Algal Blooms Along The North American West Coast Region: History, Trends, Causes, And Impacts, Alan J. Lewitus, Rita A. Horner, David A. Caron, Ernesto Garcia-Mendoza, Barbara M. Hickey, Matthew Hunter, Daniel D. Huppert, Raphael M. Kudela, Gregg W. Langlois, John L. Largier, Evelyn J. Lessard, Raymond Ralonde, J. E. Jack Rensel, Peter G. Strutton, Vera L. Trainer, Jacqueline F. Tweddle

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Along the Pacific coast of North America, from Alaska to Mexico, harmful algal blooms (HABs) have caused losses to natural resources and coastal economies, and have resulted in human sicknesses and deaths for decades. Recent reports indicate a possible increase in their prevalence and impacts of these events on living resources over the last 10–15 years. Two types of HABs pose the most significant threat to coastal ecosystems in this ‘‘west coast’’ region: dinoflagellates of the genera Alexandrium, Gymnodinium, and Pyrodinium that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and diatoms of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia that produce domoic acid (DA), …

Effective Non-Viral Delivery Of Sirna To Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells With Lipid-Substituted Polyethylenimines, Breanne Landry

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Use of small interfering RNA (siRNA) is a promising approach for AML treatment as the siRNA molecule can be designed to specifically target proteins that contribute to aberrant cell proliferation in this disease. However, a clinical-relevant means of delivering siRNA molecules must be developed, as the cellular delivery of siRNA is problematic. Here, we report amphiphilic carriers combining a cationic polymer (2 kDa polyethyleneimine, PEI2) with lipophilic moieties to facilitate intracellular delivery of siRNA to AML cell lines. Complete binding of siRNA by the designed carriers was achieved at a polymer:siRNA ratio of ~0.5 and led to siRNA/polymer complexes of …

2011-2012 Financial Summary, Morehead State University. Budget & Financial Planning Office.

Morehead State University Financial Summaries Archive

2011-2012 Financial Summary of Morehead State University.

2012-2013 Operating Budget, Morehead State University. Budget & Financial Planning Office.

Morehead State University Operating Budgets Archive

2012-2013 Operating Budget of Morehead State University.

2012 Nsu Fact Book, Office Of Institutional Research

NSU Fact Book

This 20th edition of the Nova Southeastern University Fact Book reflects an expanding body of data and information that provides perspective on the university’s character, growth, and accomplishments.

The 2012 Fact Book includes narrative, numeric, and graphic representation of the university, including history, characteristics, and development of the institution. Data are presented in both tabular and graphic formats to provide pertinent detail, and general trends are highlighted.

Influence Of The Neotyphodium--Tall Fescue Symbiosis On Belowground Processes, D. H. Mcnear Jr., Rebecca L. Mcculley

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Much of the work to date on the relationships between cool season grasses and Neotyphodium fungal endophytes has focused on the physiological, biochemical, and genetic ramifications of the host-fungus relationship and the subsequent influence these effects have on ruminant nutrition, plant adaptation to environmental stresses, and aboveground ecological processes. Relatively little attention has been paid to effects on belowground parameters. In this paper, we review the research evaluating the impact of one endophyte-grass association, the Neotyphodium – tall fescue symbiosis, on underground ecological and biogeochemical processes. We also present some preliminary data showing that the quantity and nature of tall …

Dimerization And Heme Binding Are Conserved In Amphibian And Starfish Homologues Of The Microrna Processing Protein Dgcr8., Rachel Senturia, Arthur Laganowsky, Ian Barr, Brooke D. Scheidemantle, Feng Guo

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

Human DiGeorge Critical Region 8 (DGCR8) is an essential microRNA (miRNA) processing factor that is activated via direct interaction with Fe(III) heme. In order for DGCR8 to bind heme, it must dimerize using a dimerization domain embedded within its heme-binding domain (HBD). We previously reported a crystal structure of the dimerization domain from human DGCR8, which demonstrated how dimerization results in the formation of a surface important for association with heme. Here, in an attempt to crystallize the HBD, we search for DGCR8 homologues and show that DGCR8 from Patiria miniata (bat star) also binds heme. The extinction coefficients (ε) …

Past Sense History In The Realm Of The Senses, Andrew Hess

Theses & ETDs

This thesis assesses a growing trend in the writing of history, which attends to the various roles and conceptions of the senses throughout history. Proceeding from a discussion of the sometimes unique and sometimes standard methodologies of the habit of "sensory history," the various implications and problems of such an approach are suggested and explored using a once widely accepted historical framework known as the "great divide." Imbuing this once black and white binary with the lost textures and experiences of sensory detail and evidence, a similar treatment of the life and work of social theorist Karl Marx is attempted. …

Using Oligonucleotide Probes For In Situ Hybridization In Developing Cml322 Maize Endosperm, Alyssa Sonchaiwanich

Theses & ETDs

This thesis research was a part of a larger research effort funded by the National Science Foundation to study the regulation of early endosperm development in Zea mays L. As part of the larger study, a group of inbred lines generated around the world are being studied to look for variations in development as compared to the standard reference line, B73. A second major goal of the grant is to identify key regulator genes and their patterns of localization. Preliminary visualization of sections of the line CML322 seemed to indicate precocious kernel (including of the endosperm) development. Digital imaging and …

Counteracting Symptoms Of Emotional Suppression With Artistic Expression, Katherine Evarts

Theses & ETDs

Emotional suppression has been implicated as an important feature in the development and maintenance of various disorders including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The current study investigated emotional suppression symptoms, specifically anxiety and negative affect, and the possibility that performing tasks in the visual arts may lessen those symptoms. The current sample was 60 undergraduate students. Half of participants emotionally suppressed during a distressing film clip while the other half did not. Following the clip, half of participants performed an artistic task and half performed a filler task. Participants completed measures of mood, affect, and anxiety at baseline, after the film, and …

A Blaze In The Northern Sky - A Symbolic Analysis Of Ethnicity In The Early Norwegian Black Metal Scene 1986-1997, Eric Van De Castle

Theses & ETDs

This thesis investigates the complex social phenomenon of ethnicity manifesting in the artwork of Norwegian black metal albums. Black metal is a genre of heavy metal that developed during the 1980's. After 1990, the development of black metal began to make great strides in Norway, birthing the genre of "Norwegian black metal" and its resultant scene. This small scene quickly became infamous for the violent acts, including arson and murder, that were carried out by some of its members. To analyze this phenomenon, I identified symbols using the album artwork, which generated six major themes (and one miscellaneous theme) that …

Insight And Perception The Relationship Between Diversity Attitudes And Perceptions Of Campus Diversity, Destiny S. Lyals

Theses & ETDs

The present study attempted to find a relationship between campus community members' diversity attitudes and their perception of their campus's diversity. One-hundred forty-seven participants, including students, staff, faculty, and administrative personnel from a small, liberal arts college in southwest Florida, completed an online survey that assessed their general diversity attitudes and their perceptions of their campus's diversity. A positive correlational relationship was found between diversity attitudes and campus perception. Upon further analysis this relationship was found to exist between positive diversity attitudes and extreme campus perception. Further research should use a larger population. These findings should be used as the …

Follow The Rainbow Brick Road A Cross-National Analysis Of Lgbt Rights, Dana Ziegler

Theses & ETDs

The world has seen many changes in the area of LGBT rights, specifically decriminalization of homosexuality, equalization of the age of consent for sexual activity, anti-discrimination legislation on the basis of sexual identity, same-sex partnership and marriage, and adoption rights. This study seeks to understand what factors influence the passage of LGBT rights legislation, and what common characteristics are shared by countries with broad LGBT rights. Through cross-national statistical analyses of as many national and sub-national cases as possible, five hypotheses are investigated. The order of legislation was examined to determine whether there are standard sequences in the passage of …

This Impossible Object On The Class Struggle, Althusser, And Why Every Anti-Communist Is A Dog, Alec Niedenthal

Theses & ETDs

This thesis addresses the limits of Louis Althusser's thought. Althusser was indispensable in raising Marxist politics to the level of philosophical rigor and clarity. But while he returned materialism to its rational core, he thought structural change only as a mode or affect of necessity. What remains to be thought is the disruption of this reproduction of a structure, the contingent act which emerges, unprecedented, to determine the life of the masses anew. This thesis attempts to supplement Althusser's registration of structural causality and ideology with a concept of emancipation. The first chapter grapples with Althusser's theory of ideology and …

Relationships Among Alexithymia, Altruism, And Interpersonal Trust, Felix Acuna

Theses & ETDs

The current study sought to examine relationships among alexithymia or diminished engagement with one's emotions, altruism, and first-hand interpersonal trust (FIT). Three questionnaires were administered to 61 participants in order to examine potential relationships among the variables in question. FIT was measured using the added scores of two factors present in a generalized trust measure. Three hypotheses were advanced: (1) alexithymia is negatively related to first-hand generalized trust; (2) altruism is positively related to first-hand generalized trust; (3) alexithymia predicts first-hand generalized trust to a higher extent than altruism. None of the hypotheses were confirmed. However, subsequent analyses showed a …