Digital Commons Network^™

Biomarkers Of Muscle Quality: N-Terminal Propeptide Of Type Iii Procollagen And C-Terminal Agrin Fragment Responses To Resistance Exercise Training In Older Adults, Maren S. Fragala, Adam R. Jajtner, Kyle S. Beyer, Jeremy R. Townsend, Nadia S. Emerson, Tyler C. Scanlon, Leonardo P. Oliveira, Jay R. Hoffman, Jeffrey R. Stout

Faculty Bibliography 2010s

Background N-terminal peptide of procollagen type III (P3NP) and C-terminal agrin fragment (CAF) are circulating biomarkers that are related to lean body mass in older adults. P3NP is a circulating marker reflective of muscular structural remodeling while CAF is a circulating marker of neuromuscular remodeling. As resistance exercise is an established intervention that can effectively improve muscle quality, we sought to evaluate circulating biomarker changes corresponding to a resistance exercise intervention in older adults. Methods Twenty-three older adults (aged 61 to 85 years) were randomized into an intervention (6-week resistance training) or control group. Resting circulating P3NP, CAF, lean body …

Proteasome Inhibition Augments Cigarette Smoke-Induced Gm-Csf Expression In Trophoblast Cells Via The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor, Ya-Yuan Fu, Jennifer C. Nergard, Nicole K. Barnette, Yan-Ling Wang, Karl X. Chai, Li-Mei Chen

Faculty Bibliography 2010s

Maternal cigarette smoking has adverse effects on pregnancy outcomes. The granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is an essential cytokine for a normal pregnancy. We investigated the impact of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on GM-CSF expression in human cytotrophoblast cells and suggested a cellular mechanism underlying the CSE-induced GM-CSF expression. An immortalized normal human trophoblast cell line (B6Tert-1) was treated with CSE. The viability and proliferation of the CSE-treated B6Tert-1 cells were evaluated, and the expression of GM-CSF in these cells was quantified at the mRNA and the protein levels by means of reverse-transcription and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR); and enzyme-linked …

A Short Window Granger Causality Approach To Identify Brain Functional Pattern Associated With Changes Of Performance Induced By Sleep Deprivation, Muyuan Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The comprehensive effect of sleep deprivation on biological and behavioral functions largely remains unknown. There is evidence to support that human sleep must be of sufficient duration and physiological continuity to ensure neurocognitive performance while we are waking. Insufficient sleep would lead to high risk of human-error related to accidents, injuries or even fatal outcomes. However, in modern society, more and more people suffer from sleep deprivation because of the increasing social, academic or occupational demand. It is important to study the effect of sleep deprivation, not only on task performance, but also on neurocognitive functions. Recent research that has …

Analysis Of Commercial Online Training Videos For Teachers Who Instruct Students With Characteristics Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Kelly Schaffer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A deficit currently exists in teacher preparation programs for teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using evidence-based practices, specifically in the area of Applied Behavior Analysis. As communication deficits are a primary characteristic associated with the diagnosis of ASD teaching communication skills is a common educational goal for students with ASD, and this skill needs to be addressed in teacher education. Mand training is one evidence-based practice applied to teach independent requesting skills to students with ASD. In this study, four teachers serving students with characteristics of ASD in the classroom participated in a multiple-probe across-participants study evaluating the …

Hispanic Immigrant Parental Messages Of Resiliency And Emotional Regulation To Their Children: An Examination Of Important Variables And An Intervention, Rodrigo Velezmoro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This two-part study examined the adjustment of Hispanic immigrants. Part one examined the communication that occurs between Hispanic immigrant parents and their adolescents/young adults about life in the United States (U.S.). It also examined how attitudes toward the U.S. and various protective factors influence psychological adjustment. Hispanic immigrants (n = 123) with an average of 11 years living in the United States and their adolescents/young adults between the ages of 14-22 served as participants. For both parents and their adolescents/young adults, favorable attitudes toward the U.S. were associated with improved psychological adjustment. Contrary to prediction, attitudes toward the U.S. did …

Functional Data Analysis And Its Application To Cancer Data, Evgeny Martinenko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the current work is to develop novel procedures for the analysis of functional data and apply them for investigation of gender disparity in survival of lung cancer patients. In particular, we use the time-dependent Cox proportional hazards model where the clinical information is incorporated via time-independent covariates, and the current age is modeled using its expansion over wavelet basis functions. We developed computer algorithms and applied them to the data set which is derived from Florida Cancer Data depository data set (all personal information which allows to identify patients was eliminated). We also studied the problem of …

An Investigation Of The Use Of Disciplinary Texts And Achievement On End-Of-Course Examinations In High School U.S. History Courses, Jocelyn Baldridge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine whether a disparity exists between teacher expectations of honors and non-honors U. S. History students and if students who read more for U. S. History perform better on the U. S. History End-of-Course (EOC) examination. To generate answers to the research questions, both teachers and students in U. S. History courses were surveyed as to how much time was spent reading for U. S. History content both during class and for homework. The student surveys were matched to the U. S. History EOC Developmental Scale Scores to determine if students who responded as reading …

Dynamical Spin Injection In Graphene, Simranjeet Singh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the exciting current trend to explore novel low-dimensional systems, the possibility to inject pure spin currents in graphene and other two-dimensional crystals has attracted considerable attention in the past few years. The theoretical prediction of large spin relaxation times and experimentally observed mesoscopic-scale spin diffusion lengths places graphene as a promising base system for future spintronics devices. This is due to the unique characteristics intrinsic to the two-dimensional lattice of carbon atoms forming graphene, such as the lack of nuclear spins and weak spin-orbit coupling of the charge carriers. Interestingly for some spintronic applications, the latter can be chemically …

Inversion Of The Broken Ray Transform, Roman Krylov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The broken ray transform (BRT) is an integral of a function along a union of two rays with a common vertex. Consider an X-ray beam scanning an object of interest. The ray undergoes attenuation and scatters in all directions inside the object. This phenomena may happen repeatedly until the photons either exit the object or are completely absorbed. In our work we assume the single scattering approximation when the intensity of the rays scattered more than once is negligibly small. Among all paths that the scattered rays travel inside the object we pick the one that is a union of …

Antimicrobial Peptide Resistance And Immunomodulation By Hiv-1 Gp41, Matthew Wood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fusion inhibitors are a class of antiretroviral drugs used to prevent entry of HIV into host cells. Many of the fusion inhibitors being developed, including the drug enfuvirtide (ENF), are peptides designed to mimic, and thereby competitively inhibit, the viral fusion protein gp41. An exception to this is a class of cyclic, cationic, antimicrobial peptides known as θ-defensins, which are produced by many non-human primates and exhibit broad-spectrum antiviral and antibacterial activity. Currently, the θ-defensin analog RC-101 is being developed as a microbicide to prevent sexual transmission of HIV-1. Understanding potential RC-101 resistance, and how resistance to other fusion inhibitors …

The Contribution Of College Students' Attachment Styles And Social Media Practices On Their Relationship Development, Renee Sherrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the directional relationship between college students' attachment styles and social media practices with their relationship development. This investigation tested the theoretical model that undergraduate students' (N = 717) attachment styles (as measured by the Experiences in Close Relationships-Short form [ECR-S; Wei et al., 2007]) and social media practices (as measured by the Facebook Intensity Scale [FBI; Ellison et al., 2007] and Motives for Going Facebook Official Scale [MGFBO; Fox & Warber, 2013]) contributed to their quality of relationship development (as measured by the Parks Relational Development Scale [PRDS; Parks & Roberts, …

Performing On The Screen: An Exploration Of Gender Representation In Technology Video Advertisements, Subriena Persaud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the representation of gender in technology-related video advertisements. This thesis quantitatively and qualitatively examined 54 of the most recent commercials by the top nine Fortune 500 technology companies. A total of 407 characters were coded and quantitatively analyzed while the videos themselves were qualitatively assessed with particular attention given to the videos' themes and the interactions between the characters and the technology products and services. Results of the analyses showed that there were more male, Caucasian characters than any other character type based on gender and race/ethnicity. Females were mainly characterized according to traditional stereotypes, such as …

Computational Study Of Droplet And Capsule Flow In Channels With Inertial Effects, Robert Carroll

Doctoral Dissertations

The flow of droplets and capsules in channels is important for a variety of industrial and biological applications. Droplet flow is common in microfluidic devices and emulsion processing as well as oil recovery from porous materials. Capsules are used to encapsulate sensitive materials and can be used to study the mechanical properties of biological cells. A computational method was developed to study the two-phase flow of drops with and without surfactants, and capsules surrounded by a thin elastic membrane. This new computational method allowed for the inclusion of inertial effects on droplet and capsule flow which has not received much …

Causes And Consequences Of Diversity Within Experimental Biofilms Of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Kenneth Mark Flynn

Doctoral Dissertations

Currently, we do not understand how much biodiversity may be maintained in any environment, especially not in the structured environments of biofilms, which constitute the dominant mode of microbial life. Although maintenance is associated with the complex spatial structure of biofilm architecture and resulting ecological opportunities, how both the abiotic and biotic environment defines available niches remains poorly understood. Here, we experimentally evolved three replicate populations founded by Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PA14 for 540 generations under conditions favoring a regular cycle of biofilm formation and dispersal. Utilizing a variety of laboratory and genomic sequencing approaches, we characterize the population genetic …

Conserving Wetlands For Humans And Amphibians: A Multidisciplinary Approach To Understanding The Social And Ecological Effectiveness Of New England's Wetland Policies, Jessica Veysey Powell

Doctoral Dissertations

Freshwater wetland ecosystems are a valuable resource, but current policies fail to prevent their continuing destruction. Policy-makers increasingly use decentralized wetland-buffer programs to address such policy failings, but scant research has evaluated whether these programs are both ecologically and socially effective. In the following dissertation, I address this gap using two complementary projects.

For the first project, I assessed whether forested buffers are an effective tool for maintaining viable populations of pool-breeding amphibians. Such species spend their early life stages in vernal pools, which are small, highly productive wetlands, but use the surrounding forest during juvenile and adult life-stages. Though …

Competencies For The 21st Century: Teaching An Understanding Of Others, Critical Thinking, Leadership And A Sense Of Obligation. Perceptions Of Educational Leaders., Michael F. Schwartz

Doctoral Dissertations

In the 18th century, utilitarian writers highlighted the importance of a sense of obligation, an understanding of others, and the ability to think critically (Daniels, Bizar, & Zemelman, 2001; Kant, 1785/2008). Additionally, scholars stressed the importance of leadership (Burns, 1978). Teacher instruction in the 19th century incorporated many of these values (Kliebard, 2004). However as the common school developed in the early 19th century there was a shift from these values toward a common curriculum meeting industrial needs (Tyack, 1974). As the 20th century ended, significant federal and state legislation further funneled school curriculum to focus on very specific instruction …

Quantifying The Impact Of Urbanization On N And P Inputs, Transformations, Removal And Fluxes In Watersheds Draining To The Plum Island Estuary, Nathaniel Burr Morse

Doctoral Dissertations

A five-fold global urban population increase over the last century is driving global land use change and causing coastal eutrophication and dead zones. This dissertation was designed to better understand how suburbanization in the Ipswich and Parker River watersheds, the two major rivers draining to the Plum Island Estuary, affects nutrient loading the Plum Island Estuary. I used an almost 17-year long-term nutrient record to test whether ongoing watershed suburbanization has affected net fluxes of nutrients to the Plum Island Estuary over the study period. Additionally, I paired this long-term study with spatial sampling of headwater watersheds across a range …

The Complexities Of Family Health: Effects On Women's Employment, Jess Carson

Doctoral Dissertations

An extensive sociological literature links women's health, their children's health, and their disproportionate designation as unpaid caregivers to variation in women's labor supply and earnings. However, there is a dearth of research that simultaneously considers the health of multiple family members to explore how the distribution of chronic conditions within and across families may relate to women's work. Using data from the 2007 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (and its supplemental surveys, the Child Development Supplement and the Transition into Adulthood Study), this dissertation conceptualizes health as a family-level construct and explores how the distribution of chronic conditions in families …

The Foliose Bangiales (Rhodophyta) In The Northern Part Of The North Atlantic And The Relationship With The North Pacific Foliose Bangiales - Diversity, Distribution, Phylogeny And Phylogeography, Agnes Mols-Mortensen

Doctoral Dissertations

Foliose Bangiales species have a long history of study in the North Atlantic, but regions, especially in the northern parts, need more attention. Based on both new collections and herbarium material from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, West Greenland, UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Northwest Atlantic coast (from Newfoundland to Florida) the aim was to document diversity and distribution of foliose Bangiales species in the North Atlantic and to make floristic comparisons between the geographical areas. Species Identification was based on DNA sequences using the mitochondrial cox1, chloroplast rbcL and 3' rbcL + 5' rbcL-S markers. The North Atlantic species …

The Ability Of Adventure Education To Influence The Social Skill Development Of Urban Middle School Students, Paul J. Shirilla

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the ability of adventure education to impact the social skill development of United States urban middle school students. The Project Adventure Inc. RESPECT adventure education program was delivered to students at three Boston Public middle schools over the course of three academic years. Students at two neighboring Boston Public middle schools were used as a comparison group. The RESPECT program was a comprehensive, whole-school program facilitated by school administrators and teachers trained by Project Adventure staff.

Social skill ability was measured by the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) Student Form, which was administered at the beginning and …

Development Of Genomic Resources And Identification Of Marker-Trait Associations In Strawberry, Lise L. Mahoney

Doctoral Dissertations

Crosses were performed and progeny populations were developed in diploid and octoploid strawberry (Fragaria) species for the purposes of genetic analysis and breeding. A high throughput genotyping platform - the Affymetrix IStraw90® Axiom® strawberry SNP array - was evaluated and employed for these purposes. Phenotyping was conducted with respect to several traits of interest, including flower color, flower and fruit pigment compositions, and verticillium wilt resistance, for the ultimate purpose of identifying marker-trait associations useful in breeding. In the ancestral diploid species Fragaria iinumae, an F2 mapping population was developed from a cross between two accessions previously collected in Hokkaido, …

Full-Waveform And Discrete-Return Lidar In Salt Marsh Environments: An Assessment Of Biophysical Parameters, Vertical Uncertatinty, And Nonparametric Dem Correction, Jeffrey Nickerson Rogers

Doctoral Dissertations

High-resolution and high-accuracy elevation data sets of coastal salt marsh environments are necessary to support restoration and other management initiatives, such as adaptation to sea level rise. Lidar (light detection and ranging) data may serve this need by enabling efficient acquisition of detailed elevation data from an airborne platform. However, previous research has revealed that lidar data tend to have lower vertical accuracy (i.e., greater uncertainty) in salt marshes than in other environments. The increase in vertical uncertainty in lidar data of salt marshes can be attributed primarily to low, dense-growing salt marsh vegetation. Unfortunately, this increased vertical uncertainty often …

H. Wayne Huizenga College Of Business And Entrepreneurship Graduate Student Catalog 2014-2015, Nova Southeastern University

Huizenga Postgraduate Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Graduate Catalog And Student Handbook 2014-2015 - Addendum, Nova Southeastern University

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice Graduate Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Ahhs 325.01: Introduction To Gerontology, Gayle A. Hudgins

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Psyx 391.01: Special Topics - Health Psychology, Craig P. Mcfarland

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Psyx 356.01: Human Neuropsychology, Stuart Hall

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Psyx 250n.01: Fundamentals Of Biological Psychology, Erin Yosai

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Psyx 540.01: Advanced Developmental Psychology, Lois Muir

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Comx 485.01: Communication And Health, Stephen M. Yoshimura

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.