Digital Commons Network^™

Death Penalty, Josh D. Moore

Mercer Law Review

The Georgia Supreme Court addressed two death sentences on direct appeal in this survey period, affirming both of them, and addressed four more death penalty cases at various stages of collateral review, leaving death sentences intact in all but one case. Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel frequently dominated the court's discussion of these cases, playing a central role in all but two of them. The court, however, also addressed some important issues touching on mental-health evaluations and evidence, lethal injection, death qualification, and victim-impact testimony

Comparison Of Movement Patterns In Captive-Released Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus Alleganiensis Alleganiensis) Using Three Different Release Methods, Julie A. Boerner

Biology Theses

Eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) population size has declined throughout much of its range. Previous captive-release headstarting programs have resulted in minimal success, presumably due to movement of captive-released animals away from the release site. This study aimed to increase the success of hellbender headstarting programs by assessing the effectiveness of three release methods. Releases were conducted in two stream sites within the Allegheny River drainage. Streams were similar; however stream A contained a higher boulder density. In each site, three salamanders were placed individually in cages, three salamanders were placed individually in nest boxes with the entrance …

The Constructive Role Of Confusion In Trademark, Alfred C. Yen

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Molecular Mapping Of Qtls For Domestication-Related Traits In Cowpea (V. Unguiculata (L.) Walp.), Mebeaselassie Andargie, Remy S. Pasquet, Bhavani S. Gowda, Geoffrey M. Muluvi, Michael P. Timko

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Understanding the genetic basis underlying domestication-related traits (DRTs) of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is important since the genome has experienced divergent domestication and in addition it is also useful to utilize the wild germplasm efficiently for improving different traits of the cultivated cowpea. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for DRTs were identified in a population of 159 F7 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between a domesticated cowpea (V. unguiculata (L.) Walp.) variety, 524B, and a wild accession, 219. Using the constructed linkage map, QTLs for 10 DRTs were analysed and mapped. QTLs for seed, pod and flower related …

Arsenic Targets Neural Plate Border Specifier Cells In P19 Cells, Christopher Mccoy

All Theses

Epidemiological studies have shown that arsenic exposure during early embryogenesis can cause reduced weight gain and neurological deficits later on in life. In addition, in vitro and in vivo studies have indicated that arsenic suppresses neurogenesis and myogenesis. The exact mechanism of how arsenic causes these undesired developmental outcomes is poorly understood, however both skeletal muscle and sensory neuron development require the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to initiate the specific differentiation of precursor cells. We were interested in determining the target cell population of arsenic and its metabolites. Arsenic's metabolites were of interest because they have been shown to be more …

Underwater God Rays From A Custom Volume Renderer, Gowthaman Ilango

All Theses

Peanut Butter Jelly, directed by Alexander Beaty, is a 51 second computer-animated short film produced by Digital Production Arts. The plot focuses on a fight sequence between a pirate jelly fish and a flyboy jelly fish over a peanut butter jar. The production demanded a photo-realistic computer generated underwater environment, which lead to the need for a custom built volume renderer to render high quality god rays. This thesis illustrates the requirement for a customized volume renderer for the production, the algorithm, and the implementation of the renderer. It also describes a tool created for Maya 2012 which gives the …

Sustenance, Brenton Pafford

All Theses

Utilizing the ceramic process I create objects that facilitate experiences in the domestic space. Developing sculptural elements that evoke memory traces, and in heightening the everyday to an aesthetic, I place value on the overlooked, under-thought items that sustain existence. 'It is the realm of these submerged memory-traces that creative art moves, bringing them into the orbit of everyday life and making them available to the experience of others by formalizing and projecting them onto elements of the familiar world which can receive and transmit them.' - Rawson The objects I created for this exhibition are rooted in memory traces, …

The Effects Of Conjugated Linoleic Acid Supplementation On Lipopolysaccharide-Challenged Synoviocytes, Allison Millican

All Theses

Osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of lameness in the athletic horse. Cases of equine osteoarthritis typically present with synovitis, or inflammation of the synovium. This inflammation in the synovium leads to the production of inflammatory cytokines and eicosanoids. Although these downstream products can be beneficial, overproduction can lead to degradation of cartilage and joint disease. Opportunities to help mitigate or decrease inflammation within the joint are of current interest to the equine industry. One method being investigated is nutritional supplementation. The anti-inflammatory effects demonstrated by CLA supplementation make it a potential prospect for utilization in mitigating joint inflammation. …

What Adds Up To Being: The Work Of Tanna Burchinal, Tanna L. Burchinal

All Theses

My practice takes form around embodied experience. I affect signifiers of the human body within the ordered grid, the scientific text, and the logic of the machine, to highlight the interdependencies of physical bodies and those social constructs that produce and influence identity. We are a part of these constructs that both extend and limit; we are enacting and interacting with them. I do not aim to eradicate these structures of power (without them, our identities are in chaos). Instead, I point out the pitfalls of these constructs that are perceived as unchanging, by making interaction and experience integral to …

Determining The Fate Of Non-O157 Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia Coli In Dairy Compost During Storage Using The Optimized Detection Method, Hongye Wang

All Theses

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), a member of Enterobacteriaceae family, has been recognized as emerging pathogens. Dairy compost is commonly applied to farmland as a soil amendment. Despite the agricultural benefit of manure-based soil amendment, the inadequately treated compost can contribute to fresh produce contamination on the farm. Moreover, the epidemiological results showed that the non-O157 STEC cases have surpassed those of E. coli O157. Therefore, it is critical to evaluate the behavior of non-O157 STEC strains in the dairy manure-based compost. The objectives of this study were to: 1) optimize a culturing method for detecting non-O157 STEC from dairy …

Niche Markets For Natural Fibers: Strategies For Connecting Farmers Who Raise Fiber Animals With Textile Artists—A New England Perspective, Linda L. Lowry

Journal of Extension

Farmers annually harvest natural fibers from alpacas, goats, llamas, rabbits, and sheep. However, they have seen a decline in consumer demand due to the increased production of synthetics. Despite global trends of decline, New England farms involved in fiber production have increased. This article identifies niche markets for these natural fibers and provides farmers with marketing/sales strategies to successfully target these markets. Data from 2007 and 2013 suggest that the niche market of textile artists can help farmers increase their profits through direct marketing strategies. Extension professionals can use these strategies to develop educational materials and workshops.

Delivering Extension To The Living Room Using Internet Tv, Grant “Treye” G. Rice Iii

Journal of Extension

Television is a widely adopted source for viewing educational information. Unfortunately, producing a television show on network television can be costly and time consuming. Internet TV offers Extension video content producers the opportunity to create a niche topic channel quickly and at low cost. Internet TV offers viewers a low-cost and comfortable way to watch educational Extension programming on their home television. As of March 2014, there have been a total of 72,063 video views on the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service's sub-channel within the AgSmart Roku Channel.

New Jersey 4-H Goat Extravaganza: Efficiently Meeting The Educational Needs Of 4-H Goat Project Members, Volunteers, And Parents, Chad Ripberger

Journal of Extension

The 4-H Goat Extravaganza maximizes limited resources to help youth and adults develop knowledge and skills in goat care and management. It capitalizes on the talents and interests of volunteers to efficiently combine a goat-themed art show, team presentation contest, quiz bowl, skillathon, and adult workshop into 1 day. This article outlines the Extravaganza and includes the results of a survey of participants from the program's first 9 years. While the Extravaganza has been effective in meeting most short-term objectives, organizers are exploring ways to increase youth awareness and understanding of career opportunities and current issues in the animal industry.

Microneedle Arrays For Injection Seeding Of Tissue Engineered Scaffolds, Katelyn Michelle Rye

All Theses

Tissue engineered constructs have proven to possess comparable mechanical and physical characteristics to autologous tissues making them suitable replacements fordiseased anatomy when autologous tissue transplants are unavailable. However, difficulty in reseeding the constructs with cells prevents the tissue-engineered scaffoldsfrom becoming an adequate, equivalent replacement for diseased tissues when compared to autologous transplants. Cells adhere to the outer surfaces of scaffolds but are incapable of penetrating the constructs to provide complete cellularization. If cells were able to populate the inner layers of the tissue, then they could likely diffuse into the intimal and external layers of the construct to create a …

Environmental Fx For Multiple Productions, Hugh Kinsey Iii

All Theses

This thesis presents methods for creating visually interesting environmental visual effects using Houdini. Four different types of environmental effects are shown: Dust trails, Waterfall mist, Snow, and Underwater dust. Each of these effects emulate real world phenomena, but also have the ability to be artistically driven to fit the visual artist’s need.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions From Switchgrass And Cottonwood Grown As Bioenergy Crops In The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Michele Lea Helton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marginal land of the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV) has the potential to be utilized for the production of bioenergy feedstocks. Soil respiration is the gaseous emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from microbes and plant roots in the soil, and these emissions play an important role in the global cycling of carbon. Soil respiration can act as a positive feedback affecting climate change, and has been shown to vary depending on soil moisture, temperature, and vegetation. The objectives of this study where to evaluate the effects of land use [switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), cottonwood (Populus deltoides …

Fern Community Reassembly In Secondary Forests Of Puerto Rico: Predictors, Complexity, And Niche Model Assessment, Thomas J. Schmidt

Masters Theses

Approximately 94% of Puerto Rico’s forests were converted into agricultural systems by 1950. Since then, extensive abandonment of agricultural land has resulted in a considerable amount of forest regeneration throughout the main island. Ferns are a major non-woody component of oceanic, tropical island forests comprising up to seventy percent of the flora. Consequently, the composition and community structure of ferns may be indicative of the relative richness of these secondary forests. I used Maximum Entropy (Maxent), a widely-used mathematical tool for distinguishing suitable versus unsuitable fern niche space, along with ENMTools, a tool that assists Maxent with proper model selection, …

An Analysis Of Professional Adult Education Programs In Northwest Arkansas, Skyler Leigh Barry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Professional adult education (PAE) has been described as structured educational activities that are designed or intended to support the continuing development of professional or career skills, knowledge, competencies, and abilities. Previous research has shown that professional adult education is a vehicle for adult learners to continue their education and gain valuable skills which can aide in career mobility. Given the importance of professional adult education as it relates to further development of adult learners, the purpose for conducting this study was to develop a profile of professional adult education providers and programming offered in Northwest Arkansas. In order to develop …

Protein Expression, Characterization And Activity Comparisons Of Wild Type And Mutant Dusp5 Proteins, Jaladhi Nayak, Adam J. Gastonguay, Marat R. Talipov, Padmanabhan Vakeel, Elise A. Span, Kelsey S. Kalous, Raman G. Kutty, David R. Jensen, Phani Raj Pokkuluri, Daniel S. Sem, Rajendra Rathore, Ramani Ramchandran

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Background

The mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) pathway is critical for cellular signaling, and proteins such as phosphatases that regulate this pathway are important for normal tissue development. Based on our previous work on dual specificity phosphatase-5 (DUSP5), and its role in embryonic vascular development and disease, we hypothesized that mutations in DUSP5 will affect its function.

Results

In this study, we tested this hypothesis by generating full-length glutathione-S-transferase-tagged DUSP5 and serine 147 proline mutant (S147P) proteins from bacteria. Light scattering analysis, circular dichroism, enzymatic assays and molecular modeling approaches have been performed to extensively characterize the protein form and function. …

Suppression Of Neurodegenerative Symptoms Via Suppressor Of Levy Mutation In Drosophila Melanogaster, William Kaputa

Forensic Science Theses

Mutation of the levy gene on chromosome 2 of Drosophila melanogaster has previously been shown to cause temperature-induced paralysis and neurodegeneration. The Suppressor of levy mutation, Su(levy), also on chromosome 2, modulates the effects of the levy mutation and partly rescues the wild-type phenotype. The goal of this research was to determine if Su(levy) mutation alleviates the effects of neurodegeneration caused by mutations associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases in humans. The mutant genes used were hLRRK2, α-Synuclein, DJ1-α, Pink, Parkin, and Aβ-42. To determine this, flies carrying the above-mentioned mutant genes were …

Utilizing Landsat Tm And Oli In Predicting Oncomelania Hupensis Habitats Around Poyang Lake Before And After Three Gorges Dam Completion, Stephanie L. Mccracken

Honors Theses

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by the Schistomsoma japonicum flatworm that utilizes the Oncomelania hupensis snail as an intermediate agent. In the People’s Republic of China, these amphibious snails contaminate freshwater systems infecting humans, bovines, and other mammals and have caused significant morbidity for over two thousand years (Wertheim, et al. 2012; Zhang, et al. 2012.) The gravity of this disease prompted the national government to initiate sizable public health programs, such as the World Bank Loan Project (WBLP.) In spite of WBLP's achievements, in 2004, after this program ended, a national survey acknowledged a resurgence of schistosomiasis in …

Blood Sacrifice: The Connection Between Roman Death Rituals And Christian Martyrdom, Angela Dawne Kennedy

Honors Theses

Scholars from a variety of disciplines have done some incredible work on the subject of martyrdom, but the story is far from complete, particularly in terms of how and why it was so similar to the Roman concept of public deaths. The primary sources include the surviving Christian martyrologies, Greco-Roman philosophical treatises, and Roman, Christian, and Jewish histories. Martyrdom itself was a tool of assimilation that somehow bridged the communities of the empire together. There is a huge body of information in a variety of genres that contribute to this project. But there exists a hole in the combined scholarship …

The Complexity Of Common Core: Teaching Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince As A 7th Grade Complex Text, Allyson R. Jones

Honors Theses

With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards occurring across the country, schools and students are seeing changes in the organization of education. These standards, grounded in English Language Arts and Mathematics, are designed to push students’ critical thinking skills, writing ability, and methods of communication to prepare them for their life beyond secondary education. For English Language Arts, there is an emphasis on teaching complex texts. In this study, I examined the qualities of complex texts to determine if Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince could be considered a teaching tool for seventh grade students. To do this, …

Security Analysis On Network Systems Based On Some Stochastic Models, Xiaohu Li

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Due to great effort from mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists, network science has attained rapid development during the past decades. However, because of the complexity, most researches in this area are conducted only based upon experiments and simulations, it is critical to do research based on theoretical results so as to gain more insight on how the structure of a network affects the security. This dissertation introduces some stochastic and statistical models on certain networks and uses a k-out-of-n tolerant structure to characterize both logically and physically the behavior of nodes. Based upon these models, we draw several illuminating results …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Technology Effectiveness In High School, Heather L. Gianfagna

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine high school teachers’ perceptions of technology in the classroom, including technology access, usage, and effectiveness. This study was conducted by administering a survey to high school teachers, Grades 9 through 12, in Indiana. The survey, entitled Teachers’ Perceptions of Technology Effectiveness in High Schools was used with high school teachers’ to determine their perceptions of technology access, usage, and effectiveness in classrooms. A total of 343 teachers submitted complete responses to the Teachers’ Perceptions of Technology Effectiveness in High Schools. I developed a survey to quantitatively measure the perceptions of teachers on …

A Hazard Assessment And Proposed Risk Index For Art, Architecture, Archive And Artifact Protection: Case Studies For Assorted International Museums, Clara Jeanene Kirk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study proposes a hazard/risk index for environmental, technological, and social hazards that may threaten a museum or other place of cultural storage and accession. This index can be utilized and implemented to measure the risk at the locations of these storage facilities in relationship to their geologic, geographic, environmental, and social settings. A model case study of the 1966 flood of the Arno River and its impact on the city of Florence and the Uffizi Gallery was used as the index focus. From this focus an additional eleven museums and their related risk were assessed. Each index addressed a …

Protein Turnover In Broiler, Layers, And Broiler Breeders, Karen Vignale Lake

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Protein turnover in skeletal tissue for broiler breeders has shown to increase at sexual maturity and then decline with increased egg production. Regarding broiler chickens the industry is facing two situations that need to be clarified: the appearance of white stripes in birds over 56 days of age and the positive effect in breast meat yield that supplementation of 25OH-D3 is causing. A series of studies were conducted to determine the effect of sexual maturity in protein turnover in broiler breeders and laying hens and to understand the effect of 25OHD3 in breast meat yield in broiler chickens and why …

Evaluation Of Phytate And Phytase Interactions And Phytase Phase-Feeding On Bird Performance, Bone Characteristics And Meat Quality In Young Growing Broilers, Chance L. Williams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two trials were performed using one-day-old male Cobb x Cobb 500 broilers to determine how dietary phytate and phytase levels as well as phytase phase feeding impacted bird performance parameters, tibia characteristics, and malonaldehyde (MDA) content of the liver, breast and thigh tissues. The first experiment consisted of 1,008 birds randomly placed in 48 floor pens within two commercial broiler houses at the Applied Broiler Research Farm (ABRF; 21 birds per pen; 0.76 ft2 per bird). A 2 X 3 factorial design was used with two levels of dietary phytate (0.21 and 0.31 %) and three levels of phytase supplementation …

Switchgrass Cultivar, Harvest Frequency, Fertilizer Source, And Irrigation Effects On Near-Surface Soil Properties In West-Central Arkansas, Alayna A. Jacobs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) has been identified as a model bioenergy feedstock crop and is expected to become an important feedstock for future renewable fuel generation. Agronomic management combinations that maximize monoculture switchgrass yield are generally well understood; however, little is known about corresponding effects of differing switchgrass management combinations on near-surface soil properties. The objective of this research was to determine the residual near-surface soil property effects of three years (2008 to 2011) of consistent management combinations to maximize switchgrass biomass production, including cultivar (‘Alamo’ and ‘Cave-in-Rock’), harvest frequency (1-cut and 2-cut systems per year), fertilizer source (poultry …

Development Of A Turkey Coccidiosis Vaccine Candidate: An Attenuated Line Of The Protozoan Parasite, Eimeria Meleagrimitis, Thilakar Rathinam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coccidiosis is an economically important enteric disease of poultry caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Eimeria. Drugs are most commonly used to control coccidiosis. Widespread usage of anticoccidial drugs in the field has resulted in development of drug resistant strains and consequently decreased drug efficacy. An alternative control strategy using attenuated vaccines is desired. A series of experiments was designed to identify, isolate and attenuate a strain of a common and pathogenic species of Eimeria of turkeys, E. meleagrimitis.

Sensitivity of field isolates of turkey coccidia to the anticoccidials drugs amprolium, clopidol, diclazuril, and monensin was investigated. A …