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2015-May-15-Culture And Health Minor To Be Offered Beginning This Fall, University Marketing And Communications, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

No abstract provided.

Perfection, History, And Harmonious Individuality: Herder's Ethical Thought, 1765-1791, Charles Richard Booher

Dissertations - ALL

This work is a study of the ethical thought of Johann Gottfried Herder. I examine the development of his ethics from 1765 through 1791. I contend that the earliest texts express a set of ideas that Herder modified and developed throughout the rest of his work. These are a perfectionist conception of the end of human life, a belief in the centrality of history for ethics, a form of naturalism, and a commitment to the idea that every individual ought to blend their characteristic powers into a harmonious whole. The study considers a set of texts in chronological order. I …

The Sun Star Vol 34 No 27 (May 15th, 2015), N/A N/A

Sun Star

No abstract provided.

Soundings 2015-05-15, N/A N/A

Soundings

No abstract provided.

The Echo: May 15, 2015, Taylor University

2014-2015 (Volume 102)

Goodbye for Now – Life After Taylor Part 5 – Stepping into ‘yes’ – Student Development structure to shift – Student Development Changes – ETR may be facing last days – Taylor students tackle trafficking – From Taylor to the real world – Around The World – Oh How The Years Go By – The FINAL Nugget – The best of senior memories – The LAST bachelor and bachelorette – Echograms #TaylorU -- #TaylorU’s Top Tweets – Seniors ready for spotlight – “Providence” – “What Used to Be” – “One for the Mantel” – “The Unknown Country” – The cynical …

Phylogenetically Novel Species Are More Successful Due To High Competitive Ability At Local And Regional Scales, Amy C. Patterson

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

While few introduced exotic species become invasive, this small number of species poses serious threats to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and recreation, leading ecologists to study why certain species become invasive and why certain communities are prone to invasions. Several leading hypotheses seek to explain invasiveness, including the Enemy Release Hypothesis, the trait superiority hypothesis, and the Biotic Resistance Hypothesis, but none are consistently supported in the literature. We suggest that the lack of uniting hypothesis is a result of the inability to put multiple proposed mechanisms in the same framework, and suggest for a uniting framework Darwin’s Naturalization Hypothesis along …

Proteasome-Mediated Proteolysis Of The Polyglutamine-Expanded Androgen Receptor Is A Late Event In Spinal And Bulbar Muscular Atrophy (Sbma) Pathogenesis., Erin M Heine, Tamar R Berger, Anna Pluciennik, Christopher R Orr, Lori Zboray, Diane E Merry

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers

Proteolysis of polyglutamine-expanded proteins is thought to be a required step in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases. The accepted view for many polyglutamine proteins is that proteolysis of the mutant protein produces a "toxic fragment" that induces neuronal dysfunction and death in a soluble form; toxicity of the fragment is buffered by its incorporation into amyloid-like inclusions. In contrast to this view, we show that, in the polyglutamine disease spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, proteolysis of the mutant androgen receptor (AR) is a late event. Immunocytochemical and biochemical analyses revealed that the mutant AR aggregates as a full-length protein, …

Pre-Service Teacher Perspectives On Bullying By Middle School Girls, Nicole Lyn Stoodley

Honors Theses

The present study focuses on pre-service teacher perspectives of bullying in schools, specifically on the prevalence, characteristics, and interventions of bullying by middle school girls. Participants in the Teacher Education Program of Southern Illinois University Carbondale completed a questionnaire that asked them to estimate the prevalence of bullying by girls compared to that of boys and to identify the specific behaviors that characterize bullying by girls. They described their obligations to address bullying in school and provided identification and intervention strategies. The results show that female pre-service teachers overwhelmingly report that bullying by girls is more common or considered crueler. …

Uncertainty-Integrated Surrogate Modeling For Complex System Optimization, Ali Mehmani

Dissertations - ALL

Approximation models such as surrogate models provide a tractable substitute to expensive physical simulations and an effective solution to the potential lack of quantitative models of system behavior. These capabilities not only enable the efficient design of complex systems, but is also essential for the effective analysis of physical phenomena/characteristics in the different domains of Engineering, Material Science, Biomedical Science, and various other disciplines. Since these models provide an abstraction of the real system behavior (often a low-fidelity representative) it is important to quantify the accuracy and the reliability of such approximation models without investing additional expensive system evaluations (simulations …

Beyond Able-Minded Citizenship: Embracing Intellectual Ability Differences In Democratic Education, Ashley Taylor

Dissertations - ALL

Within philosophical literature on democratic education, philosophers of education embrace the existence of cultural, religious, racial, gender, and other social differences as important to a thriving democracy. However, they frequently ignore or marginalize the potential significance of ability differences, especially those associated with intellect and reasoning ability. In fact, prevailing understandings of civic engagement within political philosophy, social and educational policy, and institutional practice conform to norms of development, behavior, and civic contribution that assume the presence of able-bodied and able-minded individuals. There is therefore an unchallenged assumption that those who experience significant difficulties in reasoning are unable to perform …

Effects Of Rhes Prenylation On Mouse Cognition In A 3-Nitropropionic Acid Animal Model Of Huntington's Disease, Diana Hobbs

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Located on the short arm of chromosome 4, there exists a gene, IT15, responsible for the trinucleotide CAG expansion involved in the autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder known as Huntington’s disease (HD). The brain region associated with the most atrophy, the striatum, leads to expression of severe motor dysfunction, the hallmark feature of HD. To a lesser degree, the cortex and hippocampus show earlier deterioration indicative of the cognitive deficits that occur prior to motor symptom onset. The brain regions associated with HD-induced neuronal death additionally selectively express the protein Rhes - the combination of Rhes and mutant huntingtin being cytotoxic. …

Men And Friendship: An Exploration Of Male Perceptions Of Same-Sex Friendships, Gerard Williams

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Differences between female and male same-sex friendships have been the subject of numerous studies. Additionally, male same-sex friendships have been studied independent of the differences related to female same-sex friendships. Despite these studies, a comprehensive, agreed on definition of male friendship remains unclear or ill-defined. The manner in which men perceive, express and experience same-sex friendships can be viewed as learned behaviors based on gender schema and sex typing. Men’s friendships, as viewed through the gender schema theory, are shaped through the association of gender based male identity and male behaviors. This phenomenological study investigated male perceptions of same-sex male …

2015 Commencement Program, State University Of New York College At Cortland

Commencement Programs

May Commencement. Graduate ceremony.

Case Studies In Ancient Maya Human-Animal Relations: El Perú, La Corona, And Commensal Mammals, Diana Nicole Fridberg

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The ancient Maya of Mesoamerica inhabited a biodiverse landscape filled with animal taxa that provided both physical resources and rich ideological inspiration. To date, faunal studies among the Maya have been more limited than other types of archaeological investigations, leaving much still unknown about how human-animal relations varied across time and space. This study utilizes zooarchaeological, iconographic, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic data to illuminate the use of animals in Late Classic period (600-900 CE) ritual at the sites of La Corona and El Perú-Waka' (henceforth abbreviated as El Perú) in Petén, Guatemala, and to investigate the roles of commensal mammals in …

2015 Ursinus College Commencement Program, Ursinus College

Ursinus College Commencement Programs

This Ursinus College Commencement program from 2015 contains the list of speakers and order of events for the day.

University Of Richmond Commencement Exercises Program - 2015

Commencement Programs

University of Richmond Commencement Exercises Program, 2015. Including Conferring of Degrees to School of Arts & Sciences: Bachelor of Arts, and Bachelor of Science; The E. Claiborne Robins School of Business: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration; Jepson School of Leadership Studies: Bachelor of Arts.

Biological Significance Of Photoreceptor Photocycle Length: Vivid Photocycle Governs The Dynamic Vivid-White Collar Complex Pool Mediating Photo-Adaptation And Response To Changes In Light Intensity, Arko Dasgupta, Chen-Hui Chen, Changhwan Lee, Amy S. Gladfelter, Jay C. Dunlap, Jennifer J. Loros

Dartmouth Scholarship

Most organisms on earth sense light through the use of chromophore-bearing photoreceptive proteins with distinct and characteristic photocycle lengths, yet the biological significance of this adduct decay length is neither understood nor has been tested. In the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa VIVID (VVD) is a critical player in the process of photoadaptation, the attenuation of light-induced responses and the ability to maintain photosensitivity in response to changing light intensities. Detailed in vitro analysis of the photochemistry of the blue light sensing, FAD binding, LOV domain of VVD has revealed residues around the site of photo-adduct formation that influence the stability …

Governing Through Health: The Biomedical And Public Health Management Of Drug Using Bodies, Kelly Szott

Dissertations - ALL

Focused on the intersection of health, drug use, and poverty, this dissertation closely examines the use of discursive registers in the conceptualization of health among low-income people who inject drugs in New York City. Using qualitative in-depth interviews with 40 people who inject drugs, 13 health care practitioners who provide care for drug-using patients, and 4 researchers of drug use, the governmentality of a public health risk population--people who inject drugs--is traced. To historicize this population a genealogy of the "injection drug user" is conducted through the examination of public health research publications from the 1980s and historical literature on …

Alternate Formulations For Optimization Of Plga Microsphere-Comprised Glucose Biosensor Coating Against Foreign Body Inflammation., Klair Lubonja

Honors Scholar Theses

In this study, dexamethasone loaded PLGA microsphere/PVA hydrogel composites were explored as an outer drug-eluting coating for implantable biosensors to provide defense against acute inflammation of the foreign body response. The microspheres, with a dexamethasone release target period of approximately two weeks, were manufactured under various conditions: different co-solvents and homogenization speeds. Particle size measurement, scanning electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry were performed for all the microsphere formulations prepared. The addition of acetone as a co-solvent for dexamethasone, at normal homogenization speeds, shows promise for the improvement of drug loading and the attainment of superior release profiles. PLGA microsphere/PVA …

Looking Beyond The Standard Model From The Lattice, Aarti Veernala

Dissertations - ALL

The overall motivation behind the work undertaken in this thesis, is to gain a deeper insight into the dynamics responsible for the Higgs mechanism. In particular we use lattice gauge theory techniques, to understand the inherent symmetry breaking patterns of three specific BSM (beyond the standard model) theories. The first model (in chapter 3) describes the spontaneous symmetry breaking pattern in a two dimensional, eight supercharge supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We discuss the mechanism responsible for the said symmetry breaking and show evidence for a possible light Goldstino-the fermionic analogue of a massless goldstone boson. In chapter 4, we study the …

Characterizing Dna2 In Model Plant Arabidopsis, Connor Woodward, Brent Nielsen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Dna2 is a protein that is known to be essential for DNA replication in human and yeast mitochondria. In these organisms it acts as both a helicase and an endonuclease. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana an ortholog of Dna2 exists but has never been studied. Two questions were answered in this study. The first question is “What would happen to A. thaliana plants that lacked Dna2?”. The second is “Where is Dna2 localized in plant cells?”

Static Analysis Of Malicious Java Applets, Nikitha Ganesh

Master's Projects

In this research, we consider the problem of detecting malicious Java applets, based on static analysis. In general, dynamic analysis is more informative, but static analysis is more efficient, and hence more practical. Consequently, static analysis is preferred, provided we can obtain results comparable to those obtained using dynamic analysis. We conducted experiments with the machine learning technique, Hidden Markov Model (HMM). We show that in some cases a static technique can detect malicious Java applets with greater accuracy than previously published research that relied on dynamic analysis.

Combining Dynamic And Static Analysis For Malware Detection, Anusha Damodaran

Master's Projects

Well-designed malware can evade static detection techniques, such as signature scanning. Dynamic analysis strips away one layer of obfuscation and hence such an approach can potentially provide more accurate detection results. However, dynamic analysis is generally more costly than static analysis. In this research, we analyze the effectiveness of using dynamic analysis to enhance the training phase, while using only static techniques in the detection phase. Relative to a fully static approach, the additional overhead is minimal, since training is essentially one-time work.

Social Network Analysis Of Partner Preference In Lemon Sharks, Negaprion Brevirostris, During The Introduction Of Unfamiliars To Familiar Groups, Bryan Keller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to understand what drives group formations and to predict spatial occurrences, investigations on individual preferences within the groups have proved to be very useful. Groups of sharks have been observed for centuries; however, there is a dearth of quantitative analyses on the mechanisms that drive their formation. In this study, we use controlled, semi-captive behavioural experiments to assess the potential role of familiarity in group formation and on social behaviour in a large marine vertebrate. Juvenile lemon sharks, Negaprion brevirostris, (n =23) in Bimini, Bahamas were captured, measured and tagged with external colour codes for individual identification and …

August 2013-August 2014 Case Law On American Indians, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

2015 Honors Student Conference: Spotlight On Research And Creativity, Depaul University College Of Liberal Arts And Sciences

Honors Student Conference

Welcome to the second Honors Student Conference: Spotlight on Research and Creativity. Over sixty students from the DePaul University Honors Programs will present their exciting and original work at this conference. Presentations will feature innovative arguments, distinctive interpretations, and ambitious research findings developed over the course of the year. Our conference allows the presenters to share what they’ve learned with a broad audience of fellow students, faculty, staff, family and friends. Thank you for joining us to cheer them on!

This conference showcases the work of forty-two outstanding Honors Program seniors who have taken “the road less traveled” and opted …

Functional Traits And Resource-Use Strategies Of Native And Invasive Plants In Eastern North American Forests, Jacob Mason Heberling

Dissertations - ALL

Despite the presumption that native species are well adapted to their local environment, non-native invaders seem to outperform native plants. Intuitively, it appears paradoxical that non-native species, with no opportunity for local adaptation, can exhibit greater fitness than native plants with this advantage. Here, I compared traits of native and invasive shrub and liana species in Eastern North American (ENA) forests to test the overarching hypothesis that non-native understory species invasive to this region have superior resource-use strategies, or alternatively, they share the same metabolic tradeoffs as the native flora. First, at a global scale, I addressed the largely untested …

Visualizing Words And Knowledge: Arts Of Memory From The Agora To The Computer, Seth D. Long

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines rhetoric's fourth canon--the art of memory--tracing its development through the classical, medieval, and early modern periods. It argues that for most of its history, the fourth canon was an art by which words and knowledge were remediated into visual, spatial forms, either in the mind or on the page. And it was this technique of visualization, I argue, that linked the canons of memory and invention throughout history. In contemporary rhetorical theory, however, memory palaces and mnemonic imagery have been replaced with a conception of memory grounded in psychology and critique. I argue that this move away …

Discovering The Biological Activities Of Maltose Derivatives For Controlling Bacterial Multicellular Behaviors, Gauri Shirish Shetye

Dissertations - ALL

Since the serendipitous discovery of the first antibiotic, the "wonder drug" penicillin by Alexander Fleming, bacteria over time have slowly developed resistance to most antibiotics through three well coordinated processes. Firstly, bacteria can evolve their genetic makeup to become resistant against antibiotics; Secondly, bacteria can relay the modified antibiotic resistant genes to other bacteria and other species through a process called conjugation. Thirdly, bacteria quickly give up their individuality to become a part of a team to form surface attached multicellular communities known as biofilms. Bacteria residing within biofilms are protected by a layer of slime which renders the bacteria …

Crosslinked Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel Networks Designed As Mechanical Actuators, Pushkar S. Varde

Dissertations - ALL

Bioengineers are in constant pursuit of solutions to problems facing the medical and pharmaceutical field by designing biomaterials that closely mimic the target natural systems. A unique collection of polymers, known as polymeric actuators, have been devised with the ability to convert an external stimulus to a change in shape, size or permeability. The current options within polymeric biomaterials with multi-functionality include matrices that are biocompatible, biodegradable, quick transitioning / shape changing, and mechanically tunable. These properties have been harnessed for application such as stents, valves, semi permeable membranes, and dynamic cell culture substrates. For such applications quick and uniform …