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2012

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Climate Change Effects And Water Vulnerability In The Molalla Pudding River Basin, Oregon, Usa, Susan Amelia Wherry Jan 2012

Climate Change Effects And Water Vulnerability In The Molalla Pudding River Basin, Oregon, Usa, Susan Amelia Wherry

Dissertations and Theses

Water management plans are typically developed using historical data records and historical return periods for extreme events, such as floods or droughts. Since these analyses of return periods typically assume a certain degree of stationarity (constant mean, standard deviation, distribution) in hydrologic variables, the potential future impacts of climate change are excluded. In developing water management plans, predicted changes to climate variables should be considered to evaluate the degree of non-stationarity that may exist in the future. In this way, regions most sensitive to climate change can be identified and managed appropriately. This study performed such a task by using …

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At The End Of The Peninsula, Jonathan David Fine Jan 2012

At The End Of The Peninsula, Jonathan David Fine

Dissertations and Theses

In 1865, a settler named James John laid out a small neighborhood at the end of the north Portland peninsula, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. For a half century, until its annexation to Portland in 1915, St. Johns was an independent municipality. Factories lined the waterfront, and a full complement of businesses in the small downtown area--grocers, bakers, hardware stores, clothing shops--catered to all the residents' needs. St. Johns was always a working-class town with a strong sense of identity. But after World War II, as Portland grew, St. Johns began to seem defined less by …

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Late Pleistocene And Holocene Aged Glacial And Climatic Reconstructions In The Goat Rocks Wilderness, Washington, United States, Joshua Andrews Heard Jan 2012

Late Pleistocene And Holocene Aged Glacial And Climatic Reconstructions In The Goat Rocks Wilderness, Washington, United States, Joshua Andrews Heard

Dissertations and Theses

Eight glaciers, covering an area of 1.63 km2, reside on the northern and northeastern slopes of the Goat Rocks tallest peaks in the Cascades of central Washington. At least three glacial stands occurred downstream from these glaciers. Closest to modern glacier termini are Little Ice Age (LIA) moraines that were deposited between 1870 and 1899 AD, according to the lichenometric analysis. They are characterized by sharp, minimally eroded crests, little to no soil cover, and minimal vegetation cover. Glacier reconstructions indicate that LIA glaciers covered 8.29 km2, 76% more area than modern ice coverage. The average LIA equilibrium line altitude …

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Increasing Social Work Students' Political Interest And Efficacy: The Experience And Impact Of A Social Welfare Policy Course From The Students' Perspective, Christie Dianne Bernklau Halvor Jan 2012

Increasing Social Work Students' Political Interest And Efficacy: The Experience And Impact Of A Social Welfare Policy Course From The Students' Perspective, Christie Dianne Bernklau Halvor

Dissertations and Theses

Students of accredited social work programs are expected to demonstrate ten core competencies, including the ability to "engage in policy practice to advance social and economic well-being and to deliver effective social work services" (Council on Social Work Education, 2008). Despite this expectation, almost half of licensed social workers surveyed disagreed with the notion that they were adequately prepared for political engagement by their social work education (Ritter, 2007). Because social welfare policy courses are the primary curricular means for preparing generalist social workers for political advocacy, this study explores how undergraduate students respond to social welfare policy instructors' efforts …

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Exploring Ethnic Differences In The Predictors And Outcomes Of Academic Engagement During Middle School, Robin Margarett Johnson Jan 2012

Exploring Ethnic Differences In The Predictors And Outcomes Of Academic Engagement During Middle School, Robin Margarett Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

Guided by a motivational framework derived from self-determination theory, a study was conducted to examine the role of academic engagement in helping to explain and ameliorate ethnic differences in school achievement. Building on decades of research that documents both the importance of engagement to learning in European American students as well as its malleability, this study relied on an ethnically diverse sample of 6th and 7th grade students to examine three questions (1) Are achievement differences across ethnic groups due to differences in engagement? (2) Does engagement predict achievement similarly or differently across ethnic groups? and (3) Are the predictors …

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Electronic Properties And Structure Of Functionalized Graphene, Pavel Plachinda Jan 2012

Electronic Properties And Structure Of Functionalized Graphene, Pavel Plachinda

Dissertations and Theses

The trend over the last 50 years of down-scaling the silicon transistor to achieve faster computations has led to doubling of the number of transistors and computation speed over about every two years. However, this trend cannot be maintained due to the fundamental limitations of silicon as the main material for the semiconducting industry. Therefore, there is an active search for exploration of alternate materials. Among the possible candidates that can may [sic] be able to replace silicon is graphene which has recently gained the most attention. Unique properties of graphene include exceedingly high carrier mobility, tunable band gap, huge …

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Finding The Past In The Present: Modeling Prehistoric Occupation And Use Of The Powder River Basin, Wyoming, Catherine Anne Clark Jan 2012

Finding The Past In The Present: Modeling Prehistoric Occupation And Use Of The Powder River Basin, Wyoming, Catherine Anne Clark

Dissertations and Theses

In the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, our nation's interest in protecting its cultural heritage collides with the high demand for carbon fuels. "Clinker" deposits dot the basin. These distinctive buttes, created by the underground combustion of coal, are underlain by coal veins; they also provided the main lithic resources for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. These deposits signify both a likelihood of extractable carbon and high archaeological site density. Federal law requires that energy developers must identify culturally significant sites before mining can begin. The research presented here explains the need for and describes a statistical tool with the potential to predict …

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Metabolic Support Of Anaerobiosis In Embryos Of The Annual Killifish Austrofundulus Limnaeus, Andrew Mccracken Jan 2012

Metabolic Support Of Anaerobiosis In Embryos Of The Annual Killifish Austrofundulus Limnaeus, Andrew Mccracken

Dissertations and Theses

Embryos of the annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus display a remarkable tolerance to anoxia during development, most notably during embryonic diapause. Little is known about the metabolic or enzymatic changes that accompany this state of anoxia tolerance. This study examined the metabolic changes associated with exposure to anoxia by measuring the activity of the enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), and by profiling the concentration of 31 metabolites ranging from amino acids to citric cycle intermediates at 4 different developmental stages, diapause 2 (DII), 4 days post diapause (dpd), 12 and 22 dpd. Embryos of A. limnaeus showed stage specific changes in concentrations …

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Euthanasia, The Ethics Of Patient Care And The Language Of Propaganda, Elizabeth Maria Krapf Jan 2012

Euthanasia, The Ethics Of Patient Care And The Language Of Propaganda, Elizabeth Maria Krapf

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is an examination of euthanasia, eugenics, the ethic of patient care, and linguistic propaganda in the Second World War. The examination of euthanasia discusses not only the history and involvement of the facility at Hadamar in Germany, but also discuss the current euthanasia debate. Euthanasia in World War II arose out of the Nazi desire to cleanse the Reich and was greatly influenced by the American eugenics movement of the early 20th century. Eugenics was built up to include anyone considered undesirable and unworthy of life and killed many thousands of people before the invasion of allied troops …

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Coping With Interpersonal Conflicts At Work: An Examination Of The Goodness Of Fit Hypothesis Among Nurses, Robert Randon Wright Jan 2012

Coping With Interpersonal Conflicts At Work: An Examination Of The Goodness Of Fit Hypothesis Among Nurses, Robert Randon Wright

Dissertations and Theses

Increasingly, evidence indicates that workplace interpersonal conflicts (WIC) are the most upsetting/troublesome daily work stressors (Sulsky & Smith, 2007), and within the context of nursing, WIC is a problem of high prevalence and intensity (Baltimore, 2006; Farrell, 1999). In relation to coping with stressors such as WIC, Lazarus and Folkman (1984) established the transactional model of stress and coping, where cognitive appraisals of the stressor (e.g., perceived control) are central to coping and classified all coping behaviors as either problem-focused or emotion-focused. They also proposed the "goodness of fit hypothesis", which predicts that problem-focused coping efforts used to cope with …

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Oral Health Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behaviors: Investigation Of An Educational Intervention Strategy With At-Risk Females, Susan Romano Rustvold Jan 2012

Oral Health Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behaviors: Investigation Of An Educational Intervention Strategy With At-Risk Females, Susan Romano Rustvold

Dissertations and Theses

A self-perpetuating cycle of poor health literacy and poor oral health knowledge and behavior affects approximately 90 million people in the United States, most especially those from low-income groups and other at-risk populations such as those with addiction. Poor oral health can result from lack of access to regular preventive dental appointments, lack of access to restorative care when dental diseases are treatable, and low oral health knowledge that leads to poor oral health self-care behaviors. In addition, patients' dental anxiety can impede care, because highly anxious people often avoid dental appointments. To address these issues, this inquiry examined oral …

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Social Job Characteristics And Older Workers: Effects On Job Satisfaction And Job Tension, Jennifer Rae Rineer Jan 2012

Social Job Characteristics And Older Workers: Effects On Job Satisfaction And Job Tension, Jennifer Rae Rineer

Dissertations and Theses

The workforce in most industrialized countries is aging and becoming more age diverse, but few studies have examined the implications of age differences in the design of jobs. This study examined the role of age as a moderator in the relationship between job characteristics and two individual outcomes, job satisfaction and job tension. Specifically, the study focused on the relationship between social characteristics of the job (given social support, [received] social support, interdependence, interaction outside the organization, and feedback from others) and job tension and job satisfaction among Portland Water Bureau employees. Based in Socioemotional Selectivity (SES) theory (Carstensen, 1991), …

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First-Generation Student Success After Academic Warning: An Exploratory Analysis Of Academic Integration, Personal Adjustment, Family And Social Adjustment And Psychological Factors, Gabrielle Shoshana Zeisman Jan 2012

First-Generation Student Success After Academic Warning: An Exploratory Analysis Of Academic Integration, Personal Adjustment, Family And Social Adjustment And Psychological Factors, Gabrielle Shoshana Zeisman

Dissertations and Theses

As many as a quarter of undergraduate college students are placed on academic probation at least once during their college career. In addition, first-generation college students are even more at-risk for stopping out or dropping out due to being less academically prepared than their non-first-generation peers. In order to examine factors that influence first generation student academic risk and success, this exploratory study examined the intersection of academic standing and four primary conceptual contributors: academic integration, personal adjustment, family and social adjustment, and psychological factors. Survey data were collected from first generation undergraduate students at an urban research university who …

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Exploring Support Network Structure, Content, And Stability As Youth Transition From Foster Care, Jennifer E. Blakeslee Jan 2012

Exploring Support Network Structure, Content, And Stability As Youth Transition From Foster Care, Jennifer E. Blakeslee

Dissertations and Theses

Many older youth in foster care lack adequate resources and ongoing support in their social networks as they transition into young adulthood, while other youth in these circumstances experience stable social networks providing comprehensive support. Systematically measuring the supportive personal and service-oriented relationships in youth networks expands the scope of inquiry in this area by identifying patterns of social network structure, member composition, and relational qualities that are associated with more or less support provision through formal and informal relationships. These can also be measured over time to observe changes in network form and content and assess network stability. This …

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Understanding The Experience Of Air Force Single Parents: A Phenomenological Study, Samantha Everhart Blanchard Jan 2012

Understanding The Experience Of Air Force Single Parents: A Phenomenological Study, Samantha Everhart Blanchard

Dissertations and Theses

Today, raising children under the best of circumstances represents a daunting endeavor as any parent and a growing body of research confirm. When a single parent is on active duty in one of the U.S. armed forces, there are additional challenges involved that may not exist among civilian counterparts. The phenomenon of single parents on active duty with its unique difficulties associated both with single parenting and with military service was the basis of this study. The purpose of the research was twofold: to describe the experiences of Air Force single parents as related to social support and work-life theory …

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Involvement In The Online Autistic Community, Identity, Community, And Well-Being, Colleen Anne Kidney Jan 2012

Involvement In The Online Autistic Community, Identity, Community, And Well-Being, Colleen Anne Kidney

Dissertations and Theses

The values of the disability rights movement and community psychology promote research that focuses on improving the lives of individuals with disabilities (Dowrick & Keys, 2001). Using the Internet for social interactions has been shown to contribute to an individual's identity development, sense of community, and well-being (Obst, Zinkiewicz, & Smith, 2002a; Turkle, 1995). While challenges in typical social interactions have traditionally been considered a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder, autistic individuals have taken advantage of the Internet to develop social interactions (Blume, 1997a). The present study focused on the online Autistic community and how the importance and value …

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Scale Invariant Object Recognition Using Cortical Computational Models And A Robotic Platform, Danny Voils Jan 2012

Scale Invariant Object Recognition Using Cortical Computational Models And A Robotic Platform, Danny Voils

Dissertations and Theses

This paper proposes an end-to-end, scale invariant, visual object recognition system, composed of computational components that mimic the cortex in the brain. The system uses a two stage process. The first stage is a filter that extracts scale invariant features from the visual field. The second stage uses inference based spacio-temporal analysis of these features to identify objects in the visual field. The proposed model combines Numenta's Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM), with HMAX developed by MIT's Brain and Cognitive Science Department. While these two biologically inspired paradigms are based on what is known about the visual cortex, HTM and HMAX …

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Designing New Drugs To Treat Cardiac Arrhythmia, Yanping Ye Jan 2012

Designing New Drugs To Treat Cardiac Arrhythmia, Yanping Ye

Dissertations and Theses

Heart failure resulting from different forms of cardiomyopathy is defined as the inability of the heart to pump sufficient blood to meet the body's metabolic demands. It is a major disease burden worldwide and the statistics show that 50% of the people who have the heart failure will eventually die from sudden cardiac death (SCD) associated with an arrhythmia. The central cause of disability and SCD is because of ventricular arrhythmias. Genetic mutations and acquired modifications to RyR2, the calcium release channel from sarcoplasmic reticulum, can increase the pathologic SR Ca2+ leak during diastole, which leads to defects in SR …

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Fundamental Properties Of Functional Zinc Oxide Nanowires Obtained By Electrochemical Method And Their Device Applications, Athavan Nadarajah Jan 2012

Fundamental Properties Of Functional Zinc Oxide Nanowires Obtained By Electrochemical Method And Their Device Applications, Athavan Nadarajah

Dissertations and Theses

We report on the fundamental properties and device applications of semiconductor nanoparticles. ZnO nanowires and CdSe quantum dots were used, prepared, characterized, and assembled into novel light-emitting diodes and solar cells. ZnO nanowire films were grown electrochemically using aqueous soluble chloride-based electrolytes as precursors at temperatures below 90° C. Dopants were added to the electrolyte in the form of chloride compounds, which are AlCl3, CoCl2, CuCl2, and MnCl2. The optical, magnetic, and structural properties of undoped and transition-metal-ion doped ZnO nanowires were explored. Our results indicate that the as-grown nanowire structures have …

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Child Welfare And Delinquency: Examining Differences In First-Time Referrals Of Crossover Youth Within The Juvenile Justice System, Courtney Nicole Shrifter Jan 2012

Child Welfare And Delinquency: Examining Differences In First-Time Referrals Of Crossover Youth Within The Juvenile Justice System, Courtney Nicole Shrifter

Dissertations and Theses

The link between child welfare and juvenile justice is well established, with over forty years of research that focuses on the increased risk of delinquency associated with child maltreatment. However, with over 700,000 children in the United States being victims of abuse and/or neglect in 2010 (DHHS, 2011), it is important to continue investigating this connection. Few studies are able to identify the same youth in both systems, therefore this study provides the unique opportunity using child welfare and juvenile justice administrative data from Oregon, to compare juvenile offenders that have been in the child welfare system, otherwise known as …

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Origin Of Surface Undulations At The Kamb Ice Stream Grounding Line, West Antarctica, Fiona Bronwyn Seifert Jan 2012

Origin Of Surface Undulations At The Kamb Ice Stream Grounding Line, West Antarctica, Fiona Bronwyn Seifert

Dissertations and Theses

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is drained primarily by five major ice streams, which together control the volume of ice discharged into the ocean across the grounding line. The grounding line of Kamb Ice Stream (KIS) is unusual because the ice stream upstream of it is stagnant. Here, a set of surface features--shore-parallel, long wavelength, low amplitude undulations--found only at that grounding line are examined and found to be "pinch and swell" features formed by an instability in the viscous deformation of the ice. When a relatively competent layer is surrounded by lower strength materials, particular wavelength features within the …

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Essex Under Cromwell: Security And Local Governance In The Interregnum, James Robert Mcconnell Jan 2012

Essex Under Cromwell: Security And Local Governance In The Interregnum, James Robert Mcconnell

Dissertations and Theses

In 1655, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell's Council of State commissioned a group of army officers for the purpose of "securing the peace of the commonwealth." Under the authority of the Instrument of Government, a written constitution not sanctioned by Parliament, the Council sent army major-generals into the counties to raise new horse militias and to support them financially with a tax on Royalists which the army officers would also collect. In counties such as Essex--the focus of this study--the major-generals were assisted in their work by small groups of commissioners, mostly local men "well-affected" to the Interregnum government. In addition …

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Late-Holocene Flood History, Flood-Frequency, And Paleoclimate Analysis Of The Central Black Hills, South Dakota, Tessa M. Harden Jan 2012

Late-Holocene Flood History, Flood-Frequency, And Paleoclimate Analysis Of The Central Black Hills, South Dakota, Tessa M. Harden

Dissertations and Theses

Stratigraphic records in four basins in the central Black Hills in combination with hydraulic calculations show that all basins have experienced multiple large floods in the last 2,000 years with flow rates substantially larger than those gaged historically. Flood-frequency analyses for the study reaches account for 29 paleofloods inferred from interpretation of stratigraphic records locally extending back 1,000 to almost 2,000 years. The addition of paleoflood data to the gaged and historical data significantly reduced uncertainties related to flood-frequency. For all study reaches the 95-percent confidence intervals about the low-probability quantile estimates (100-, 200-, and 500-year recurrence-intervals) were reduced by …

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Effects Of Reactive Oxygen Species On Life History Traits Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Samson William Smith Jan 2012

Effects Of Reactive Oxygen Species On Life History Traits Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Samson William Smith

Dissertations and Theses

Evolutionary life history theory predicts that tradeoffs among fitness-related phenotypes will occur as a result of resource limitations and/or physiological constraints. Such tradeoffs are defined as the cost(s) incurred on one component of fitness (e.g., reproduction) by the increased expression of another fitness-related trait (e.g., longevity). Only recently have researchers begun to investigate the mechanistic bases of life history tradeoffs. A recent proposal is that reactive oxygen species (ROS) have a central role in shaping life history traits and tradeoffs. Research on disparate animal taxa has highlighted strong correlations between oxidative stress resistance and fitness-related life history traits, for example. …

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Anna Of Denmark: Expressions Of Autonomy And Agency As A Royal Wife And Mother, Anastasia Christine Baker Jan 2012

Anna Of Denmark: Expressions Of Autonomy And Agency As A Royal Wife And Mother, Anastasia Christine Baker

Dissertations and Theses

Anna of Denmark (12 December 1574 - 2 March 1619), the wife of King James VI/I of Scotland, England, and Ireland, was an intelligent and interesting woman who has, up until recently, been largely ignored by history. It has only been within the past two decades that any in-depth analysis of Anna has been done, and most of that analysis has focused on Anna's work with the Stuart court masque. The intent of this thesis has been to expand upon current scholarship regarding Anna, as well as to synthesize the various facets of Anna's life in order to put together …

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Giving Voice To The Peace And Justice Challenger Intellectuals: Counterpublic Development As Civic Engagement, Tom Harry Hastings Jan 2012

Giving Voice To The Peace And Justice Challenger Intellectuals: Counterpublic Development As Civic Engagement, Tom Harry Hastings

Dissertations and Theses

"Let knowledge serve the city" reads the golden letters on a pedestrian bridge just 200 feet from my faculty office in Neuberger Hall at Portland State University. Public peace scholarship might allow knowledge to help the polis by keeping it out of war via changing the national discourse toward a strong and informed peace analysis. Educators have an uneasy relationship to public scholarship and mainstream media have a nervous attitude toward public peace intellectuals. Institutions of higher learning are also often either unaware or uncomfortable with a public promotion of a positive peace platform. Academic writing and research is hard …

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Measurement And Modeling Of Passive Surface Mount Devices On Fr4 Substrates, Rahulkumar Sadanand Koche Jan 2012

Measurement And Modeling Of Passive Surface Mount Devices On Fr4 Substrates, Rahulkumar Sadanand Koche

Dissertations and Theses

Passive components like resistors, capacitors and inductors are used in every electronic system. These are the very basic components which affect the system performance at higher frequencies and it is necessary to understand and model the behavior of these components in a very accurate manner. This work focuses on utilizing Printed Circuit Board (PCB) test boards, or fixtures, made of FR4 for characterizing Surface Mount Device (SMD) components. Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS) microwave circuit simulation software was used for designing the microstrip transmission lines as well as for generating the layout for manufacturing of the PCB. SMD resistors, capacitors …

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Informal Learning Choices Of Japanese Esl Students In The United States, Brent Harrison Amburgey Jan 2012

Informal Learning Choices Of Japanese Esl Students In The United States, Brent Harrison Amburgey

Dissertations and Theses

This study was designed to explore possible relationships between English language learners past formal language learning experiences and beliefs about language learning on the one hand, and their informal learning choices on the other. Six Japanese English as a second language (ESL) students participated in the study. Participants were interviewed and asked to complete an English study log for one week prior to their scheduled interview. The results of the study suggested that there were likely connections between experiences, beliefs, informal learning choices. For some participants, a singular experience or belief had an effect that seemed to outweigh other experiences …

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A Strategic Model For Ingo Accountability Systems, Sarah Elizabeth Wardwell Jan 2012

A Strategic Model For Ingo Accountability Systems, Sarah Elizabeth Wardwell

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis reconstructs the concept of International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) accountability to beneficiaries through the development of a strategic model for INGO accountability to beneficiaries. It works through the history and arguments surrounding the rise of the debate around whether INGOs should be held accountable to their beneficiary populations. Unique definitions are developed for the terms and concepts related to this topic and a framework for understanding the strategic model for INGO accountability to beneficiaries is outlined: Accountable to whom? Accountable for what? Accountable how? A practical example of an internal assessment for measuring an INGO's accountability to beneficiaries is …

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Short-Term Plasticity At The Schaffer Collateral: A New Model With Implications For Hippocampal Processing, Andrew Hamilton Toland Jan 2012

Short-Term Plasticity At The Schaffer Collateral: A New Model With Implications For Hippocampal Processing, Andrew Hamilton Toland

Dissertations and Theses

A new mathematical model of short-term synaptic plasticity (STP) at the Schaffer collateral is introduced. Like other models of STP, the new model relates short-term synaptic plasticity to an interaction between facilitative and depressive dynamic influences. Unlike previous models, the new model successfully simulates facilitative and depressive dynamics within the framework of the synaptic vesicle cycle. The novelty of the model lies in the description of a competitive interaction between calcium-sensitive proteins for binding sites on the vesicle release machinery. By attributing specific molecular causes to observable presynaptic effects, the new model of STP can predict the effects of specific …

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