Digital Commons Network^™

Scaffold And Tissue Based Therapies To Improve Skeletal Muscle Regeneration After Volumetric Muscle Loss, Benjamin Kasukonis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Volumetric muscle loss (VML) is an injury to skeletal muscle characterized by a loss of more than 20% of a muscles volume. The combination of the bulk loss of tissue, transection and separation of myofibers proximal and distal to the injury, loss of innervation and blood supply, and the depletion of muscle progenitor cells results in permanent fibrosis and functional deficits due to loss of contractile tissue. Scaffolds, cells, and engineered constructs have been explored as potential therapeutic interventions to induce myogenesis at the site of a VML injury in animal models, in addition to limited clinical trials. This dissertation …

Ecological Approaches To Modernism, The U.S. South, And 20th Century American Literature, Justin Ford Tinsley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project seeks to draw from the insights of the emerging scholarly discipline known as ecocritism, study of the relationship between human and nonhuman in all arts and in all diverse forms, and apply them to the study of a specific regional art, that of the U.S. South. As an interrogation of the human / nonhuman binary, ecocriticism is intrinsically intertwined with the concept of place. Southern studies—having long explored the diversity (in terms of both human experience and geographical terrain) characterizing the region—offers ecocriticism a ripe testing ground for theoretical mergers and analytic applications. Both fields celebrate hybridity, multiplicity, …

How Select Groups Of Preservice Science Teachers With Inquiry Orientations View Teaching And Learning Science Through Inquiry, Peggy Diana Ward

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although hailed as a powerful form of instruction, in most teaching and learning contexts, inquiry-based instruction is fraught with ambiguous and conflicting definitions and descriptions. Yet little has been written about the experiences preservice science teacher have regarding their learning to teach science through inquiry. This project sought to understand how select preservice secondary science teachers enrolled in three UTeach programs in Arkansas conceptualize inquiry instruction and how they rationalize its value in a teaching and learning context. The three teacher education programs investigated in this study are adoption sites aligned with the UTeach Program in Austin, TX that distinguishes …

Bioorthogonal Reactions: Synthesis And Evaluation Of Different Ligands In Copper Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition (Cuaac), Zainab Abdullah Almansaf

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Copper CatalyzedAzide-Alkyne1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction has unique features that qualify it to be one of the best click reactions. Its applications have been shown in different aspects and for multiple purposes. The oxidative degradation of biological systems (labile proteins and live cells) is, however, generally recognized as the major problem when using this reaction in living systems. Reactive oxidation species can be easily produced in the presence of copper(II), ascorbate and air, and this is the main cause of toxicity. However, the uses of ligands have shown a major impact on reducing copper toxicity, protecting Cu(I) from the redox …

Liming Characteristics Of A High-Calcium, Dry Flue Gas Desulfurization By-Product And Its Effects On Runoff Water Quality, Jason Richard Burgess-Conforti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, only 37% of the 32 million Mg of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) by-products generated in the United States were reused beneficially. If FGD by-products could be used as a beneficial soil amendment, millions of megagrams may be diverted away from surface impoundments and landfills. The purpose of this research was to identify the liming characteristics of a high-Ca dry FGD (DFGD) by-product in comparison to a Class-C fly ash (FA) and reagent-grade CaCO3, and to evaluate the effects of land application to a managed grassland on runoff, plant, and soil quality. Liming characteristics were determined by measuring the …

Eveleth, Minnesota: A Portrait Of My Home Town, Judith I. Luna

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This 30-minute documentary film provides snapshots of the small northeastern iron mining town of Eveleth, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range. It uses a two-pronged approach: 1) a first-person return to the town by the filmmaker almost 50 years after graduating from high school to see how the town may have changed, 2) a look at some historical and cultural factors which made the town what it was when the filmmaker was growing up and what continues to animate the town in the face of iron mining’s decline and rebirth. The latter include the immigrant experience and influence as the …

Counselor Preparation And Adolescent Youth: A Study Of Clinical Mental Health Counselors, Brian R. Russ

Dissertations

Prevalence data have raised concerns that child and adolescent mental health issues are at an epidemic level. For example, Knopf, Park, and Mulye (2008) suggested that 20-25% of all youth experience symptoms of distress. Researchers have also estimated that one in five adolescents in the United States have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and one in ten with a disorder that would be considered severe (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, et al., 2005; Knopf, Park, & Mulye, 2008). Yet, the training of clinical mental health counselors who work with adolescent populations has received limited attention in the counselor education literature. Although the …

African American Men’S Health: Regulating Race-Related Stress Through Cognitive Flexibility, Brian P. Littleton

Dissertations

African American men have one the highest preventable mortality and morbidity rates in the United States (Rich, 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). Moreover, there is substantial health disparity between African American men and White men in the United States (Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2003). It has been stated that pervasive racism and discrimination are the most significant contributors for the disparity. Studies have shown race-related stress, which is derived from experiencing racism, discrimination or having internalized feelings as the result of an individual’s racial status, has been associated with blood pressure, emotional distress, and physical health …

Benthic Foraminiferal Distributions In A Shallow Subtropical Estuary And The Influence Of Environmental Factors, Maria Angelica Zamora-Durán

Theses and Dissertations

Benthic foraminiferal communities are potentially useful tools for assessing and monitoring estuarine ecosystems and as bioindicators of water quality and pollution. To evaluate this indicator for the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) benthic ecosystem, the densities and distributions of Foraminifera were measured in Turkey Creek (Palm Bay, Florida), Crane Creek (Melbourne, Florida), and the adjacent IRL. Spatial population patterns were compared with parameters characterizing benthic sediments, including silt and clay content, organic matter (OM), and associated boundary water column conditions including salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen (DO. Samples (n=145) were collected from October 2015 to December 2015 at 12 locations. Four …

An Examination Of The 16pf Validity Scales As Predictors Of The Scale Of Accurate Personality Prediction (Sapp), Katherine E. Schmieder

Theses and Dissertations

The Scale of Accurate Personality Prediction (SAPP) was derived from the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16-PF) as a measure of self-knowledge by comparing the degree of similarity of a participant’s predicted and obtained 16 PF results. The purpose of this study was to examine the utilization of the16PF validity scales as potential predictors of an individual’s score on the Scale of Accurate Personality Prediction (SAPP). A series of multiple regression analyses were performed on the current database of 641 respondents. Additionally, to provide additional validity, the database was split into two halves, and the multiple regression analyses were run on …

Marine Microalgae: Climate, Energy, And Food Security From The Sea, Charles H. Greene, Mark E. Huntley, Ian Archibald, Léda N. Gerber, Deborah L. Sills, Joe Granados, Jefferson W. Tester, Colin M. Beal, Michael J. Walsh, Robert R. Bidigare, Susan L. Brown, William P. Cochlan, Zackary I. Johnson, Xin Gen Lei, Stephen C. Machesky, Donald Redalje, Ruth E. Richardson, Viswanath Kiron, Virginia Corless

Faculty Publications

Climate, energy, and food security are three of the greatest challenges society faces this century. Solutions for mitigating the effects of climate change often conflict with solutions for ensuring society’s future energy and food requirements. For example, BioEnergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) has been proposed as an important method for achieving negative CO2 emissions later this century while simultaneously producing renewable energy on a global scale. However, BECCS has many negative environmental consequences for land, nutrient, and water use as well as biodiversity and food production. In contrast, large-scale industrial cultivation of marine microalgae can provide society with …

Analog Spiking Neuromorphic Circuits And Systems For Brain- And Nanotechnology-Inspired Cognitive Computing, Xinyu Wu

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Human society is now facing grand challenges to satisfy the growing demand for computing power, at the same time, sustain energy consumption. By the end of CMOS technology scaling, innovations are required to tackle the challenges in a radically different way. Inspired by the emerging understanding of the computing occurring in a brain and nanotechnology-enabled biological plausible synaptic plasticity, neuromorphic computing architectures are being investigated. Such a neuromorphic chip that combines CMOS analog spiking neurons and nanoscale resistive random-access memory (RRAM) using as electronics synapses can provide massive neural network parallelism, high density and online learning capability, and hence, paves …

Electrochemical Communication With The Inside Of Cells Using Micro-Patterned Vertical Carbon Nanofibre Electrodes, F. J. Rawson, M. T. Cole, J. M. Hicks, J. W. Aylott, W. I. Milne, C. M. Collins, S. K. Jackson, N. J. Silman, P. M. Mendes

School of Biomedical Sciences

No abstract provided.

Northern Flicker - Biology And Damage Management, Nicki Frey, Steve Zanoni

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes the northern flicker, a large woodpecker, It include how to identify it, sources of conflict with humans, and managing damage it may cause,

Consensus Paper: Cerebellar Development, K Leto, M Arancillo, Ebe Becker, A Chiang, Et Al.

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The development of the mammalian cerebellum is orchestrated by both cell-autonomous programs and inductive environmental influences. Here, we describe the main processes of cerebellar ontogenesis, highlighting the neurogenic strategies used by developing progenitors, the genetic programs involved in cell fate specification, the progressive changes of structural organization, and some of the better-known abnormalities associated with developmental disorders of the cerebellum.

Bi-Directional Fatigue Life Behavior Of Bovine Meniscus, Jaremy Creechley

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Meniscal injuries due to tissue tearing are prevalent in the U.S. yet the failure behavior of the meniscus is poorly understood. Clinical studies indicate that fatigue failure causes many of these tears. The highly circumferentially aligned fibers result in transversely isotropic material properties. Tears preferentially align bi-directionally to the fiber orientation. The aim of this study is to present the bi-directional fatigue life behavior of meniscal fibrocartilage. A novel fatigue life approach was developed to achieve this aim. Forty-eight bovine specimens were subjected to cyclic sinusoidal tension-tension stress at 2 Hz until rupture. Normalized peak tensile stresses were determined at …

Kinetic Control Of Nucleic Acid Strand Displacement Reactions, Xiaoping Olson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Nucleic acids are information-dense, programmable polymers that can be engineered into primers, probes, molecular motors, and signal amplification circuits for computation, diagnostic, and therapeutic purposes. Signal amplification circuits increase the signal-to-noise ratio of target nucleic acids in the absence of enzymes and thermal cycling. Amplification is made possible via toehold mediated strand displacement – a process where one nucleic acid strand binds to a nucleation site on a complementary helix, which then displaces one of the two strands in a nucleic acid complex. When compared to polymerase chain reactions (PCR), the sensitivity and stability of toehold-mediated strand displacement reactions suffer …

Evaluating The Suitability Of Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation Technique For Stabilizing Expansive Soils, Sikha Neupane

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Expansive soils, also known as swell-shrink soils have been a problem for civil infrastructures including roads and foundations from ancient times. The use of chemical additives such as cement and lime to stabilize expansive soils is a common practice among geotechnical engineers especially for lightly loaded structures. However, several occurrences of subgrade failures were observed after stabilizing with chemical additives hence engineers are in search of sustainable stabilization alternatives. Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) is gaining attention as an environmental friendly soil improvement technique. Several researchers have successfully tested its feasibility in mitigating liquefaction induced problems in sandy soils. This …

To Boldly Go: Boldness Predicts Behavior And Survivorship Of A Critical Prey Species, Zoe Katherine Tinkle

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Understanding population dynamics is at the core of conservation biology. However, our understanding of the mechanisms driving population dynamics remains unclear in many cases. Animal behavior in response to biotic and abiotic stressors is an important driver of these population dynamics and varies both within- and among-individuals in a population. Consistent differences in behavior among individuals within a population are referred to as personality traits. Boldness, a personality trait representing the willingness of an individual to engage in risky behavior, may help predict individual and community-level consequences, such as survivorship. Here, we investigated the inter- and intra-individual variation in risk-taking …

Barn Owls (Tyto Alba) Crossing The Road - Examining The Interplay Among Occupancy, Behavior, Habitat Selection, And Roadway Mortality In Southern Idaho, Tempe Regan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are killed by vehicle collisions in greater numbers than any other North American bird of prey. Interstate-84 (I-84) in southern Idaho, USA has among the world’s highest known rates of Barn Owl-vehicle collisions. Little is known about Barn Owl occupancy in this region, so it is unclear if owls are killed in proportion to their abundance, or if they are equally abundant in segments with lower mortality and somehow escape collisions. Furthermore, studies of Barn Owl movements and behavior are limited. I was interested in understanding (1) factors that affect Barn Owl occupancy in …

The Tolerance Of Benthic Infauna To Fine-Grained Organic Rich Sediments In A Shallow Subtropical Estuary, Daniel Christopher Hope

Theses and Dissertations

Fine-grained organic-rich sediments (FGORS) from anthropogenic impacts are a growing concern for bays and estuaries around the world. This study explores the relationships between infaunal community diversity and species’ abundances with FGORS in the Indian River Lagoon and its tributaries. To examine these potential relationships, infauna were collected monthly using a Petit Ponar grab at 16 stations in the central Indian River Lagoon from October 2015 to August 2016. Abundant taxa in these sediments include polychaete worms (e.g., the polychaete Nereis succinea), molluscs (e.g., clam Parastarte triquetra), and arthropods (e.g., the tanaid Leptochelia dubia) with densities as high as 5.3x10⁴ …

Leader Emotion Management Behavior And Perceived Leader Effectiveness: The Moderating Roles Of Gender And Culture, Julianna Fischer

Theses and Dissertations

A key aspect of successful management includes a leader’s responsibility to manage employees’ emotions (Leavitt & Bahrami, 1988). This form of management can be reflected in a number of behaviors, such as demonstrating consideration and support for employees, providing frequent emotional “uplifts,” and managing interactions and relationships among coworkers (Kaplan, Cortina, Ruark, LaPort, & Nicolaides, 2014). Emotion-related skills and abilities have been supported as critical assets in management (e.g., George, 2000; Pescosolido, 2002). However, this evidence has not been sufficiently verified in a cross-cultural setting. The cultural value of gender egalitarianism, or the degree of gender role differentiation in a …

Endocannabinoid-Mediated Synaptic Plasticity In The Ventral Tegmental Area And Hippocampus, Lindsey Nicole Friend

Theses and Dissertations

Synaptic plasticity is the process whereby connections between neurons can be altered in an experience dependent manner. For example, drugs of abuse alter plasticity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the midbrain. A large amount of research has been applied to uncovering the mechanism whereby synapses on the reward signaling dopamine cells is altered, however, less is known regarding the VTA inhibitory GABA neurons. Our objective was to examine the ability of GABA neurons to exhibit plasticity, and determine how drugs of abuse could influence it. Here we report a novel type of plasticity of excitatory neurotransmission onto VTA …

Parental Experience-Based Change: Positive And Negative Changes In Monitoring, Expectations, Nurturing, And Discipline, Joseph S. Rand

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to create a measure of parent's perceptions of parental experience-based change (PEBC), or parents' perceptions of the changes they make to their parenting of secondborn children as a result of experiences with firstborn children. The measure assessed PEBC in the domains of monitoring, expectations, nurturing and discipline. Participants were 401 mothers or fathers of 2 or 3 adolescent children. Factor analyses revealed an 8 factor solution that assessed increasing and decreasing in each of the 4 domains. Criterion validity was evaluated using regression analyses to examine the relationships between each factor and parenting outcomes thought to be …

Relative Importance Of Microplastics As A Pathway For The Transfer Of Hydrophobic Organic Chemicals To Marine Life, Adil Bakir, Isabel A. O'Connor, Steven J. Rowland, A. Jan Hendriks, Richard C. Thompson

More Faculty of Science and Engineering Research

No abstract provided.

Determining The Effects Of The Think Risk Initiative As Implemented By The Southern Nevada Health District, Karalin Nichole Cronkhite

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the United States, someone becomes infected with a foodborne illness every 2 seconds, is hospitalized by a foodborne illness every 4 minutes and dies due to a foodborne illness every 3 hours. Foodborne illness is preventable, yet each year, 1 in 6 Americans is affected by it from contaminated foods or beverages. There are over 250 different foodborne diseases, and in 2015, there were 73 confirmed cases of Salmonella infection in Southern Nevada alone. Since the emergence of public health, food establishment inspections have been an important part of the regulation of food safety. Risk-based inspections were developed by …

Andre Jolivet's Fusion: Magical Music, Conventional Lyricism, And Japanese Influences Network To Create Concerto Pour Flute Et Piano And Sonate Pour Flute Et Piano, Kelly A. Collier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

André Jolivet’s Fusion, represents his formative style period, post-World War II. Fusion is a combination of Jolivet’s two earlier style-writing periods for flute, “magical music” and conventional lyricism. This study presents detailed analyses of two compositions reflecting this style period, Concerto pour flûte et piano and Sonate pour flûte et piano, by André Jolivet. In order to acquaint the reader with Jolivet’s interest in ancient musical cultures, a brief biography offers information on Jolivet’s interests in ancient rituals and mysticism. As appointed Director of the Comédie-Française in 1945, Jolivet extensively travelled and experienced new musical phenomena. These musical phenomena, Japanese …

Differential Cbct Analysis Of Collum Angles In Maxillary And Mandibular Anterior Teeth In Patients With Different Malocclusions, Erin Shane Wan Ma

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: The collum angle is an angular measurement of the difference between the longitudinal axis of the crown and the longitudinal axis of the root. The aim of this study was to determine the mean collum angles for all maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth. In addition, the collum angles of different molar and skeletal classifications were compared for each anterior tooth.

Methods: Based on patient records obtained from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, 326 CBCT scans were selected and divided into four molar and skeletal classifications. The patients were divided into Class I, …

Effects Of Tethering Placement And Linker Variations On Antibody Stability On Surfaces, Rebecca Ellen Grawe

Theses and Dissertations

An antibody microarray consists of antibody bound to a surface. Antibody microarrays have great potential in many fields, particularly as a tool to detect antigens. Unfortunately, antibodies suffer from poor performance. A greater understanding of how antibodies interact with surfaces would improve microarray design and performance, but experimental methods fall short of being able to observe these interactions. Therefore molecular simulation has emerged as the primary method to study protein/surface interactions.The simulations here were coarse grain simulations performed using the model of Karanicolas and Brooks. Additionally, an advanced surface model was used that allows for different surface chemistries. PyMBAR analysis …

Analysis Of Nucleosome Isolation And Recovery: From In Silico Invitrosomes To In Vivo Nucleosomes, Collin Brendan Skousen

Theses and Dissertations

There are a vast number of factors that influence nucleosome formation, and consequently gene regulation. These factors include histone modifications, nucleotide composition, transcriptional region elements, and specific nucleotide motifs, among others. Although the amount we know now is limited, we are creating new techniques and discoveries to assist us in continued understanding of chromatin. To make a significant contribution to the field of chromatin, I conducted two hypothesis driven sets of experiments that address the topic of chromatin structure. First, I created a technique for tissue specific nucleosome isolation with the goal of observing the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms …