Digital Commons Network^™

Synthesis Of Novel Alkaline Earth Tosylate Complexes Through Donor Studies, Adam J. Brooks

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Salt metathesis has become a critical reaction pathway in organometallic chemistry; however, for alkaline earth metals this process is hindered by the need of highly pure and expensive metal iodides as starting materials. This contribution highlights recent attempts to identify inexpensive reagents for salt metathesis. Alkaline earth-tosylates can be prepared cost effectively using p-toluenesulfonic acid in one-pot reactions in water. The coordinated water molecules can be removed by gentle heating under vacuum. The anhydrous tosylates, however, have major solubility limitations as the result of extensive aggregation networks. The goal of this study was to increase the solubility of the tosylates …

Escherichia Coli Hm22 Biofilm Viability When In Contact With Implant-Grade, Titanium-6aluminum-4-Vanadium Alloy Under Varied Electrochemical Conditions, Alexander Ross Weiss

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Expression And Purification Of Recombinant Saposin B For Coenzyme Q10 Purification, Vivian Yaci Yu

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) plays a critical role in energy production in humans. Low levels of CoQ10 have been linked to diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntingtons's disease. CoQ10 levels decrease as we age, and use of statin drugs also lowers CoQ10 levels. Oral supplementation however increases CoQ10 levels. However, the lack of industrial sources of CoQ10 and the difficulty in CoQ10 purification has resulted the need to address these problems. Sporidiobolus johnsonii (S. johnsonii) has been reported as a natural producer of CoQ10. This work is aim to increase the production of CoQ10 in S. johnsonii through genetic …

Understanding The Art Of Thought: Defining, Rethinking, And Applying Creative Methods And Practices, Peter Depasquale

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Creativity, an already elusive term, has further transformed into a conceptual quagmire of numerous open and closed definitions during the course of the past two decades. Although creativity lacks a concrete identification, our society continues to find answers to socially and economically based problems through means labeled as creative thinking. This suggests that creativity is structurally linked to discussions on innovation—which in its exclusivity yields some positive outcomes—but negates further definitions or explorations of the word.

This thesis compiles a variety of resources from a range of fields related to the subject of creativity to offer a …

The Obama Doctrine: The Lici Foreign Policy Perspective, Wesley Michael Milillo

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Every U.S. President has maintained and crafted a prescriptive set of policies with which they conduct international affairs. All Presidents have left their historical mark- what they believe to be America’s position in the world, and its commensurate role. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world transformed as America achieved international hegemony as the sole superpower and subsequent victor of the Cold War. However, many today question U.S. primacy shifting the debate toward questioning if and how America should act in the world.

Barack Obama’s foreign policy eludes the confines of a single political ideology and philosophy. After …

Modifying The Fatty Acid Profile Of Soybean Oil For Nutritional And Industrial Applications, Hyunwoo Park

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The objectives of this study are: 1. To develop of soybean oil low in palmitic acid and elevated in stearic and oleic acids for margarine source. 2. To produce the high omega-3 fatty acid and astaxanthin in soybean seed as a feedstock for aquaculture. Over expression of mangosteen stearoyl-ACP thioesterase gene increased stearic acid content up to 10% to 15%. The identified elevated stearic acid events were crossed with our high oleic acid/low palmitic acid event. Average stearic and oleic acid content ranged 14 to 19% and 68 to 73% respectively. Stearic acid content of elevated stearic acid soybean event …

Modeling And Managing Engineering Changes In A Complex Product Development Process, Weilin Li

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - Dissertations

Today's hyper-competitive worldwide market, turbulent environment, demanding customers, and diverse technological advancements force any corporations who develop new products to look into all the possible areas of improvement in the entire product lifecycle management process. One of the areas that both scholars and practitioners have overlooked in the past is Engineering Change Management (ECM).

The vision behind this dissertation is to ultimately bridge this gap by identifying main characteristics of a New Product Development (NPD) process that are potentially associated with the occurrence and magnitude of iterations and Engineering Changes (ECs), developing means to quantify these characteristics as well as …

Perceptions Of Factors Related To Therapeutic Change In Face-To-Face And Distance Counseling Environments, Stephen Harding Wright

Counseling and Human Services - Dissertations

Videoconferencing is quickly becoming a part of daily life as technologies using the Internet and computer advances are now being employed to deliver synchronous, highly discernible video and audio content on devices used for daily communication. Videoconferencing is also being increasingly used by counseling professionals to provide counseling sessions and other services, and counseling accrediting and licensing bodies have recognized its use in some professional practice situations.

This experimental study used a regional sample of counselors, other mental health professionals, and counselors-in-training (N = 126), to examine whether participants, randomly assigned, rated three different measures of counseling process-working alliance, session …

Integrating Brownfield Redevelopments Into The Urban Fabric, Ryan Medlen

All Theses

The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of sites that are contaminated and underutilized. These sites bring down surrounding property values and face unique barriers that inhibit their redevelopment. Addressing these sites is complicated as a result of the number of sites needing attention and the limited resources to address them with. Much work has been done about the characteristics of these sites but minimal work has been done with regards to how they relate to surrounding area. The work that has been done in regards to brownfields and their relationship to the neighborhood has focused on site …

Using Bald Eagles To Monitor Hydroelectric Projects Liscense Requirements Along The Au Sable, Manistee And Muskegon River, Michigan, Peter Datema

All Theses

Consumers Energy operated hydroelectric projects located along the Au Sable, Manistee, and Muskegon Rivers underwent environmental studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s as part of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing. One of the questions posed during these studies was, would passage of Great Lakes' fishes over barrier dams along these rivers cause detrimental impacts to sensitive wildlife species. Relicensing also required that the operation of all hydroelectric projects on the Au Sable, Manistee, and Muskegon rivers be maintained as run-of-river. Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) were chosen as a biomonitor. This risk assessment included calculating new hazard quotients …

Challenging Disciplinary Boundaries In The First Year: A New Introductory Integrated Science Course For Stem Majors, Lisa Gentile, Lester Caudill, Mirela Fetea, April L. Hill, Kathy Hoke, Barry Lawson, Ovidiu Z. Lipan, Michael Kerckhove, Carol A. Parish, Krista J. Stenger, Doug Szajda

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

To help undergraduates make connections among disciplines so they are able to approach, evaluate, and contribute to the solutions of important global problems, our campus has been focused on interdisciplinary research and education opportunities across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This paper describes the mobilization, planning, and implementation of a first-year interdisciplinary course for STEM majors that integrates key concepts found in traditional first-semester biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics courses. This team-taught course, Integrated Quantitative Science (IQS), is half of a first-year student’s schedule in both semesters and is composed of a double lecture and …

Host Fish Assessment And Gravidity For The Mussel Elliptoideus Sloatianus, Andrew Hartzog

Theses and Dissertations

Elliptoideus sloatianus (purple bankclimber) is a freshwater mussel that m endemic to the Apalachicola River Basin, which includes the Chattahoochee, Flint, Chipola, and Apalachicola Rivers. Populations of E. sloatianus also exist in the Ochlockonee River, which discharges independently from the ACF basin into the Gulf of Mexico. In 1998, E. sloatianus was listed as federally threatened due to the loss of suitable habitat and the potential blockage of host fish passage into areas where the mussel lives. For this study, we located three populations of £. sloatianus in the Flint River in southwest Georgia. Gravid mussels were collected in late …

Genomic Analysis Of Immune Response Against Vibrio Cholerae Hemolysin In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Surasri N. Sahu, Jada Lewis, Isha Patel, Serdar Bozdag, Jeong H. Lee, Joseph E. Leclerc, Hediye Nese Cinar

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) is among the accessory V. cholerae virulence factors that may contribute to disease pathogenesis in humans. VCC, encoded by hlyA gene, belongs to the most common class of bacterial toxins, known as poreforming toxins (PFTs). V. cholerae infects and kills Caenorhabditis elegans via cholerae toxin independent manner. VCC is required for the lethality, growth retardation and intestinal cell vacuolation during the infection. However, little is known about the host gene expression responses against VCC. To address this question we performed a microarray study in C. elegans exposed to V. cholerae strains with intact and deleted hlyA …

The Recession Of 2008: For Better Or For Worse, Kelsy Litchenburg

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

With nonstop discussion about the current recession in the government, news, classroom, social media, and any other type of communication outlet, there is seldom a minute that Americans are not impacted by our current economic condition. Constantly, we are faced with pitfalls of the recession, like job loss and a declining house market, but who is to say that the motion of our economy doesn't follow Newton's third law stating that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Meaning that for each negative this recession brings, might there also be a positive social effect as well? After …

The Green Shuttle Business Plan, Carter King

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Green Shuttle is a Limited Liability Company (Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada in Spanish) to be established in Costa Rica in September 2012. We are offering an exciting opportunity to two family/friends to invest in a start-up company targeting an underserved market in a developing country. The office for the tourist transportation company will be located in San Jose, Costa Rica. The company is seeking funding of USD $105,000 for the purpose of purchasing machinery, equipment, furniture, and fixtures necessary for operations and to cover estimated operating expenses for the first three months of operations. The investment opportunity offers a …

Young Children‘S Mathematics References During Free Play In Family Child Care Settings, Shawnee M. Hendershot

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was undertaken to determine how children use math in their everyday activities, which includes caregiving environments outside of their home. Audio recordings were taken of children while they played. The researcher typed transcripts of the audio recordings in order to search for references to math. The different types of math that the children used were: (a) classification, (b) magnitude, (c) enumeration, (d) patterns and shapes, (e) spatial reasons, and (f) part/whole. An example of classification would be a child sorting blocks into groups based on shape. Magnitude is used when a child uses phrases to compare two or …

Treatment Of Oilfield Produced Water Using A Pilot-Scale Constructed Wetland Treatment System, Michael Pardue

All Theses

In recent years production of oil in sub-Saharan Africa has generated thousands of barrels of oilfield produced water (OPW). If water produced from oilfields in sub-Saharan Africa can be treated, this large volume of water has the potential for use in irrigation, which could decrease demand on existing water resources. In this investigation a pilot-scale constructed wetland treatment system (CWTS) consisting of three series: a free water surface flow (FWS) series, a subsurface flow (SSF) series, and a hybrid SSF series preceded by an oil-water separator (OWS), was utilized to treat OPW. Two major objectives were to: 1) assess treatment …

Avian Communities And Landscape Characteristics Of Golf Courses Within The Beaufort County Sea Island Complex, Jessica Gorzo

All Theses

The native breeding bird community of Beaufort County, South Carolina is experiencing landscape alteration in several forms. A prevalent human land use in the coastal zone is golf course development. This study explored the relationship between golf course land cover (n=23) and avian community metrics. Each study site consisted of the in-play area of the golf course, surrounded by a 400 m zone. Landscape metrics were calculated for each study site, and served as independent variables. The dependent variables were the following avian community metrics: species richness, neotropical migrant richness, abundance, diversity, evenness, and mean Partners in Flight (PIF) score. …

Extraction And Identification Of Volatile Constituents Of Oplopanax Horridus , Gregory Jones

All Theses

O. horridus is an important medicinal and spiritual plant for native peoples where it natively grows. Secondary volatile metabolites which compose the essential oil were isolated by atmospheric simultaneous distillation-solvent extraction (SDE) and headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) from the bark and leaves of Oplopanax horridus. The differences between the two extraction methods was investigated for their sensitivity, precision and use in separating volatile compounds from sample matrices.The extracts were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection. Compounds were identified according to their non-isothermal Kovats indexes, mass spectra, or by comparison with analytical standard substances. The bark essential …

Effects Of Different Microenvironmental Conditions On The Growth And Differentiation Of Dental Pulp Stem Cells, Matthew Cupelli

All Theses

Human teeth are very complex structures that are susceptible to many different pathologies due to poor dental health. Currently, there are many restorative methods to reestablish some of the function that teeth have, but the materials used in these methods all have drawbacks and cannot fully mimic the native teeth. Tissue engineering research groups have begun to explore regenerating bone or dental tissue using mesenchymal stem cells derived from the bone marrow. However, our group focuses on regenerating dental tissues using multipotent stem cells from dental pulp.
Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have shown similarities to bone marrow stem cells …

Application Of Microbial Fuel Cells In A Forested Wetland, Jianing Dai

All Theses

ABSTRACT
Electricity can be generated from forest residues, especially the organic matter from litter fall, in freshwater forested wetland environments with a microbial fuel cell (MFC) system. Electricity generation efficiency was examined for cypress, tupelo, and pine litter extracts, using dual-chamber reactors. The maximum power density generated with cypress extracts was on the level of 320 mW/m2, higher than tupelo (230 mW/m2), and pine (210 mW/m2). The efficacy of cypress extracts was also higher than tupelo and
pine, demonstrating that organic matter from cypress litter is a preferred substrate for electricity generation with MFCs. Meanwhile, low aromaticity of the substrate …

The Diets Of Larval And Juvenile Pallid Sturgeon And Shovelnose Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus Spp.) In The Lower Mississippi River, Audrey Harrison

All Theses

Although North American sturgeon have been the focus of extensive research in the last several decades, more research is essential to ensure their conservation. The free-flowing Lower Mississippi River (LMR) is occupied by two sympatric sturgeon, pallid [ Scaphirhynchus albus (Forbes & Richardson)] and shovelnose sturgeon [Scaphirhynchus platorynchus (Rafinesque)]. These species are considered 'endangered' and 'threatened,' respectively. Recent studies have documented the life history of adult sturgeon in the Mississippi River, but studies focusing on young-of-year and juveniles are limited because young fish are difficult to collect and identifications are problematic. Spawning sites in the LMR are unknown and though …

Ecology Of The American Mink & The Potential Impact On Species Of Concern In Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina, Caroline Gorga

All Theses

Species reintroduction projects are becoming more common as a conservation tool to reestablish populations following extirpation. The implementation of these projects can be controversial due to the potential impact the reintroduced animal could have on endangered, threatened, or at risk prey species. In 1999, South Carolina's Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) reintroduced the American mink (Neovison vison), a SCDNR designated species of high conservation priority, to the northern coastal marshes of the state, including Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge (CRNWR). In order to estimate the impact of this opportunistic predator on other species, especially those of special concern to the …

Electrochemical Capacitance Measurements To Study Molecular Surface Interactions, Nrutya Madduri

All Theses

The behavior of biological molecules such as proteins at the electrode/electrolyte has been of considerable interest for the development of biosensors. Several investigative techniques including Potentiometry, Voltammetry, Amperometry, and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy are being employed to study and analyze these molecular surface interactions. Investigative techniques such as cyclic voltammetry involve the application of a large potential to probe the electrode characteristics and capture the bulk membranous events to obtain the required measurements. This study looks to achieve two major objectives through the use of a novel technique, namely, the double layer capacitive method: 1) to analyze the electrochemical behavior of …

Cultural Landscape Preservation: Analysis Of Five Preservation Models, Vineet Date

All Theses

In the recent past there has been a rise in concerns regarding the management and preservation of cultural landscapes. This project attempts to understand and analyze contemporary approaches taken by organizations around the world to preserve cultural landscapes. Five organizations are (1) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), (2) Australian Heritage Council (AHC), (3) New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT), (4) National Park Service (NPS) and (5) Archeological Survey of India (ASI) have been selected for study. The existing preservation guidelines and two case studies from each organization are examined. The results of the study will help in …

Victorian Gothic Drama, Diane Hoeveler

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Photocatalytic Reactor Using Tio2 Thin Film On Quartz Tubes, Ram Mahipal Kouda

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Photocatalysis process, as an environmental application is an advanced oxidation process with tremendous potential in the near future. Previously many researchers, have conducted photocatalysis in different reactor configuration using TiO2 slurry and thin film, using a UV light source, the constraints for these reactors are the need for the removal of TiO2 particles at the outlet stream in a slurry reactor and poor environment for the efficient use of TiO2 film using UV light, as the UV light penetration depth in water is about an inch.

Taking all this into consideration, we propose a design for reactor with efficient contact …

Identifying And Quantifying Sediment Sources And Sinks In The Root River, Southeastern Minnesota, Justin Collin Stout

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fine sediment, normally understood to refer to sand, silts, and clays; is a natural constituent in all rivers. When in excess this fine sediment can degrade the habitat for aquatic life in these rivers, and carry with it many pollutants and nutrients which can cause adverse effects on wildlife and human populations.

Understanding how this fine sediment moves through a river system, from erosion off of hillslopes, transport through the river, and finally export from the mouth of the system is vital part to land and river management. However, predicting how fine sediment moves through a system is a difficult …

Carbon Sequestration On Utah Rangelands: A Landowner Perspective, Seth Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Carbon sequestration is the removal of carbon dioxide from the air and storing it in plants and soil through natural processes. Rangelands can be managed to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change. Supported by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, this study assessed Utah rangeland owners’ perceptions of carbon sequestration and explored factors influencing their likelihood of participation in relevant programs. Data were collected through interviews and a statewide survey of Utah rangeland owners. Over two-thirds of respondents were aware of carbon sequestration and viewed it positively. Those who thought the climate had been changing over the past 30 years tended …

Italy At Home And Abroad After 150 Years: The Legacy Of Emigration And The Future Of Italianità, Mark I. Choate

Faculty Publications

Shortly after unification in the Risorgimento, mass emigration stretched Italy in unforeseen ways, changing its culture, economics, and politics, and even its state, territory, language, and population. This enforced globalization polarized Italy and radically changed Italy as a nation-state and as a national culture. Controversies over emigration sharply divided Italian Liberals from the Nationalists and Fascists. The ideals of the nation-state, articulated by Mazzini, have been transformed by emigration in ways that have anticipated the twenty-first century global world. Today Italy faces similar challenges with rising immigration, together with the potential for constructive solutions.