Digital Commons Network^™

Fall Cyberwar Symposium : Keynote Speaker, American University National Security Law Brief

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Phylogenetic Community Structure Of Aquatic Beetle Assemblages In A Multi-Wetland Experiment, Sandor Lawrence Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Phylogenetic Community Structure (PCS) metrics are becoming more common in community ecology. PCS metrics estimate the phylogenetic relatedness among members of an ecological community or assemblage. If ecological traits are conserved, then phylogenetic clustering (i.e., taxa are more closely related than expected by chance) indicates habitat filtering as the key process in community assembly. On the other hand, a pattern of phylogenetic overdispersion (i.e., taxa are more distantly related than expected by chance) suggests competition is dominant. Most studies to date have used PCS of unmanipulated ecosystems, but the value of PCS metrics will be best revealed in experiments. This …

Direct Measurement Of Thicknesses, Volumes Or Compositions Of Nanomaterials By Quantitative Atomic Number Contrast In High-Angle Annular Dark-Field Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy, Biao Yuan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The sizes, shapes, volumes and compositions of nanoparticles are very important parameters determining many of their properties. Efforts to measure these parameters for individual nanoparticles and to obtain reliable statistics for a large number of nanoparticles require a fast and reliable method for 3-D characterization. In this dissertation, a direct measurement method for thicknesses, volumes or compositions of nanomaterials by quantitative atomic number contrast in High-Angle Annular Dark-Field (HAADF) Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) is presented. A HAADF detector collects electrons scattered incoherently to high angles. The HAADF signal intensity is in first-order approximation proportional to the sample thickness and …

September Eleventh, A Citizen's Response (Continued Further), George Anastaplo

Loyola University Chicago International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Climate Change, Presidential Power, And Leadership: "We Can't Wait", Chris Wold

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Thoughts On Medellín V. Texas, Kristofer Monson

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Child Language In The Early Years, Maire Mhic Mhathuna

Books/Book chapters

This chapter describes how children acquire their first language in the early years. Some children also acquire a second language in early years setting and the processes and adult supports that assist them are described. These include dynamic scaffolding and environmental supports. The main theories of first and second language acquisition are reviewed and the importance of supportive facilitation by nurturing adults is emphasised.

An Exploration Of Stepfamily Experiences Of Young People In Ireland., Audrey Mcgee

Dissertations

This qualitative research study conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the stepfamily experiences of ten individuals, aged eighteen to twenty four years. The findings indicated that the stepfamily brought challenges and a range of benefits to the participants’ life experiences. The key difficulties pertained to issues regarding conflict, lack of communication and complex challenges. The cited benefits of stepfamily experiences included improved financial resources, an additional parental figure, a sense of stability, opportunities for personal growth and the gaining of additional siblings. One significant finding of the study was the positive enduring bonds that some individuals made with stepparents and stepsiblings. …

Using Landsat Imagery To Evaluate Landscape-Level Impacts Of Natural Gas Field Development: Tazovsky Penninsula, Russia, 1984-2007, Jesse Stevens Wallace

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Yamburg gas condensate field in northwestern Siberia sits atop the largest natural gas and petroleum basin in the world. Infrastructure related to the extraction and transport of natural gas is both geographically widespread, and has been shown to affect a much larger area than the immediate infrastructural footprint. Because field studies of the environmental impacts of development are often costly or unfeasible given the remoteness of these areas and access restrictions, the use of remote-sensing technologies is a valuable asset for assessing and quantifying disturbance over large areas. Freely available 30 meter resolution Landsat imagery from 1984 to 2007 …

Cellular Plasticity In White Adipose Tissue: In Vivo Identification Of Bipotent Adipocyte Progenitors In Adult White Adipose Tissue, Yun-Hee Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

Nutritional and pharmacological stimuli can dramatically alter the cellular composition and phenotype of white adipose tissue (WAT). Nonetheless, the identity of progenitors that contribute to this cellular plasticity in vivo remains poorly understood. Utilizing genetic lineage tracing techniques in combination with in situ imunohistochemical analysis, we demonstrate that brown adipocytes (BA) that are induced by beta3-adrenergic receptor activation (ADRB3) in WAT arise from the proliferation and differentiation of cells that express platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRA), CD34 and Sca1 (PDGFRA+ cells). PDGFRA+ cells have a unique morphology in which extended processes contact multiple cells in the tissue microenvironment. Surprisingly, …

Development Of A Cargo Delivery System And Inhibition Studies Focused On Clostridium Difficile Toxin A, Stephanie Marie Kern

Wayne State University Dissertations

Virulence factors of pathogenic bacteria are to be blamed for life-threatening infections such as diphtheria, anthrax, botulism, and tentanus. In the case of enzymatic exotoxins, disease arises from cytotoxic proteins, and cytotoxicity is acheived only after cell entry. This intrinsic mechanism for cell entry is intriguing from research and medical views. Along with a review on existing cargo delivery systems utilizing protein toxins and the usefulness of such a system, here is described the first reported Clostridium difficile toxin A fusion protein, luciferase-TcdA, and evidence of the successful transport of an active enzyme, luciferase, into the cytosol of vero cells. …

Raman Spectroscopy And Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy For Diagnosis Of Human Cancer And Acanthosis Nigricans, Suneetha Devpura

Wayne State University Dissertations

Cancer and diabetes are common chronic diseases in today's world causing numerous deaths in adults as well as children. Most common types of cancers in adults include prostate, lung, breast, colorectal and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, while among children; leukemia, and brain and central nervous system cancers are quite common. In each of these cases, early detection of the cancer or disease dramatically increases the chances of successful treatment. In recent years, there has been much interest in using Raman spectroscopy and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy as analytical optical spectroscopic methods for early diagnosis of diseases. Raman spectroscopy can …

Hierarchical Multi-Label Classification For Protein Function Prediction Going Beyond Traditional Approaches, Noor Al Aydie

Wayne State University Dissertations

Hierarchical multi-label classification is a variant of traditional classification in which the

instances can belong to several labels, that are in turn organized in a hierarchy. Functional classification of genes is a challenging problem in functional genomics due to several reasons. First, each gene participates in multiple biological activities. Hence, prediction models should support multi-label classification. Second, the genes are organized and classified according to a hierarchical classification scheme that represents the relationships between the functions of the genes. These relationships should be maintained by the prediction models. In addition, various bimolecular data sources, such as gene expression data and …

Rfid-Based Business Process And Workflow Management In Healthcare:Design And Implementation, Xiaoyu Ma

Wayne State University Dissertations

The healthcare system in the United States is considered one of the most complex systems and has encountered challenges related to patient safety concerns, escalating costs, and unpredictable outcomes. Many of these problems share a common cause - a lack of efficient business process management and visibility into the real-time location, status, and condition of medical resources. The goal of this research is to propose a newly integrated system to model, automate, and monitor healthcare business processes using an automatic data collection technology to record the timing and location of activities and identify their various resources.

This dissertation makes several …

Accessibility For Aggression And Negative Self-Views Following Ostracism, David Eric Oberleitner

Wayne State University Dissertations

Previous research has found that ostracism (being excluded or ignored by others) can cause deleterious effects to one's sense of belonging, control, meaningfulness of life and self-esteem, as well as increasing negative moods. Exclusion has been studied using several methodologies including Cyberball and the Life-Alone task. Additionally, research has demonstrated that individuals react more aggressively following an ostracism event as compared to an inclusion event. Other research finds that ostracized individuals have greater accessibility for aggressive words, and negative self-descriptive words as compared to individuals who are included. These domains have not, however, been explored together to examine how these …

Development And Initial Psychometric Evaluation Of A Culturally- Sensitive Beliefs About Personal Weight Survey, Stephanie Pickett

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF

A CULTURALLY-SENSITIVE BELIEFS ABOUT PERSONAL WEIGHT SURVEY

by

STEPHANIE PICKETT

December 2012

Advisor: Dr. Rosalind Peters

Major: Nursing

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to develop and perform initial psychometric evaluation of an instrument that measures beliefs about personal weight in young African American women. Beliefs about personal weight were defined as a multidimensional concept consisting of the convictions regarding the descriptive characteristics, causal attributions, and consequences of one's personal weight. The theory of self-care (Orem, 2001) was used to conceptualize concepts and conceptual relationships.

The Beliefs about Personal …

The Electrical Transport Study Of Graphene Nanoribbons And 2d Materials Beyond Graphene, Ming-Wei Lin

Wayne State University Dissertations

The electrical transport measurements on a suspended ultra-low-disorder graphene nanoribbon (GNR) with nearly atomically smooth edges that reveal a high mobility exceeding 3000 cm2 V-1 s-1 and an intrinsic bandgap was reported in this study. The experimentally derived bandgap is in quantitative agreement with the results of our electronic-structure calculations on chiral GNRs with comparable width taking into account the electron-electron interactions, indicating that the origin of the bandgap in non-armchair GNRs is partially due to the magnetic zigzag edges. In addition, electrical transport measurements show that current-annealing effectively removes the impurities on the suspended graphene nanoribbons, uncovering the intrinsic …

Preterm Birth And The Perception Of Risk Among African Americans, Gwendolyn Simpson Norman

Wayne State University Dissertations

Background: African American women deliver preterm at a rate that is two to three times that of their white counterparts, and after decades of research, this disparity in birth outcomes still remains unexplained. While factors including income, education, neighborhood conditions, infection and stress have all been associated with prematurity, no combination of these factors has explained why the disparity persists. Recently, however, racism-specific stress has emerged as a possible factor contributing to this disparity. This study was designed to learn how preterm birth was explained by African Americans directly impacted by prematurity. Methods: Interviews were conducted with African American women …

Third Order Nonlinearity Of Organic Molecules, Honghua Hu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this dissertation is to investigate the third-order nonlinearity of organic molecules. This topic contains two aspects: two-photon absorption (2PA) and nonlinear refraction (NLR), which are associated with the imaginary and real part of the third-order nonlinearity (χ (3)) of the material, respectively. With the optical properties tailored through meticulous molecular structure engineering, organic molecules are promising candidates to exhibit large third-order nonlinearities. Both linear (absorption, fluorescence, fluorescence excitation anisotropy) and nonlinear (Z-scan, two-photon fluorescence, pump-probe) techniques are described and utilized to fully characterize the spectroscopic properties of organic molecules in solution or solid-state form. These properties …

Optical Microresonator Based On Hollow Sphere With Porous Wall For Chemical Sensing, Hanzheng Wang, Lei Yuan, Cheol Woon Kim, Qun Han, Tao Wei, Xinwei Lan, Hai Xiao

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

A porous-wall hollow glass microsphere (PW-HGM) was investigated as an optical resonator for chemical vapor sensing. a single mode optical fiber taper was used to interrogate the micro resonator. Adsorption of chemical molecules into the nanosized pores induced a refractive index change of the thin wall and thus a shift in its resonance spectrum. the PW-HGM resonator had shown higher vapor detection sensitivity in comparison with a solid microsphere under similar test conditions. © 2011 Optical Society of America.

Effects Of Carbon Chain Substituent On The P∙∙∙N Noncovalent Bond, U. Adhikari, Steve Scheiner

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The effects of carbon chains placed on the electron-accepting P atom of a P⋯N bond are examined via ab initio calculations. Saturated alkyl groups have a mild weakening effect, regardless of chain length. In contrast, incorporation of double bonds into the chain strengthens the interaction, Ctriple bond; length of mdashC triple bonds even more so. These effects are only slightly enhanced by additional conjugated double bonds or an aromatic ring. Placing F atoms onto the carbon chains strengthens the P⋯N bond, but only by a small amount, which wanes as the F atom is displaced further from the P along …

Defying Borders: Transforming Learning Through Collaborative Feminist Organizing And Interdisciplinary, Transnational Pedagogy, Terri Carney, Margaretha Geertsema Sligh, Ann M. Savage, Ageeth Sluis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The authors provide a case study of how a group of faculty members was able to initiate a transformation in student learning and institutional structures at a small university in the Midwestern U.S. through the introduction of collaborative feminist organizing and pedagogy. It details faculty-led initiatives that set the stage for innovative teaching and learning, and it describes the authors' experience in the face of resistance when introducing a global women's human rights course into the university's new core curriculum. Because of its divers, interdisciplinary and transnational content, this course challenged deeply ingrained disciplinary and pedagogical borders of both traditional …

The Effects Of Distraction And A Brief Intervention On Auditory And Visual-Spatial Working Memory In College Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Tara T. Lineweaver, Suneeta Kercood, Nicole B. O'Keeffe, Kathleen M. O'Brien, Eric J. Massey, Samantha J. Campbell, Jenna M. Pierce

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Two studies addressed how young adult college students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (n = 44) compare to their nonaffected peers (n = 42) on tests of auditory and visual–spatial working memory (WM), are vulnerable to auditory and visual distractions, and are affected by a simple intervention. Students with ADHD demonstrated worse auditory WM than did controls. A near significant trend indicated that auditory distractions interfered with the visual WM of both groups and that, whereas controls were also vulnerable to visual distractions, visual distractions improved visualWM in the ADHD group. The intervention was ineffective. Limited correlations emerged between …

Soil C And N Changes With Afforestation Of Grasslands Across Gradients Of Precipitation And Plantation Age, Sean T. Berthrong, Gervasio Pinero, Esteban G. Jobbagy, Robert B. Jackson

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Afforestation, the conversion of unforested lands to forests, is a tool for sequestering anthropogenic carbon dioxide into plant biomass. However, in addition to altering biomass, afforestation can have substantial effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) pools, some of which have much longer turnover times than plant biomass. An increasing body of evidence suggests that the effect of afforestation on SOC may depend on mean annual precipitation (MAP). The goal of this study was to test how labile and bulk pools of SOC and total soil nitrogen (TN) change with afforestation across a rainfall gradient of 600–1500 mm in the Rio …

Bottigheimer, Ruth B., Fairy Tales: A New History, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Dancing The Numinous: Sacred And Spiritual Techniques Of Contemporary American Belly Dancers, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In this paper, I explore how contemporary American practitioners of belly dance (as Middle Eastern dance and its many varieties are often called in the English-speaking world) conceptualize not only the spiritual dimensions of their dance, but also how the very notion of performance affects sacred and spiritual dance practices. Drawing on interviews with this community, I describe the techniques of sacred and spiritual belly dancers, how these dancers theorize performance, and how the conflicts inherent to patriarchal mind-body dualism are resolved in these practices. My purpose here is twofold: to document an emergent dance tradition and to analyze its …

Queering Kinship In ‘The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers', Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The fairy tales in the Kinder- und Hausmiirchen, or Children's and Household Tales, compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are among the world's most popular, yet they have also provoked discussion and debate regarding their authenticity, violent imagery, and restrictive gender roles. In this chapter I interpret the three versions published by the Grimm brothers of ATU 451, "The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers," focusing on constructions of family, femininity, and identity. I utilize the folkloristic methodology of allomotific analysis, integrating feminist and queer theories of kinship and gender roles. I follow Pauline Greenhill by taking a queer view of …

Congenic Strain Analysis Reveals Genes That Are Rapidly Evolving Components Of A Prezygotic Isolation Mechanism Mediating Incipient Reinforcement, Christina M. Laukaitis, Corina Mauss, Robert C. Karn

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Two decades ago, we developed a congenic strain of Mus musculus, called b-congenic, by replacing the androgen-binding protein Abpa27^a allele in the C3H/HeJ genome with the Abpa27^b allele from DBA/2J. We and other researchers used this b-congenic strain and its C3H counterpart, the a-congenic strain, to test the hypothesis that, given the choice between signals from two strains with different a27 alleles on the same genetic background, test subjects would prefer the homosubspecific one. It was our purpose in undertaking this study to characterize the segment transferred from DBA to the C3H background in producing the b-congenic …

The Roles Of Gene Duplication, Gene Conversion And Positive Selection In Rodent Esp And Mup Pheromone Gene Families With Comparison To The Abp Family, Robert C. Karn, Christina M. Laukaitis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Three proteinaceous pheromone families, the androgen-binding proteins (ABPs), the exocrine-gland secreting peptides (ESPs) and the major urinary proteins (MUPs) are encoded by large gene families in the genomes of Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus. We studied the evolutionary histories of the Mup and Esp genes and compared them with what is known about the Abp genes. Apparently gene conversion has played little if any role in the expansion of the mouse Class A and Class B Mup genes and pseudogenes, and the rat Mups. By contrast, we found evidence of extensive gene conversion in many Esp genes although …

Kate 2012, Sarah Mcelroy, Amy Kepple Strawser, Brittany Ivy Dorow, Christine Famery, Jessica Campbell, Leslie Willis, Hannah Biggs, Jeff Vasiloff, Carina Drakes, Jennifer Russell, Chelsea Musselman, Sarah Fernando, Sneha Fernando, Becky Woodruff, Jennifer Rish, Ameila Moody, Cyrena Sbib, Meghan Crawford, Chelsea Fuller, Ellie Detrich, Jennifer Hunter, Jacqyln Schott, Katelyn Hanzel, Curtis Haker, Leah Driscoll, Kate M. Carey, Brittany Fisher, Tammy Birk, Niki Calvaruso, Wes Jamison, Alison Kennedy, Chelsa Musselman, Alyssa Mazey, Kristina Fedeczko

Kate

Each year, kate seeks to:

• explore ideas about normative gender, sex, and sexuality
• work against oppression and hierarchies of power in any and all forms
• serve as a voice for race and gender equity as well as queer positivity
• encourage the silent to speak and feel less afraid
• build a zine and community that we care about and trust