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Easterner, Vol. 65, No. 30, June 4, 2014, Associated Students Of Eastern Washington University

Student Newspapers

This issue of the Easterner contains articles about the top stories of the year, a fall course to improve prison literacy, student and entrepreneur Mohammed Abdulaal, students studying in London for an international master's degree, alumnus Mark Anderson, a showcase for senior film theses, new men's basketball assistant David Riley, football player Allen Brown, the EEEWOO awards, and track and field athletes participation at the NCAA regionals.

Protein Engineering Of Luciferase To Enhance Bioluminescent Properties, Charles Schwab, Peter Wittig

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Bioluminescence is the ability of naturally occurring organisms to emit light. Many instances of bioluminescence have been identified ranging from fireflies to bacteria. The protein responsible for bioluminescence in all of these organisms is luciferase. The exact function and structure of this protein are still unknown to this day. This project aims at better understanding luciferase as well as enhancing its bioluminescent properties. In order to work with luciferase, we had to isolate all of the genes necessary for bioluminescence. The six genes necessary for bioluminescence are Lux A,B,C,D,E,G. We isolated each of these genes from original bacterial DNA. We …

The Alestle - Vol. 66 No. 34 - 06/04/2014, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

The Alestle

Vol. 66 No. 34

Computational Studies Of Blebbing In Model Erytrocyte Membranes, Eric John Spangler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Blebbing, a transition in cellular structures that produces cytoskeleton free protrusions of membrane, is a simple process with many causes.Using coarse grained molecular dynamics methods and the erythrocyte model, we attempt to survey these parameters using experimental results as a guide.After establishing the model's validity, with regard to established membrane mechanics, a mismatch parameter, s, is used to tie together the modeling and methods to make predictions about experimental behavior.Expansions to the model, like the weak adhesion parameter, Uadh and an explicit solvent, show promise in solving deficiencies and gaps in understanding the blebbing and vesiculation problems.The expansions and membrane …

Abq Free Press, June 4, 2014, Abq Free Press

ABQ Free Press

No abstract provided.

From Breakthrough To Business, Unlv Innovations Staff Writer

UNLV Innovation

UNLV faculty discoveries have commercial applications with value to the university, the private sector, and, ultimately, you. Learn about three different faculty members who are working to move their innovative thinking out of the laboratory and into the boardroom.

Research Briefs, Unlv Innovation Staff Writer

UNLV Innovation

• UNLV Leads $20 Million Project on Solar Energy-Water Nexus
• UNLV to Receive $20.3 Million NIH Grant to Support Clinical and Bench-to-Bedside Research
• Fossilized Remains of Extinct Wolf Species Discovered In Nevada
• Physicist Seeks to Build a Safer, More Efficient Lithium-ion Battery
• Study: Elevated Levels of Lead Found in Mexican Hot Sauces
• Extreme Climate Change Linked to Early Animal Evolution

A Top-Tier University, A Thriving State, Neal J. Smatresk, Thomas C. Piechota

UNLV Innovation

It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that all major metropolitan areas across the United States are home to top-tier research universities. Each of these universities contributes in myriad ways to the success of their cities: They help create a thriving economy, a sophisticated and productive work force, and a vibrant quality of life. These universities generate the kind of capital, both human and monetary, that helps their communities flourish. So it is a bit mystifying to most people why Las Vegas and the state of Nevada lack a research university of this strength and caliber.

Recalibrating Cravings And Desires Towards A Whole-Food Plant-Based Diet., Frank Armstrong

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Craving Alcohol., James Peter Murphy

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Rural Development Through Village Knowledge Centers In India, Ramesh Subramanian, Masilamani Arivanandan

Communications of the IIMA

Information and Communications technologies (ICTs) have played a major role in the development of societies. For the past several years, India has experimented with extending the reach of ICTs to rural areas with a view to bringing development to these areas. Several projects are currently underway. This paper examines the implementation of Village knowledge Centers in rural Southern India. We first describe the developmental disparity that exists between urban and rural areas in India, and justify the implementation of rural projects that extend ICTs to rural areas. We examine prior work, and then describe in detail the Village knowledge Center …

Improve Teaching And Learning: Comparison Between Web Pages En Multimedia-Interactive Systems, Esteka Lizbeth Muñoz Andrade, Juan Manuel Gomez Reynoso

Communications of the IIMA

The education field is in a process of change driven by new developments in multimedia technology, which is being used as a complementary-alternative for teaching purposes. This paper describes an exploratory study comparing the effect of using two different teaching approaches: Web pages and multimedia-interactive systems. The objective is to find out whether the use of a multimedia-interactive system delivers better outcomes in teaching complex subjects (data structures) than Web pages approach. Descriptive statistics results show that there are significant differences in students’ performance that used multimedia. We found out that, specifically in this study the multimedia tool improves the …

Concern About Fairness, Ethical Idealism And Demand For Formal Procedures Of Information Management, Joseph S. Mollick

Communications of the IIMA

What factors can predict and explain customers’ demand that formal procedures of information management be implemented in information intensive organizations? Using data collected from students at a large U.S. university, we investigate the effects of students’ concern about fairness and their ethical idealism on students’ demand that universities implement formal procedures in managing information about students stored in databases. We find that individuals’ concern about fairness and their ethical idealism positively correlate with their demand for formalization of information management procedures in organizations. Implications of the findings for universities are discussed in light of ethics, strategy, design, control and administration …

An Exploratory Study Of The Impact Of Formatting On Email Effectiveness And Recall, Bryan Marshall, Peter Cardon, Douglas A. Goings, Sally Humphries

Communications of the IIMA

Although literally trillions of emails are sent annually, little empirical research exists about how formatting of emails impacts email effectiveness. Abundant research exists about the use of subject lines, yet little research addresses the formatting of email content. Many experts from the business communication field have offered advice on effective formatting. We conducted an experiment that controlled for formatting of email messages. The first email message was a job announcement. The second email message contained identical content yet employed what are considered best practices for formatting. We found that university students who viewed the formatted message were significantly more likely …

Do Monks And Nuns Crave Pizza? The Korean Monastic Lifestyle And Food Preferences, Jin Kyung Kim

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Craving Difference In Late 14th Century England., Adrian Bregazzi

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Craving Food : A Multi-Perspective Approach., Róisín Curtin

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Liability Of Municipal Corporations For Nuisance, Irving L. Kalish

St. John's Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cooperation Between Press And Bar, Terence J. Mcmanus

St. John's Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rendering The Unthinkable: (Un)Knowable Animality, Compulsory Recovery, And Heterosexualized Trauma In The Hunger Games, Jennifer Polish

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dystopian fiction is expected to reflect deeply on the interactions between identities, bodies, and state control. Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games Trilogy is no exception. The disturbing trilogy situated animality, disability, and trauma (both of non-humans and of humans) as being firmly controlled by the power of the state (the Capitol). Through its portrayal of hunting and genetic manipulation, the trilogy constructed a state-created animality which refused definitive labeling and insisted upon facing animal subjectivity while simultaneously disregarding the needs and desires of those considered to be non-human. Similarly, the state held sway over both the creation and elimination of …

Creating And Using Interactive Presentations In Distance Education Courses: A View From The Instructor's Chair, Karen K. Hein

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Instructors of distance education courses have many choices when it comes to designing course materials and learning experiences. One approach has been to develop interactive presentations – audio voice-over slide presentations or presentations incorporating voice-over narration plus other interactive elements. Some of the previous research has focused upon the impact of these types of instructional materials on student academic achievement (Stephenson, Brown, Griffin, 2008; Lents & Cifuentes, 2009; Savoy, Proctor, & Salvendy, 2009; and Geri, 2011). Others have examined interactive presentations from a limited instructor perspective, focusing on the tools and preferences in specific disciplines (Pace & Kelly, 2006; Burke, …

An Asian Origin Of Virulent Aeromonas Hydrophila Responsible For Disease Epidemics In United States-Farmed Catfish, Mohammad J. Hossain, Dawei Sun, Donald J. Mcgarey, Shannon Wrenn

Faculty Articles

Unlabelled: Since 2009, catfish farming in the southeastern United States has been severely impacted by a highly virulent and clonal population of Aeromonas hydrophila causing motile Aeromonas septicemia (MAS) in catfish. The possible origin of this newly emerged highly virulent A. hydrophila strain is unknown. In this study, we show using whole-genome sequencing and comparative genomics that A. hydrophila isolates from diseased grass carp in China and catfish in the United States have highly similar genomes. Our phylogenomic analyses suggest that U.S. catfish isolates emerged from A. hydrophila populations of Asian origin. Furthermore, we identified an A. hydrophila strain isolated …

"If She Can Do It, So Can I": An Ethnography Of A Supportive Living Environment For Women In The Criminal Justice System And Their Children, Regina Cardaci

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There are now more women in prisons and jails than at any time in United States history. A large number of these women will be returning to the community. Women returning to the community after release from prison or jail face numerous challenges to successful reentry, e.g., securing housing and employment. In addition, following separation and care of their children by others, women with children struggle to resume their roles as mother.

This dissertation is an exploration of a program that assists women transitioning from incarceration to the community. This program helps women by helping to develop job skills and …

The Effect Of Tdcs On Cd-1 Mouse Behavior Post Induced Sensorimotor Cortex Injury, Michelle Gardella, Natalia Gozias, Kristina Laktionova, Tricia Roehrig

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The functional topography of the motor cortex has been shown to be modifiable by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). tDCS works by directing electrical currents into the brain which induces alterations in neuroplastic cortical excitability. This experiment’s aim was to test the effect of tDCS on recovery of skilled locomotion, recovery of balance, and recovery of grip strength after bilateral electrolytic lesions to sensorimotor cortices in mice. Tests employed in this experiment included the ladder test, grip test, and a balance pole test. We were able to show that 4 days of tDCS post brain injury in mice produced improvements …

How Silently Sheela-Na-Gig Speaks: Memory, Mythos, And The Female Body, Amber C. Snider

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How and why do we destroy female agency, still today? Focusing on some of the mythical foundations and formations found in ancient Celtic and Greek imaginings, the "bodily" aspects in particular, this thesis traces the ways in which some of the modern women intellectuals receive or reject the typical feminist or female elements found in mythologies; the elided nature of the female trinity and the life giver-destroyer circularity inherent in goddesses and archetypes, for instance, appears to mirror our cultural impulse to destroy the female body. It is then not enough to create a new mythology by and for women--we …

Variation In Habitat Thresholds: An Analysis Of Minimum Habitat Requirements Of North American Breeding Birds, Yntze Van Der Hoek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Many species show dramatic changes in population extinction or persistence probability at particular habitat amounts. These `extinction thresholds' could be translated to conservation targets, under the condition that we can derive generalities. I investigated the level of variation in landscape-level habitat thresholds for a suite of North American, forest-associated, breeding birds. Records from Breeding Bird Atlases and the availability of remotely-sensed land cover data allowed me to compare habitat thresholds for 25 species across the states of Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. I show that variation in thresholds is considerable (Chapter II, III), as thresholds range from …

Recruitment Of The Ribosomal 40s Subunit To The 3'Untranslated Region Of A Viral Mrna, Via The Eif4 Complex, Facilitates Cap-Independent Translation, Sohani Das Sharma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Translation of uncapped plant viral RNAs can be facilitated by either an internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) in the 5' untranslated region (UTR) or a cap-independent translation element (CITE) in the 3' UTR. Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) mRNA, which lacks both cap and poly(A) tail, has a translation element (3'BTE) in its 3' UTR that is essential for efficient translation initiation at the 5'-proximal AUG. This mechanism requires binding of the eukaryotic initiation factor 4G (eIF4G) subunit of the heterodimer eIF4F to the 3'BTE and base pairing between the 3'BTE and the 5' UTR. Here we investigate how this …

Comparative Phylogeography, Phylogenetics, And Population Genomics Of East African Montane Small Mammals, Terrence Constant Demos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Eastern Afromontane region of Africa is characterized by striking levels of endemism and species richness which rank it as a global biodiversity hotspot for diverse plants and animals including mammals, but has been poorly sampled and little studied to date. Using mtDNA and multi-locus nDNA sequence data, genome-wide RAD-Seq SNP data, and morphological data, I identify major cryptic biogeographic patterns within and between 11 co-distributed small mammal species/species groups across the Eastern Afromontane region. I focus on two endemic montane small mammal species complexes, Hylomyscus mice and Sylvisorex shrews, co-distributed across the Albertine Rift (AR) and Kenya Highlands (KH) …

Successful Aging: Use Of Communication Technology In An Adult Day Program, Wendy Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigated the relationship between learning digital communication technologies in an intergenerational intervention and successful aging among older adults. The specific goal of this study was to uncover the effects of this intervention on the cultural constructions of aging in an urban Adult Day Program in Trinidad and Tobago. This mixed method study utilized the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS; Sheikh & Yesavage, 1986), a life satisfaction scale, well-being measurements, open-ended survey questionnaires and a focus group session. The results from the quantitative items indicated no significant differences after the intervention; however, the focus group discussion and open-ended surveys provided …

Reading Nation In Translation: The Spectral Transnationality Of The Malaysian Racial Imaginary, Fiona Hsiao Yen Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent decades, literary studies has experienced a global turn, often understood as a move beyond national paradigms of analysis, which are deemed to be narrow and particularistic. Although wary of the tacit universalizing tendencies of global frames, scholars of race and postcoloniality have critically embraced the global by arguing for the need to theorize transnationalism from marginalized perspectives. However, casting the global and the national in oppositional terms ignores the fact that national racial ideologies both actively shape and are shaped by globally circulating ideas about race. An understudied site in postcolonial studies, Malaysia--formerly known as Malaya--is an exemplary …