Digital Commons Network^™

Detecting Evidence Of Systemic Inflammation From Osteological Markers In The Indian Knoll Population Of Ohio County, Kentucky., Krysta Wilham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Indian Knoll is an Archaic shell midden site located in the Green River region of west-central Kentucky, and was excavated twice in the first half of the 20^th century. While Indian Knoll has been the subject of frequent bioarchaeological studies, the present study presents an osteological analysis of the relationships between skeletal markers commonly associated with local inflammatory processes, and that have the potential to be used as proxies for systemic inflammation. The analysis revealed a significant positive association in the presence of periodontal disease (PD) and periosteal lesions (PL), suggesting a potential underlying hyper-inflammatory status or phenotype. These …

Cost Of Care For Hospitalized Patients With Pulmonary Mycobacterial Diseases In The United States., Mary Beth Wells Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Pulmonary mycobacterial diseases describe both tuberculosis (TB) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Few data are available measuring the cost burden of mycobacterial diseases on the national level. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cost burden and measure emerging trends in hospitalization of pulmonary TB and NTM in the US from 2001 through 2012. Methods: This study was a retrospective community based cost analysis of hospitalized patients with a principal diagnosis of pulmonary mycobacterial diseases from 2001 through 2012. Data for pulmonary TB and NTM were retrieved from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), US Department of …

Experimental Observation Of The Relationship Between The Pressure Drop And Flow Rate Of Radial Flow Through Porous Media., Matthew William Okruch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research experimentally observed the relationship between pressure drop and flow rate for high velocity, radial flow through porous media. The criterion for what represents high velocity is a function of the Reynold’s number of the flow. Pressure drop – flow rate curves were developed by flowing air and water through the porous carbon block samples. Each sample’s permeability was calculated from on the air test results. Each sample’s porosity was determined through digital microscope image analysis. Darcy’s Law, the Forchheimer equation, and the Ergun equation were converted to the radial flow domain and compared to the experimental data. The …

Order Picking Strategies For Healthcare Warehouses., Ehsan Khodabandeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Order picking is the process of collecting goods and items in specified quantities from storage locations, in response to customer orders. Since many labor resources are involved in this process, finding ways to make it more efficient have been a primary goal for researchers and practitioners. Determining a better allocation of products to the storage areas, finding the best route and sequence to pick multiple products, and choosing the best picking policies to minimize congestion in the aisles are just a few of many objectives regarding order picking process. Due to regulatory compliances and the chance of product spoilage, additional …

The Role Of Nicotine, A7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors And Extracellular Matrix Remodeling In Pulmonary Fibrosis., Glenn Ward Vicary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The median survival for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients from diagnosis is a dismal 3 years. This condition is characterized by pulmonary fibroproliferation and excess production and disordered deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins resulting in obliteration of the original tissue architecture, loss of lung function and eventual death due to respiratory failure. The main hindrance to the development of effective treatments against pulmonary fibrosis is the late detection of its progression and is often of unknown cause. Tobacco smoke represents the most important environmental factor linked to the development of pulmonary fibrosis, with over 60% of IPF patients current …

A Reduced Labeled Samples (Rls) Framework For Classification Of Imbalanced Concept-Drifting Streaming Data., Elaheh Arabmakki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stream processing frameworks are designed to process the streaming data that arrives in time. An example of such data is stream of emails that a user receives every day. Most of the real world data streams are also imbalanced as is in the stream of emails, which contains few spam emails compared to a lot of legitimate emails. The classification of the imbalanced data stream is challenging due to the several reasons: First of all, data streams are huge and they can not be stored in the memory for one time processing. Second, if the data is imbalanced, the accuracy …

The Relationship Between Lead In Groundwater And Elementary School Students' Academic Performance In Missouri, Lynnette Xiangling Li

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Lead exposure can come from various sources, e.g., lead mines, industrial areas, and lead based paint. Missouri has more than 4,128 lead mines. Lead is a neurotoxin. The objectives of the study were to investigate i) the spatial relationship between lead mines and lead distribution in groundwater, ii) the statistical impact of lead in groundwater on students' Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores, and iii) the geographic variations of lead's impact on students' MAP scores. Geographic Information Science spatial analysis tools were used to analyze the concentration of lead in groundwater within school districts in Missouri. Regression analysis was utilized to …

Eastern Flames In The Mind On Fire: A Study Of Eastern And Qur’Anic Influences On Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mohammed Qays Khaleel Alqaisi

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Ralph Waldo Emerson's interest in the east is evident throughout his essays, poems and lectures. He shows his fascination with the eastern cultures, religions and poetry when he quotes from eastern texts to strengthen his ideas, such as the notion of the Over-Soul, illumination, knowledge and nature. He regards the east as an ignored territory of knowledge that contains invaluable wisdom waiting to be explored by western thinkers. As the world witnesses an increasing gap between the east and the west, Emerson represents the universal way of thinking, as he believes in seeking knowledge in every part of the world …

Using Behavior Skills Training To Teach Effective Conversation Skills To Individuals With Disabilities, Allison L. Schmidt

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

A behavioral skills training (BST) package consisting of instructions, modeling an appropriate conversation, participant rehearsal, and constructive feedback, was used to teach appropriate conversation skills to three adults with developmental disabilities. A task analysis was used to define the steps of having a conversation. These steps included greetings, initiations, initiating a topic, responding, and maintaining a topic as the target skills. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used; an A-B-C format was embedded within the design for participants 1 and 2. Participant 3 was assessed using an A-B format. In situ was measured across three settings: each participant's …

Modeling The 3-Dimensional Structure Of D(Cgcgaattcgcg) And Its 8-Oxo-Da5 Adduct With 1h Nmr Noesy Refinements, Christopher Miles Reynolds

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Since the characterization of the oligomer d(CGCGAATTCGCG) has been published by Dickerson et al., computational studies have been carried out to produce an accurate 3D model. These models are important for visualizing how certain DNA repair enzymes, such as the glycosylases, recognize sites of damage by signatures of local 3D distortion. Using 1H NOESY-generated internuclear distances to replicate the model of this oligomer and a derivative with an 8-oxo-dA5 lesion, we propose characteristics of helical distortion that DNA glycosylases might use for identifying this form of damage. In addition, this method of comparison can be used to study the repair …

Channel Sediment And Mining-Lead Storage In Flat River Creek, Old Lead Belt, Missouri, Ralph Joseph Hill

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Historical mining for lead (Pb) in the Old Lead Belt District introduced large volumes of tailings into nearby streams resulting in the large-scale contamination of channel bed and bar deposits in Big River which drains the southeastern Missouri Ozarks. Tailings pile sites have been remediated so that present contamination sources to the river are primarily from the remobilization of Pb stored in channel and floodplain deposits. This study examined the channel geomorphology and sediment geochemistry of Flat River Creek (FRC), a major tributary to the Big River which drains an area that includes three of the six major mines in …

The Development And Validation Of Personality-Based Implicit Measures For Predicting Character Failure, David Doedli Willis

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Previous research in personality-based Implicit Association Tests (IATs) found little predictive power and obtained limited psychometric properties. This study was designed to improve the psychometric properties of personality-based Implicit Association Tests designed to assess attributes related to integrity and character. The predictive validity of the IATs for behavior related to character failure (e.g. dishonesty and rule violations) was also investigated. The personality-based IATs target attitudes and behavior related to what is referred to as the dark side of personality (i.e. traits related to Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism). To obtain criterion behavior related to these traits a temptation manipulation provided subjects …

Garage Door Security System, Trevor Lehr, Austin Williams

Electrical Engineering

This project focuses on the design and build of a low cost system that monitors garage doors and transmits their state to a receiver unit placed at a convenient location inside the user’s house. This provides the user with the ability to monitor their garage doors from the comfort of inside their home without having to go outside and look at the garage. The receiver unit includes a screen to display system information and LEDs to make it easy to view the garage door’s status from a distance. The system has great enough range to place the receiver at any …

Deported By Marriage: Americans Forced To Choose Between Love And Country, Beth Caldwell

Brooklyn Law Review

As the fiftieth anniversary of Loving v. Virginia approaches, de jure prohibitions against interracial marriages are history. However, marriages between people of different national origins continue to be undermined by the law. The Constitution does not protect the marital rights of citizens who marry noncitizens in the same way that it protects all other marriages. Courts have consistently held that a spouse’s deportation does not implicate the rights of American citizens, and the Constitution has long been held inapplicable in protecting the substantive due process rights of noncitizens facing deportation. Given the spike in deportations over the past decade, hundreds …

Essay: Extending Comparative Fault To Apparent And Implied Consent Cases, Aaron D. Twerski, Nina Farber

Brooklyn Law Review

This article challenges the traditional view of consent as a binary issue. Because “lack of consent” is an element of an intentional tort, courts do not apply comparative responsibility principles and therefore must find that plaintiff has either consented to the invasion of her person or not. In cases where consent is predicated on apparent consent or implied consent, however, the all–or-nothing approach to consent fails to take into account that both plaintiff and defendant may have been responsible for a miscommunication as to consent. This essay focuses on well-known cases and situations where both parties likely contributed to a …

Between The Hash Marks: The Absolute Power The Nfl’S Collective Bargaining Agreement Grants Its Commissioner, Eric L. Einhorn

Brooklyn Law Review

The National Football League has recently faced an onslaught of public criticism stemming from its handling of disciplinary matters over the last few years. This note engages in a comparative analysis of the disciplinary processes of the four major professional sports leagues, the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL), to determine why Commissioner Goodell’s disciplinary decisions have received such public criticism and have been challenged by the National Football League Players Association. While examining the cases of Tom Brady and Adrian Peterson, this note will address the question of …

Potholes: Dui Law In The Budding Marijuana Industry, Zack G. Goldberg

Brooklyn Law Review

The rapid legalization of marijuana across the United States has produced a number of novel legal issues. One of the most confounding issues is that presented by the marijuana-impaired driver. In jurisdictions that have legalized the use of marijuana, how high is too high to get behind the wheel? This note assesses the various marijuana DUI laws that states have implemented to combat marijuana-impaired driving. Many of these statutes have followed in the footsteps of the BAC-based standard used to combat drunk driving—using THC measurements to quantify a driver’s level of marijuana-based impairment. Unfortunately, unlike alcohol, the scientific properties of …

If We Don’T Bring Them To Court, The Terrorists Will Have Won: Reinvigorating The Anti-Terrorist Act And General Jurisdiction In A Post-Daimler Era, Stephen J. Digregoria

Brooklyn Law Review

Prior to the Supreme Court's recent general personal jurisdiction decisions in Daimler AG v. Bauman and Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations S.A. v. Brown American terror victims, injured in terror attacks abroad, were able to bring their attackers and those who sponsor them into United States courts for relief. Specifically, groups like the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (the PA) had a history of being sued by American victims of terror. In the course of these suits, the PLO and the PA were regularly found subject to the personal jurisdiction of U.S. courts under a theory of …

The Competing Risks Of Prepayment And Default On The Single-Family Mortgage Market, Ran An

Dissertations - ALL

This study contains three chapters. Since the subprime crisis, it has become increasingly important to understand the competing risks of prepayment and default on the single-family mortgage market. This research studies the economic factors that affect the competing risks of prepayment and default in locations where the aggregate of the prepayment risk and the default risk are simultaneously high.

Chapter 1 outlines the analysis based on thirty-year, fixed-rate, single-family mortgages in five Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs): Phoenix, Miami, Tampa, Detroit and Las Vegas. These MSAs are chosen from a sample Single-family Loan-Level Dataset constructed by Freddie Mac based on high …

Achieving Public Long-Term Care Insurance Through Social Security Wealth: Microsimulation For The Us Case, Alexandre Genest

Dissertations - ALL

The risk of needing long-term care (LTC) at some point in one's life is non-negligible, and the cost of care–whether in formal or informal settings– can be prohibitive for many seniors. In fact LTC is sometimes labeled the last major uninsured expense for seniors in the United States. The majority of LTC costs are currently borne by Medicaid and out-of-pocket spending, while private insurance coverage remains minimal. The take-up of private insurance among American seniors has remained low, in part because of the large (and growing) cost of premiums, as well as the presence of Medicaid. As the payer of …

Reacting To Negative Self-Relevant Information In An Interpersonal Context, Mingxuan Tan

Dissertations - ALL

Using a newly developed perspective provided by cross-cultural research, the concept of face, I conducted three experiments to examine the impact self-construal, feedback source and interpersonal contexts have on one’s reactions to negative self-relevant information. In these experiments, characteristics of contexts including audience’s status, audience’s standard, audience’s performance and publicness of the situation were manipulated to examine participants’ reactions to feedback pertaining to an ostensibly important ability. These experiments revealed that compared to the interdependent self-construal, the independent self-construal was associated with higher levels of self-serving responses. These self-serving responses include attributing failure to external factors and attributing success to …

Election Law And The Presidency: An Introduction And Overview, Jerry H. Goldfeder

Fordham Law Review

Americans now fully appreciate that presidential candidates are vying for a majority of the Electoral College votes, rather than the individual votes of constituents. Modern campaigns are organized around this goal, and commentators are focused on this reality. As a result, there has been an increased cry to reform the electoral process. After all, if every other public official in the land is elected by receiving more votes than their competitors, why should the President of the United States be elected in this apparently undemocratic fashion? The process appears even more unusual in that electors are chosen pursuant to state …

Consistently Inconsistent: What Is A Qualifying Investment Under Article 25 Of The Icsid Convention And Why The Debate Must End, Jeremy Marc Exelbert

Fordham Law Review

International investment has helped to pave the way for an increasingly globalized world community. Consequently, the International Centre for Settlement of Investor Disputes (ICSID)—existing under the mandate of the World Bank and with the stated purpose of increasing economic development abroad—has become the leading international arbitration mechanism currently available for settling disputes arising out of such investments. It is unsettling, therefore, that the interpretation of “investment” within article 25 of the ICSID Convention (the provision that determines whether an ICSID tribunal may exercise jurisdiction over a dispute) has given rise to a unique interpretive controversy because the ICSID Convention fails …

Accidental Vitiation: The Natural And Probable Consequence Of Rosemond V. United States On The Natural And Probable Consequence Doctrine, Evan Goldstick

Fordham Law Review

Recently, the Court decided Rosemond v. United States. In Rosemond, the Court had to determine the requisite mental state for aiding and abetting a particular federal crime. While the Court had the opportunity to weigh in on the natural and probable consequence doctrine in Rosemond, it declined to do so in footnote 7. This Note reviews the natural and probable consequence doctrine, its reception by courts and commentators, and the Court’s holding in Rosemond. This Note then applies the holding of Rosemond to several federal cases that employed the doctrine to determine whether, despite footnote 7, …

Show Me The Money: The Ceo Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule And The Quest For Effective Executive Compensation Reform, Biagio Marino

Fordham Law Review

This Note discusses past attempts to combat growing levels of executive compensation, analyzes the role of both shareholders and directors in the compensation-setting process, and discusses conflicting views concerning shareholder-director power, the disclosure mechanism, and the pay-ratio metric. Finally, this Note balances these views by proposing alterations to the CEO Pay Ratio Disclosure Rule that preserve the long-standing corporate structure, while also offering shareholders an accountability mechanism to enhance the Rule’s intended results.

Effects Of Feeding Field Peas On Fresh Beef Quality, Hope Voegele

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of field peas during two phases of production (grazing and finishing) on fresh beef quality. A total of 232 crossbred steers and heifers were randomly assigned to one of six dietary treatments in a 3x2 factorial consisting of 3 pasture and 2 finishing supplementations. The pasture phase consisted of 1) no supplement, 2) field peas at 0.5% BW, or 3) dry-rolled corn supplement at 0.5% of BW. The finishing phase consisted of 1) field peas at 20% DM or 2) no field peas. During this two-year study, steers (year 1) …

Managing Corn Residue And Double Cropped Forages In Crop And Livestock Systems, Kristen M. Ulmer

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Integrating crop and livestock systems leads to opportunities to utilize land resources; however, crop producers focus on grain yields and ground cover, while livestock producers see opportunity to graze corn residue or annual forages. After wheat harvest or corn silage harvest, above ground forage production for brassica mixes and oats is greater than forage oats or oat production after high moisture corn harvest. Grazing steers on forage crops after grain harvest provides moderate gains. While annual forages provide good quality forages, corn residue grazing and utilization is still a cost-effective feedstuff for cattle producers. In the short term, grain yields …

Effects Of Feed Additives And Body Weight On Growth Performance And Carcass Characteristics Of Beef Finishing Cattle, Curtis J. Bittner

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A pooled-analysis of feedlot pens examined the effects of steer age (calf-fed, short yearling, long yearling) and initial body weight on feedlot growth performance. Feed efficiency decreased linearly as initial body weight increased for all age groups of steers.

Three feedlot experiments evaluated the effects of NEXT ENHANCE (EO) and monensin/tylosin (MT) on growth performance and carcass characteristics in beef finishing diets. In Exp. 1, there were no MT x EO interactions for finishing performance and carcass characteristics. Feeding MT resulted in a 3.9% improvement in G:F compared to steers fed no MT. Feed efficiency was not different between steers …

Effects Of Field Pea Usage In Growing And Finishing Diets For Beef Cattle, Hannah L. Greenwell

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The value of field peas (FP) as a feedstuff has not been thoroughly assessed and compared to other feeds, such as corn, to better establish an economic value. Field peas are characterized by a high CP content (23-26%), a large portion (80%) being rumen degradable protein (RDP), and containing almost a third less starch (31-40%) than corn. Three research trials were performed to better understand the value of FP as a grazing supplement, finishing diet component, and any effects on digestion. Experiment 1 assessed the value of FP as a grazing supplement compared to corn. Grazing was followed by a …

The Potential Roles Of Long Noncoding Rnas (Lncrna) In Glioblastoma Development, Shuang Liu, Ramkrishna Mitra, Ming-Ming Zhao, Wenhong Fan, Christine M. Eischen, Feng Yin, Zhongming Zhao

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) may contribute to the initiation and progression of tumor. In this study, we first systematically compared lncRNA and mRNA expression between glioblastoma and paired normal brain tissues using microarray data. We found 27 lncRNA and 82 mRNA significantly upregulated in glioblastoma, as well as 198 lncRNA and 285 mRNA significantly downregulated in glioblastoma. We identified 138 coexpressed lncRNA–mRNA pairs from these differentially expressed lncRNA and genes. Subsequent pathway analysis of the lncRNA-paired genes indicated that EphrinB–EPHB, p75-mediated signaling, TNFα/NF-κB, and ErbB2/ErbB3 signaling pathways might be altered in glioblastoma. Specifically, lncRNA RAMP2-AS1 had significant decrease of expression …