Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2015

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 19711 - 19740 of 21284

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

From The Jungles Of Washington To The Wilderness Of America: The Effects Of Federal Grants On Wildlife Conservation In The States, Kayla Samuelson Jan 2015

From The Jungles Of Washington To The Wilderness Of America: The Effects Of Federal Grants On Wildlife Conservation In The States, Kayla Samuelson

Masters Theses

This thesis research looks at whether federal grant award dollars influence state spending on wildlife conservation. Partisan control of the state legislatures also is examined to see if Democratic-controlled, Republican-controlled, and Split-Party Status affects spending on wildlife conservation. Five states were chosen to represent major regions in the United States and to serve as case studies of wildlife conservation spending patterns. The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program is used as a case study to investigate whether funds received by states affected state government spending on wildlife conservation. The research finds that the amount of money allocated to states does not affect …

Go to article

Metagenomic Analysis Of The Lacrimal Caruncle Region Of Canis Lupus Familiaris Using Miseq Technology, Seun A. Ikugbayigbe Jan 2015

Metagenomic Analysis Of The Lacrimal Caruncle Region Of Canis Lupus Familiaris Using Miseq Technology, Seun A. Ikugbayigbe

Masters Theses

The identification of ocular microbiota may allow early diagnosis and treatment strategies against eye diseases and disorders with canines. However, clinical microbial identification has been limited to cloning and conventional culture-based studies, which typically underestimate community diversity. In this report, lllumina MiSeq analysis of the 16S rRNA gene was used to examine the microbiome of the lacrimal caruncle region from five healthy dogs. The breeds sampled were a Golden Retriever (Dog A), a Weimaraner (Dog B), a Shih Tzu mix (Dog C), a Yorkie mix (Dog D), and a Dachshund (Dog E). MiSeq analysis revealed a total of 370 operational …

Go to article

Trophic Interactions In A Semiaquatic Snake Community: Insights Into The Structure Of A Floodplain Food Web, Cynthia M. Carter Jan 2015

Trophic Interactions In A Semiaquatic Snake Community: Insights Into The Structure Of A Floodplain Food Web, Cynthia M. Carter

Masters Theses

Food webs provide a useful conceptual framework for evaluating the relationships that exist within ecological systems. Characterizing the interactions within these webs can improve our understanding of how communities are structured and what mechanisms stabilize them. Untangling these interactions can be an intractable problem in complex systems and insights gained from conventional methods are often accompanied by inherent sources of bias. This study used stable isotope analysis, an alternative to traditional methods, to investigate the roles and relative contributions of consumers at the top of a food web to community structure and stability. I compared the niche parameters of five …

Go to article

The Androgynous Visual Piety Of The Mother And Sri Aurobindo And St. Clare And St. Francis, Patrick Beldio Jan 2015

The Androgynous Visual Piety Of The Mother And Sri Aurobindo And St. Clare And St. Francis, Patrick Beldio

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

When one critically compares the Mother and Sri Aurobindo of Pondicherry, India with St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi, Italy, one notices that the women are essential to manifesting the work and lives of the men. In fact, these two couples ultimately model a unity of gender, power, love, and work that is quite rare in any time or place. The theme of androgyny, therefore, emerges as an important lens through which to interpret their work together as celibate spiritual partners. As I will demonstrate, the theme of androgyny is seen, not only in their written texts, but equally …

Go to article

Non-Dual Belonging: Conversion, Sanskritization And The Dissolution Of The Multiple In Advaita Missionary Movements, Reid B. Locklin Jan 2015

Non-Dual Belonging: Conversion, Sanskritization And The Dissolution Of The Multiple In Advaita Missionary Movements, Reid B. Locklin

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

IN a series of articles from 1957 until his death in 1979, the influential Indologist Paul Hacker advanced the claim that those Indian traditions generally classified as open and tolerant should in fact be labeled “inclusivist.”1 Rather than engaging religious or philosophical opponents in their integrity, he suggested, such traditions subordinated such others and assumed them into their own doctrinal systems. This term was deployed polemically by Hacker against a number of Hindu traditions, above all the modern forms of Advaita Vedānta advanced by the likes of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975). This broad thesis has been widely …

Go to article

The Derivative Nature Of Corporate Constitutional Rights, Margaret M. Blair Jan 2015

The Derivative Nature Of Corporate Constitutional Rights, Margaret M. Blair

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article engages the two hundred year history of corporate constitutional rights jurisprudence to show that the Supreme Court has long accorded rights to corporations based on the rationale that corporations represent associations of people from whom such rights are derived. The Article draws on the history of business corporations in America to argue that the Court’s characterization of corporations as associations made sense throughout most of the nineteenth century. By the late nineteenth century, however, when the Court was deciding several key cases involving corporate rights, this associational view was already becoming a poor fit for some corporations. The …

Go to article

Insider Trading In Derivatives Markets, Yesha Yadav Jan 2015

Insider Trading In Derivatives Markets, Yesha Yadav

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The prohibition against insider trading is becoming increasingly anachronistic in markets where derivatives like credit default swaps (CDS) operate. Lenders use these instruments to trade the credit risk of the loans they extend. By design, CDS appear to subvert insider trading laws, insofar as lenders rely on what looks like insider information to transfer or externalize the risk of a loan to another institution. At the same time, the harm caused by using insider information in CDS markets can depart radically from the harms envisioned under existing case law. In the traditional account of insider trading, shareholders systematically lose against …

Go to article

An Examination Of The Progression Of Fracture Propagation In Long Bones During The Postmortem Period In Central Florida, Ashley Green Jan 2015

An Examination Of The Progression Of Fracture Propagation In Long Bones During The Postmortem Period In Central Florida, Ashley Green

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The forensic anthropologist is often tasked with analyzing skeletal trauma and determining time since death. Differentiating between perimortem and postmortem fractures can be difficult when bone retains fresh characteristics in the postmortem interval. As a result, it is important to conduct research that investigates timing of injury in the postmortem period by observing fracture characteristics created at known postmortem intervals. Investigation into the timing of injury was undertaken in this study over a four month time period. By fracturing bones using a custom impact device, specific morphological characteristics that are typically used in trauma analysis were created for analysis. Long …

Go to article

Testing For Isolation In Florida Raccoons (Procyon Lotor) Using Phylogenetics And Population Genetic Structure, Alexa Trujillo Jan 2015

Testing For Isolation In Florida Raccoons (Procyon Lotor) Using Phylogenetics And Population Genetic Structure, Alexa Trujillo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Molecular data are useful in determining if populations are isolated and for species delimitation. Researchers and managers currently recognize five subspecies of raccoons (Procyon lotor) in Florida, based largely on perceived geographic isolation due to the island ranges of four subspecies. In this study, I provide the first estimate of phylogenetic relationships and population divergences within Florida raccoons using a molecular dataset. I analyze the mitochondrial control region, cytochrome b gene, and eight nuclear microsatellite loci to test two hypotheses: 1) the five, morphologically and geographically-defined subspecies of raccoon in Florida represent genetically distinct populations and (2) due to differing …

Go to article

Community Identity And The Archaeological Complex Of Túcume, Perú: A Synthesis Of Cranial And Dental Nonmetric Variation, Wesley Garrett Jan 2015

Community Identity And The Archaeological Complex Of Túcume, Perú: A Synthesis Of Cranial And Dental Nonmetric Variation, Wesley Garrett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The archaeological complex of Túcume was once a regional center of political and religious importance on the north coast of Perú (ca. AD 1000-1532). Previous research into the identity of the individuals interred at the site has yielded conflicting results. Within this intrasite biodistance analysis, community identity as reflected in the cranial and dental nonmetric variation and burial patterns is examined. This research also addresses methodological issues in nonmetric biodistance studies by examining the utility of combining cranial and dental nonmetric datasets. The sample examined (n=161) includes male and female crania from five distinct burial locations within Túcume. Gower's coefficient …

Go to article

Does The Journey Matter More Than The Destination? The Contribution Of Geospatial And Local Conditions To Invasive Pomacea Maculata Distribution Across Ranchland Wetlands, Steffan Pierre Jan 2015

Does The Journey Matter More Than The Destination? The Contribution Of Geospatial And Local Conditions To Invasive Pomacea Maculata Distribution Across Ranchland Wetlands, Steffan Pierre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geospatial characteristics such as isolation and avenues of connectivity influence an invader's pattern of dispersal and distribution. However many examinations of invasion success ignore the contribution of dispersal to patterns of invasion and focus only on the local environmental/habitat factors. This study examines the interaction of geospatial characteristics, that may influence dispersal, and local environmental factors, that may govern successful occupation, on the likelihood of invasion (invasability) of wetlands within an agriculturally modified landscape. I examined the current invasion of seasonal wetlands in south-central Florida ranchland by non-native apple snails (Pomacea maculata (Ampullariidae)) as a model system for understanding this …

Go to article

Development Of Human And Rodent Based In Vitro Systems Toward Better Translation Of Bench To Bedside In Vivo Results, Bonnie Berry Jan 2015

Development Of Human And Rodent Based In Vitro Systems Toward Better Translation Of Bench To Bedside In Vivo Results, Bonnie Berry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prospective medicinal compounds progress through multiple testing phases before becoming licensed drugs. Testing of novel compounds includes a preclinical phase where the potential therapeutic is tested in vitro and/or in animal models in vivo to predict its potential efficacy and/or toxicity in humans. The failure of preclinical models to accurately predict human drug responses can lead to potentially dangerous compounds being administered to humans, or potentially beneficial compounds being kept in development abeyance. Moreover, inappropriate choice in model organism for studying disease states may result in pushing forward inappropriate drug targets and/or compounds and wasting valuable time and resources in …

Go to article

Development Of Cytotoxic Natural Killer Cells For Ovarian Cancer Treatment, Veethika Pandey Jan 2015

Development Of Cytotoxic Natural Killer Cells For Ovarian Cancer Treatment, Veethika Pandey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ovarian cancer is a leading cause of gynecological malignancy. Cytoreductive surgery and frontline platinum/taxane-based chemotherapy provides good initial efficacy in the treatment, but poor long-term patient survival. This is mainly caused by tumor relapse due to intraperitoneal spreading and ineffective alternate therapies to treat these resistant tumors. The challenge in the field is to develop strategies that would prove effective in these patients and extend overall survival. Over the years, various treatments have been developed for the treatment of cancer amongst which, adoptive cell immunotherapy has shown promising results. But despite the efficacy seen in the clinic, there are concerns …

Go to article

Diagenetic Changes In Long Bones In Central Florida: A Preliminary Macro- And Microscopic Comparison Of Sun And Shade Microenvironments, Mikayla Overholtzer Jan 2015

Diagenetic Changes In Long Bones In Central Florida: A Preliminary Macro- And Microscopic Comparison Of Sun And Shade Microenvironments, Mikayla Overholtzer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In forensic investigations, the estimation of time since death is of utmost importance when examining decomposing bodies and skeletal remains. Current methodology typically focuses on the gross and macroscopic changes to human remains. Surprisingly, microscopic analysis of diagenetic change has not been fully researched in regards to time since death. The current study involved the analysis of diagenetic change in 15 pig (Sus scrofa) long bones from two microenvironments (sun and shade) in the subtropical environment of Central Florida. While the control bone was not placed in the field, seven bones were placed in the sun microenvironment and seven in …

Go to article

Decoding "Never Again", Sherry F. Colb Jan 2015

Decoding "Never Again", Sherry F. Colb

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article, Decoding “Never Again,” narrates its author’s experience as a child of two Holocaust survivors, one of whom participated in rescuing thousands of his fellow Jews during the war. Colb meditates on this legacy and concludes that her understanding of it has played an important role in inspiring her scholarship about (and ethical commitment to) animal rights. She examines and analyzes the ways in which analogies between the Holocaust and anything else can trigger people’s anger and offense, and she then draws a distinction between occasions when offense is an appropriate response to such analogies and when it need …

Go to article

Public Actors In Private Markets: Toward A Developmental Finance State, Robert C. Hockett, Saule T. Omarova Jan 2015

Public Actors In Private Markets: Toward A Developmental Finance State, Robert C. Hockett, Saule T. Omarova

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The recent financial crisis brought into sharp relief fundamental questions about the social function and purpose of the financial system, including its relation to the “real” economy. This Article argues that, to answer these questions, we must recapture a distinctively American view of the proper relations among state, financial market, and development. This programmatic vision – captured in what we call a “developmental finance state” – is based on three key propositions: (1) that economic and social development is not an “end-state” but a continuing national policy priority; (2) that the modalities of finance are the most potent means of …

Go to article

If You Can’T Take The Heat: Cultural Beliefs About Questionable Conduct, Stigma, Punishment, And Withdrawal Among Mexican Police Officers, Jorge A. Gonzalez, Lorena R. Pérez-Floriano Jan 2015

If You Can’T Take The Heat: Cultural Beliefs About Questionable Conduct, Stigma, Punishment, And Withdrawal Among Mexican Police Officers, Jorge A. Gonzalez, Lorena R. Pérez-Floriano

Management Faculty Publications

We introduce the concept of cultural beliefs about questionable conduct, and examine how these beliefs interact with stigma consciousness to influence punishment and two withdrawal behaviors: turnover and absenteeism. We used a sample of Mexican police officers in a border city and implemented a mixed method design, paying attention to the national, occupational, and organizational context of this setting. We conducted a qualitative phase to explore the prevalence and meaning of occupational stigma and four cultural beliefs about questionable conduct: greed, toughness, wariness, and savvy. The results of this phase helped us develop a context-relevant measure of cultural beliefs about …

Go to article

Declarative Knowledge Acquisition In Immersive Virtual Learning Environments, Rustin Webster Jan 2015

Declarative Knowledge Acquisition In Immersive Virtual Learning Environments, Rustin Webster

School of Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The author investigated the interaction effect of immersive virtual reality (VR) in the classroom. The objective of the project was to develop and provide a low-cost, scalable, and portable VR system containing purposely designed and developed immersive virtual learning environments for the US Army. The purpose of the mixed design experiment was to compare lecture-based and immersive VR-based multimedia instruction, in terms of declarative knowledge acquisition (i.e. learning) of basic corrosion prevention and control with military personnel. Participants were randomly assigned to the control group (N = 115) or investigational group (N = 25) and tested immediately before …

Go to article

A Shifting Terrain: A Brief History Of The Adaptive Landscape, Michael Dietrich, Robert A. Skipper Jr. Jan 2015

A Shifting Terrain: A Brief History Of The Adaptive Landscape, Michael Dietrich, Robert A. Skipper Jr.

Dartmouth Scholarship

This volume brings together prominent historians of science, philosophers, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists, with the aim of discussing the state of the art of the Adaptive Landscape from several different perspectives.

Go to article

Childhood Diet And Mobility At Medieval (1240s Ad) Solt-Tetelhegy, Hungary As Reconstructed From Stable Carbon, Nitrogen, And Oxygen Isotope Analysis, Ariana Gugora Jan 2015

Childhood Diet And Mobility At Medieval (1240s Ad) Solt-Tetelhegy, Hungary As Reconstructed From Stable Carbon, Nitrogen, And Oxygen Isotope Analysis, Ariana Gugora

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Between 2005 and 2009, archaeologists excavated more than 100 skeletons from the medieval (1240s AD) Hungarian site of Solt-Tételhegy. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses were conducted on dental enamel and dentin from 24 individuals to examine their childhood diet. Although previous stable isotopic research has described the diet of medieval European peoples, this is the first such study on a medieval Hungarian population. The enamel ?13C values range from -14.4‰ to -8.6‰, with a mean of -11.1‰, while the dentin ?13C values range from -19.4‰ to -14.9‰, with an average of -17.4‰. These data indicate that C3 plants were …

Go to article

Visions Of Race And Gender: Press Coverage Of The French Colonial Expositions Of 1922 And 1931, Zachary Morgan Jan 2015

Visions Of Race And Gender: Press Coverage Of The French Colonial Expositions Of 1922 And 1931, Zachary Morgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the interwar period, France attempted to reinvigorate interest in the empire amongst the public via elaborate colonial expositions. The colonial expositions of Marseille (1922) and Paris (1931) served as a means to celebrate the empire and to educate the French about the benefits of living within Greater France, an entity that included the metropole and the colonies. This thesis examines how press coverage of both expositions worked alongside these events to counteract anxieties regarding France's economic recovery after the war, continuing world presence, demographic losses, and most importantly the relationship between France and its colonies. It explores how the …

Go to article

The Role Of A Highly Conserved Eubacterial Ribosomal Protein In Translation Quality Control, Anusha Naganathan Jan 2015

The Role Of A Highly Conserved Eubacterial Ribosomal Protein In Translation Quality Control, Anusha Naganathan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The process of decoding is the most crucial determinant of the quality of protein synthesis. Ribosomal protein L9 was first implicated in decoding fidelity when a mutant version of L9 was found to increase the translation of a T4 phage gene. Later studies confirmed that the absence of L9 leads to increased translational bypassing, frameshifting, and stop codon readthrough. L9 is part of the large subunit of the prokaryotic ribosome and is located more than 90 Å from the site of decoding, making it difficult to envision how it might affect decoding and reading frame maintenance. Twenty years after the …

Go to article

"What We Eat Matters": Perspectives On Food And Health In The Mexican Im/Migrant Farmworker Communities In Indian River County, Florida, Hugo Puerto Jan 2015

"What We Eat Matters": Perspectives On Food And Health In The Mexican Im/Migrant Farmworker Communities In Indian River County, Florida, Hugo Puerto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dramatic increase of type-2 diabetes within the Latino community is of great concern in the U.S., especially among Mexican im/migrant farmworkers. Anthropological scholarship shows that health issues within im/migrant groups in the U.S. are poorly understood from a sociocultural and local perspective. In Indian River County, Florida, farmworker leaders created a community garden in response to health problems in this community. This initiative was launched to educate families about the health and economic benefits of growing their own food. The Indian River County Health Department and the local leaders are working collaboratively to inform the community about the risks …

Go to article

Finding Treasure: The Story Of A Micro-Budget Digital Film, Christopher Williamson Jan 2015

Finding Treasure: The Story Of A Micro-Budget Digital Film, Christopher Williamson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Treasure is a feature-length narrative fictional film directed by Chris Williamson as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema from the School of Visual Arts and Design at the University of Central Florida. This thesis is a documentary record of the film production from concept to completion. In this thesis the concerns of authorship are explored from the perspective of the author as the executive producer, writer, and director of the film.

Go to article

Compassion In Organizations, Regina Taylor Jan 2015

Compassion In Organizations, Regina Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research on compassion in organizations has grown over the last decade, however, there is still a need for empirical work on the topic before we truly understand compassion and the various factors that influence it in everyday organizational life (Atkins & Parker, 2012; Dutton, Workman & Hardin, 2014). The purpose of this dissertation is to review the current literature on compassion in organizations and extend research on compassion by exploring potential moderators of the relationship between compassionate feelings and compassionate responses from potential compassion givers. The moderators under investigation are in the form of individual (i.e., moral identity, moral disengagement), …

Go to article

Fmf Assay For Assessing Vaccine Generated Antibodies In A Biomimetic Manner, Vipra Dhir Jan 2015

Fmf Assay For Assessing Vaccine Generated Antibodies In A Biomimetic Manner, Vipra Dhir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traditional functional assays such as hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) and micro-neutralization (MN) assays have been routinely used for assessing the vaccine response, since influenza vaccine has been administered in people (1940). Such assays are not always predictive regarding the protection conferred by the influenza vaccine and are not able to monitor neutralization related to stem region of influenza hemagglutinin responsible for virus membrane fusion in the endosomes. In order to study Influenza vaccine response in a more biomimetic manner and overcome the deficiencies of the traditional functional assays, we developed a fluorescent membrane fusion assay (fMF). The assay uses viruses labeled …

Go to article

A Socio-Economic Assessment Of Marine Turtle Eco-Tourism, Kendra Cope Jan 2015

A Socio-Economic Assessment Of Marine Turtle Eco-Tourism, Kendra Cope

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Marine turtles have historically contributed to economic activity through consumptive harvest for food, tools, and decorative objects. Only recently have they begun to benefit humans economically through non-consumptive roles, primarily as a focal point of educational eco-tourism. In recent years, the annual number of turtle walks conducted around the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge (ACNWR) has risen. This expansion contributed to a statistically significant increase in attendance from 2,162 in 2001 to 3,047 participants in 2014. I examined the regional economic impacts of marine turtle eco-tourism around the ACNWR using social surveys and an economic impact analysis tool. IMPLAN, an …

Go to article

Functional Identification Of Nucleus Tractus Solitarius (Nts) Barosensitive Neurons: Effect Of Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia (Cih), Jenya Kolpakova Jan 2015

Functional Identification Of Nucleus Tractus Solitarius (Nts) Barosensitive Neurons: Effect Of Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia (Cih), Jenya Kolpakova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia (CIH) is a model used to study obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Previously, we showed that baroreflex control of heart rate (HR) (baroreflex sensitivity) is reduced in CIH rats. While afferent function and HR in response to vagal efferent stimulation are enhanced, the effect of CIH on the central components, in particular NTS, is still not completely understood. F344 rats (3-4 mo) were exposed either to CIH or room air (RA) for 35-50 days. Following CIH exposure, rats were anaesthetized with Ket/Ace. Using single-unit extracellular recording technique, we recorded NTS barosensitive neurons in response to arterial pressure (AP) …

Go to article

The Interspecies Family: Attitudes And Narratives, Nicole Owens Jan 2015

The Interspecies Family: Attitudes And Narratives, Nicole Owens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Families are conceptualized and accomplished in increasingly diverse ways in the 21st century. A constructionist framework was utilized to examine a widespread contemporary family form, the interspecies family. This mixed-method approach relied on both quantitative survey data and qualitative interview data. First, survey data from the 2006 Constructing the Family Survey were analyzed to understand who in America counts pets as family. Many social demographics were associated and predicted counting pets as family but gender was one of the strongest associations. However, marital status moderated the relationship between gender and counting pets as family at a statically significant level. Men …

Go to article

Sage Illusionists: A Historical Study Using Illusionists As A Reflection Of Mass Entertainment, Popular Culture, Anf Change During The Late Nineteenth Century, Clayton Phillips Jan 2015

Sage Illusionists: A Historical Study Using Illusionists As A Reflection Of Mass Entertainment, Popular Culture, Anf Change During The Late Nineteenth Century, Clayton Phillips

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By the late nineteenth and early twenty century both the United States and Europe were experiencing massive shifts in social organization, social attitudes, and global influence due to the effects of the industrial revolution and imperialistic expansion. This birth of a public sphere and the mass entertainment industry was related to a blurring of the lines between traditional social classes. Mass entertainment's growth was directly related to the need to attract large audiences with entertainment that appealed in some way to a broad spectrum of the populace. At the same time, stage illusionists or magicians were one of the most …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last