Digital Commons Network^™

Applying The Fragmented Literal Similarity Test To Musical-Work And Sound-Recording Infringement: Correcting The Bridgeport Music, Inc. V. Dimension Filmslegacy, Mark R. Carter

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Scientific And Legal Developments In Fire And Arson Investigation Expertise In Texas V. Willingham, Rachel Dioso-Villa

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

The Same But Different. Negotiating Cultural Identities By Migrant Children In Irish Mainstream Classrooms, Svetlana Eriksson

Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies

This article looks at peer dynamics in the mainstream classroom to explore the ways Russian-speaking children/adolescents in Ireland negotiate their cultural identities and their otherness outside the home. The article presents the analysis of semi-structured interviews with thirty parents and their children between 10 and 18 years of age from Russian-speaking families from Russia and Latvia. The participants dwell on how comfortable they feel at Irish schools and what factors impact their feeling of sameness/otherness. The interviews with both generations contribute to creating a multi-dimensional picture which reveals that the perspectives of the agents involved in this study are not …

A Collaborative Social Computing Model For Transdisciplinary Problem Solving, Jerry Allen Higgs

All ETDs from UAB

The capacity to address and solve today's complex problems is becoming exceedingly more difficult because of the transdisciplinary nature of our current system of knowledge. Innovative solutions are no longer the by-products of centralized offices and laboratories. In fact, crafting solutions for truly complex problems requires a collaborative sharing of knowledge that transcends the artificial boundaries of departmentalized offices and research facilities. For decades, segmented information systems built on distributed platforms have kept transdisciplinary problem solving fragmented, without the ability to effectively share knowledge or data. This segmentation has stifled the progress of research reaching beyond the traditional boundaries of …

Homoepitaxial Deposition Of Boron-Doped Single Crystal Diamond, Sunil Kumar Lal Karna

All ETDs from UAB

The boron-doped single crystal diamond films were grown homoepitaxially on synthetic (100) Type Ib diamond substrates using a microwave plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition. The optical transmittance of the films was observed to change with the increasing boron content in the film. The effect of boron and nitrogen on the surface morphology of the film has been studied using atomic force microscopy. Use of nitrogen in process gas during boron doping improves the surface topography as well as gives rise to an increase in growth rate of diamond film. However, presence of nitrogen in the process gas significantly lowers the …

Small Perturbations In Hard Balls Dynamics, Alexey Korepanov

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation consists of three articles written in cooperation with F. Bonetto, N. Chernov, J. Lebowitz and N. Simanyi. The common theme is small perturbations of hard balls dynamics on a flat table with obstacles. While the original dynamics preserves the Lebesgue measure and is hyperbolic and ergodic for all models that we have considered, even smallest perturbations may significantly change the nature of the dynamics. Physically observable invariant measure may become singular with respect to Lebesgue measure, or even fail to exist. In some cases the dynamics collapses to a continuum of degenerate stable regimes. In Spatial Structure of …

Uniform Gaussian Bounds For Subelliptic Heat Kernels And An Application To The Total Variation Flow Of Graphs Over Carnot Groups, Luca Capogna, Giovanna Citti, Maria Manfredini

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

In this paper we study heat kernels associated with a Carnot group G, endowed with a family of collapsing left-invariant Riemannian metrics σϵ which converge in the Gromov- Hausdorff sense to a sub-Riemannian structure on G as ϵ rarr; 0. The main new contribution are Gaussian-Type bounds on the heat kernel for the σϵ metrics which are stable as ϵ rarr; 0 and extend the previous time-independent estimates in [16]. As an application we study well posedness of the total variation flow of graph surfaces over a bounded domain in a step two Carnot group (G; σϵ ). We establish …

Obesity, Prediabetes, And Perceived Stress In Municipal Workers, Louise Camilleri O'Keefe

All ETDs from UAB

Obesity and diabetes are major contributors to morbidity and mortality in the United States. According to the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention, obesity is growing faster than any other public health problem in the United States. The prevalence of diabetes has also increased significantly with an estimated 79 million Americans aged 20 years or older suffering from prediabetes. Few studies have examined the influence of perceived stress on obesity and prediabetes among working adults. Investigations are needed to examine factors that can contribute to higher health care costs for both employees and employers. The aims of this …

The Comparison Of Dental Arch Forms Obtained From Teeth, Alveolar Bone, And The Overlying Soft Tissue, Patrick O'Neil

All ETDs from UAB

THE COMPARISON OF DENTAL ARCH FORMS OBTAINED FROM TEETH, ALVEOLAR BONE, AND THE OVERLYING SOFT TISSUE Patrick D. O'Neil, DMD UAB DEPARTMENT OF ORTHODONTICS: DENTISTRY ABSTRACT Objective: The objective of this study was to determine if a difference existed between arch forms created from tooth surfaces, alveolar bone, and overlying soft tissue. Materials and Methods: The sampling population for this study was 18 individuals with a Class I malocclusion, mild crowding, and a CBCT image of good diagnostic quality. The Facial-axis point was chosen to create the arch form from teeth, the Bowman-Kau point was used to establish the arch …

Computational Studies On Metal Bound Amyloid-Ss Peptide Complexes: Implications For Oligomerization, Lurong Pan

All ETDs from UAB

Amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptide is the primary component of the senile plaques that char-acterize Alzheimer's disease (AD). Numerous studies have shown that small soluble oligomers of Aß have higher neurotoxicity than large, insoluble aggregates and fibrils. Brain tissue analysis has shown that excessive metal ions including zinc, copper and iron are co-localized with the plaques. In addition, in vitro studies suggest that these ions play an important role in the aggregation and toxicity of Abeta. Nevertheless, due to the large number of variables that must be controlled it is difficult to characterize the detailed mechanisms by which metal ions modulate Abeta …

Urban Kindergarten Teachers' Perceptions Of Former Head Start Students And Their Readiness For School, Stephanie Hardy Parker

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the experiences and instruction of kindergarten teachers in an urban school district who are teaching students who were previously enrolled in a Head Start program. Eleven kindergarten teachers who taught in an urban school district in the southeastern United States participated in this study. Data sources collected for this multiple case study included: (a) semi-structured interviews, (b) observations, and (c) curriculum documents. Results from the study revealed mixed experiences teaching former Head Start students. While some teachers expressed positive experiences teaching former Head Start students, others indicated teaching former …

Galaxy Zoo : A Catalog Of Overlapping Galaxy Pairs For Dust Studies., William C. Keel, Anna M. Manning, Benne W. Holwerda, Massimo Mezzoprete, Chris J. Lintott, Kevin Schawinski, Pamela Gay, Karen L. Masters

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Analysis of galaxies with overlapping images offers a direct way to probe the distribution of dust extinction and its effects on the background light. We present a catalog of 1990 such galaxy pairs selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) by volunteers of the Galaxy Zoo project. We highlight subsamples which are particularly useful for retrieving such properties of the dust distribution as UV extinction, the extent perpendicular to the disk plane, and extinction in the inner parts of disks. The sample spans wide ranges of morphology and surface brightness, opening up the possibility of using this technique to …

Engaging First Graders In Transformational Early Childhood Emergent Learning Themes, Amanda Daniel Pendergrass

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to encourage learners to care for others and make a difference in the world through Reggio Emilia-inspired teaching and learning practice that promoted transformational education. Students were anticipated to take an active role in helping to develop the transformational educational curriculum. Students recommended ways of making a difference in their school, neighborhood, and community while investigating a learning theme of their interest and choice. A total of 15 first grade students and nine parents participated in this study. Limited literature exists on the topic of Reggio Emilia-inspired early childhood classrooms and recycling …

The Implications Of The Intelligence Reform And Terrorism Prevention Act For U.S. Bureaucracies, Brennan Anderson Reeves

All ETDs from UAB

The United States faces a constantly evolving threat from terrorist organizations and individuals who wish to do harm to do harm to its assets and citizens. In 2004, as a response to the 9/11 attacks, the structural organization of the agencies that comprise the U.S. Intelligence Community was changed under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. The goal of the transformation was to enhance the ability and effectiveness of those that are supposed to maintain national security. Coordination and information sharing between the agencies in the IC is essential to ensure that the relevant actors have the knowledge and …

Socioeconomic Predictors Of 30-Day Readmission Of Elderly Patients With Initial Discharge Destination Of Home Health Care, Dianne Marrie Richmond

All ETDs from UAB

Introduction The purpose of this study was to examine the association of social determinants of health with 30-day rehospitalization among elderly patients who were discharged from an acute care hospital with an initial discharge destination of home with home health care support and to explore the social determinants' ability to accurately predict the odds of rehospitalization. Methods A secondary data analysis was performed on data obtained from the home healthcare agency. A total of 4,717 unique patients found in the data set. Some patients were represented in the data more than once during the observation period. To examine the relationship …

Capturing The Semantics Of Evolving Software Ecosystem Architectures, David E. Robbins

All ETDs from UAB

Current software modeling techniques emphasize the modeling of individual software systems using formal modeling tools, such as the Unified Modeling Language. With recent advances in the conceptualization of software ecosystems, the need for modeling techniques capable of describing the interaction between diverse software systems within the environment in which they are created and used has become apparent. This dissertation presents a semantic framework for the modeling of software ecosystems, including a concept-map based notation. Concretely, this modeling framework comprises a semantic web ontology with three classes and two properties. As validated by application to three app-centric software ecosystem case studies, …

Studies Of Dna Gyrase Activity In Escherichia Coli And Salmonella Enterica Serovar Typhimurium., Nikolay Sergeyevich Rovinskiy

All ETDs from UAB

Gyrase introduces negative supercoils into bacterial DNA. In balance with topoisomerase I, it contributes to the maintenance of constant negative DNA supercoiling. It was shown that in Escherichia coli negative supercoil density of pBR322 plasmid is higher than in Salmonella typhimurium. One of the possible explanations of this phenomenon is a difference of DNA gyrase activity between E. coli and S. typhimurium. We developed in vitro assay of gyrase activity which has shown that DNA gyrases of E. coli and S. typhimurium have the same supercoiling end point, but E. coli gyrase works slightly faster than the S. typhimurium enzyme. …

Apoptosis Is Signalled Early By Low Doses Of Ionizing Radiation In A Radiation-Induced Bystander Effect, Hayley Furlong, Carmel Mothersill, Fiona Lyng, Orla Howe

Articles

It is known that ionising radiation (IR) induces a complex signalling apoptotic cascade post-exposure to low doses ultimately to remove damaged cells from a population, specifically via the intrinsic pathway. Therefore, it was hypothesised that bystander reporter cells may initiate a similar apoptotic response if exposed to low doses of IR (0.05 Gy and 0.5 Gy) and compared to directly irradiated cells. Key apoptotic genes were selected according to their role in the apoptotic cascade; tumour suppressor gene TP53, pro-apoptotic Bax and anti-apoptotic Bcl2, pro-apoptotic JNK and anti-apoptotic ERK, initiator caspase 2 and 9 and effector caspase 3, 6 and …

In Vitro Prevascularization Of 3d Tissue Constructs, Lauren Marshall

All ETDs from UAB

There is a need for more effective therapies to combat breast cancer. One reason for the inefficiency of therapeutics is that testing technologies currently employed in drug discovery and development are not reliable when transitioning drugs into human clinical trials. To supplement the currently used in vitro cell culture studies and in vivo animal studies, an in vitro three-dimensional breast tumor system has been suggested with integration of human cells, hydrogel biomaterials, 3D architecture, and endothelialized microchannels. Therefore, the objective of the thesis project, as an initial step in fabrication of the supplemental system for drug testing, is to fabricate …

An Examination Of The Molecular Mechanism Of E. Coli Clpap Catalyzed Polypeptide Translocation, Justin Mark Miller

All ETDs from UAB

ATP-dependent proteases catalyze the removal of both misfolded and properly folded proteins in cellular quality control pathways. ClpAP shares a structural homology with other ATP-dependent proteases where a hexameric ring of ClpA associates with one or both ends of the cylindrically-shaped protease ClpP, which contains serine protease active sites sequestered in its inner core. ClpA contains two nucleotide binding domains where ATP is bound and hydrolyzed, termed Domain 1 (D1) or 2 (D2). D1 has been shown to be primarily responsible for ClpA oligomerization, but both domains appear to support polypeptide translocation independently. We previously reported a molecular mechanism for …

Billey's Formula In Combinatorics, Geometry, And Topology, Julianna Tymoczko

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

In this expository paper we describe a powerful combinatorial formula and its implications in geometry, topology, and algebra. This formula first appeared in the appendix of a book by Andersen, Jantzen, and Soergel. Sara Billey discovered it independently five years later, and it played a prominent role in her work to evaluate certain polynomials closely related to Schubert polynomials. Billey's formula relates many pieces of Schubert calculus: the geometry of Schubert varieties, the action of the torus on the flag variety, combinatorial data about permutations, the cohomology of the flag variety and of the Schubert varieties, and the combinatorics of …

A Generalization Of The Turaev Cobracket And The Minimal Self-Intersection Number Of A Curve On A Surface, Patricia Cahn

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

Goldman and Turaev constructed a Lie bialgebra structure on the free Zmodule generated by free homotopy classes of loops on a surface. Turaev conjectured that his cobracket ∆(α) is zero if and only if α is a power of a simple class. Chas constructed examples that show Turaev’s conjecture is, unfortunately, false. We define an operation µ in the spirit of the Andersen-Mattes-Reshetikhin algebra of chord diagrams. The Turaev cobracket factors through µ, so we can view µ as a generalization of ∆. We show that Turaev’s conjecture holds when ∆ is replaced with µ. We also show that µ(α) …

Intersections Of Loops And The Andersen–Mattes–Reshetikhin Algebra, Patricia Cahn, Vladimir Chernov

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

Given two free homotopy classes α₁,α₂ of loops on an oriented surface, it is natural to ask how to compute the minimum number of intersection points # (α₁,α₂) of loops in these two classes.

We show that, for α₁≠α₂, the number of terms in the Andersen–Mattes–Reshetikhin Poisson bracket of α₁ and α₂ is equal to # (α₁,α₂). Chas found examples showing that a similar statement does not, in general, hold for the Goldman Lie bracket of α₁ and α₂.

The …

Energy Performance Evaluation Of Aac, Hulya Aybek

All ETDs from UAB

The U.S. building industry constitutes the largest consumer of energy (i.e., electricity, natural gas, petroleum) in the world. The building sector uses almost 41percent of the primary energy and approximately 72percent of the available electricity in the United States. As global energy-generating resources are being depleted at exponential rates, the amount of energy consumed and wasted cannot be ignored. Professionals concerned about the environment have placed a high priority on finding solutions that reduce energy consumption while maintaining occupant comfort. Sustainable design and the judicious combination of building materials comprise one solution to this problem. A future including sustainable energy …

In-Vivo Characterization Of Cone Photoreceptor Packing Density With Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy In Different Racial Groups, Ernesto Blanco Rivero

All ETDs from UAB

Cone photoreceptors are one of the two types of essential light sensitive cells that initiate the visual process in the human retina. A normal database of the cone density of healthy eyes may provide an important measure for diagnosing retinal diseases that cause photoreceptor loss, for monitoring disease progression, and for evaluating treatment out-come. Recent studies revealed that the foveal pit morphology, retina thickness, retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, and optic nerve head structure significantly correlated with racial background. We hypothesize that the cone density may be also modified by racial background. To test this hypothesis, I used a …

Resonances And Inverse Scattering, Matthew Bledsoe

All ETDs from UAB

Inverse scattering problems for Sturm-Liouville differential equations find numerous applications in physics, in particular, quantum mechanics. While the theory of these problems has been developed over a number of decades, a more recent concern has been the use of resonances, important phenomena in physics, as data — the inverse resonance problem. In this dissertation, we address this problem in a variety of cases. First, we investigate the full-line Schroedinger equation where the data for the inverse problem include the eigenvalues and resonances. We prove that any two potentials that have enough data points sufficiently close together must also be close …

Ecclesia Semper Reformanda Est: Radical Reformation And The Irs, Mason Powell

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Balancing Donor Intent With Museum Needs: Proposed Deaccession Planning Strategies For Art Bequeathed To Museums, Virginia D. Ryan

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reactive Self-Heating Model Of Aluminum Spherical Nanoparticles, Karen S. Martirosyan, Maxim Zyskin

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Aluminum-oxygen reaction is important in highly energetic and high pressure generating systems. Recent experiments with nanostructured thermites suggest that oxidation of aluminum nanoparticles occurs in a few microseconds. Such rapid reaction cannot be explained by a conventional diffusion-based mechanism. We present a rapid oxidation model of a spherical aluminum nanoparticle, using Cabrera-Mott moving boundary mechanism, and taking self-heating into account. In our model, electric potential solves the nonlinear Poisson equation. In contrast with the Coulomb potential, a “double-layer” type solution for the potential and self-heating leads to enhanced oxidation rates. At maximal reaction temperature of 2000 C, our model predicts …

Executive Functions And Cardiorespiratory Fitness In Survivors Of Pediatric Posterior Fossa Tumor, Kelly Ross Wolfe

All ETDs from UAB

As survival rates for pediatric posterior fossa tumor have improved, issues related to survivorship have become increasingly important. Foremost among these are cognitive difficulties, particularly in the domain of executive functions. The first manuscript reports on a systematic, comprehensive literature review of studies examining executive deficits in survivors of pediatric posterior fossa tumor, including the intervention studies that have attempted to ameliorate these difficulties. The second manuscript establishes the safety and feasibility of peak cardiorespiratory fitness testing in a cohort of pediatric posterior fossa tumor survivors. Survivors had lower fitness than typically developing children and children with cystic fibrosis, and …