Digital Commons Network^™

Empirical Research And Practice-Oriented Physics For The Humanities And Sciences, István Berszán

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Empirical Research and Practice-oriented Physics for the Humanities and Sciences" István Berszán proposes an empirical approach for the humanities and sciences he designates as "practice-oriented physics." He bases his argumentation on Albert-László Barabási's network theory applied and question tenets of complexity, networks, and spaces. Further, Berszán elaborates on the affinity between the spaces of practical orientation and the spaciousness of parallel worlds as explicated in Brian Green's string theory. Berszán posits that because the universe as "symphony" of string oscillations leads to parallel rhythms of happenings and their different spaces of motion and argues that this kind …

Teaching Literature Through Online Discussion In Theory And Practice, Monica Manzolillo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Teaching Literature through Online Discussion in Theory and Practice" Monica Manzolillo focuses on the teaching of literature at the university through on-line discussion. Integrating discussion-based techniques with the predominant lecture mode is necessary because we need to modify students' merely receptive attitude, and help them develop the fundamental skills of reading, interpreting, and criticizing literary texts. Compared to live discussions, electronic communication has the advantage of providing a more relaxed atmosphere where social conventions are less important and this encourages positive interaction among students. Manzolillo illustrates the experimental use of the website Learning Literature http://www.learningliterature.it/ as support …

Toward An Aesthetics Of Adaptation In Empirical Research, Marion Behrens, Christian Kell, Pascal Nicklas

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Toward an Aesthetics of Adaptation in Empirical Research" Marion Behrens, Christian Kell, and Pascal Nicklas discuss the requirements and potential of empirical research into the reception of adaptations: adaptation is one key strategy in the creation of literature and art in general. The creative process and product of adaptation has its counter-part on the side of reception. Empirical research into the aesthetics of adaptation aims at the experimental elucidation of the physiological background and the establishment of a model describing the perceptual underpinnings of the act of seeing an adaptation as adaptation. This implies evolutionary biological reasoning …

The Indirect Path To The Literary Canon Exemplified By Shelley's Frankenstein, David Fishelov

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The Indirect Path to the Literary Canon Exemplified by Shelley's Frankenstein" David Fishelov examines the indirect path of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the literary canon. Fishelov offers a multi-dimensional model for describing the dynamic process of acquiring, maintaining, and changing canonical status. The model emphasizes the important role played by artistic dialogues and echoes that certain works initiate or inspire in other authors and artists in the form of allusion, homage, parody, and adaptation. The data introduced in the article suggest that the popular cinematic versions of Frankenstein probably not only played a mediating role but …

Picture Storybooks In Teaching Chinese As A Second Language, Elizabeth K.Y. Loh

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Picture Storybooks in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language" Elizabeth K.Y. Loh presents a case study of the use of picture storybooks written and illustrated by ethnic minority students who participated in a government-sponsored Chinese as a Second Language project. The one-year teaching experiment suggests that picture storybooks as teaching materials played a significant role in enhancing students' motivation in learning Chinese. The research project resulted in students' proficiency in Chinese as a second language particularly in reading and writing.

Improving Machine Learning Techniques For Influenza-A Classification, Nermin Ashraf Shaltout

Theses and Dissertations

Influenza-A's ability to mutate constantly has resulted in recurring seasonal epidemics and pandemics. Recently, the virus's spread has been enhanced by its ability to infect multiple hosts simultaneously. Fast identification of the subtype and hosts of Influenza-A virus, is thus crucial, to quickly measure its drug resistance and virulence. Research in data mining techniques for influenza virus A host and subtype classification, has already been underway. The older studies' main goal was improving the accuracy, speed and safety of the virus analyses. With newer infectious strains of Influenza-A, appearing yearly, these techniques are still open for improvement. The current research …

The Relationship Between Performance Evaluation Systems And Motivation: A Case Study From Three Ngos In Egypt., Heba Aloush

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this research is to measure the relationship between Performance Evaluation System (PES) in the NGO sector in Egypt and the employees’ motivational level. Additionally, the research will explore the employees’ perceptions of the PES in the NGO sector in Egypt. The study was conducted over three NGOs; CARE International, Save the Children, and the Misr El Kheir. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used to answer the main research question and to evaluate the PES in the three organizations in addition to the evaluation of the motivators and the PES challenges from the employees’ perspectives. …

“Molecular Dynamics Simulation Of An Engineered T4 Lysozyme Protein With Potential Nano-Biotechnological Applications”, Hadeer Elhabashy

Theses and Dissertations

The idea of developing a Bio-molecular mechanical device has attracted the attention of many research groups due to its promising Nano and Bio- technological applications such as flow-control valves, switches and bio-sensors. T4 Lysozyme protein is an enzyme, which has been extensively studied. This protein provides a wealth of information regarding the structure/function relationship of proteins at atomic resolution. An engineered variant of T4 Lysozyme has been reported to trigger a large scale translocation of an engineered helix (∼ 2nm), upon the addition of an external ligand. The design was based on the duplication of a surface helix, followed by …

The Integration Of Children With Autism In The Egyptian Society By The Use Of Ict Tools, Aline Bahari

Theses and Dissertations

Autism has been discussed through the fields of medicine, sociology or psychology all over the past decades. Today, however it is being discussed through a different lens: „Communication‟. Being privileged by so many virtues, the Mass communication field not only spreads information, news and discusses views but also bonds people together. In that sense, Children with Autism should be part of this dynamic sphere, with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools, integrating those suffering from autism within the Egyptian society. A Descriptive Survey research clarifies the actual use of children with autism to ICT tools through the …

Parenting In Egypt: Recommendations For A Parenting Program For Upper And Middle Class Egyptians, Amira Ragy Saad Hanna

Theses and Dissertations

Parenting is key for the healthy development of children. It is a complex role that requires a great deal of support. Parenting or parent education programs are good tools for supporting parents but they are not widely available in Egypt, and the ones that are available may not be culturally sensitive to the Egyptian context. In order to develop an effective parenting program, an assessment of parenting training and support needs was conducted. An online survey was administered to parents (n = 255, 47% completion rate) of children aged 0 to 12 to assess their knowledge of child development, their …

Pro-Social Content In Popular Animated Cartoons Viewed By Egyptian Children, Lina Nada

Theses and Dissertations

Social Cognitive Theory posits that children can learn from observations specially if repeated, directly or indirectly reinforced, and the audience feels competent in doing them. While much of the focus of research was on the negative aspects or the antisocial content specially in the Arab region, the present study studies prosocial content. Prosocial behaviors is a socially desirable intended behavior that in some way benefits another person or society at large. A content analysis was used to examine the content of the popular cartoons of children aged 7-12 years old who based on research are able to comprehend the messages …

Assessment Of Performance Of Bio Self-Healing Mortar Using Diatomaceous Earth And Silica Fume, Ahmed Albughdadi

Theses and Dissertations

Cracking represents a major threat for the integrity and performance of structures. There are many factors that initiate cracking that are related to environment, properties of concrete itself and several other variables that are difficult to control. Repairing becomes inevitable for concrete structures; however it could be costly and time consuming. Self-healing concept has been introduced to construction materials in order to enhance their performance and extend their service life with less repair. The objective of this study is to assess the performance of Portland cement mortar incorporating self-healing Bacillus Pseudofirmus bacteria using Diatomaceous earth (DE) to immobilize precursor and …

The Pharmaceutical Supply Of Brand And Generic Medicines In Different Rural And Urban Areas Of Egypt., Yasin M. Ragaey Afify

Theses and Dissertations

Medicines are an important intervention for protecting public health. While medicines have brand and generic type products, those used for treating non-communicable diseases are used by patients for life. The pharmaceutical market is not a competitive market with asymmetric flow of information. Equal access to both types of medicines is part of equal access to health care in different socioeconomic areas. Patients with non-communicable diseases should own their choice of whether brand or generic medicines for their treatment not the market supply that dictates their consumption. In this thesis, we used data for availability of 39 medicines treating non-communicable diseases …

Feasibility Of Converting Existing Residential Buildings To Net Zero-Energy Buildings In Egypt, Somaya Albadry

Theses and Dissertations

Green architecture, sustainable buildings, environmentally friendly, and other terms have recently become popular in the construction fields among both professionals and non-professionals. Although it is mostly needed and highly feasible, the application of these ideas is not yet at the same level of popularity in Egypt. Researchers are trying to fill this gap by providing different types of recommendations, methodologies, and guidelines to be followed. The aim of this research is to propose a method to be used in solving the energy problem in the building sector in Egypt. Since it is concerned with the existing building stock, the methodology …

Genome-Wide Transcriptomic Analysis Of Alternative Splicing Modulation In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Moustafa Ahmed Abohawya

Theses and Dissertations

Eukaryotic genes architecture is characterized by incorporation of non-coding sequences interrupting the coding sequences. Through splicing, excision of those non-coding sequences, known as introns, is taking place co-transcriptionally, i.e. synchronically with the synthesis of precursor messenger m-RNA from the template DNA, in a precisely-regulated manner. Alternative splicing is a phenomena where not all splice sets are used in each transcript processed. Thus, this process enhances the proteome and transcriptome complexity through generating different transcripts, with different functionality or stability, from a single gene. Aberrant splicing have been associated with a lot of disease including cancer as well as Parkinsonism. Chemical …

Egyptian Student Perceptions Of Visual Warnings On Cigarette Packs, Hala Touta

Theses and Dissertations

This Thesis examines how Egyptian students perceive the visual warnings on cigarette packs. First the study presents some significant global and regional statistics alongside a history of cigarette manufacturing, social associations, and advertising from the twentieth century. Three theories are reconciled, namely the theories of Normative Influence, Fear Appeal, and the Protection Motivation Theory to fully capture why the Egyptian young people continue to smoke despite the disturbing graphic images that are required by law to be placed on the front and back of cigarette packs. In engaging with these theories, the study explains how the human psyche develops a …

Antibiotic Resistance In Red Sea Brine Pools, Ali Hassan Ali Elbehery

Theses and Dissertations

Antibiotic resistance (AR) is a complex problem with a global clinical impact. However, did this phenomenon begin in conjunction with the medical use of antibiotics or is it older? Studying AR in pristine environments could answer this question. Being devoid of anthropogenic impact, makes Red Sea brine pools ideal targets for the study. Besides, the extremophilic nature of these pools, particularly Atlantis II Deep (ATIID) allows mining for novel thermostable AR genes, which could provide better understanding of AR evolution and enrich the thermophilic selection marker gene repertoire. Here, we initially validated commonly used AR detection methods, then analyzed antibiotic …

Indigenous Communities Attempt To Halt Construction Of Massive Hydroelectric Facility In Chiapas, Carlos Navarro

SourceMex

No abstract provided.

Understanding College Students’ Exam Process In A General Chemistry Course, Angela Willson

Masters Theses

The main way most college chemistry courses assess what a student has learned is through a summative exam. After introductory science courses, such as general chemistry, many students cite poor teaching and disappointing grades in these courses as a reason for dropping out of STEM programs. There has been a lack of qualitative research on students’ experiences of the complete process of taking an exam from start to finish, or the exam process, which includes preparing for an exam, taking an exam, receiving feedback, and responding to feedback after the exam has been graded.

My goal in this exploratory study …

Ranking Of Fibre-Reinforced Composite Plate Surface Finish Quality By Wavelet Texture Analysis, S. Palmer, W. Hall, J. Summerscales

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

In the automotive and other industries, the visual appearance of external surfaces is a key factor in perceived product quality. Traditionally, the quality of automotive surface finish has been judged by expert human auditors. A set of 17 fibre-reinforced composite plates was previously manufactured to have a range of surface finish quality, and these plates were previously ranked by three expert observers and also optically digitally imaged. Following validation of the previous rankings, we applied the wavelet texture analysis (WTA) technique to the digital photographs to derive an instrumental measure of surface finish quality based on the panel images. The …

Study Shows That Black Men With More West African Genes Have Lower Risk Of Obesity, Alicia Rohan

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Corrigendum: A Physics-Enabled Flow Restoration Algorithm For Sparse Piv And Ptv Measurements (2015 Meas. Sci. Technol . 26 065301), Andrey Vlasenko, Edward C.C. Steele, W. Alex M. Nimmo-Smith

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Calcium Phosphate As A Key Material For Socially Responsible Tissue Engineering, Vuk Uskoković, Victoria M. Wu

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Socially responsible technologies are designed while taking into consideration the socioeconomic, geopolitical and environmental limitations of regions in which they will be implemented. In the medical context, this involves making therapeutic platforms more accessible and affordable to patients in poor regions of the world wherein a given disease is endemic. This often necessitates going against the reigning trend of making therapeutic nanoparticles ever more structurally complex and expensive. However, studies aimed at simplifying materials and formulations while maintaining the functionality and therapeutic response of their more complex counterparts seldom provoke a significant interest in the scientific community. In this review …

Sediment Transport Dynamics In The Swash Zone Under Large-Scale Laboratory Conditions, Andrea Ruju, Daniel Conley, Gerd Masselink, Jack Puleo

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Fresh Autologous Pericardium To Reconstruct The Pulmonary Valve At The Annulus When Tetralogy Of Fallot Requires A Transannular Patch At Midterm, Shantanu Pande, Jugal K Sharma, C R Siddartha, Anubhav Bansal, Surendra K Agarwal, Prabhat Tewari, Aditya Kapoor

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

Tetralogy of Fallot often requires reconstruction of the right ventricular outflow tract with a transannular patch (TAP), but this renders the pulmonary valve incompetent and eventually leads to right ventricular dysfunction.

We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy of a reconstructed pulmonary valve and annulus in 70 patients who underwent, from December 2006 through December 2010, complete correction of tetralogy of Fallot. We divided the 70 patients into 2 groups in accordance with whether they required (n=50) or did not require (n=20) a TAP. We used autologous untreated pericardium to fashion the TAP and to create both an annulus of the correct …

Subjective Well-Being And Cardiometabolic Health: An 8-11 Year Study Of Midlife Adults, Julia K. Boehm, Ying Chen, David R. Williams, Carol D. Ryff, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: Individuals who are satisfied and experience frequent positive emotions tend to have reduced risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, conflicting evidence exists and little research has investigated whether well-being is associated with early-warning indicators of biological risk that precede CHD. We investigated whether life satisfaction and positive emotions longitudinally predicted reduced risk of incident cardiometabolic conditions and healthier cardiometabolic risk scores, which may provide insight into underlying mechanisms and novel prevention targets.

Methods: Initially healthy men and women (N=754–854) reported their baseline life satisfaction and positive emotions. During follow-up, presence of manifest cardiometabolic conditions was assessed …

Microfluidic Manipulation Of Core/Shell Nanoparticles For Oral Delivery Of Chemotherapeutics: A New Treatment Approach For Colorectal Cancer, Mohammad Mahdi Hasani-Sadrabadi, Shahrouz Taranejoo, Erfan Dashtimoghadam, Ghasem Bahlakeh, Fatemeh Sadat Majedi, Jules John Vandesarl, Mohsen Janmaleki, Fatemeh Sharifi, Arnaud Bertsch, Kerry Hourigan, Lobat Tayebi, Phillippe Renaud, Karl I. Jacob

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

A microfluidics approach to synthesize core–shell nanocarriers with high pH tunability is described. The sacrificial shell protects the core layer with the drugs and prevents their release in the severe pH conditions of the gastrointestinal tract, while allowing for drug release in the proximity of a tumor. The proposed nanoparticulate drug-delivery system is designed for the oral administration of cancer therapeutics.

The Arg59trp Variant In Angptl8 (Betatrophin) Is Associated With Total And Hdl-Cholesterol In American Indians And Mexican Americans And Differentially Affects Cleavage Of Angptl3, Robert L. Hanson, Fatjon Leti, Darwin Tsinajinnie, Sayuko Kobes, Sobha Puppala, Joanne E. Curran, Laura Almasy, Donna M. Lehman, John Blangero, Ravi Duggirala, Johanna K. Distefano

School of Medicine Publications

We previously identified a locus linked to total cholesterol (TC) concentration in Pima Indians on chromosome 19p. To characterize this locus, we genotyped >2000 SNPs in 1838 Pimas and assessed association with log(TC). We observed evidence for association with log(TC) with rs2278426 (3.5% decrease/copy of the T allele; P=5.045×10(-6)) in the ANGPTL8 (angiopoietin-like 8) gene. We replicated this association in 2413 participants of the San Antonio Mexican American Family Study (SAMAFS: 2.0% decrease per copy of the T allele; P=0.005842). In a meta-analysis of the combined data, we found the strongest estimated effect with rs2278426 (P=2.563×10(-7)). The variant T allele …

Utility Of Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines For Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Generation, Satish Kumar, Joanne E. Curran, David C. Glahn, John Blangero

School of Medicine Publications

A large number of EBV immortalized LCLs have been generated and maintained in genetic/epidemiological studies as a perpetual source of DNA and as a surrogate in vitro cell model. Recent successes in reprograming LCLs into iPSCs have paved the way for generating more relevant in vitro disease models using this existing bioresource. However, the overall reprogramming efficiency and success rate remain poor and very little is known about the mechanistic changes that take place at the transcriptome and cellular functional level during LCL-to-iPSC reprogramming. Here, we report a new optimized LCL-to-iPSC reprogramming protocol using episomal plasmids encoding pluripotency transcription factors …

Prep Advocacy Project: Increasing The Adoption Of Pre-­Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) In San Luis Obispo County, Leona Rajaee

Journalism

The following study investigates the need for Pre­exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in San Luis Obispo (SLO) County in order to develop an effective health outreach and advocacy program that could increase the adoption of PrEP treatment and in turn decrease new HIV transmissions in the community studied. The sponsor of this study is the Access Support Network (ASN), a non­profit organization that provides supportive services for individuals living with HIV/AIDS. ASN launched this study after observing the effectiveness of PrEP in metropolitan cities. At the same time, ASN also noticed a rise in new HIV transmissions, particularly among injecting drug users …