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Global Approaches To The Analysis Of Cocaine-Induced Gene Expression, Jodi E. Eipper-Mains

Doctoral Dissertations

For over a decade, DNA microarrays have dominated genome-wide gene expression studies, revealing widespread effects of drug exposure on neuronal gene expression. More targeted single gene approaches have added invaluable insights into their behavioral, biochemical, and molecular effects. The more powerful next-generation sequencing technology may soon supplant microarrays for the analysis of complex transcriptomes. RNA-Seq is unparalleled in its ability to identify and quantify low-abundance transcripts without prior sequence knowledge, facilitating detection and investigation of known and novel alternative splicing events, imprinting, and RNA editing, among others. We first used RNA-Seq technology to catalog microRNA (miRNA) expression in total tissue …

A Literature Review Of The Health Effects Of A Plant Based Diet Versus An Animal Based Diet, James Cote

Senior Honors Theses

Health and nutrition can mean a myriad of things to many people in today’s culture. The majority of the time people are unaware of the proper nutrients their body needs and how to get them from food. This thesis will seek to expose the health benefits that are associated with consuming a raw plant-based die, offering a more profound and encompassing view on nutrition. Investigating further into today’s most common diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer and autoimmune disorders, it will seek to discover and answer why we have so many health issues. This thesis will discuss the …

University Of Mississippi 160th Commencement, 2013, University Of Mississippi, Daniel W. Jones, Morris H. Stocks, Myrlie Evers-Williams

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Family Context, Gender, And Gender Meanings On The Acceptance Of Rape Myths, Nicole Humphrey

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Rape myths persist among college students for a variety of reasons, and therefore rape remains a serious problem on college campuses. Past research has consistently shown that there is a relationship between traditional gender role attitudes and belief in rape myths. For example, Szymanski, Devlin, Chrisler, and Vyse (1993) found that men with traditional gender role attitudes believe in more rape myths. Studies suggest that traditional gender role attitudes have decreased as women have entered the work force , and that individuals who grow up in egalitarian households are less likely to hold traditional gender role attitudes. This study examines …

Gender Dependent Flashbulb Memories Of Sexual Vs. Emotional Infidelity, Christine Therese Fisher

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Research has suggested that males are more aroused and upset when their partner commits sexual infidelity and women are more aroused and upset when their partner commits emotional infidelity (Schutzwhol, 2005); however, most studies used forced choice questions and relied on "what if' scenarios, seemingly limiting their application to real-world situations (Buunk, Angleitner, Oubaid, & Buss, 1996). Assessing memory for the discovery of a partner's actual infidelity provides empirical evidence to support these simulations. In the current study, participants (N= 149) were asked to recall the announcement that their partner committed infidelity. Males showed enhanced memory tor discovering sexual infidelity, …

To Live Is To Die: The Effect Of Mortality Salience On Memory And Fear Of Death, Tony F. Bergamini

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Terror Management Theory proposes that the threat of death produces existential terror, which accentuates the need for security. This effect of mortality salience awareness of death-is well documented for non-conscious thoughts of death (Martens, Burke, Schimel, & Faucher, 2011). The objective of this study, then, is to measure anxiety-or fear of death-in reaction to non-conscious as well as conscious thoughts of death by manipulating the valence (positive vs. negative) and content (death vs. non-death) of a story that participants read. I measured any changes reported in fear of death before and after reading the story. Participants also wrote about their …

Long Term Effects Of Positive Affect During Goal Adoption, Katherine E. Adams

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Prior research has demonstrated that positive affect can facilitate goal achievement, typically by having an 'energizing' effect during goal pursuit. However, a recent study (Wainwright, 2011) suggested that positive affect may also result in improved goal achievement if it is experienced specifically at the time of goal adoption. The present study, which was conducted in two sessions, examined whether positive affect during goal adoption can still facilitate later performance on a mental rotation task after a substantial delay period. During the first session, participants were first induced into either a positive or a neutral affective state using video clips. Participants …

Broad Spectrum Systemic Acquired Resistance In Amblystegium Serpens, Christina A. Tatara

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a well-characterized defense mechanism in vascular plants where initial exposure to a pathogen induces resistance throughout the plant to subsequent attacks by a wide range of pathogens. A similar SAR-like mechanism has recently been documented in a nonvascular plant, the moss Amblysregium serpens, but it has not been thoroughly characterized. Currently only one pathogen, the oomycete Pythium irregulare, has been shown to trigger SAR in this or any other nonvascular plant. I have observed and characterized the interactions between A. serpens and two other alleged moss pathogens, the ascomycetes Acrosporium sympodiale and Botrytis cinerea. Using …

Commencement Convocation Exercises - May 2013, Prairie View A&M University

Commencement and Convocation Exercises

No abstract provided.

2013 Spring Commencement, Harding University

Commencement Programs

Program for the Harding University Commencement on May 11.

Commencement Speaker: David B. Burks

Phylogeography Of Sepioteuthis Lessoniana (The Bigfin Reef Squid) And Uroteuthis Duvauceli (The Indian Squid)., Alexis M. Bergman

Honors Theses

Sepioteuthis lessoniana (the bigfin reef squid) and Uroteuthis duvauceli (the Indian squid) are two squid species found in largely overlapping regions in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. While both squids are important to fisheries throughout their ranges, very little taxonomic work has been done on either of them. Previous studies have led scientists to believe that S. lessoniana is actually a species complex (for example, there appear to be three species of “S. cf. lessoniana” in Japanese waters alone). The similarly broad geographic range of U. duvauceli suggests that this species could also harbor substantial …

Evaluation Of Nitrification And Methods To Minimize Denitrification Loss For Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) On Mississippi Alluvial Plain Soils, Paxton Wayne Fitts

Theses and Dissertations

Minimal studies have evaluated nitrification and subsequent denitrification for soils where rice is produced in the delayedlood system. Laboratory and field experiments were conducted at USDA-ARS and the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, MS to quantify the nitrification potential of southern USA soils, and evaluate nitrogen amendments aimed to reduce nitrification rates on clay soils. The Sharkey clay soil at Stoneville, MS was one of the soils with the greatest nitrification potential. Dicyandiamide (DCD) increased the number of days that half the total recovered inorganic–N was in the ammonium–N form (half-life) by approximately 3old and 18% when compared …

Fermentation Of Glycerol To Biogas Under Isobaric And Variable Pressure Conditions, Benjamin P. Hartenbower

Theses and Dissertations

With consideration to the crude glycerol surplus driven by the growth in biodiesel manufacturing, alternative uses for biodiesel derived glycerol have become increasingly essential. Anaerobic digestion of the glycerol reduces the chemical oxygen demand of the glycerol waste product, while capturing biogas as an energy source that can be used on site to reduce heating cost at a biodiesel facility. In this thesis, kinetic parameters are extracted from batch experimental data and applied to steady state equations. A flow sheet for the application of anaerobic digestion to biodiesel derived glycerol is developed and explored. The economic analysis of the scenario …

Techniques For Li-Bdn Synthesis For Hybrid Microarchitectural Simulation, Tyler S. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Computer designers rely upon near-cycle-accurate microarchitectural simulation to explore the design space of new systems. Unfortunately, such simulators are becoming increasingly slow as systems become more complex. Hybrid simulators which offload some of the simulation work onto FPGAs can increase the speed; however, such simulators must be automatically synthesized or the time to design them becomes prohibitive. Furthermore, FPGA implementations of simulators may require multiple FPGA clock cycles to implement behavior that takes place within one simulated clock cycle, making correct arbitrary composition of simulator components impossible and limiting the amount of hardware concurrency which can be achieved. Latency-Insensitive Bounded …

The Influence Of Cyclic Pressure And Angiotensin Ii On The Biomechanical Properties Of Aortic Heart Valves, Valtresa Shena Myles

Theses and Dissertations

Hypertension, a risk factor for aortic valve stenosis, increases transvalvular load and can elicit extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. Elevated cyclic pressure and the vasoactive agent angiotensin II (Ang II) both promote collagen synthesis, an early hallmark of aortic sclerosis. It was hypothesized that increased collagen production induced by elevated pressure conditions or the presence of Ang II would affect the mechanical properties of leaflet tissue by decreasing extensibility. Porcine aortic valve leaflets were exposed to pressure conditions of increasing magnitude with and without Ang II. Biaxial mechanical testing was performed to determine peak stretch. Collagen content was determined using a …

Investigation Into The Effect Of Strong Oxidizers On The Electrokinetic Removal Of Chromium, Copper, And Arsenic From Cca Impregnated Wood Waste, John Amos Broussard

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research is to determine the effects of particle size reduction and chemical pretreatment with strong base oxidizers on the effectiveness of the electrokinetic remediation of wood waste contaminated with chromated copper arsenate. Selection of an oxidative chemical pretreatment solution involved an initial screening between three pre-selected chemicals followed by optimization of oxidative chemical solution strengths and solid to liquid ratios. Samples of each of the three particle sizes were chemically treated with the final oxidative pretreatment and loaded into electrokinetic units where a direct current was applied for approximately fifty days. Similar experiments were performed without …

Grotesque Drag Queens And Toxic Matriarchs: Motherhood And The Subversive Female Body In Disney Animated Films, Allison Footit

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Halinity In Tidal Soils Of The Connecticut River, Marissa Theve

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Meta-Analysis Of Candidate Gene Association Studies On The Blood Pressure Response To Aerobic Exercise, Michael L. Bruneau Jr

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Aerobic exercise (AE) lowers blood pressure (BP) 5-7 mmHg among those with hypertension, but there is considerable variability in the BP response to AE. Genetic predispositions account for 40-65% of this variability; however, identifying genetic variants that associate with the BP response to AE is a challenge. We performed a meta-analysis to integrate the small number of studies that examined the influence of candidate genes on the BP response to AE. Methods: Studies retrieved included an acute or chronic AE intervention; BP before and after AE by genotype; and candidate gene polymorphisms. Effect sizes were the standardized mean …

Development Of An Analysis And Simulation Package For Protein Molecules & Improving The Graphics Of Their Conformational Transition, Hima N. Khoshreza

Master's Theses

Proteins are the building blocks of many living organisms and to study them is to discover many of nature’s processes. Abnormalities of these superb molecules make them also accountable for a wide range of human diseases. Every sixty seconds an American will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The mystery behind this disease and many others might well be revealed by novel protein prediction techniques. This thesis investigates developments of two tools to benefit such techniques.

First, a user-friendly graphical interface (GUI) was developed based on a previously perfected program named ProtoFold. ProtoFold is a protein simulation software that examines the …

Pbzrtio3 And Bifeo3 Ferroelectric Domains, Domain Boundaries, And Switching Investigated With Piezo Force Microscopy, Linghan Ye

Master's Theses

The domain structure of ferroelectric and multiferroic materials can have a significant effect on piezoelectric, dielectric, and thermal transport properties. Piezo Force Microscopy is an ideal tool based on Atomic Force Microscopy that allows unique investigations of such nanoscale effects, and can further be implemented to monitor domain switching dynamics.

A new method for polarization orientation mapping and statistical analysis is first employed to determine the domain variants present in a range of BiFeO₃ epitaxial (001) thin films with specifically engineered domain distributions. This allows domain wall densities to also be calculated, along with interfacial polarization angles between adjacent …

The Relation Between The Blood Pressure Response To Exercise During Training And Detraining Periods, Emily A. Moker

Master's Theses

Exercise training lowers blood pressure (BP) 5-7 mmHg, but the relation between the BP response to exercise training and detraining is unclear. PURPOSE: To examine the BP response after 6m of training followed by 2wk of detraining among a subsample from the Studies of a Targeted Risk Reduction Intervention through Defined Exercise study. METHODS: Subjects were 38 men and 37 women 50.2±10.6y with a body mass index of 30.5±3.2kg·m^-2 and resting BP of 120.0±13.7/79.1±9.2mmHg. Subjects completed 1of 3 types of exercise training: aerobic (AE) vigorous intensity (n=34); resistance training (RT) (n=28); or AE vigorous and RT (n=13). Simple …

Effect Of Positional Dependence In Recognizing Transcription Factor Binding Sites, Saad A. Quader

Master's Theses

Background: Many consensus-based and Position Weight Matrix-based methods for recognizing transcription factor binding sites are not well suited to the variability in the lengths of binding sites. Besides, many methods discard known binding sites while building the model. Moreover, the impact of Information Content (IC) and the positional dependence of nucleotides within an aligned set of TFBSs has not been well researched for modeling variable-length binding sites. In this paper, we propose ML-Consensus, a consensus model for variable-length binding sites which does not exclude any input binding sites. We consider Pairwise Score (PS) as a measure of positional dependence of …

Hollow Fiber Module For Continuous Ethanol Fermentation, Leia M. Dwyer

Honors Scholar Theses

Continuous processes have several advantages over their batch counterparts and are prevalent across the chemical engineering industry today. The process of brewing beer, however, remains a batch process. Transforming the brewing process into a continuous process could have many advantages including lowered process down-time, increased profits, and higher product homogeneity. This project looked into several aspects of the brewing process to gain insight into the potential for continuous ethanol fermentation. First, a kinetic model was developed for the enzymatic breakdown of starch to simple sugars in the production of wort from malted barley. Next, the growth kinetics of brewer’s yeast, …

A Morphological And Genetic Study Of Taxonomy And Evolutionary Divergence In Xanthisma Gracile And Xanthisma Spinulosum, Lavanya Challagundla

Theses and Dissertations

Discerning the basis of phenotypic and genotypic differences within and between taxa is crucial for understanding the evolution of species, subspecies or varieties and races. In this dissertation, I have presented three studies, which use morphological characters and genetic Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLPs) to differentiate cytotypes, populations and species of the genus Xanthisma. The first study is aimed at clarifying the species status of Haplopappus ravenii, which has been considered to be a separate species by some taxonomists and a race of Xanthisma gracile by other researchers. Considering the morphological species concept and the genotypic cluster definition of a …

Assessment Of Climatic Variability On Water Quality, Quantity, And Crop Productivity In Mississippi Watersheds, Badde Vpl Jayakody

Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted on two Mississippi watersheds. The SWAT model was applied to the Upper Pearl River Watershed (UPRW) to evaluate flow, sediment, nutrients, and fecal coliform bacteria (FCB) transport. The model was further applied to evaluate crop and sediment yields from three tillage systems (Conventional, Reduce 1, and Reduce 2) of the Big Sunflower River Watershed (BSRW). In the UPRW, flow and sediment simulations showed good to very good model performances (for flow R2 up to 0.76 and NSE up to 0.75; and for sediment R2 up to 0.72 and NSE up to 0.54). Both total nitrogen (TN) …

Assessment Of Reservoir Quality And Potential Impact Of Sequestered Carbon Dioxide In Diverse Lithological Reservoir Units, South Central, Mississippi, Usa, Assonman D. Degny

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to understand the possible impact of carbon dioxide on different reservoir rocks in south-central Mississippi. Eight samples, including six from the Heidelberg field (Mississippi), were exposed to carbon dioxide under simulated subsurface conditions of elevated temperature and pressure and then analyzed using thin section petrography, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and focused ion beam-SEM. Three of the eight samples showed dissolution in calcite and corrosion in smectite. SEM and EDS analysis of treated sample 5 (Se-5/shaly-sandtsone) and sample 8 (S-8/dolomitic-limestone) revealed newly precipitated lath- and fibrous-like crystals composed of sulfur (S), oxygen (O), and calcium (Ca), …

Bacterial Community Succession During Soil And Ecosystem Development, Shankar Ganapathi Shanmugam

Theses and Dissertations

Organism succession during ecosystem development has been well studied for aboveground plant communities while the associated pattern of change in microbial communities remains largely unknown. A study was conducted along developmental sand-dune chronosequences bordering Lake Michigan at Wilderness State Park and Altamaha river valley of southeast Georgia with the hypothesis that soil bacterial communities will follow a pattern of change that is associated with soil, plant, and ecosystem development. This study site included 5 replicate sites along 14 dunes ranging in age from 105 to 500,000 years since deposition. The microbial composition and diversity in the soil was studied using …

Characterization And Stability Of Bio-Oils Upgraded By Esterification And Olefination, Jingming Tao

Theses and Dissertations

Raw bio-oil is produced by fast pyrolysis of biomass. The high level of oxygen content in bio-oil causes negative properties of polymerization over time, high acidity, pungent odor and low heating value relative to petroleum fuels. The objective of this study was to develop and identify upgrading processes to produce a boiler fuel with reduced acid value, reduced polymerization over time and increased higher heating value. By one upgrading method, raw bio-oil was upgraded by esterification over acid catalyst by batch reaction; a second approach was an in-reactor reaction, produced by injecting methanol or 1-butanol with acid catalyst into the …

Characterization Of Bottomland Hardwood Forests Managed For Desired Forest Conditions, Trent Danley

Theses and Dissertations

Desired forest conditions, or DFCs, are recently created parameters which strive to create diverse stands of hardwoods of various species and age classes, along with varying densities and canopy gaps, through the use of uneven-aged silvicultural methods and repeated stand entries. Little research has been conducted to examine residual stand composition and hardwood regeneration after DFC installment. The objectives of this study were to characterize forest overstory and midstory conditions after DFC treatments, assess the natural regeneration, and to characterize available light in the treatment and control areas. Residual stand conditions after application of DFC harvest guidelines indicate that shade …