Digital Commons Network^™

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Low Rates Of Influenza Vaccination Among Older African Americans, Delia Roxanne Howson-Santana

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Influenza vaccination is recommended for persons with high-risk health conditions such as chronic diseases to prevent flu-related complications and death. African Americans 65 years and older have consistently been reported to have the lowest influenza vaccination rates compared to all other racial groups, despite having higher rates of chronic diseases. A review of the literature indicated that there is a dearth of qualitative studies examining the grounds for these low rates. In this study, 15 African Americans 65 years and older were interviewed to explore the factors that contribute to low rates of flu vaccination among this racial group. Research …

The Perceptions Of Catholic Elementary School Principals In The Archdiocese Of Portland, Oregon Concerning The Catholic Identity And Program Effectiveness Of Their Respective Schools, Jeannie Marie Ray-Timoney

Doctoral Dissertations

The Perceptions of Catholic Elementary School Principals in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon Concerning the Catholic Identity and Program Effectiveness of Their Respective Schools

Since their inception in the 1800s in America, Catholic schools have been essential to the ecclesial mission of the Roman Catholic Church and to the formation of students for the common good. As Catholic schools move further into the 21st century, they face many challenges, including the formation of personnel in their Catholic identity, the high cost of tuition and operations of schools, the preoccupation for financial success of students, and the ongoing rise of secularism …

The Future Of Polyamorous Marriage Lessons From The Marriage Equality Struggle, Hadar Aviram, Gwendolyn Leachman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Marianne Dashwood: A Categorization Of Language Into Principles Of Sense And Sensibility, Ashley Bonin

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Feminism And The Force Of Institutions In Twenty-First Century Dystopian Novels, Stephanie Roman

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Oswald Review Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 17 Fall 2015

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Disability Cliff, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Articles

We’re pretty good about caring for our disabled citizens—as long as they’re children. It’s time to put equal thought into their adulthoods.

Female Representations In Contemporary Postmodern War Novels Of Spain And The United States: Women As Tools Of Modern Catharsis In The Works Of Javier Cercas And Tim O'Brien, Joseph P. Weil

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the notion of women being used as tools of modern catharsis is explored through the comparative analysis of the Spanish novel Soldiers of Salamis (2001) by Javier Cercas, and the American novel The Things They Carried (1990) by Tim O’Brien. The two novels, separated by linguistic and national traditions, and personal choices by each author, will both be evaluated for their unique postmodern treatments of war, memory, and verisimilitude. Expanding from this base and through an application of feminist theory, the female representations—which are partly crafted by an unconscious masculine language—will be deconstructed for their intended and …

Map Kinase Signaling In Plant Responses To Biotic Stress, Carlton James Bequette

Theses and Dissertations

Plants must be able to perceive and properly respond to a multitude of environmental conditions and produce appropriate cellular responses for optimal growth and reproduction. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation cascades are critical components of signal transduction networks that mediate cellular responses to a wide range of both biotic and abiotic extracellular stimuli. This thesis presents an investigation of three novel aspects of MAPK signaling, the role of MAPKs in the regulation of cell death, the organization of MAPKs in a multi-protein complex, and the negative regulation of MAPKs by MAPK phosphatases. In tomato, three MAPKs play an essential role …

Six Degree-Of-Freedom Analysis Of Hip, Knee, Ankle And Foot Provides Updated Understanding Of Biomechanical Work During Human Walking, Karl E. Zelik, Kota Z. Takahashi, Gregory S. Sawicki

Journal Articles

Measuring biomechanical work performed by humans and other animals is critical for understanding muscle–tendon function, jointspecific contributions and energy-saving mechanisms during locomotion. Inverse dynamics is often employed to estimate jointlevel contributions, and deformable body estimates can be used to study work performed by the foot. We recently discovered that these commonly used experimental estimates fail to explain whole-body energy changes observed during human walking. By re-analyzing previously published data, we found that about 25% (8 J) of total positive energy changes of/about the body’s center-of-mass and >30% of the energy changes during the Push-off phase of walking were not explained …

Connectivity Conservation And Endangered Species Recovery: A Study In The Challenges Of Defining Conservation-Reliant Species, Carlos Carroll, Daniel J. Rohlf, Ya-Wei Li, Brett Hartl, Michael K. Phillips, Reed F. Noss

Faculty Bibliography 2010s

Many species listed under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) face continuing threats and will require intervention to address those threats for decades. These species, which have been termed conservation-reliant, pose a challenge to the ESA's mandate for recovery of self-sustaining populations. Most references to conservation-reliant species by federal agencies involve the restoration of population connectivity. However, the diverse threats to connectivity faced by different species have contrasting implications in the context of the ESA's mandate. For species facing long-term threats from invasive species or climate change, restoration of natural dispersal may not be technically feasible in the foreseeable future. …

A Figural Education With Lyotard, Derek R. Ford

Education Studies Faculty publications

No abstract provided.

Genomes Of Three Arsenic Metabolizing Bacteria, Xue Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although arsenic is toxic to most living cells, many microbes live in environments with high concentrations of arsenic. In addition to being resistant to arsenic, some actively couple arsenic oxidation/reduction reactions to respiration gaining energy in the process. Following a current review of the literature, the genomes of the three such bacteria, one arsenite oxidizer, Alkalilimnicola ehrlichii MLHE-1, and two arsenate reducers, Alkaliphilus oremlandii OhILAs, and Bacillus selenitireducens MLS-10 are presented. The genome of Alkalilimnicola ehrlichii MLHE-1 consists of 3,275,944 bp with a 67.53% GC content; the genome of Alkaliphilus oremlandii OhILAs consists of 3,123,558 bp with a 36.26% GC …

Online Multimedia Learning: Predicting Learner Media Selections In The Visual And Verbal Domains, Natalie Toomey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate visualizer-verbalizer tendencies through the prediction of learner selection of online, multimedia learning options based on the characteristics of cognitive ability, spatial ability, cognitive style, and learning preference. These characteristics were used to predict the selection of text only, labeled image, and image and narration learning options in two, multimedia learning behavior tests via multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results of this study found that the factor of spatial ability influenced multimedia learning options such that as spatial ability increases, the likelihood of choosing labeled image learning option increases while the likelihood of choosing …

The Personal Creed Project: Portal To Deepened Learning, John Creger

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The founder of an influential and transformative writing project reflects on its grounding in Moffett’s philosophy and presents the model of learning that grew out of it.

Pila Auction Program 2015, Wiener-Rogers Law Library, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School Of Law

Student Organizations

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Somatostatin On Voltage-Gated Calcium Influx In Isolated Neonatal Rat Carotid Body Type I Cells, Eric J. Dunn

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Somatostatin (SST) is a neuropeptide hormone that regulates the release of secondary hormones. Evidence suggests SST plays a neuromodulatory role due to its distribution throughout the central nervous system. Interestingly, SST has been suggested to affect the carotid body, the small peripheral chemoreceptors that regulate breathing. It has been shown that the peripheral chemoreflex sensitivity to CO2 and hypoxia is reduced by SST in humans (Pedersen et al., 1999; Pandit et al., 2014). SST has also been found to inhibit whole cell Ca2+ currents recorded from adult rat carotid body type I cells (e Silva & Lewis, 1995), but the …

Extended Access To Methamphetamine Self-Administration Up-Regulates Dopamine Transporter Levels 72 Hours After Withdrawal In Rats, Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

Previous studies have demonstrated that there are persistent changes in dopamine systems following withdrawal from methamphetamine (METH). This study examined changes in striatal dopamine transporter (DAT), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine receptor 2 (D2) 72 h after withdrawal from METH intravenous self- administration (IVSA). Rats were given limited (1 h) or extended (6 h) access to METH IVSA (0.05 mg/kg/0.1 ml infusion) for 22 days. Controls did not receive METH IVSA. The rats given extended access to IVSA displayed higher METH intake during the first hour of drug access compared to rats given limited access. Extended access to METH also …

A Novel Update To Dynamic Q Algorithm And A Frequency-Fold Analysis For Aloha-Based Rfid Anti-Collision Protocols, Nikita Khanna

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems are increasingly used for a wide range of applications from supply chain management to mobile payment systems. In a typical RFID system, there is a reader/interrogator and multiple tags/transponders, which can communicate with the reader. If more than one tag tries to communicate with the reader at the same time, a collision occurs resulting in failed communications, which becomes a significantly more important challenge as the number of tags in the environment increases. Collision reduction has been studied extensively in the literature with a variety of algorithm designs specifically tailored for low-power RFID systems.

In …

Novel Protein Phosphatase 2a Complexes In Skeletal Muscle From Obese Insulin Resistant Human Participants, Divyasri Damacharla

Wayne State University Theses

Type 2 Diabetes is a metabolic disorder associated with insulin resistance and consequent high blood glucose levels. Maximum glucose disposal takes place in skeletal muscle and studying skeletal muscle insulin resistance is crucial. Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is one of the major serine/threonine phosphatases belonging to PhosphoProteinPhosphatase (PPP) family. It constitutes about 80% of all serine/threonine phosphatases. It is regulated by numerous regulatory subunits as well as other substrate molecules and post translational modifications. This alters their localization, activity and also its target molecules. Many evidences show the effect of insulin on PP2Ac and its abnormal regulation in conditions of …

The Role Of E3 Ligase Parkin In Trafficking Of Monoamine Storage Vesicles In Rat Model Of Methamphetamine Neurotoxicity, Heli Dineshchandra Chauhan

Wayne State University Theses

Methamphetamine (METH), a psychostimulant, is a widely used drug of abuse. METH is toxic to dopaminergic (DAergic) and serotonergic (5-HT) nerve terminals in the striatum when administered at high doses. METH releases Dopamine (DA) from vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) containing synaptic vesicles and induces oxidative stress by auto-oxidation of DA. The VMAT2 plays a neurprotective role by sequestering cytoplasmic DA into vesicles for storage and protection from auto-oxidation. It has previously been shown that METH toxicity is associated with impaired VMAT2 trafficking and oxidative damage to the E3 ligase parkin. CDCrel1, a protein found to inhibit exocytosis, is regulated …

Desensitization Of Hacat Keratinocytes To Vitamin D3 Occurs Via Loss Of Redd1 Regulation Of The Mtor Pathway, Michelle Leigh Jones

Wayne State University Theses

Vitamin D3 treatment has long been considered in the treatment of cancer due to its well-documented anti-proliferative effects in vitro. While clinical studies have been positive in other cancers, results are inconclusive in cases of basal cell carcinoma. To better understand the reasons underlying this disconnect, this study employs an immortalized human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) to observe the effects of vitamin D3 treatment on cellular proliferation. The results show that both activate vitamin D3 (calcitriol) and its precursor (cholecalciferol) increase proliferation of these cells. Real-time PCR and western blot data indicate that the mTOR pathway becomes activated despite increased …

Novel Biochemical And Phenotypical Findings On The Nodal Signaling Components Lefty And Cripto, Amapola Balancio

Wayne State University Theses

ABSTRACT

NOVEL BIOCHEMICAL AND PHENOTYPICAL FINDINGS ON THE NODAL SIGNALING COMPONENTS LEFTY AND CRIPTO

by

Amapola Balancio

December 2014

Advisor: Dr. William Branford, Jr.

Major: Biological Sciences (Molecular and Developmental Biology)

Degree: Master of Science

Nodal, a Transforming Growth Factor-β (TGF-B), is a key regulator of proper development along with its atypical TGF-B inhibitor Lefty and its EGF-CFC co-receptor Cripto. Studies have shown that Nodal is unable to signal in the absence of a functional Cripto, indicating that it is a Nodal obligate co-receptor. In fact, one of the ways that Lefty prevents Nodal is by binding to Cripto and …

Detection Of Beneficial Microbiota In Mouse Colon, Aranya Linpisanl

Wayne State University Theses

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and Bifidobacterium are the most common types of microbes used as probiotics. They are present in the human gastrointestinal tract and have a significant influence on our health and well-being. Microbiota plays an important role in host metabolism and provides a natural defense mechanism against invading pathogens. This experiment was focusing on establish a method to detect the gastrointestinal tract microbiota, either by fecal or colonic tissue DNA extraction.

The experiment comparing 2 types of DNA extraction; ZR Fecal kit and DNAzol direct. DNAzol direct was easy to use but was not suitable for long term …

Delta-Tocotrienol Downregulates Mmp-9 Expression In Nsclc Cells, Rohini Sri Harshini Pindiprolu

Wayne State University Theses

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Unites States. The main types of lung cancer are small cell lung cancer and non small cell lung cancer. NSCLC accounts for about 80% of the cases with less than 15% of patients surviving beyond 5 years. Most common causes of lung cancer are smoking, inhaling asbestos fiber, radon gas, passive smoking, air pollution, familial predisposition, prior history of lung cancer etc. Surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, palliative care are commonly used treatment techniques for lung cancer. Radiation therapy is an important part of lung cancer management. The objective of this …

Maternal Emotion Regulation And Expressivity As Predictors Of Positive Parenting In Low-Income Families, Laura Michelle Crespo

Wayne State University Theses

Positive parenting has been associated with various adaptive childhood outcomes involving healthy cognitive, social, and emotional development (Fuligni & Brooks-Gunn, 2013; Roggman, Cook, Innocenti, Jump, & Christiansen, 2013). There is less research, however, on which factors contribute to the parents' use of positive parenting strategies. Some evidence suggests that factors such as the parents' emotional competencies, along with the child's temperament and the family environment, influence parenting behaviors (Belsky, 1984). This study explored predictors of positive parenting, including maternal emotion expressivity and emotion regulation, child temperament traits, maternal cognitive ability, maternal perception of social support, and single parenting. Participants were …

Similarities And Differences Between Heterosexual And Homosexual Couples Based On Marq Data, Kraig S. Shattuck

Wayne State University Theses

There has been a lack of comparative research on homosexual couples, comparing them to heterosexual couples, which is also grounded in solid theory. In order to remedy this, evolutionary theory is used to make predictions on similarities and differences between heterosexual and homosexual couples within three domains, relationship satisfaction, jealousy, and mate guarding. It was predicted that 1) homosexual couples would not differ from heterosexual couples in relationship satisfaction; 2) some gender differences relating to jealousy would be the same and some would be reversed in homosexual individuals; 3) mate guarding would be present, but lower, in homosexual individuals as …

Programmable Dna Delivery To Cells Using Bioreducible Layer-By-Layer (Lbl) Polyelectrolyte Thin Films, Maria Muniz

Wayne State University Theses

Bioreducible, layer-by-layer (LbL) polyelectrolyte films show great promise for use in biomedical implant and gene-delivery applications. These nanometer-scale thin films can easily be coated onto a variety of implantable surfaces or devices. To achieve proof of concept, HEK-293, NIH/3T3, RAW, and MC3T3 cells were transfected using plasmid DNA with the green fluorescent protein reporter gene (GFP-DNA). In order to optimize transfection, a number of polyelectrolytes and biological components were systematically incorporated into the two similar basic LbL structures. Based on our previous degradation assays, it is shown that cellular interactions in vitro can break down the layers of the thin …

The Hurttienne And Meyer Lots Of Corktown, Detroit– A Historical Archaeological Study In Identification Of Formation Processes And Resident Behavior, Graham Sheckels

Wayne State University Theses

This thesis examines two historical archaeological excavations at the Hurttienne and Meyers properties in the Corktown district of downtown Detroit. A series of houses were built upon these lots in the late 1800's, and were occupied for more than a century, before burning down and being bulldozed in the 1980's. Both single family households and boardinghouses are represented at these sites. Data has been compiled and mapped using Geographic Information System (GIS) software, interpolating contour maps for both lots. These interpolations are further overlaid with building footprints obtained by georectifying Sanborn and other historic maps. Comparison of different excavation layers …

Contaminants Of Emerging Concern: Effects Of Known Neuroactive Agents, Antibiotics, And Chemically Uncharacterized Photodegredates On Behavior And Physiology Of Daphnia Pulex, Vibhuti Matta

Wayne State University Theses

Emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), herbicides, pesticides, plasticizers, fire retardants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and other organic waste are increasingly being detected in surface water and ground water. These contaminants can enter into the environment through wastewater treatment plant effluent and agriculture runoff. Many of these emerging contaminants tend to be biologically active at very low concentrations, typically occur in water as part of complex mixtures, and may impact biota at concentrations not detected using traditional toxicity tests (e.g. LC 50 tests).

This study focuses on utilizing novel Daphnid optical bioassays to examine the toxicity …