Digital Commons Network^™

Learning Transfer Of Geospatial Technologies In Secondary Science And Mathematics Core Areas, Curtis P. Nielsen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of geospatial technology knowledge and skill presented in a social sciences course context to other core areas of the curriculum. Specifically, this study explored the transfer of geospatial technology knowledge and skill to the STEM-related core areas of science and mathematics among ninth-grade students. Haskell's (2001) research on "levels of transfer" provided the theoretical framework for this study, which sought to demonstrate the experimental group's higher ability to transfer geospatial skills, higher mean assignment scores, higher post-test scores, higher geospatial skill application and deeper levels of transfer application than the …

Circulating And Organizational Testosterone And The Perception Of Dominance, Jon C. Pedersen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This project focused on the relationship between both circulating testosterone (T), prenatal exposure to T, and perception of emotions in the faces of others. Based on past research, Twas hypothesized to be related to the Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities, which are concerned with reading emotions and intentions of others. More specifically, T was hypothesized to be more strongly related to the perception of dominant emotions compared to the perception of non-dominant emotions. To test this idea, the Test of the Eyes was used, which measures the ability to correctly perceive emotions in pictures of faces (specifically, eyes). To date, …

Exploring New Roles Of Classroom Teachers In Iowa Communities Experiencing Rapid Ethnic Diversification, Cindy R. Lewis

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Non-English speakers are currently the fastest growing population group in Iowa schools. Immigrant and refugee families are choosing in record numbers to make Iowa their home. Across the state, newcomers are added daily to classroom rosters, and teachers are challenged to meet the unique social, emotional, and educational needs of students.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how selected teachers in classrooms across Iowa have responded personally and professionally to an evolving socio-political climate. The study examined how professional roles have been redefined and how teachers have responded to the changes. Three research questions guided this qualitative …

Simultaneous Detection Of Six Diarrhea-Causing Bacterial Pathogens With An In-House Pcr-Luminex Assay, Jie Liu, Jean Gratz, Athanasia Maro, Happy Kumburu, Gibson Kibiki, Mami Taniuchi, Arif Mahmud Howlader, Shihab U. Sobuz, Rashidul Haque, Kaisar A. Talukder, Shahida Qureshi, Anita K. M. Zaidi, Doris M. Haverstick, Eric R. Houpta

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Diarrhea can be caused by a range of pathogens, including several bacteria. Conventional diagnostic methods, such as culture, biochemical tests, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), are laborious. We developed a 7-plex PCR-Luminex assay to simultaneously screen for several of the major diarrhea-causing bacteria directly in fecal specimens, including pathogenic Aeromonas, Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, Salmonella, Shigella, enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC), Vibrio, and Yersinia. We included an extrinsic control to verify extraction and amplification. The assay was first validated with reference strains or isolates and exhibited a limit of detection of 10(3) to 10(5) CFU/g of stool for each pathogen as …

A Note On India’S Attempt To Reconcile Diversity And Intellectual Property Issues, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

For developing countries, the concept of diversity holds great promises not least because of the protection it promises for the fast depleting natural resources leading to catastrophic effect on the environment. The concept of diversity also holds great promises from a trade perspective. In reality, appropriate protection of diversity can be the solution to balance the effects of the trade regime to achieve sustainable development. The term sustainable development, as opposed to rapid pockets of development, embodies great promises for the socio-political framework in poorer nations, apart from the obvious benefit of sustainability. In fact, sustainable development, if it ensues, …

Recent Applications Of The Simple Hydrocarbon Cyclooctatetrene As A Starting Material For Complex Molecule Synthesis, Kevin W. Glaeske, William A. Donaldson

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Cyclooctatetraene [COT], a simple non-aromatic cyclic polyene, is capable of undergoing a variety of oxidation and cycloaddition reactions to afford polycyclic structures. In addition, complexation of COT or the cycloaddition products with transition metals facilitates bond formation. Recent developments in the reactivity of COT and application to the synthesis of naturally occurring and non-naturally occurring compounds is reviewed.

A Qcm-Adhering Bacillus Anthracis Soil Phage Assemblage Is Less Diverse Than A Total B. Anthracis Soil Phage Assemblage, Gabriel David Connell

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Recently, phages have been used as affinity reagents in quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)-based biodetection methods. The goal of this study was to isolate and characterize a Bacillus cereus group soil-phage assemblage, which was isolated from 5 grams of local topsoil, and compare its population structure to that of a similar phage assemblage that had been additionally selected by adhering to a QCM electrode. Viruses aren't well-defined in terms of 'species', therefore operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were defined by structural protein profiles from sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). We were able to obtain a conservative estimate of soilphage 'species' richness …

Support Of Non-Biological Children In Jewish Law, J. David Bleich

Articles

Adoption as a legal institution is unknown in Jewish law. Suppression of parental identity, as generally occurs in closed adoption, is banned “lest the earth become filled with licentiousness” (Leviticus 19:29). Rabbinic tradition interprets that verse as expressing concern regarding the possibility of a future incestuous marriage. Nevertheless, raising an orphan in one’s home is regarded as highly meritorious. However, binding obligations of support and maintenance can be undertaken only by means of contract. Such a contract in favor of a stepchild may be verbal if entered into at the time of marriage. Otherwise, a formal kinyan, i.e., one of …

Climate Change And Cercla Remedies: Adaptation Strategies For Contaminated Sediment Sites, Katrina Fischer Kuh

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

The actual and projected manifestations of climate change, including sea level rise, stronger rainstorms, more severe storm events, inland storm surges, and associated flooding, pose a host of adaptation challenges. The effective management of hazardous waste sites under the new environmental conditions occasioned by climate change presents one such adaptation challenge, though this challenge is easily overlooked in the rush to protect highly visible and obviously vulnerable infrastructure and populations such as coastal communities. Many hazardous waste sites have been remediated, or are proposed to be remediated, relying in whole or in part on engineering and institutional controls meant to …

Sexual Reorientation, Elizabeth M. Glazer

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

There has been a recent shift in the political and legal treatment of bisexuals. Since Ruth Colker, Naomi Mezey, and Kenji Yoshino began writing about the phenomenon of bisexual erasure and the resulting invisibility of the bisexual from sexual-orientation law and the LGBT rights movement, something strange has happened. Bisexuality is suddenly hypervisible. And not just on Glee or in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Or even in the 2010 national sex survey reporting that of the seven percent of the population identifying as non-heterosexual, forty percent of the men and a large majority of the women identified as …

The New Illegitimacy: Tying Parentage To Marital Status For Lesbian Co-Parents, Joanna L. Grossman

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This article takes a comprehensive look at recent case law under the PDA, while offering a critical commentary on the gender ideology that lies behind these decisions and charting the stakes for women in a reinvigorated Act. The survey of PDA decisions is an important undertaking in its own right, since it is not widely appreciated just how much courts have narrowed the PDA's protections. The PDA cases are an increasingly sorry lot, including cases like the recent Fourth Circuit ruling in Young v. UPS, in which the court held that a pregnant woman could lawfully be denied a …

Early Avian Colonization In A Prairie Biofuel Project, James T. Mason

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The steady decline of grassland bird populations has been attributed to agricultural intensification. The establishment of native prairie vegetation for biomass fuel has potential to reverse this decline. The Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa is investigating the potential of perennial native vegetation as a biofuel feedstock. In the spring of 2009, research plots located in seven previously row cropped fields in Black Hawk County, Iowa, were seeded with one of four treatments of native vegetation: 1) switchgrass monoculture, 2) five native warm-season grasses, 3) 16 native species, and 4) 32 native species. Treatments were replicated four …

Correlation Between Science Process Skills Proficiency In Pre-Service Elementary Teachers And Academic Achievement, Laura Witt Dawson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Inquiry has been an essential part of science education since the Alphabet Curriculum was published. Science process skills (SPS) were first defined in 1968 and today SPS are the skills of inquiry. These skills are central to science education, and should be part of the curriculum at every level, from elementary to post-secondary school. In order to successfully teach SPS to students, teachers must have a thorough understanding of both sets of skills. This study focused on the pre-service elementary teacher population and investigated this population's SPS proficiency. This study investigated inquiry-based courses for pre-service elementary teachers, and focused on …

The Colonization And Conservation Genetics Of The Rainbow Darter, Etheostoma Caeruleum, In Northeast Iowa, Dane Jonathan Davis

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The aim of this project was to study the population genetic structure of the rainbow darter, Etheostorna caeruleum, distributed in northeastern Iowa rivers. Overall, Iowa sustains a wide array of physical habitats and varying fish assemblage conditions that are influenced by climate and the geology of the landscape. The chief objective of the research was to increase knowledge of nongame species movement that can aid managers in conservation. This project addresses the question: What is the population genetic structure, amount of gene flow, and level of connectivity between populations of Etheostorna caeruleum distributed in northeast Iowa. Specimens were collected from …

Marita Bonner: Creator Of Frye Street And Environs, Laya Jack

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Lorraine Elena Roses and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph, with their publication, Harlem Renaissance And Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers 1900-1945, embarked on a mission to bring to the forefront of literary scholarship black women who wrote significant works in the early twentieth century, but who have received little or no recognition. Although their research does not provide a comprehensive account on the lives and works of these women, they offer very pertinent information, which "broaden[s] the fields of scholarly inquiry while opening up the possibility of a revised history and tradition in black, women's and American literature." Their …

A Novel Method Of Studying Ion Formation And Fragmentation Using A Modified Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometer, David S. Ames

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Laser desorption has been an important tool in mass spectrometry. It has been known that an order of magnitude more neutrals than ions are produced during laser desorption. A Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometer with an infinitely adjustable acceleration region was constructed to map the population distribution of neutral ion precursors and metastable ions in the flight tube. Desorption was performed by using a nitrogen UV laser at 337 nm. Experiments conclude that the majority of post-source ionization of neutrals occurs approximately 2.5 cm from the sample-laser interface. The intensity of ions tapers rapidly out to 6.0 cm, however ions were detected …

The Internationalization Of American Family Law, Barbara Stark

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Even fifty years ago, the United States was a superpower and Americans traveled for pleasure and worked abroad. Then, like now, the United States was a magnet for immigrants seeking freedom, or asylum, or opportunity. Then, like now, human relationships crossed geographical and political boundaries, challenging the limits of family law.

But globalization and the vast migrations of capital and labor that have accompanied it in recent decades have transformed family law in once unimaginable ways. Families have been torn apart and new families have been created. Borders have become more porous, allowing adoptees and mail order brides to join …