Digital Commons Network^™

Heterochromatin Protein 1a (Hp1a) Partner Specificity Is Determined By Critical Amino Acids In The Chromo Shadow Domain And C-Terminal Extension, Deanna Lynn Mendez, Rebecca Mandt, Sarah C.R. Elgin

Biology Faculty Research

Drosophila melanogaster Heterochromatin Protein 1a (HP1a) is an essential protein critical for heterochromatin assembly and regulation. Its chromo shadow domain (CSD) homodimerizes, a requirement for binding protein partners that contain a PXVXL motif. How does HP1a select among its many different PXVXL-containing partners? HP1a binds tightly to Heterochromatin Protein 2 (HP2), but weakly to PIWI. We investigated differences in homodimerization and the impact of the C-terminal extension (CTE) by contrasting HP1a to its paralogue, HP1b. HP1a and HP1b differ in the dimerization interface, with HP1a having an Arg at position 188 rather than Glu. We find that while this substitution …

The Effect Of Surgical Guides On Heat Generation During Guided Implant Surgery: An In Vitro Study, Safa Tahmasebi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Purpose: The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the heat generated in bone by one implant drill system with and without using surgical drill guides. Temperature elevation during guided surgery was compared to that of conventional drilling in bovine femur specimens. Significant differences in temperature elevation between conventional osteotomy and guided surgical osteotomy were examined.;Materials and Methods: Conventional and Surgically guided osteotomies were performed in 117 randomized measurements with K type thermocouples in an in-vitro study using bovine cortical bone. Using an internally and externally irrigated implant system, intermittent drilling at 2- second intervals at a constant …

Effect Of Delmopinol Hydrochloride On Endodontic Biofilm, Gabriel M. Holley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background: The ideal goal of endodontic therapy is to decrease the microbial load within the root canal system followed by the placement of a hermetic seal of the apical portion of the root. Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) has long been considered the gold standard for disinfecting root canals, but, the presence of a persistent intraradicular biofilm in properly cleaned and shaped canals has led to the need of development for adjunct irrigant targeting these complex structures. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the effects on the biofilm of NaOCl and delmopinol hydrochloride (DH), a new FDA approved oral …

Lessons In Modeling, Preventing, And Treating Neural Injury: Improving Bench-To- Bedside Translation, Ryan Coddington Turner

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The translation of therapeutic agents for ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury from the preclinical laboratory to clinical trials has been fraught with failure as evident by the 1,000+ preclinical studies that have failed to translate to a proven therapeutic clinically. Numerous potential reasons for these shortcomings have been identified and include the use of animal models that fail to capture clinically relevant risk factors or injury parameters, targeting of pathological events occurring rapidly after injury but before the likely time of patient presentation for treatment, emphasis on acute rather than chronic outcome measures, and mismatch in outcome measures used …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Healthy Me A Nutritional And Exercise Program For African American Adolescents In An Urban School Utilizing The Cope/Teen Program, Patricia D Setlow

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background.;Obesity, a preventable and reversible condition, increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, while decreasing both life expectancy and quality of life (U.S. Department of Health And Human Services, 2001). The national obesity rate for adolescents ages 12-19 years was 18.1% in the 2007-2008 period, a significant change from 6.1% in the early 70's (CDC, 2009). According to Barlow (2007) these figures have sounded alarms for all involved in the health care of children and adolescents.;Objectives.;The purpose of this pilot program was to assess the effectiveness of providing nutritional education and exercise opportunities for African American adolescents …

Let There Be Light! Indexing Items From Digital Commons In Apache Solr Via Oai-Pmh, Graham Hukill

Library Scholarly Publications

To increase visibility and discoverability of assets in our Digital Commons repository, we have created a fully automated, regularly scheduled utility that, using the OAI-PMH protocol, indexes items from Digital Commons in the powerful, open-source search platform Apache Solr. Indexing metadata of items from Digital Commons allows us to support cross-collection, cross-database, and cross-platform searching for our patrons by integrating Digital Commons search results in library created search interfaces. This poster will provide a brief overview of Solr, outline the mechanics of this utility, and suggest how other institutions could harness this technique.

Parenting And Attachment Among Low-Income African-American And Caucasian Preschoolers, Casey A. Dexter, Kristyn Wong, Ann M. Stacks, Marjorie Beeghly, Douglas Barnett

Psychology Faculty Research Publications

Despite a plethora of research on parenting and infant attachment, much less is known about the contributions of parenting to preschool attachment, particularly within different racial groups. This study seeks to build on the extant literature by evaluating whether similar associations between parenting and attachment can be observed in African American and Caucasian families, and whether race moderates them. Seventy-four primary caregivers and their preschool children (51% African American, 49% Caucasian, 46% male) from similar urban, low income backgrounds participated in two visits four weeks apart when children were between four and five years of age. Attachment was scored from …

Institutional Data Book 2012-2013, University Of Minnesota, Morris Office Of Institutional Research

Campus Documents and Reports

No abstract provided.

Perceived Cultural Proximity And Perceived News Source Credibility In Puerto Rico, Camila Espina

Media Studies - Theses

This study examines the relationship between interaction with the United States, perceived cultural proximity between Puerto Rican and American culture, and perceived source credibility of American news media. Existing literature on media credibility, cultural proximity, and acculturation was used to design an online survey. The sample of this study consists of three hundred and seventy two Puerto Ricans that resided in Puerto Rico at the time of data collection (N=372).

Data analysis procedures involved paired samples t-test as well as Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. The current study yielded three key findings. The first finding demonstrates that respondents perceive American news media …

Use Of Alkaline Treated Crop Residues As Partial Grain Replacements For Finishing Cattle, Adam L. Shreck

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recently, corn has become expensive and this has led to high feed costs and decreased profitability. High priced corn has allowed for the consideration of other ingredients as replacements to reduce diet cost. In much of the Corn Belt, supplies of wet or modified distillers grains and crop residues are abundant. These ingredients were investigated as corn replacements. Studies were conducted to identify methods for treating crop residues to improve digestibility and value in finishing diets based on corn grain and corn wet distillers grain with solubles (WDGS). Digestibility and value of crop residues were improved by mild chemical treatment. …

Persuasion In Political Discourse: Tunisian President Ben Ali's Last Speech As A Case Stud, Soufien Jarraya

Theses - ALL

Within a discourse analysis framework, this research investigates persuasion in political discourse in the last speech of the former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, delivered one day before he left the country in the middle of the Tunisian Revolution that sparked the so-called Arab Spring.

Sentences are analyzed to check their illocutionary force in light of Searle's typology of Speech Act Theory. Then, an analysis of agency is carried out to investigate the persuasive dimension of the use of deictic pronouns to construct the self-image as well as the image of the Other. The speech is also examined …

Ammonia And Nitrous Oxide Loss From Sprinkler Applied Beef Feedlot Effluent, Blythe P. Mcafee

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

A range of flux chambers are available and have been used to measure fluxes of atmospheric gases, including NH₃, with the addition of acid traps. Previous studies show acid traps can be very effective but there is a need to understand how chambers affect acid trap efficiency so measurements can be adjusted for more accurate results. In this lab study, chamber tightness, pump flow variation, and NH₃ trapping efficiency of a flux chamber system were examined. Chamber leakage varied with time from 1-7%. Pumping rate between pumps was significantly different and when included in the closed chamber …

Local Adaptation To Climate Change In A Calcareous Grassland System, Catherine Ravenscroft

Biology - Dissertations

Annual manipulations of temperature and rainfall have been maintained in intact calcareous grassland since 1993 at the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Laboratory (BCCIL) in northern England (UK). Here I investigated the role of local adaptation as mechanism of the apparent resistance of species' to long-term climate manipulations at BCCIL using a common forb, Plantago lanceolata. Plantago lanceolata is a rosette-forming, perennial herb of wide-ranging distribution, and one of the more common forbs in calcareous grasslands, including BCCIL. In the first study I used a common garden approach to test for evidence of selection for different suites of functional traits in …

Controlling Bacterial Persister Cells And Biofilms By Synthetic Brominated Furanones, Jiachuan Pan

Biomedical and Chemical Engineering - Dissertations

Bacteria are well known to obtain tolerance to antibiotics by forming multicellular structures, known as biofilms, and by entering dormancy and forming persister cells. Both mechanisms allow bacteria to tolerate antibiotics at concentrations hundreds to thousands of times higher than the lethal dose for regular planktonic cells of the same genotype. Persister formation increases in biofilms; thus, effective control of persister cells, especially those in biofilms is critically important to infection control. Over the past decades, a bacterial signaling system based on cell density, named quorum sensing (QS), has been found to regulate biofilm formation and, in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the …

Production Of Biodiesel-Like Components By The Type I Methanotroph Methylomonas Methanica, Megan Diane Burdette

All Theses

Bacteria that utilize methane as a sole source of carbon and energy are referred to as methanotrophs. Industrial uses of these types of organisms include the production of poly-hydroxybutyrate as well as the degradation of some chlorinated hydrocarbons that are considered pollutants in the environment. Methanotrophs also play an important role in methane cycling in the environment. Methane gas has the ability to trap 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide, which makes it a potent greenhouse gas. A defining characteristic of methanotrophs is the production of extensive intracytoplasmic membranes composed of lipids that are 16 or 18 carbons in …

Particle Electrophoresis And Magnetophoresis In Microchannels, Litao Liang

All Theses

In current pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with clinical applications, an increased demand for flow control and cell manipulation on the micrometer scale has emerged. Electrokinetic, magnetic and many other physics fields have been exploited to meet this demand. However, due to the requirement for sophisticated micro-structures and the interference of the increasing significance of many `trivial' physics properties (surface potential, permittivity, etc.) at the smaller scale, most applications encounter poor maneuverability and high operation/fabrication complexity issues. Very few attempts have been made to bypass these requirements while maintaining the same control and efficiency. This thesis research investigates the fundamental behaviors …

Genetic And Environmental Determinants In The Evolution Of Alternative Mating Strategies In The Sailfin Molly, Poecilia Latipinna (Poeciliidae: Poecilia: Mollienesia), Elizabeth Lange

All Theses

Understanding the genetic and environmental factors responsible for differences in size, morphology and behavior can aid in determining how alternative male mating strategies evolve in natural populations. One important environmental factor is nutrition, as it underlies growth of both body size and morphological traits that are linked to alternative mating strategies in many animals. In sailfin mollies, Poecilia latipinna , male size is fixed at maturity, highly variable within populations and correlated with dorsal fin morphology and expression of alternative male mating behaviors. Large males with exaggerated dorsal fins use courtship behavior while small males with reduced dorsal fins use …

Air Pressure Energy Storage For Reverse Osmosis: Bench-Scale Proof Of Concept, Ying Sun

All Theses

Society faces diminishing access to clean drinking water because of increasing global population and the development of modern industries. At the same time, climate change and other environmental problems caused by the increase in fossil fuel consumption the emphasis on reducing dependency on traditional energy resources in the process of potable water production. To address both problems, a small-scale wind powered reverse osmosis (RO) desalination system with a unique energy storage mechanism was envisioned to provide an energy buffer such that fluctuating and intermittent wind can be utilized. Energy is stored in the form of compressed air in a pressure …

Black Bear Encounters In The Wildland-Urban Interface Of Upstate South Carolina, Victoria Luke

All Theses

As humans move into more remote areas wildlife are displaced and there are an increasing number of human-wildlife interactions. Human dimensions research is important in order to understand social components necessary to maintain healthy wildlife populations while also maintaining healthy relationships between wildlife and the local community. In upstate South Carolina, the number of wildlife nuisance calls received by the Department of Natural Resources has increased. More importantly, wildlife populations, particularly the American black bear (Ursus americanus), continue to move into urban areas. The following study explores black bear encounter report calls coming into the SC Department of Natural Resources …

Microbial Exo-Enzyme Activities In Soil As Infuenced By Polyphenol Chemistries, Daniella Freese

All Theses

Soil organic matter decomposition is directly driven by the soil extracellular enzymes excreted by soil microorganisms. Therefore, factors which impede extracellular enzyme activity would result in retarding the rate of soil organic matter decomposition. Several factors in the soil may influence soil extracellular enzymes including the plant secondary metabolites, polyphenols- tannins and lignins. However, thus far few investigations have considered the direct and indirect impacts of polyphenols on soil enzyme activities. Hence, three investigations were conducted to understand the ecological impacts of tannins and lignins on soil extracellular enzyme activities.
Tannins, further classified as condensed and hydrolysable tannins, can hamper …

Functional Analysis Of A Glutathione S-Transferase Gene From Reniform Nematode On Soybean, Jing Hou

All Theses

Nematode glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) have been implicated in plant-nematode interactions as effector proteins with an important role in the establishment of feeding sites. Studies with root-knot nematode in Arabidopsis thaliana suggest that GSTs may protect the nematode against oxidative plant defenses and modulate plant responses to parasitism. Our objective was to study the function of a GST from reniform nematode (Rotylenchulus reniformis) in soybean. We used a virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) system, utilizing a Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV)-based vector and a partial sequence of gsts-1 from Meloidogyne incognita to silence the putative reniform nematode homolog. The effect of silencing …

Biological Production Of Succinic Acid Using A Cull Peach Medium, Janani Krishnakumar

All Theses

Biological production of succinic acid from a cull peach based medium was studied using Escherichia coli AFP 184 in a dual-phase batch process including an aerobic growth phase and an anaerobic production phase. Experiments were performed to study the effects of corn steep liquor supplement and exogenous hydrogen supply. About one half of the sucrose in the medium was converted to fermentable sugars glucose and fructose during sterilization. The remaining sucrose was hydrolyzed with invertase. The viscosity of the medium was reduced from 350 cP to 50 cP to allow efficient oxygen transfer by a commercial enzyme product. In the …

Evaluation Of Effects That Can Mask Low Decay Rates Of Tce In Aerobic Groundwater Plumes, Laura Daniels

All Theses

Current methods for evaluating chlorinated solvent plumes often assume that no TCE degradation occurs under aerobic conditions. It is possible that decay rates with values greater than zero exist in these plumes, but this decay may be masked by effects of parameter values in zero–decay–rate models. This hidden decay can be identified by comparing the zero–decay–rate models with others that have been created with a decay rate greater than zero.
The results of this research and analysis show that it is possible to create matches between the zero–decay–rate models and models with greater than zero decay rates by adjusting model …

Describing Plutonium Contamination Issues In Hanford Soils: Development Of A Thermodynamic Surface Complexation Model, Sarah Herr

All Theses

The development of remediation strategies for long-term site management requires knowledge of an actinide's geochemical behavior. Understanding this behavior can lead to the formation of a subsurface transport model. For example, plutonium mobility in the subsurface environment is significantly influenced by oxidation-reduction and complexation reactions. This work considered the surface-mediated reduction of plutonium, as well as the hydrolysis and carbonate complexation of the actinide.
Evaluating the significance of these reactions required several variable pH batch sorption studies. Experiments incorporated plutonium and neptunium sorption to sediments from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. Two different sediments were examined: coarse-grained and …

Development Of Hplc Methods For The Determination Of Water-Soluble Vitamins In Pharmaceuticals And Fortified Food Products, Hung Khiem Trang

All Theses

Though many HPLC methods have been developed and reported in literature for vitamin analysis for the past two decades, applying certain methods directly from literature more than often fails to reproduce the results reported due to many variables of liquid chromatography. This issue was targeted in this project through the examination of chromatographic behaviors of water-soluble vitamins in order to help the analysts better modify methods from literature or even develop new methods from scratch to fit their analytical need with the resources available (e.g., columns, detectors, etc.) in their lab.
The first part of the project investigated the chromatographic …

Spectroscopic Investigation Of Protein Corona, Poonam Choudhary

All Theses

Nanotechnology has revolutionalized the landscape of modern science and technology, including materials, electronics, therapeutics, bioimaging, sensing, and the environment. Research in the past decade has examined the fate of nanomaterials in vitro and in vivo, as well as the interactions between nanoparticles and biological and ecosystems using primarily toxicological and ecotoxicological approaches. However, due to the versatility in the physical and physicochemical properties of nanoparticles, and due to the vast complexity of their hosting systems, the solubility, transformation, and biocompatibility of nanomaterials are still poorly understood. Nanotechnology has been undergoing tremendous development in recent decades, driven by realized perceived applications …

Avian Community Response To Fire-Mediated Regeneration Of Native Pine Stands In The Mountains Of South Carolina, Curtis Walker

All Theses

To assess the impacts of fire disturbance management on the avian community at Jocassee gorges in the mountains of South Carolina, a total of 1000 10-minute, 50 m radius point counts were conducted in treatment and control plots during the spring breeding seasons of 2011 and 2012. Comparisons of avian communities were made between the burned treatment sites and reference control sites to examine community and priority species response to prescribed fire. Values of species diversity, species richness, and total number of individuals were found to be significantly higher in the burned treatment plots than in the control plots as …

Diversity Among Isolates Of Phytophthora Cinnamomi From Ornamental Plants In South Carolina, Simon Schreier

All Theses

Phytophthora cinnamomi is a devastating pathogen that can attack over 900 hosts. It is the most common species of Phytophthora isolated from woody ornamental crops in South Carolina but little is known about variability among isolates of P. cinnamomi that attack these plants. Therefore, 142 isolates of P. cinnamomi recovered from diseased plant samples submitted to the Clemson University Plant Problem Clinic between 1995 and 2011 were characterized for mycelium growth habit, growth rate, mefenoxam sensitivity, mating type, and sporangium morphology. Mycelium growth habit on PARPH-V8 selective medium was classified as aerial, appressed, or dwarf; 87% of isolates had the …

Removal Of Tio2 Nanoparticles By Conventional Water Treatment Processes, Bin Zhang

All Theses

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) are one of the most common nanomaterials used in nano based products. They are used as antimicrobial, antibiotic, and antifungal agents, ultraviolet (UV) blockers, antiscratch additives, and catalysts, because TiO₂ NPs have high specific surface area and sorption capacity for ionic and nonionic species, and ultraviolet (UV) reflecting capabilities. However, TiO₂ NPs could enter human body through skin, food, inhalation and drinking water, and cause potential adverse effect, including production of oxidation radicals, genotoxic effects, and inflammation and neurotoxic effects.

The main objective of this study was to examine the efficiency of …

Characterizations Of Distributions Of Ratio Of Certain Independent Random Variables, Gholamhossein Hamedani

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Various characterizations of the distributions of the ratio of two independent gamma and exponential random variables as well as that of two independent Weibull random variables are presented. These characterizations are based, on a simple relationship between two truncated moments ; on hazard function ; and on functions of order statistics.