Digital Commons Network^™

A Review Of Natural And Engineered Enzymes Involved In Bioethanol Production, Ines Cuesta Urena

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Alternative petroleum-derived fuels, such as biofuels, is another form to decrease the dependence of non-renewable energy. The most promising alternative energy is cellulosic ethanol because of the abundance of cellulose and the overall lack of concern for the food-versus-fuel dilemma.

In order to produce ethanol from cellulosic materials, pretreatment is required to “open” the lignocellulosic matrix and make cellulose more susceptible to enzymatic degradation. Enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose is an important area of research due to the absence of negative effects in downstream processes in comparison with acid hydrolysis. Both natural enzymes and engineered enzymes can be used in the …

A Spark That Starts The Fire: Climate Change In The American West, Nathaniel Hegyi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is a large, unwieldy, global phenomenon that acts like a spark in a dry field. A slight rise in the global temperature weakens the Gulf Stream and sends the East Coast into a deep freeze. A slight dip in the global temperature, caused by a volcanic eruption, alters weather patterns and dumps record amounts of rain in Southeast Asia. The three stories in this portfolio depict how climate change can alter the landscape and people of the American West. Chapter one is a narrative summarizing these stories, my reporting process, and publication plans. Chapter two is an embedded …

The Effects Of Aging On Multiple Postural Muscle Control And Postural Sway Behavior, Adriana Menezes Degani

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Episodes of instability and falls in the elderly represent a major public health concern. The lack of scientific information about the effects of age-related changes on neurophysiological mechanisms of postural control has limited the advance in the field of fall prevention and rehabilitation of balance disorders. The overall goal of this dissertation was to investigate the effects of aging on postural control. Considering the progressive non-homogeneous deterioration of aging physiological systems, a series of five experimental studies, with healthy young and healthy nonfaller older adults performing upright stance tasks, explored three main hypotheses: (1) intermuscular coherence analysis is able to …

Patterns, Parallels, And Poetics In Genesis 1, W. Creighton Marlowe

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies

No abstract provided.

Les Accidents Routiers Au Travail : Une Vue D'Ensemble, François Bellavance, Patrice Duguay, Sonia Pignatelli

Fiches

No abstract provided.

Cultural Influences On The Weight, Diet, And Physical Activity Of Pregnant Immigrant Latinas, Martha Eugenia Dominguez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this phenomenological study is how culture and acculturation can potentially influence gestational weight during pregnancy, leading to overweight and obesity among immigrant Latinas. To understand the possible influence of culture and acculturation on the diet, exercise, and weight of pregnant immigrant Latinas, the experiences of immigrant Latinas who had undergone a pregnancy in Mexico and were pregnant in California were examined. The ecological model theory was applied as a framework for exploring the participants' experiences regarding nutrition, physical activity, and weight gain. Semistructured interviews with 10 qualified participants were conducted. Data analysis entailed an inductive approach …

Attachment, Acculturative Stress, Social Supports, Separation, And Marital Distress In Mexican And Central American Adult Immigrants Separated From Primary Caregivers As Children, Isaac Carreon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Latinas/os are reported to be the fastest growing ethnic minority in the United States, with a large percentage being newly arrived immigrants. Previous research has found that many migrate in phases, with the father leaving the family behind or both parents migrating and leaving children in the care of family members. Separations from parental figures have been found to lead to psychosocial, psychological, and educational problems. Additional challenges of immigrants include acculturative stress, lack of social support, attachment problems, poverty, discrimination, unemployment, and marital distress. The purpose of this study was to inquire if immigrant variables (attachment, acculturative stress, and …

Branding Strategies Of Private International Schools In India, Balasubramanian Varadarajan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Private international schools in India are considered by many to be a quality brand. They have grown rapidly leading to competition among schools for student enrollments. The purpose of this case study was to explore the branding strategies used by leaders of Indian private international schools. The study population consisted of private international school leaders in India as well as the faculty and parents from the study site. The double vortex brand model served as the conceptual framework for the study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 5 school leaders, 5 faculty, and 5 parents from an international school in Chennai. …

Review Of Cultural-Existential Psychology: The Role Of Culture In Suffering And Threat. Daniel Sullivan. Reviewed By Daniel Liechty., Daniel Liechty

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Daniel Sullivan, Cultural-Existential Psychology: The Role of Culture in Suffering and Threat. Cambridge University Press (2016), 295 pages, $110 (hardcover).

Understanding Host Community Distrust And Violence Against Oil Companies In Nigeria, Abby Kalio Amabipi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The violence of the Niger Delta host communities against the international oil companies (IOCs) is rampant and dogged. The extent of violence that occurs is harmful to communities, individuals, and oil companies that provide a certain degree of economic stability to the region. The Nigerian government faces a major challenge of resolving community violence in Nigeria. This case study used social exchange theory to better understand the causes and consequences of the lack of community trust against the oil companies that is pervasive in the region. Purposeful sampling was used in the selection of 10 community members, 8 representatives of …

The Cost Of Free Assistance: Why Low-Income Individuals Do Not Access Food Pantries, Kelley Fong, Rachel Wright, Christopher Wimer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Non-governmental free food assistance is available to many lowincome Americans through food pantries. However, most do not use this assistance, even though it can be worth over $2,000 per year. Survey research suggests concrete barriers, such as lack of information, account for non-use. In contrast, qualitative studies focus on the role of cultural factors, such as stigma. Drawing on interviews with 53 low-income individuals in San Francisco who did not use food pantries, we reconcile these findings by illustrating how the two types of barriers are connected. Reasons for non-use such as need, information, long lines, and food quality were …

Will Lgbt Antidiscrimination Law Follow The Course Of Race Discrimination Law, Robert S. Chang

Faculty Articles

This Article examines several decades of race antidiscrimination law to conjecture about the course LGBT civil rights might take following Obergefell v. Hodges. It draws from Alan Freeman’s germinal Minnesota Law Review article, Legitimizing Racial Discrimination Through Antidiscrimination Law: A Critical Review of Supreme Court Doctrine, and asks whether Freeman’s thesis that race antidiscrimination law actually serves to legitimize the status quo of real-world racial inequality might apply with equal force in the context of LGBT civil rights and LGBT inequality. The Article suggests that the Court may develop, similar to its colorblind constitutionalism, a “sexuality-blind constitutionalism” in which formal …

Exposed: Asking The Wrong Question In Risk Regulation, Catherine O'Neill

Faculty Articles

Environmental agencies determine the future state of our air, waters, and soil by reference to people’s recent-past practices. Agency exposure assessors inquire “to what are people exposed?”, and then set health-based standards accordingly. That is, they require environmental conditions sufficient to support only people’s contemporary pursuits. This Article observes that this approach suffers from several infirmities, such that exposure assessment as practiced fails to advance – and often undermines – the health-based goals of environmental and other laws. This Article examines the development of exposure assessment at EPA to uncover how agencies’ inquiry came to focus on contemporary behaviors, rather …

The Influence Of Exile, Sara K. Rankin

Faculty Articles

Belonging is a fundamental human need, but human instincts are Janus-faced and equally strong is the drive to exclude. This exclusive impulse, which this Article calls "the influence of exile, reaches beyond interpersonal dynamics when empowered groups use laws and policies to restrict marginalized groups' access to public space. Jim Crow, Anti-Okie, and Sundown Town laws are among many notorious examples. But the influence of exile perseveres today: it has found a new incarnation in the stigmatization and spatial regulation of visible poverty, as laws that criminalize and eject visibly poor people from public space proliferate across the nation. These …

Ghost Bears: The Plight Of The North Cascades Grizzly Bear, Adam Bowler

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Cultural Rights V. Species Protection: A Case Study Of Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtles, Mohit Khubchandani, Mehul Parti

Seattle Journal of Environmental Law

The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), sometimes called the lute turtle, is the largest of all living turtles. It is the fourth- heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. These species are categorized as critically endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. These turtles avail pro- tection under the Convention on Illicit Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); a treaty enacted to protect wildlife against over-exploita- tion and with an aim to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. The said treaty is applicable to species in general …

In Vivo-Expressed Proteins Of Virulent Leptospira Interrogans Serovar Autumnalis N2 Elicit Strong Igm Responses Of Value In Conclusive Diagnosis, Veerapandian Raja, Santhanam Shanmughapriya, Murugesan Kanagavel, Sergey Artiushin, Sridhar Velineni, John F. Timoney, Kalimuthusamy Natarajaseenivasan

Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center Faculty Publications

Leptospirosis is a serious zoonosis that is underdiagnosed because of limited access to laboratory facilities in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and Oceania. Timely diagnosis of locally distributed serovars of high virulence is crucial for successful care and outbreak management. Using pooled patient sera, an expression gene library of a virulent Leptospira interrogans serovar Autumnalis strain N2 isolated in South India was screened. The identified genes were characterized, and the purified recombinant proteins were used as antigens in IgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) either singly or in combination. Sera (n = 118) from cases of acute leptospirosis along …

Hausman V. Holland America Line-U.S.A., Western District Of Washington

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.

Disney Enterprises V. Vidangel, Central District Of California

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.

Solidifying Segregation Or Promoting Diversity? School Closure And Rezoning In An Urban District, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kimberly Bridges, Thomas J. Shields

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Purpose: Layered with myriad considerations, school closure and rezoning processes in urban school systems are politically fraught with the potential for damaging consequences. This article explores the politics and impacts of a closure and rezoning process in Richmond, Virginia, through the lens of themes applicable to urban school systems and students across the nation. These include the intersection of closure and rezoning with growing White reinvestment in urban school systems, as well as the importance of focusing on diversity and equity during a time of intense pressure to close schools.

Research Methods/Approach: Drawing on the case of Richmond, …

Awareness And Perception Of Hiv/Aid Preventive Strategies Amongst Undergraduate Students Of Adeleke University, Ede Osun State. Nigeria, Ibidapo Oketunji Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Nigeria the most populous country in Africa with a population of about 180 million people is not ruled out of countries facing and suffering under the dangerous claws of HIVAIDS. Owing to this, there came the need to get the masses more sensitised on how to curb the spread of the disease and if possible obliterate the disease from the among students in tertiary institutions. A descriptive survey research design was used for this study. The study population consisted of ninety (90) undergraduates’ students within six (6) Faculties of Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State Nigeria and simple random technique was …

Nanosecond Pulsed Platelet-Rich Plasma (Nsprp) Improves Mechanical And Electrial Cardiac Function Following Myocardial Reperfusion Injury, Barbara Y. Hargrave, Frency Varghese, Nektarios Barabutis, John Catravas, Christian Zemlin

School of Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences Publications

Ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) of the heart is associated with biochemical and ionic changes that result in cardiac contractile and electrical dysfunction. In rabbits, platelet-rich plasma activated using nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPRP) has been shown to improve left ventricular pumping. Here, we demonstrate that nsPRP causes a similar improvement in mouse left ventricular function. We also show that nsPRP injection recovers electrical activity even before reperfusion begins. To uncover the mechanism of nsPRP action, we studied whether the enhanced left ventricular function in nsPRP rabbit and mouse hearts was associated with increased expression of heat-shock proteins and altered mitochondrial …

Modeling Early Stage Bone Regeneration With Biomimetic Electrospun Fibrinogen Nanofibers And Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Michael P. Francis, Yas M. Moghaddam-White, Patrick C. Sachs, Matthew J. Beckman, Stephen M. Chen, Gary L. Bowlin, Lynne W. Elmore, Shawn E. Holt

School of Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences Publications

The key events of the earliest stages of bone regeneration have been described in vivo although not yet modeled in an in vitro environment, where mechanistic cell-matrix-growth factor interactions can be more effectively studied. Here, we explore an early-stage bone regeneration model where the ability of electrospun fibrinogen (Fg) nanofibers to regulate osteoblastogenesis between distinct mesenchymal stem cells populations is assessed. Electrospun scaffolds of Fg, polydioxanone (PDO), and a Fg:PDO blend were seeded with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) and grown for 7-21 days in osteogenic differentiation media or control growth media. Scaffolds were analyzed weekly for histologic and molecular …

Enhanced Osseous Integration Of Human Trabecular Allografts Following Surface Modification With Bioactive Lipids, Tiffany Wang, Jack Krieger, Cynthia Huang, Anusuya Das, Michael P. Francis, Roy Ogle, Edward Botchwey

School of Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences Publications

In this study, we used extracellular matrix (ECM) gels and human bone allograft as matrix vehicles to deliver the sphingolipid growth factor FTY720 to rodent models of tibial fracture and a critical-sized cranial defect. We show that FTY720 released from injectable ECM gels may accelerate callous formation and resolution and bone volume in a mouse tibial fracture model. We then show that FTY720 binds directly to human trabecular allograft bone and releases over 1 week in vitro. Rat critical-sized cranial defects treated with FTY720-coated grafts show increases in vascularization and bone deposition, with histological and micro-computed topography (microCT) evidence of …

The Effects Of Pet Ownership On Anxiety And Depression Among Trauma-Exposed College Students, Dung N. Nguyentran, Marlene A. Michniak, James J. Jung, Christine Q. Do

UROP Posters

Rates of anxiety and depression are prevalent in college students and can be attributed in part to stress and trauma-related events. However, studies suggest that pet ownership has the possibility of alleviating symptoms of anxiety, depression, negative emotions, and suicide. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between pet ownership and levels of anxiety and depression among those who have experienced a traumatic event. The sample was comprised of five hundred and forty-seven VCU students who completed an online survey from Spit for Science during their junior year. Linear regressions were performed to determine the nature and …

Interactively Cutting And Constraining Vertices In Meshes Using Augmented Matrices, Yu-Hong Yeung, Jessica Crouch, Alex Pothen

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present a finite-element solution method that is well suited for interactive simulations of cutting meshes in the regime of linear elastic models. Our approach features fast updates to the solution of the stiffness system of equations to account for real-time changes in mesh connectivity and boundary conditions. Updates are accomplished by augmenting the stiffness matrix to keep it consistent with changes to the underlying model, without refactoring the matrix at each step of cutting. The initial stiffness matrix and its Cholesky factors are used to implicitly form and solve a Schur complement system using an iterative solver. As changes …

Fall 2016 Supplement To Brauneis & Schechter, Copyright: A Contemporary Approach, Robert Brauneis, Roger E. Schechter

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This cumulative supplement contains additional materials for Brauneis and Schechter, Copyright: A Contemporary Approach (1st ed. 2012) that make it current through July 2016. Special features include a hyperlinked table of references to 19 recent cases decided since July 2015, which may be helpful in getting an overview of developments over this past year; a hyperlinked table of contents to all inserts; and a chapter-by-chapter guide to using the supplement, intended for professors who are creating or updating syllabi. The supplement contains nine principal cases with notes, as well as dozens of other updates.

Double Deference In Administrative Law, Emily Hammond

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Administrative law presumes a neat system of agency rulemaking and adjudication followed by judicial review. But the reality of the administrative state departs starkly from this model. One such departure is the use of audited self-regulatory organizations (SROs) -- private organizations comprised of specific industries that formulate binding law to regulate themselves. Although SROs operate subject to the oversight of federal agencies, their power is vast, reaching significant swaths of the national and international economies. There is little to constitutionally constrain such arrangements, and whereas the administrative law model values the norms of participation, deliberation, and transparency, the procedures used …

Regulation And The Courts: Judicial Review In Comparative Perspective, Francesca Bignami

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

After a historical survey of the literature, this chapter puts forward a new analytical scheme to capture variation in comparative judicial review. The earliest, and still relevant, classification developed in the scholarly literature turns on the difference between judicial review of administrative action by the ordinary courts in the English common law and by a special body (Conseil d’Etat) connected to the executive branch in the French droit administratif. This is followed chronologically by the contrast that has been drawn by Robert Kagan and public-choice scholars between the litigious and formal American system of law and public policy and the …

Guns, Bird Feathers, And Overcriminalization: Why Courts Should Take The Second Amendment Seriously, Robert J. Cottrol, George Mocsary

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Who should the state punish? Why? Should punishment be proportional? This article surveys, in the context of these fundamental criminal-law questions, the Second Amendment’s constitutional history and jurisprudence. A vast body of evidence shows that the framers of both the Second and Fourteenth Amendments intended to protect the individual’s right to keep and carry arms for protection against both governmental and private aggression.

Yet courts, unwilling to allow disfavored groups the means of self-defense, or fearing being blamed for criminal firearm activity, have failed to enforce the right to bear arms to any meaningful extent. After the Civil War, the …