Digital Commons Network^™

Classification Of Multi-Domain Glycoside Hydrolases To Aid In The Enzymatic Production Of Biofuels From Biomass, Emi Leonard, Gregg Beckham, Deanne Sammond, Michael Crowley

STAR Program Research Presentations

Biomass conversion to renewable biofuels provides an alternative to conventional fossil-fuel based transportation fuels and a means to reduce dependence on foreign oil. However, plant cell walls have evolved to be quite resistant to enzymatic deconstruction, a phenomenon generally termed biomass recalcitrance. As enzymes represent a substantial cost in biofuels production, there is significant impetus to understand and improve their efficiency in converting cell wall carbohydrates to fermentable sugars. Much research has been conducted on single "free" enzymes with one catalytic unit per protein and on the much larger, complexed "cellulosomes" with many tens of catalytic units per protein, but …

Testing The Salinity Tolerance Levels Of Similar Invasive Species Found In The San Francisco Bay, Julia M. Smith, C. Sarah Cohen, Elizabeth Sheets

STAR Program Research Presentations

Testing the salinity tolerance levels of similar invasive species found in the San Francisco Bay

Julia Smith^1,2, Elizabeth Sheets², and C. Sarah Cohen²

¹Department of Teacher Education, California State University, Sacramento ²Department of Biology and Romberg Tiburon Center, San Francisco State University

Three non-indigenous colonial ascidian species, Botrylloides violaceus, Botrylloides diegensis, and Botryllus schlosseri, have become well established in San Francisco Bay. Two species, B. violaceous and B. schlosseri, are globally distributed, and understanding the salinity ranges and tolerances of these successful invaders in their introduced habitats is important for …

Further Development Of The Chemical Mixture Methodology (Cmm) Wizard, Sarah Horn, Cliff Glantz, Xiao-Ying Yu, Alex Booth

STAR Program Research Presentations

Title: Further development of the Chemical Mixture Methodology (CMM) Wizard – an on-line tool

Sarah Horn, University of Colorado, Boulder

The Chemical Mixture Methodology (CMM) program was developed to ensure individuals’ safety in the event of a chemical release into the atmosphere. The CMM uses Health Code Numbers (HCN) and user entered chemical concentrations to calculate hazard indices (HIs). The HIs indicate the level of adverse health effects an individual could experience from exposure to a mixture of chemicals. Current focus is on furthering development of the CMM Wizard, an online application that allows a user to input information about …

Population Density Of Carcinus Maenas In Seadrift Lagoon, Khalila Sailor, Gregory Ruiz

STAR Program Research Presentations

Seadrift Lagoon is a small private community located within the Stinson Beach community of Marin County in Central California. Its seclusion provides the perfect getaway for wealthy San Franciscans and the invasive European green crab, Carcinus maenas. It is believed that Seadrift Lagoon harbors a seedling population of Carcinus maenas capable of spreading these invader along the west coast of the United States and Canada. In 2009, collaborated efforts were made to eradicate this invasive crab from Seadrift Lagoon by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), Portland State University, and the University of California, Davis. This is an assessment …

Leds And Astronomy, Britny N. Delp, Stephen M. Pompea

STAR Program Research Presentations

Using a Czerny-Turner spectrometer, 45 different types of outdoor lights were categorized. These spectra were used to determine how useful the light is to human eyes and how dark skies friendly these lights are. Dark skies friendly lighting means that little to no light shines above a right angle to the light, and should emit as little as possible below 500nm (green) wavelengths. The short wavelengths present a problem to astronomers in the form of Rayleigh scattering. The following criterion were used in selecting the best source for urban and rural lighting: color rendition measured by color rendering index (CRI), …

Size And Weight Changes Of Leatherback Hatchlings Among Emergence Groups, Shane Morales, Kelly Stewart

STAR Program Research Presentations

In ideal leatherback sea turtle nests, all the hatchlings move together as a single group through the sand to leave the nest. Often, though, hatchlings emerge in two separate groups hours or days apart while others remain stuck in the sand where they may die unless they are dug out (excavation). First emergence groups spend the shortest amount of time in the sand while excavated hatchlings spend the longest amount of time in the sand (typically three days longer than first emergence hatchlings). Individuals from each of the separate emergences were weighed and measured (carapace only) in order to compare …

Steroids And Ssris In Wastewater And Ee2 Uptake In Fhm, Elizabeth Ellen Wittenberg, Irvin R. Schultz

STAR Program Research Presentations

Pharmaceuticals have been found in waste water treatment plant (WWTP) effluents and there are scientific studies that indicate at least some of these chemicals have adverse effects on fish health. Two groups of pharmaceuticals that currently cause concerns are natural and synthetic steroids and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Fathead minnows (FHM) are a common species of fish used for research and ethynyl estradiol (EE2) is a synthetic estrogen known to cause decreased fertility in fish. FHMs were exposed to EE2 for time periods between 0.25 hours to 144 hours in order to study uptake and disposition in this species. …

Course Catalog 2012-2013, Wellesley College

The Wellesley College Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Juvenile Risk Factors Affecting Probability Of Rearrest And Treatment Options, Susan D. Kindred

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Studies have been conducted gaining insight into the effectiveness of making arrests and what the effects are to juvenile offense rates especially for those living in lower socioeconomic statuses. Researchers have attempted to develop new theories in order to prevent re-offending, while also analyzing offender risk factors. While individuals continue to re-offend, questions arise if an individual's socioeconomic status, or individual risk factors effect whether or not an arrest will be made for the offense committed and how it will be treated to prevent future offending. This study analyzes case studies addressing the issues of juvenile offending as it relates …

Examining Sociobiological Fitness Traits In Conjunction With The General Strain Theory In Convicted Rapists, Lorinda R. Hetterle

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The purpose of this study is to determine if sociobiological theories are useful in studying deviant behavior. Due to sociobiology being a field that has only recently been developed, there is little research regarding the overlap between criminology and sociobiology. Using forcible rape as the conduit of research, this study examined if and how sociobiology stressors contributed to the General Strain Theory. Specifically, this research answered the question, "Were sociobiological fitness stressors present in convicted rapists prior to the offense(s)?" Using secondary source data, a content analysis was performed on five separate case studies to qualitatively assess what, if any, …

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design And Crime Rates In Apartment Settings, Robyn M. Radosevich

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This comparative study has employed qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the implications of the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) theory. Due to significant inconsistencies in prior research, the effectiveness of CPTED in reducing crime rates was examined. Research analysis has examined the elements of CPTED present at three sample apartment complexes located in a large western city and determined if the apartment settings with physical elements consistent with CPTED experienced lower crime rates. Observational qualitative data and quantitative crime rates were applied in a comparative analysis.

Creating A Model Antigen System To Test The Mechanism Of Gcc-Specific Tolerance, Patrick Ihejirika

Summer Training Program in Cancer Immunotherapy

Immunotherapeutics for colorectal cancer have been under investigation for decades. Unfortunately, a recent meta-analysis has revealed only a 1% response rate for all immunotherapeutic trials in colorectal cancer, highlighting the need for improved immunotherapeutic target antigens which are tumor-specific, immunogenic, and shared by patients. However, to produce immunological responses targeting tumor/self antigens, one has to overcome tolerance, which has constituted an obstacle to previous studies. Guanylyl cylcase C is the index cancer-mucosa antigen, an emerging class of tumor antigens in colorectal cancer. As a mucosa-restricted antigen, GCC is amenable to immunological targeting and uniquely suited for immunotherapy of colorectal cancers. …

Co-Exposure To Cigarette Smoke And Alcohol Decreases Airway Epithelial Cell Cilia Beating In A Protein Kinase Cε-Dependent Manner, Todd A. Wyatt, Joseph H. Sisson, Diane S. Allen-Gipson, Michael L. Mccaskill, Jessica A. Boten, Jane M. Devasure, Kristina L. Bailey, Jill A. Poole

United States Department of Veterans Affairs: Publications

Alcohol use disorders are associated with increased lung infections and exacerbations of chronic lung diseases. Whereas the effects of cigarette smoke are well recognized, the interplay of smoke and alcohol in modulating lung diseases is not clear. Because innate lung defense is mechanically maintained by airway cilia action and protein kinase C (PKC)-activating agents slow ciliary beat frequency (CBF), we hypothesized that the combination of smoke and alcohol would decrease CBF in a PKC-dependent manner. Primary ciliated bronchial epithelial cells were exposed to 5% cigarette smoke extract plus100 mmol/L ethanol for up to 24 hours and assayed for CBF and …

Promoting College Readiness And Access: Practices And Policy Implications, Frankie Williams

Journal of Contemporary Research in Education

Persisting social and economic inequalities exist in achieving a postsecondary education. These inequalities are attributable to economic, racial, and gender disparities that result in considerable gaps in college access, achievement, and college completion for minority groups. This article presents the current landscape for college readiness and access. Effective practices for promoting college readiness and access are discussed along with policy implications at the state level.

The R&D Boundaries Of The Firm And The Governance Of R&D Alliances: Essays On Institutions, Strategic Considerations And Contract Structure, Jason Michael Pattit

Management - Dissertations

The three essays in this dissertation examine questions related to the R&D boundaries of the firm and the governance of R&D alliances. The first essay draws on institutional theory to examine the history of corporate R&D in the U.S. since the mid-19th century. Formal and informal institutional rules and constraints are shown to play a role in the initial rise of markets for technology in the 19th century, their decline during the early-20th century, and their eventual return at the end of the 20th century. The influence of formal and informal institutions on the adoption of in-house R&D labs in …

Honor Roll Of Donors 2012, Lindenwood University

Donor Reports

2012 Lindenwood University donor report.

Identifying Neurotransmitter Spill-Over In Hippocampal Field Recordings, Emily Stone, Katie Hoffman, Michael P. Kavanaugh

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

A model of synaptic and extra-synaptic excitatory signaling in the hippocampus is presented. The model is used to analytically evaluate the potential contributions of homosynaptic and heterosynaptic glutamate spill-over to receptor signaling during an electrophysiological experiment in which glutamate transporters are pharmacologically blocked. Inhibition of glutamate uptake selectively prolongs the decay kinetics of the second field excitatory postsynaptic potential evoked by paired pulse stimulation of Schaffer collateral axons in area CA1. The model includes AMPA and NMDA glutamate receptors, and the removal of glutamate by transporters and diffusion. We establish analytically that the prolongation cannot be caused by local …

Self Similar Optical Fiber, Zheng-Xuan Lai

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Dissertations

This research proposes Self Similar optical fiber (SSF) as a new type of optical fiber. It has a special core that consists of self similar structure. Such a structure is obtained by following the formula for generating iterated function systems (IFS) in Fractal Theory. The resulted SSF can be viewed as a true fractal object in optical fibers. In addition, the method of fabricating SSF makes it possible to generate desired structures exponentially in numbers, whereas it also allows lower scale units in the structure to be reduced in size exponentially. The invention of SSF is expected to greatly ease …

Endoplasmic Reticulum Involvement In Yeast Cell Death, Nicanor Austriaco

Biology Faculty Publications

Yeast cells undergo programed cell death (PCD) with characteristic markers associated with apoptosis in mammalian cells including chromatin breakage, nuclear fragmentation, reactive oxygen species generation, and metacaspase activation. Though significant research has focused on mitochondrial involvement in this phenomenon, more recent work with both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe has also implicated the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in yeast PCD. This minireview provides an overview of ER stress-associated cell death (ER-SAD) in yeast. It begins with a description of ER structure and function in yeast before moving to a discussion of ER-SAD in both mammalian and yeast cells. Three examples of …

The Roddey Mcmillan Record - August 2012, Winthrop University

The RMR 2010-2019

The Roddey McMillan Record (RMR) is Winthrop’s monthly multicultural student publication. The RMR has been a significant voice of the minority population of the Winthrop community since its creation by Gail Harris in April 1986. It promotes awareness and understanding of issues concerning minorities for the prosperity of the entire Winthrop community. The purpose of the RMR is to shine light on the many diverse cultures at Winthrop, focusing on issues, concerns and happenings of those who represent the multicultural community on campus. The Roddey McMillan Record is named after Dr. Cynthia Roddey and Atty, Sheila McMillan. Cynthia Roddey was …

"That's What Families Do": Rewards And Challenges Of Informal Kinship Care, Betsy Hay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Informal kinship caregivers take on the responsibility of raising a relative's children in situations where those children cannot remain with their parents and are not in the custody of child welfare. The phenomenon is increasing; however it is difficult to obtain information from these families because of the difficulty locating them. As a result, there is limited research on this specific group of kinship care families. The purpose of this study was exploratory, using qualitative methods to gather information from informal kinship caregivers about their experiences caring for a relative's children, with a focus on the rewards and challenges within …

Gender Depiction In Preschool Books: A Comparison Between Early Care And Education Classrooms In The United States And Norway, Cathrine Aasen Floyd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Preschool children's perceptions around gender identity and development can be influenced by their experiences. With many children spending a portion of their day in child care, the environmental factors of these programs are important. One aspect of the environment can impact preschool children is the books that are available to them. For over 40 years, children's literature in the United States has been studied and found to be biased in their portrayal of males and females. Males were more often found as main characters and depicted as capable leaders and thinkers. Female characters were shown as weaker, often appearing in …

Thermally Actuated Resonant Silicon Crystal Nanobalances, Arash Hajjam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the potential emerging technology for next generation integrated resonant sensors and frequency references as well as electronic filters, micro-electro-mechanical resonators have attracted a lot of attention over the past decade. As a result, a wide variety of high frequency micro/nanoscale electromechanical resonators have recently been presented. MEMS resonators, as low-cost highly integrated and ultra-sensitive mass sensors, can potentially provide new opportunities and unprecedented capabilities in the area of mass sensing. Such devices can provide orders of magnitude higher mass sensitivity and resolution compared to Film Bulk Acoustic resonators (FBAR) or the conventional quartz and Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) resonators …

Ua66 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter, Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Survival Of Anoxia Despite Rapid Atp Decline In Embryos Of The Annual Killifish Austrofundulus Limnaeus, Jason E. Podrabsky, Michael A. Menze, Steven C. Hand

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Embryos of the annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus can survive for months in the complete absence of oxygen. Survival of anoxia is associated with entry into a state of metabolic dormancy known as diapause. However, extreme tolerance of anoxia is retained for several days of post-diapause development. Rates of heat dissipation in diapause II and 4 days post-diapause II embryos were measured under aerobic conditions and during the transition into anoxia. Phosphorylated adenylate compounds were quantified in embryos during entry into anoxia and after 12 hr of aerobic recovery. Rates of heat dissipation were not affected by exposure to anoxia in …

Alignment, Clustering And Extraction Of Structured Motifs In Dna Promoter Sequences, Faisal Abdulmalek Alobaid

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Dissertations

A simple motif is a short DNA sequence found in the promoter region and believed to act as a binding site for a transcription factor protein. A structured motif is a sequence of simple motifs (boxes) separated by short sequences (gaps). Biologists theorize that the presence of these motifs play a key role in gene expression regulation. Discovering these patterns is an important step towards understanding protein-gene and gene-gene interaction thus facilitates the building of accurate gene regulatory network models. DNA sequence motif extraction is an important problem in bioinformatics. Many studies have proposed algorithms to solve the problem instance …

The Effect Of Participation In Syracuse University Project Advance And Advanced Placement On Persistence And Performance At A Four-Year Private University, Kalpana Srinivas

Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation - Dissertations

Concurrent enrollment programs (CEPs) are an important source of academic preparation for high school students. Along with Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate, CEPs allow students to challenge themselves in high school and prepare for the rigor of college. Many researchers and practitioners have claimed that, when high school students participate in such programs, they become more successful in college, having better retention rates and better grades. Based upon their knowledge about the many students who have participated in CEPs, Marshal and Andrews (2002) note that "there is scarcity of research on dual credit aka concurrent enrollment programs." The claims for …

The Cord (August 1, 2012)

The Cord

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Culturally Responsive Literacy Practices In The Classrooms Of Three Teachers, Alicia N. Stephens

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The responsibility of educators continues to increase as they serve an increasingly diverse population, while attempting to narrow achievement disparities between students with mainstream backgrounds and those who are culturally diverse. Educator cultural perceptions remain unique to their own background and experiences, yet when presented with the challenge of educating the culturally diverse, teachers are often less than enthusiastic toward their instructional obligations. This study targeted how professional development can enhance teacher capability in a culturally diverse school, with the intent to add to existing literature regarding this topic.

This twelve-week qualitative study examined teacher beliefs pertaining to their own …

Greater Galagos Near Mt. Kasigau, Kenya: Population Density Estimates, Andrea Falcetto

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined population density and habitat use of a species of greater galago, genus Otolemur, around Mt. Kasigau, Kenya. Mt. Kasigau has a unique regional microclimate, a cloud forest, which provides many different flora and fauna a home. To examine population density, two different methods were used. The first method was using line transects and analyzing results using Distance 6.0. These surveys were conducted during both dry and wet season and results were compared after the study. The second method was to trap individuals and use mark-recapture to determine population density. When caught in a trap, individuals were …