Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Chronic Neural Implantation On Localized Vasculature, Andrew L. Ready

Open Access Theses

Prosthetic solutions currently available range from simple devices intended for aesthetics purposes to complex systems attempting to restore lost function and sensation; of these methods, none show more promise in restoration of normal function and life satisfaction than neural prosthetics. These devices directly interface with the nervous system in order to restore realistic function and feeling to the patient, potentially returning them to how their life once was. While in some cases patients requiring prosthetics can utilize peripheral nerves, those who suffer from injuries or disease which cause damage to the central nervous system can necessitate the usage of devices …

The Effects Of Radar On Avian Behavior: Implications For Wildlife Management At Airports, Eleanor R. Sheridan

Open Access Theses

Airports are areas with a high availability of resources for wildlife to forage, breed, and roost. Airports also have different types of radars to assist with air traffic control as well as tracking of wildlife that could become a risk for aircraft. The effect of radar electromagnetic radiation on wildlife behavior is not well understood. The goal of this study was to determine if bird behavior is affected by radar in two contexts: static radar (e.g., surveillance radar) and approaching radar (e.g., aircraft weather radar). We used brown-headed cowbirds as a model species. In the static radar context, we performed …

A Study To Estimate And Compare The Total Particulate Matter Emission Indices (Ein) Between Traditional Jet Fuel And Two Blends Of Jet A/Camelina Biofuel Used In A High By-Pass Turbofan Engine: A Case Study Of Honeywell Tfe-109 Engine, Jacob Joshua Howard Shila

Open Access Theses

The aviation industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5% until the year 2031 according to Boeing Outlook Report of 2012. Although the aerospace manufacturers have introduced new aircraft and engines technologies to reduce the emissions generated by aircraft engines, about 15% of all aircraft in 2032 will be using the older technologies. Therefore, agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Astronautics Administration (NASA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) among others together with some academic institutions have been working to characterize both physical and chemical characteristics of the aircraft particulate matter emissions to …

Ems Induced Mutations In Dhurrin Metabolism And Their Impacts On Sorghum Growth And Development, Jenae Lavon Skelton

Open Access Theses

Sorghum is the fifth most important grain crop in the world. It is a staple food, feed, and silage crop in many developing countries in the semi-arid tropics. One factor that can impact sorghum forage quality is dhurrin content. Dhurrin is a cyanogenic glucoside naturally produced in the plant. When tissues containing dhurrin are crushed, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is released during dhurrin decomposition. HCN is toxic to humans and livestock. While there is natural genetic diversity for the concentration of dhurrin within sorghum lines, there have been no naturally occurring dhurrin-free genotypes identified to date. ^ We have identified ethyl …

Design And Development Of A Novel Test Method To Measure The Slipper / Swashplate Interface Fluid Film In A Positive Displacement Machine, Natalie A. Spencer

Open Access Theses

Although robust models of fluid film behavior between the slipper / swashplate lubricating interface in positive displacement machines have been developed, measuring this same fluid film thickness to a highly accurate degree inside a relatively unaltered axial piston unit has never been accomplished until now. A test method was created to close this gap in available data by measuring fluid film thickness between the slipper and swashplate in a 130cc axial piston pump. Precise knowledge of the gap height between the slipper and swashplate at various shaft angle locations during operation provides critical insight into machine behavior. The design, validation, …

The Effectiveness Of Virtual And On-Site Dairy Farm Field Trips To Increase Student Knowledge In Science, Social Studies, And Health And Wellness Standards, Abby M. Sweet

Open Access Theses

The integration of agriculture into the curriculum can be difficult for educators when materials and resources are not aligned with state learning standards. However, online educational tools, such as virtual field trips that are aligned with state learning standards, can allow for educators to bring the experience of a field trip to the classroom, as well as complement curriculum in the classroom. Virtual field trips also assist with removing many barriers that prevent educators from taking their students on an on-site field trip. ^ This study sought to describe the effectiveness of a virtual and on-site dairy farm field trip …

Effectiveness Of Field Days On Promoting The Adoption Of Recommended Improved Maize Varieties By Small Holder Farmers In Lilongwe District, Malawi, Yakosa Charity Zgawa Tegha

Open Access Theses

The study described the contribution of field days to promoting the adoption of improved maize varieties by small holder farmers of Chitsime and Mpingu Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) in Lilongwe District, Malawi. Sixty farmers from two EPAs where the field days had been conducted were randomly selected. Data were collected through personal interviews because literacy was a problem among farmers. The results of the study showed that 31 (51.7%) of the farmers interviewed were female. Use of other methods such as radio, mobile van, leaflets, posters, village meetings and messages sent to farmers’ cellphones helped to popularize the improved maize …

An Analysis Of Marketing Margins In The Us Beef Industry, John A. Tobin

Open Access Theses

The US beef industry has undergone significant structural changes in the last 30 years at the wholesale and retail levels. Meanwhile producer prices have failed to keep pace with increases in the price of beef received by wholesalers and retailers, resulting in concerns being raised about market power being exercised in the beef industry by stakeholders. ^ This study uses marketing margins to determine what factors affect margins, test for differences among different procurement methods of purchasing cattle, and test for differences among different cuts of beef. This paper extends previous research providing more detail regarding the factors that may …

Iron Nutriture Following Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery, Breanne N. Wright

Open Access Theses

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) is effective for weight loss, but is commonly associated with iron deficiency and its clinical manifestation, anemia. Diagnosing iron deficiency is complex because iron status depends on other nutrients; additionally, anemia following surgery is not specifically due to deficiency in iron, as it can be due to deficiencies in other nutrients including zinc, copper, vitamin B₆, folate, and vitamin B ₁₂. In patients who have undergone RYGB, our aims were to 1) conduct a comprehensive assessment of nutrients involved in iron homeostasis, 2) determine the contribution of dietary intake to iron deficiency, …

Solvent System Selection For Xylooligosaccharides Separation By Centrifugal Partition Chromatography Using Conductor-Like Screening Model For Real Solvents, He Zhang

Open Access Theses

The production of value-added, bio-based industrial commodity chemicals is an important area in science right now and this study provides an initial step in the recovery of bio-based chemicals from hemicellulose. Hemicellulose is a long chain polymer mostly consisting of xylose, which is a five-carbon sugar, and a variety of other compounds that are ubiquitous in plant life. The hemicellulose polymer chain can be depolymerized into smaller components, called xylooligosaccharides (XOS) with different chain lengths of xylose linked by beta-1-4 glycosidic bonds, using either hot water, or dilute sulfuric acid. The xylooligosaccharides can then be purified from one another from …

Role Of Resveratrol Metabolites In Adipose Function, Mikaela Lynn Allan

Open Access Theses

The rise in obesity rate has drastically increased over the last few decades and has quickly grown into a worldwide epidemic. Large increases in visceral adipose tissue accumulation increase risk for metabolic disorders including insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Currently, increased levels of circulating non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) have been suggested to be the mediator linking obesity and type 2 diabetes. Studies identifying ways to alleviate mobilization of NEFA in adipose tissue via dietary phytochemicals may useful as a therapeutic approach. Despite the established benefits of resveratrol in health and in the development of obesity, the role …

Developing Digital Media Platforms For Early Design, Sriram Karthik Badam

Open Access Theses

In recent times, mobile devices are becoming an integral part of our daily life. Software applications on these handheld devices are successfully migrating the traditional paper-based activities such as reading news, books, and even navigating through maps, onto the digital medium. While these applications allow information access anywhere and anytime, there is still a necessity for repurposing these digital media to support content/information creation especially in domains such as industrial design where paper-based activities are common. To utilize direct-touch tablets for collaborative conceptual design, we studied their affordances and iteratively developed a web-based wiki system, named skWiki. In this thesis, …

1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D Alters Lipid Metabolism And Epithelialto- Mesenchymal Transition In Metastatic Epithelial Breast Cancer Cells, Alle Nicole Barnard

Open Access Theses

Evidence suggests that high vitamin D status (marked by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, 25(OH)2 D) is associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer. It has been established that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH) 2 D) can alter glycolysis and the Krebs cycle of breast cancer cells (Jiang et al., 2010; Zheng et al., 2013) but little information is available on 1,25(OH) 2 D's alterations of lipid metabolism in breast cancer cells. Thus, the current research investigates if there was an effect of 1,25(OH) 2 D on proteins that regulate lipid metabolism in MCF10A, MCF10A-ras, MCF10CA1h, and MCF10CA1a epithelial breast cancer cells. While …

Cut-Off Values For Gait Variables To Detect Forelimb Lameness In Individual Dogs, Jennifer G. Carr

Open Access Theses

The objective of this study was to characterize kinetic and kinematic variables in dogs with forelimb lameness and determine lameness cutoff values of gait variables using ROC analysis with observational gait analysis (OGA) as reference. Twenty client-owned dogs with unilateral lameness were included. Dogs underwent orthopedic exam, including OGA, and instrumented gait analysis (IGA; kinetic and kinematic analysis). Kinetic variables with the highest accuracy were PVF and %WD with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.73 and 0.92, respectively. Optimal cutoff value for PVF and %WD were ≤ 10.6 (sensitivity 70% and specificity 75%) and ≤ 29.7 (sensitivity 90% …

Particle Swarm Optimization Using Multiple Neighborhood Connectivity And Winner Take All Activation Applied To Biophysical Models Of Inferior Colliculus Neurons, Brandon S. Coventry

Open Access Theses

Age-related hearing loss is a prevalent neurological disorder, affecting as many as 63% of adults over the age of 70. The inability to hear and understand speech is a cause of much distress in aged individuals and is becoming a major public health concern as age-related hearing loss has also been correlated with other neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's dementia. The Inferior Colliculus (IC) is a major integrative auditory center, receiving excitatory and inhibitory inputs from several brainstem nuclei. This complex balance of excitation and inhibition gives rise to complex neural responses, which are measured in terms of firing rate …

Pharmacokinetics And Toxicity Of The Novel Oral Demethylating Agent Zebularine In Laboratory And Tumor Bearing Dogs, Christopher Michael Fulkerson

Open Access Theses

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the pharmacokinetics and toxicity of the novel oral demethylating agent zebularine (zeb) in laboratory dogs and tumor bearing dogs. This thesis focuses on the application of this therapeutic strategy in dogs with naturally occurring invasive transitional cell carcinoma (InvTCC), which serve as a relevant model of the human disease.

DNA hypermethylation in the promoter region is a common epigenetic change in cancer that silences tumor suppressor genes. Zeb is an oral cytidine analog that acts as a demethylating agent. Zeb has been investigated extensively in vitro as well as in mice, rodents …

Preschoolers’ Physical, Social, And Engineering Play Behaviors: Differences In Gender And Play Environment, Zachary S. Gold

Open Access Theses

This study explored gender differences in the occurrence of 66 preschoolers' (ages 3-to-5; 29 girls, 37 boys) physical, social, and "engineering thinking play" behaviors across three play environments: the traditional playground, the dramatic play area, and an environment in which children played with large, manipulable, loose parts. Previous research has indicated that young children are not engaging in enough physical play to maintain healthy lifestyles. Play may also have benefits for social competency and cognitive development. Observations of children's engagement with a new and engaging play material, Imagination Playground TM blocks, which are designed to foster imaginative and creative constructive …

Managing Swine Manure In Double-Crop Soybean, Donald Joseph Graper

Open Access Theses

Animal production, especially swine (Sus scrofa domesticus ) and poultry, has increased in the United States prompting the need to manage the larger volume of manure beyond land applications to supply nitrogen (N) for corn (Zea mays ) production. Applying swine manure to soybean (Glycine max ) has been shown to increase grain yield due to N supply. The goal of this research was to determine if swine manure applications to double-crop soybean following wheat can limit manure N loading to the soil by extending management options, increase soybean biomass and grain production, and increase N removal …

Standardizing The Collection And Measurement Of Glucose In Exhaled Breath And Its Relationship To Blood Glucose Concentrations, Mark Hamilton

Open Access Theses

Blood glucose level control (glycemic control) is crucial in diabetes. Limitations in current commercially available monitoring devices include causing patient pain leading to poor blood glucose level management. The development of a non-invasive measurement system may lead to improved patient glycemic control, reducing unwanted side-effects and complications of poor blood glucose level maintenance.

This work explores the use of glucose within exhaled breath in attempt to establish an indirect method of blood glucose level measurement. Specifically, exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is examined. A breath condensing unit was designed to measure the temperature of the system, flow rate, volume of expired …

Is Maternal Touch Used Referentially?, Rana Abu-Zhaya

Open Access Theses

Early social interactions are highly multimodal and include a wealth of cues (e.g., speech, facial expressions, motion, gestures and touch). Infant-directed speech (IDS) by itself may aid in language development. Touch by itself has been also shown to play an important role in dyadic interactions affecting both the infant and the caregiver. However, little is known about the impact of the combination of these two modes of communication on infant language development. In this thesis, I hypothesize that caregiver touch is provided in synchrony with speech, providing the language-learning infant with cues that may not only help her to find …

News - Athens-Clarke County Library, Rhiannon Eades

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

White Racial Attitudes In The Age Of Obama, Ryan Jerome Lecount

Open Access Dissertations

What is the nature of White racial attitudes in the age of Obama? This dissertation project seeks to answer this question in three distinct ways. The first empirical chapter examines the role of economic insecurity and education on White racial attitudes. The second empirical chapter evaluates the relative importance of individual vs. contextual factors in shaping Whites' attitudes about race. The third empirical chapter seeks to evaluate the extent to which racial color-blindness (as opposed to other racial attitudes) motivates White opposition to race-targeted programs. Findings in empirical chapters one and two are conditional, while clear evidence is demonstrated that …

Human And Canine Personality Assessment Instruments To Predict Successful Adoptions With Shelter Dogs, Sheryl Lynn Walker

Open Access Dissertations

Animal shelters are often over-crowded with animals, and efforts to match potential adopters with shelter dogs, to improve the quality of adoptions, are increasing. However, a lack of evidence-based practices makes matching difficult. This research was conducted to investigate the role of dog and human personality, using questionnaire-based measurements, on adoption success in two Indiana shelters, Clinton County Humane Society and the Humane Society of Indianapolis. Ultimately, the aim of this project was to assess dog personality, human personality, and satisfaction, to evaluate adoption success in shelter dogs.^ The present thesis contains three studies exploring dog and human personality traits, …

Essays On Productivity Growth In Agriculture, Uris Lantz Caldo Baldos

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation aims to explore the current trends in agricultural productivity and analyse its impact on the global farm and food system. Chapter 2 in this dissertation looks at the current trends in agricultural productivity in India—one most of the populous country in the world. In this chapter, productivity trends in Indian agriculture are examined by looking at changes in Total Factor Productivity—a measure which takes into account all farm outputs and inputs. Estimates in this chapter suggest that TFP growth for the 10-year period—between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010—steadily grew at the national level. Looking at the 5-year estimates, TFP growth …

Regulating Water And War In Iraq: A Dangerous Dark Side Of New Governance, Tracey Leigh Dowdeswell, Patricia Hania

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In the legal scholarship, the 'new governance' mode of governance advances an administrative arrangement where decision-making is shared amongst a range of actors, both public and private. The flexible, responsive, and collaborative governance orientation is intended to counter the ill effects of a coercive, top-down, state-centric, command-and-control approach to governance. Critics contend the new governance framework can displace the interests of local communities, disempower individuals, and dislodge basic human rights. The U.S. military has adopted such an adaptive approach in its own governance structure, which in this article is referred to as: the new governance "mentality." This mentality of governance …

Epistemologies Of The South And Human Rights: Santos And The Quest For Global And Cognitive Justice, Jose-Manuel Barreto

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article offers an introduction to Boaventura de Sousa Santos's general philosophical orientation, explores the concepts of "abyssal thinking" and "epistemologies of the South," and draws consequences for the theory of human rights, taking into consideration the idea of rewriting the history of rights in the context of colonialism and Santos's proposal of a post-abyssal conception of rights and intercultural dialogue. This piece ends with some considerations on the cultural and political conditions for advancing a new understanding of human rights.

The Concept Of Species With Constant Reference To Killer Whales, Thomas Wheeler

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

Watson recognized 182 species, Babington 251, and Bentham only 112. Over 150 years since Darwin’s time, scientists continue to debate what constitutes a species. But while this uncertainty remains unchanged, the law has: the United States has committed to protect individual (endangered) species. What was once merely an academic dispute now carries legal weight under the Endangered Species Act (ESA): recognition of a species can trigger significant economic consequences and non-recognition can doom a species to extinction. This comment examines the scientific roots of taxonomic uncertainty, the legal landscape of the ESA, and the potential unforeseen consequences of the relationship …

Enframing The Flesh: Heidegger, Transhumanism, And The Body As "Standing Reserve", Jesse I. Bailey

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

I argue that Heidegger's account of technology as "enframing" is a helpful lens through which to understand the possible effects and dangers of transhumanism. Without resorting to nebulous concepts such as "dignity," Heidegger's analysis can help us understand how new technologies employed to modify the body, brain, and consciousness will enframe our own bodies and identities as something akin to "standing reserve." Under transhumanism, the body is enframed as an external, technologically modifiable product. I indicate some of the problems that might arise when our own bodies no longer appear as central to our identity as embodied beings. Further, I …

When Harvard Said No To Eugenics: The J. Ewing Mears Bequest, 1927, Paul A. Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

James Ewing Mears (1838-1919) was a founding member of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. His 1910 book, The Problem of Race Betterment, laid the groundwork for later authors to explore the uses of surgical sterilization as a eugenic measure. Mears left $60,000 in his will to Harvard University to support the teaching of eugenics. Although numerous eugenic activists were on the Harvard faculty, and who of its Presidents were also associated with the eugenics movement, Harvard refused the Mears gift. The bequest was eventually awarded to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. This article explains why Harvard turned its back …

Unitary Innovations And Political Accountability, Edward H. Stiglitz

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.