Digital Commons Network^™

Age Cohorts And Emotional Attachment To Mobile Phones, Amanda Warr

All ETDs from UAB

ABSTRACT Mobile phones have become integral to the way people communicate. Although mobile phone ownership is nearing saturation in the United States, use patterns differ among age cohorts. Another difference is the degree to which members of different age cohorts depend on their mobile phones. I explore emotional attachment to mobile phones and how it differs by age cohorts. Using data from a national survey of U.S. adults, I examine whether cohorts differ in attachment to their mobile phones, even when controlling for diversity of technology use. The results illustrate that there are important differences in attachment to mobile phones …

Anti-Group B Streptococci Monoclonal Antibodies Protect Against Invasive Aspergillosis, Rebekah Wharton

All ETDs from UAB

Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous saprophytic fungus which can potentially cause life-threatening infections in immunocompromised individuals. Although a serious threat, current treatments are largely ineffective at reducing morbidity and mortality. To this end, we have characterized a monoclonal antibody generated against Group B Streptococci, type Ib, which also recognizes Aspergillus fumigatus conidia and hyphae. We show that this antibody appears to bind a similar epitope on both pathogens and provides a significant degree of protection in a murine model of invasive aspergillosis via a mechanism that appears to be dependent on complement. The studies we performed using this antibody should …

Hur Regulation In Central Nervous System Disorders, Crystal G. Wheeler

All ETDs from UAB

In inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), astrocytes play a major role in the systemic response to disease by either enhancing or limiting the inflammatory response through secretion of growth factors or cytokines. HuR RNA binding protein regulates many genes involved in inflammation. Inflammatory diseases such as brain tumors, Amylotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), have been linked to HuR, by our laboratory and others. To determine whether astrocytic overexpression of HuR would regulate inflammation in diseases of the CNS, we designed a transgenic mouse in which the HuR gene is overexpressed. In the first study, …

Visible Learning In A Reggio Emilia Inspired Kindergarten: Parents' Descriptions Of Documentation, Melissa Gibbons Whetstone

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this qualitative study was to reveal multiple perspectives and thoughts of seven parents and a family member in a Reggio Emilia inspired kindergarten classroom in a southeastern state of the United States regarding pedagogical documentation, an essential tool for teaching practice and reflection. It served to make knowledge construction visible through children's interpretive concrete work. Throughout the study, pedagogical documentation was defined as both a learning process as well as the products of early childhood content. The content were concrete materials in the form of notes, photographs, audio and video recordings, computer graphics, and examples of children's …

Powering The Tap Dry: Regulatory Alternatives For The Energy-Water Nexus, Amy Hardberger

Faculty Articles

Water and energy are indivisibly linked and interwoven into every aspect of our culture and lifestyle. Large quantities of water are required to generate energy, and energy is required at all stages of the water supply process. Population growth and corresponding demand create significant community consequences including energy blackouts and water shortages. In order to help avoid these unintended consequences, appropriate planning must be done on the local, state, and federal level.

A critical first step in achieving better sustainability is understanding the quantifying relationship between energy and water. This relationship needs to be recognized by both the power and …

Line Up, Line Up: Using Technology To Align And Enhance Peer Learning And Assessment In A Student Centred Foundation Organic Chemistry Module., Barry Ryan

Articles

This paper describes how three technologies were utilised in combination to align student learning and assessment as part of a case study. Multiple choice questions (MCQs) were central to all these 10 technologies. The peer learning technologies; Personal Response Devices (a.k.a. Clickers) and PeerWise (http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz), were implemented to achieve scaffolded, self-directed independent learning by the students which aligned to the assessment methodology through creating, analysing, answering and discussing multiple choice questions. Personal response devices enhanced in-class activity involvement, whilst PeerWise provided structure and support for independent student learning through 15 defined outside class activities. An associated technology, online MCQs hosted …

A Walk Down The Red Carpet: Students As Producers Of Digital Video-Based Knowledge., Barry Ryan

Articles

Disengaged and apathetic students are common in many undergraduate classrooms. Learning to these students is a passive process, typified by a consumer-like attitude. One approach to engage students, and enhance the learning experience, is to integrate active learning into the curriculum. The purpose of the pedagogical evaluative study described here was to investigate if student researched, designed and created digital video could act as a viable reusable peer learning resource. Although the use and integration of technology was central to the scope of this project, other ideas such as threshold concepts, the requirement for both active and authentic social constructivist …

Raman Spectroscopy In Nanomedicine: Current Status And Future Perspectives, Hugh Byrne, Mark Keating

Articles

Raman spectroscopy is a branch of vibration spectroscopy which is capable of probing the chemical composition of materials. Recent advances in Raman microscopy have added significantly to the range of applications which now extend from medical diagnostics to exploring interfaces between biological organisms and nanomaterials. In this review, Raman is introduced in a general context, highlighting some of the areas in which the technique has found success in the past, as well as some of the potential benefits it offers over other analytical modalities. The subset of Raman techniques which specifically probe the nanoscale, namely Surface Enhanced and Tip Enhanced …

The Bio-Nano-Interface In Predicting Nanoparticle Fate And Behaviour In Living Organisms: Towards Grouping And Categorising Nanomaterials And Ensuring Nanosafety By Design, Hugh Byrne, Arti Ahluwalia, Diana Boraschi,, Bengt Fadeel, Peter Gehr, Arno C. Gutleb, Michaela Kendall, Manthos Papadopoulos, Iseult Lynch

Articles

In biological media, nanoparticles acquire a coating of biomolecules (proteins, lipids, polysaccharides) from their surroundings, which reduces their surface energy and confers a biological identity to the particles. This adsorbed layer is the interface between the nanomaterial and living systems and therefore plays a significant role in determining the fate and behaviour of the nanoparticles. This review summarises the state of the art in terms of understanding the bio-nano interface and provides direction for potential future research directions and some recommendations for future priorities and strategies to support the safe implementation of nanotechnologies. The central premise is that nanomaterials must …

Electric Field Standing Wave Effects In Ft-Ir Transflection Spectra Of Biological Tissue Sections: Simulated Models Of Experimental Variability, Tomasz P. Wrobel, Barbara Wajnchold, Hugh Byrne, Malgorzata Baranska

Articles

The so-called electric field standing wave effect (EFSW) has recently been demonstrated to significantly distort FT-IR spectra acquired in a transflection mode, both experimentally and in simulated models, bringing into question the appropriateness of the technique for sample characterization, particularly in the field of spectroscopy of biological materials. The predicted effects are most notable in the regime where the sample thickness is comparable to the source wavelength. In this work, the model is extended to sample thicknesses more representative of biological tissue sections and to include typical experimental factors which are demonstrated to reduce the predicted effects. These include integration …

Occupational Noise Exposure In Amplified Music Venues In Leinster; An Exploratory Risk Analysis., Aoife Kelly

Doctoral

Due to transposition of the EU Directive 2003/10/EC into Irish Law, the entertainment sector was obligated to comply with the requirements of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007, Chapter 1 Part 5: Control of Noise at Work since February 2008. Despite this, there is a lack of baseline data on the adoption and appreciation of these regulations within the sector. The aim of this study was to conduct an exploratory risk analysis of occupational noise exposure in nightclubs and examine the application of occupational noise legislation in this industry.

Noise risk assessments were conducted in …

She's A Brick House: August Wilson And The Stereotypes Of Black Womanhood, Amelia Tatum Grabowski

Student Publications

In his Century Cycle of plays, August Wilson tells ten distinct stories of families in or linked to the Hill District, an African American community in Pittsburgh; one play taking place in each decade of the twentieth century. Through these plays, Wilson's audience sees the Hill District and America evolve, while prejudice, oppression, and poverty remain constant. Many scholars argue that sexism provides a fourth common factor, asserting that Wilson portrays the female characters in the male-fantasized, stereotypical roles of the Mammy or the Jezebel figure, rather as realistic, empowered, and complex women. However, close examination of the women with …

Organizing For Cyberspace Operations: Selected Issues, Paul Walker

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Gene Patents And The Implications For Medicine, Jacob S. Sherkow, Henry Greely

Other Publications

The Supreme Court decision in Myriad Genetics struck down the patenting of human genomic DNA. What will this mean for genetic testing and medicine, more broadly?

Towards A New Democratic Africa: The African Charter On Democracy, Elections And Governance, Stacy-Ann Elvy

Other Publications

The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (“ADC”) recently entered into force on February 15, 2012. The main goal of the ADC is the encouragement and promotion of democracy and human rights on the African continent. The ADC is the first binding regional instrument adopted by member states of the African Union (“AU”) that attempts to comprehensively address all of the elements necessary for the establishment of liberal democracies. The ADC also contains a number of expansive provisions regarding unconstitutional changes of government. For instance, the ADC is the first legal instrument adopted by member states of the AU …

Do Graphic Tobacco Warnings Violate The First Amendment?, Nathan Cortez

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

When Congress passed the nation’s first comprehensive tobacco bill in 2009, it replaced the familiar Surgeon General’s warnings, last updated in 1984, with nine blunter warnings. The law also directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ('FDA') to require color graphics to accompany the textual warnings. By law, the warnings would cover the top fifty percent of the front and back of tobacco packaging and the top twenty percent of print advertisements, bringing the United States closer to many peer countries that now require graphic warnings. Tobacco companies challenged the requirement on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the compelled disclosures …

Understanding Presence, Affordance And The Time/Space Dimensions For Language Learning In Virtual Worlds, Susanna Nocchi, Françoise Blin

Articles

Notwithstanding their potential for novel approaches to language teaching and learning, Virtual Worlds (VWs) present numerous technological and pedagogical challenges that require new paradigms if the language learning experience and outcomes are to be successful. In this presentation, we argue that the notions of presence and affordance, together with the time/space dimensions of interactions in virtual worlds (e.g. Bakhtin’s (1981) chronotope, Foucault’s (1984) heteropia, and Lemke’s (2000) heterochrony), provide new insights into language learners’ trajectories as they attempt to carry out tasks that are designed to make use of virtual worlds’ characteristics and potentialities. We explore and analyse a critical …

Betwixt And Between: Creative Writing And Scholarly Expectations, Sue Norton

Articles

I teach English in a College of Arts and Tourism in an Institute of Technology in Dublin. The institute is one of the largest providers of higher education in Ireland, and it distinguishes itself with small-class sizes, community outreach and engagement, and excellence in teaching. It is, as its name indicates, an institute of technology, but it has aspirations to become a University.

My institute has, no differently than many other organisations of higher learning, sought to boost its reputation for research. It favours research with a capital R, meaning research that conforms to the usual higher education rhetoric surrounding …

Cinematic Jewish Women In Rural Argentina And The Representation Of Argentinidad, Mirna Vohnsen

Articles

From the outset, Argentine cinema has played a significant role in the question of argentinidad. The historical account of how Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe settled in the Argentine interior and became Argentines rooted in the land has not escaped Argentine film. Although period films portray Jewish female characters as nation builders alongside their male counterparts, the study of Jewish women in Argentine cinema has received little scholarly attention. In an attempt to remedy that, this article shows that the examination of the Jewish female onscreen can shed light on the controversial question of argentinidad. It examines the representation of …

Ultrasound For Improved Crystallisation In Food Processing, N. Misra, Navneet Deora, Brijesh Tiwari, Patrick J. Cullen

Articles

Within the food industry, controlling crystallisation is a key factor governing food structure, texture and consumer appeal, with some foods requiring the promotion of crystallisation in a controlled manner (e.g. chocolate) and others a check (e.g. in honey). Sonocrystallisation is the application of ultrasound energy to control the nucleation of a crystallisation process. The use of power ultrasound provides a non-invasive approach to producing crystals with desired properties. Sonocrystallisation facilitates process control, primarily by modulating crystal size distribution and morphology. This paper details the governing mechanisms of sonocrystallisation. Proven and potential applications of the process in foods, including chocolates, honey, …

Making Connections: Networked Mindmaps As A Student Centred Assessment For Learning., Barry Ryan

Articles

Engaging students is a difficult task faced by all academics. Student engagement can be achieved by giving ownership of their learning back to the student and by carefully aligning the assessment methodology to the students learning and future employability. To promote learning ownership in this case-study, a group of final year students were involved in the design of the delivery (‘flipped classroom’) and assessment strategy (‘flipped assessment’) of the curriculum. Upon reflection, students noted a deep understanding of their self-selected topic by taking ownership of their learning and their ‘assessment for learning’ within the bounded learning environment. Additionally, students enhanced …

The Impact Of Transcription And Nucleoid-Associated Proteins On Dna Supercoiling In Escherichia Coli And Salmonella Typhimurium, Andrews Agbleke

All ETDs from UAB

Bacterial chromosomes are maintained under constant negative supercoiled stress that influences almost all cellular processes including DNA replication, transcription, segregation, site-specific and homologous recombination, and other DNA transposition. The average supercoiling density of the chromosome is generated by gyrase, and supercoil equilibrium is maintained by two other topoisomerases topo I and topo IV. The supercoils generated by gyrase can diffuse over 10 kb domains. The other half of the chromosome's supercoil structure is connected to abundant nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs). My goal was to characterize factors other than gyrase that participate in generating or regulating supercoil dynamics in Escherichia coli and …

The Flow Of The Social: Developing A Constructal Systemic Approach To The Study Of Health Inequalities, William A. Anderson

All ETDs from UAB

Society is a dynamic, living system. People, groups, institutions, and cultures are intricately interconnected. Changes in one area of society create changes in other areas. Causes and results may be closely linked or separated by time and space. Sociologists readily acknowledge this dynamic reality. However, our mainstream theories and methods often fail to account for it. Even after decades of research into social inequalities in health, medical sociology still seems far away from being able to offer any definitive ideas about why such inequalities exist and persist despite efforts to alleviate them. Medical sociology (and sociology in general) is centered …

Psychological Effects Of Spiritually Integrated Therapy For Infertile Women, Shiquina Andrews

All ETDs from UAB

Like other medical conditions, infertility is often unforeseen and difficult to resolve. Though both genders are impacted, women exhibit the most psychological distress following the diagnosis. Among other coping strategies, some women use their religious or spiritual beliefs to cope with the crisis of infertility. While projects investigating the role of spirituality in mental and physical health are growing in momentum, none has integrated religious or spiritual beliefs into a formal psychological intervention for infertile women. This project aimed to evaluate the efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of such a 6-week, phone-based, spiritually-integrated therapy (SIT) program for infertile women. In the …

Identification Of Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria Isolated From Clinical Specimens At A Tertiary Care Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study, Imran Ahmed, Kauser Jabeen, Rumina Hasan

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background:
Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are opportunistic pathogens in immuno-compromised patients. They are also increasingly recognized as pathogens in immuno-competent individuals. Globally, an increase in NTM isolation is being reported with a varied geographic prevalence of different species around the world. There is lack of data on species distribution of these organisms from Pakistan. Treatment options differ according to the species isolated and its susceptibility profile. Knowledge of local species variation would help targeted therapy. This study was performed to determine frequencies of different NTM species isolated from various clinical specimens submitted at a tertiary care hospital laboratory.
Methods:
NTM isolated …

Eu Citizenship: Why Can't The Advocates General Keep Sheila Mccarthy's Family Together?, Cma Mccauliff

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Expression In Post-Soviet Russia, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article assesses the freedom of expression in Russia and prospects for its future: what has the Russian state promised its citizens, in what legal forms have those promises been made, and how well are those paper promises being kept in practice? The Article considers recent state actions and statutes enacted to regulate speech, association, and other forms of expression, and determines that these are possible because of the very weak separation of powers in the Russian Federation. The Article concludes by looking at the European Convention on Human Rights as one hope for a power capable of exerting influence …

High Court To Consider Global Aids Funding Restrictions, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Economic Impact Of The School For Advanced Research On The Economies Of Santa Fe County And The State Of New Mexico, Doleswar Bhandari

BBER Publications

The School for Advanced Research (SAR) in Santa Fe, New Mexico commissioned the UNM Bureau of Business and Economic Research to estimate its economic impact in fiscal year 2012 (FY12) on Santa Fe county and the state. The author used an IMPLAN (V. 3) modeling system to estimate three main indicators: economic output (expenditures), labor income, and employment. Highlights of the studys findings: $2.47 million (87%) of SAR expenditures in FY12 were supported by out-of-state revenue sources; direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts included nearly $4 million of output, and generated over $2.31 million of labor income. In addition, SAR …

From Space-Off To Represented Space: A Review Of Reimagining Equality: Stories Of Gender, Race, And Finding Home By Anita Hill., Lolita Buckner Inniss

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home, author Anita Hill explores some of the literal and figurative meanings of "home," focusing specifically on African-American women in their quest for home. Hill layers discussions of law, literature, and culture with stories of individual women, both historic and contemporary. In Reimagining Equality, Hill takes on a topic clearly distinct from the Clarence Thomas Senate confirmation hearings, the episode for which she is best known. Her work here is, nonetheless, evocative of her struggle in those hearings, because the book addresses the interrelation between gender, race, place, space, and power. …