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Scholarships Awarded To Mcnair Scholars, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Identification Of The Broad Horned Flour Beetle X Chromosome By Whole Genome Sequencing, Mason Bartels

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Mutation Frequencies For Resistance To Rifaximin And Fusidic Acid In Clostridium Difficile, Emmanuel Fordjour

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Examining Descriptive Patterns And Differences In College Students' Beliefs About The Nature Of Science, Scientific Reasoning Ability, Religiosity, Understanding Of Evolution, And Acceptance Of The Theory Of Evolution, Stephanie Gutierrez

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Applying Computational Methods To Dna Pattern Classification In Cancer Discovery, Mira Ghiat

Theses (Pre-2016)

The accumulation of large-scale data gathered from experiments and tests in the medical field prompts for new computational technologies that can exploit this huge amount of data to its fullest extent. In recent years, several efforts have been made to develop computational models and tools based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. These tools have been used by biologists for data clustering and classification. In addition to their use in different areas related to knowledge discovery, modeling, and optimization, these tools can be used to develop computational models that might lead to predicting the response of complex biological systems to any …

The Distribution And Reproductive Success Of The Western Snowy Plover Along The Oregon Coast - 2014, David J. Lauten, Kathleen J. Castelein, J. Daniel Farrar, Adam A. Kotaich, Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

We monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity of the federally threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) along the Oregon coast from 1 April – 15 September 2014. From north to south, we surveyed and monitored plover activity at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River estuary, the Dunes Overlook, North and South Tahkenitch Creek, Tenmile Creek, Coos Bay North Spit, Bandon Snowy Plover Management Area, New River HRA and adjacent lands, and Floras Lake. Our objectives in 2014 were to: 1) estimate the size of the adult Snowy Plover population along the Oregon coast, 2) locate plover nests, 3) determine …

Specificity And Catalytic Mechanism Of Dna Glycosylases In Udg Superfamily, Bo Xia

All Dissertations

DNA can be damaged by several kinds of endogenous and exogenous reactive nitrogen species. Under nitosative stress, uracil (U), hypoxanthine (I), xanthine (X) and oxanine (O) are four major deaminated DNA bases derived from cytosine (C), adenine (A) and guanine (G) respectively. To repair this type of DNA damage, several different repair pathways are involved.

My dissertation work mainly focused on the uracil-DNA glycosylase (UDG) superfamily, which includes several groups of enzymes that recognize the damaged DNA bases and initiate the base excision repair (BER) pathway, one of the most important repair pathways to deal with deaminated DNA bases. Chapter …

Ecological, Physiological, And Molecular Characterization Of Annual Bluegrass (Poa Annua L.) Herbicide Resistance And Its Control On Golf Courses, Robert Cross

All Dissertations

Annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) is one of the most pervasive, adaptable, and variable plant species in the world and is the most problematic winter annual weed in managed turfgrass. Its prolific seedhead production regardless of mowing height, clumping growth habit, and lack of tolerance to stress reduces turfgrass aesthetic quality and playability on golf courses. Its ability to germinate almost year-round influences cultural practices and herbicide use. Herbicides are an integral part of a weed control program for all weeds that invade a desirable turfgrass stand. However, inappropriate use of herbicides results in herbicide resistance issues. In recent years, …

Review — Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections Of Race And Class For Women In Academia, Edited By Yolanda Flores, Angela Harris, Gabriela Gutierrez Y Muhs And Carmen Gonzales, Roy Lee

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

No abstract provided.

Vascular Reactivity In Newly-Formed And Mature Arterialized Collateral Capillaries, Sara K. Hellstrom

Master's Theses

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) is a globally-prevalent cardiovascular disease in which atherosclerotic plaques narrow arterial lumen diameters and restrict blood flow to downstream tissues. The impact of these occlusions can be mitigated by collateral vessels that connect parallel arterial branches and act as natural bypasses to maintain perfusion. In animal models that lack collateral arterioles, capillaries that connect terminal arteriolar segments can arterialize and form functional collaterals following an ischemic event; however, in the early stages of development, vasodilation is impaired. We explored the mechanism of impaired vasodilation in arterialized collateral capillaries (ACCs) and pre-existing collaterals (PECs) by evaluating …

A Rational Theory Of Mitigation And Aggravation In Sentencing: Why Less Is More When It Comes To Punishing Criminals, Mirko Bagaric

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Identifying Topographic Controls Of Terrestrial Vegetation Using Remote Sensing Data In A Semiarid Mountain Watershed, Idaho, Usa, Ricci Loughridge

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Global climate change is a significant research focus area in contemporary Earth science. Changes in climatic patterns have already resulted in shifting energy flows with associated changes in hydrologic and ecologic systems. More specifically, changes in vegetation distribution and abundance are one of the most visible and potentially significant effects of a changing climatic regime. However, to monitor and predict future changes in vegetation, the initial conditions must be well characterized. This thesis examines the distribution of vegetation in a semiarid mountain watershed in three important ways: (1) quantifying the factors affecting the distribution of broad classes of vegetation at …

An Epsilon-Nash Equilibrium For Non-Linear Markov Games Of Mean-Field-Type On Finite Spaces, Rani Basna, Astrid Hilbert, Vassili N Kolokoltsov

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Why Environmental Laws Fail, Jan G. Laitos, Lauren Joseph Wolongevicz

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Although governments have deployed an array of environmental protection laws, our planet continues to experience unprecedented environmental “crises,” including climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, ecosystem damage, and toxic air-water-land pollution. Despite universal acknowledgment and recognition of these serious environmental issues, and despite a growing list of laws designed to address these issues, the reality is that these adverse Earth-based environmental changes continue, and may even be worsening. Environmental protection laws have often failed because they usually include certain problematic characteristics: they are anthropocentric, in that their goal is to protect and benefit humans, not the environment in which humans …

Changing Lead Into Gold: Examining Agency Attempts To Use The Clean Water Act To Solve Ecosystem Degradation Issues, N. Lindsay Simmons

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Compulsory Water Fluoridation: Justifiable Public Health Benefit Or Human Experimental Research Without Informed Consent?, Rita Barnett-Rose

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Ddt: The Misguided Goals Of The Stockholm Convention On Persistent Organic Pollutants And A Plan To Fight Malaria Worldwide, Eva Zelson

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

There May Not Always Be More Fish In The Sea: Why Noaa’S Restrictions Do Not Violate The Magnuson-Stevens Act, Lindsey Nicolai

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Navigating Through The Confusion Left In The Wake Of Rapanos: Why A Rule Clarifying And Broadening Jurisdiction Under The Clean Water Act Is Necessary, Kristen Clark

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Development, Analysis, And Comparison Of Electromechanical Properties And Electrode Morphology Of Ionic Polymer Metal Composites, Balaji Sivasubramanian

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

With smart materials and adaptive structures being nudged into mainstream technology progressively, the smart composites are donning a predominant role as indispensable structures. Among these, the Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC), with their large bending deformation and relaxation characteristics at very low voltages are attractive as transducers in many areas of application. The actuation and sensing properties of IPMC have been sought after for various engineering functions. The paper focuses on manufacturing various types of IPMC. Combining the ionic polymer with platinum electrodes, gold sputter coated electrodes and multi-walled carbon nanotube Bucky paper electrodes to create enhanced IPMCs, comparative analysis …

Laboratory Studies Of Gas-Grain Processes On Cosmic Dust Analogues, Jiao He

Dissertations - ALL

The formation of molecules in the interstellar medium (ISM) takes place both in the gas phase and on surfaces of cosmic dust grains. Gas phase reactions alone are found to be insufficient to account for the observed abundance of molecules such as molecular hydrogen, water, carbon dioxide, methanol as well as many other complex molecules; grain surfaces must be involved as catalysts to explain their formation. In this thesis we study the physical and chemical processes on surfaces of cosmic dust grain analogues in simulated ISM environments. Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe and is present …

A Phenological Study Of Bat Communities In Southern Mississippi Caves, Zachary Uriah Roth

Master's Theses

Mississippi is generally not known for its caves, and consequently its cave flora and fauna remain largely unstudied. From fall 2010 to winter 2013, we studied the bat populations in the three largest caves in Mississippi. The most common (and only) species found in these caves were Myotis austroriparius and Perimyotis subflavus. I collected monthly data on the number of bats per species, behaviors and locations of the bats within the caves, as well as atmospheric data at selected positions within each cave. All three caves were found to have significant temperature differences between seasons (winterPerimyotis subflavus was found …

Early Bilingual Education: An Examination Of Purposely Selected Teacher Viewpoints: South East China And San Francisco Area, Shan Chen

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

In the coming years, an increasing number of children in urban Chinese areas are taking a second language at an early age. It leads to an argument about whether it is appropriate for children to learn a second language in an early age Some people disagree that idea, because children are not developed enough to receive foreign language learning.

Learning a second language early is disadvantageous for young children because they should first learn to speak the primary language well. Whereas, other people support that children should start learning second language early for three main reasons: children’s talent for language …

Opportunity And Access: High School Coursework And Its Impact On Student Self-Perceptions, Cassie K. Ferguson

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

The skills taught and the courses offered to the United States’ public high school students have changed drastically over the past 20 years. Career-based electives have given way to college preparatory classes. Gone are the auto shops, construction and home economics classes—courses that many view as outdated, dangerous or unnecessary at the high school level. Arts and humanities-based courses have also disappeared; even courses that can train students to enter the robust fields of healthcare or technology are diminishing (Dare, 2006).

The communities in which many of these courses are disappearing are often diverse and economically disadvantaged. This “second-generation segregation” …

Werc: Solar Brine Concentrator, Sarah K. Haley

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In arid regions of the United States potable water is a valuable resource and is sometimes produced using energy intensive processes by removing salts from brackish water. Task 4 provides a solar option for producing potable water from brackish water; in competing in Task 4, H2OGS has developed a simple, cost effective solar desalination process to provide these regions with necessary, potable water. H2OGS’ design takes into account WERC requirements, including cost, energy usage, worker safety, and easily obtained materials. U.S. government regulatory requirements are also taken into account as the proposed location for this process is Alamogordo, New Mexico. …

The Sciences Of Learning, Instruction, And Assessment As Underpinnings Of The Morningside Model Of Generative Instruction, Elizabeth M. Street, Kent Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

This paper focuses on a subset of the practices that have created the powerful learning technology developed and disseminated by Morningside Academy in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. We briefly describe this technology, known as the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction, and tell how it builds on the selectionist approach of B. F. Skinner and the pragmatic approach of John Dewey. We also describe the critical role Precision Teaching plays at Morningside Academy and its dependence on findings from the science of learning and the science of instruction, including placement of learners, task analysis, content analysis, instructional protocols, and principles of instructional …

Influences Of Contexts On Consumers' Visual Attention Towards Food Images: Eye-Tracking Studies, Baoyue Zhang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food perception is influenced not only by sensory properties of the food itself, but also by individuals- or environment-related contexts. Visual cue appears to be the most dominant factor in modulating food perception. This research aimed to determine whether individuals' visual attention towards food images can vary as a function of contextual variables such as hunger/fullness (Chapter 3), chronic stress (Chapter 4), and culture (Chapter 5). In Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, participants were asked to freely view visual slides, including four different images per slide, shown on the monitor. Using eye-tracking techniques, participants' visual attention towards food images (e.g., …

Increased Effluent Dosage Effects On Septic System Absorption-Field Products Of Differing Architecture Types, Andrew Richard Gibbons

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nationwide, approximately 20% of all homes use an on-site septic system as a form of household wastewater treatment. Since karst features are prevalent throughout the Ozark Highlands region of Northwest Arkansas, surface and groundwater resources are susceptible to contamination. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of soil condition (i.e., wet and dry) and absorption-field-product architecture type [i.e., chamber, gravel-less-pipe (GLP), polystyrene-aggregate (PSA), and pipe-and-aggregate (PA)] on in-product solution storage and biomat thickness in a profile-limited soil, and to identify the long-term acceptance rate (LTAR) of each product. During Phase I of this study (i.e., March …

Dialect Use Within A Socially Fluid Group Of Southern Resident Killer Whales, Orcinus Orca, Courtney Elizabeth Smith

Master's Theses

Resident killer whales, Orcinus orca, of the Northeastern Pacific form stable kinship-based matrifocal associations and communicate with group-specific repertoires of discrete calls (dialects) that reflect these associations. The gradual fission of matrilines is usually consistent with dialect variations among groups that may manifest as differences in call usage at the repertoire level or subtle structural differences of the calls themselves. Therefore, matrilines that are more closely related tend to be more acoustically similar. Within the endangered community of Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs), recent evidence shows that one particular group (L pod) exhibits the lowest rate of intrapod association …

Exploring The Glucocorticoid Actions Of 1Α-Hydroxycorticosterone (1Α-Oh-B) In The Elasmobranch Fishes, Faith Nichole Lambert

Master's Theses

The corticosteroid 1α-hydroxycorticosterone (1α-OH-B) is unique to the elasmobranch fishes. It is thought that 1α-OH-B acts as both the primary glucocorticoid (GC) and mineralocorticoid (MC) in these fishes, a dual role analogous to that of cortisol in the teleost fishes. The MC characteristics of 1α-OH-B are well supported, but data supporting its GC functions are lacking. In this study, the putative GC actions of 1α-OH-B were examined. The first experiment characterized the physiological stress response of the Atlantic stingray (Dasyatis sabina) to air exposure, with particular regards to the roles of corticosteroids and metabolic fuels. Results demonstrate that …