Digital Commons Network^™

Um Staff Member Named To Act State Organization Council, Tinsley Hastings

University of Mississippi News

Martina Brewer appointed to three-year term

The Study Of The Functions And Regulation Of Mammalian Cap1 (Cyclase-Associated Protein 1), Haitao Zhang

Student Theses and Dissertations

CAP is a conserved actin-binding protein with versatile roles in promoting actin dynamics across species. Mammalian CAPs had been understudied compared to the first identified yeast homologues; their cellular functions remained to be better established. Moreover, CAP function regulation remained a completely uncharted area. Recent studies also implicated CAP in the invasiveness of human cancers. However, some of the evidence was not convincing and further studies were needed. The present study established and identified new cellular functions for mammalian CAP1, identified a regulatory mechanism as phosphorylation at the S307/S309 tandem site along with the cell signals controlling both phosphorylation and …

Three Steps Forward, One Step Back? Reflection On 'Google Taxes' And The Destination-Based Corporate Tax, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

A large puzzle underlies the recent G20 and OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. If the scope of BEPS is as broad as the reports suggest, why are corporate tax revenues in the OECD so robust?

The final OECD report on BEPS action 11 suggest that BEPS activities result in between $100 and $240 billion in annual lost revenue from corporate income taxes (CIT) on a global basis. The wide spread between these two numbers indicates the significant uncertainty involved. But even the higher number represents a relatively small portion of total global CIT revenues, since it is …

Evaluation Of Urea Hydrolysis As A Biomarker For Detecting Pathogenic Vibrio Parahaemolyticus In Clinical Isolates And Raw Oysters, Maryam Kate Mohammadi-Aragh

Theses and Dissertations

Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) infection is commonly caused by the consumption of raw or undercooked shellfish. Raw oysters are associated with most Vp outbreaks. Pathogenic Vp express thermostable-direct hemolysin (tdh) and to some extent thermostable-related hemolysin (trh). Additionally, some pathogenic Vp express urease (uh). The objectives of this work were to discern any relationships between urease (uh) expression, tdh/trh expression, and hemolytic activity in pathogenic and non-pathogenic clinical strains, and to compare urease, motility, tdh/trh expression, and hemolytic activity in raw oyster isolates. This information would determine if urease could be used as a biomarker to detect pathogenic Vp. About 80% …

Relationships Of Home, Student, School, And Classroom Variables With Mathematics Achievement, Roslyn B. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This study used the TIMSS 2011 International Database to investigate predictors of 8th-grade mathematics achievement across three countries that represent a wide range of cultures and levels of mathematics achievement: Chinese Taipei, Ghana, and the United States. A review of literature on predictors of mathematics achievement yielded variables in four major contexts of learning—a student’s home, beliefs, school, and classroom. The variables of home that were investigated are home possessions for learning, parent education, and parents’ expectations and involvement in their children’s education. The variables of student beliefs were self-confidence in mathematics and the value of mathematics. The variables of …

Dynamics Of Understory Tree Seedling Recruitment And Growth Of Advance Regeneration Following Variable-Density Thinning Of Second-Growth Conifer Stands In The Pacific Northwest, Carson James

Theses and Dissertations

With a growing desire to generate structural characteristics of late-successional conifer forests, managers are commonly seeking an approach to increase structural heterogeneity in otherwise simple second-growth stands. This study examined understory response to experimental thinning on the Olympic Peninsula of Western Washington. Variable-density thinning within the Olympic Habitat Development Study was found to have significant effects on both the density of seedling recruitment as well as early growth of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.). In additional analysis, pre-commercial understory thinning, implemented by the Olympic National Forest, produced no observable acceleration in basal area growth. Results suggest that understory development …

Chronology And Acculturation In The Choctaw Homeland, 1650-1850, Marcus Hayes

Theses and Dissertations

A chronology of Choctaw archaeological assemblages is presented in the form of six seriations. The assemblages come from sites in a contiguous region that includes the North American Coal survey area in Kemper and Lauderdale counties. The results are combined with other archaeological evidence to examine how Choctaw material culture changed. Acculturation began in the mid-18th century, as indicated by small numbers of European gunflints, beads, and glass scrapers found at Choctaw sites. The three divisions of the Choctaw confederacy used different decorations in the 17th and 18th centuries; combing became the main decorative treatment everywhere in the Choctaw homeland …

Effects Of Fabric Cover Elastic Property On Cushion Stiffness In Upholstered Furniture Seating, Xiaoling Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated effects of fabric and foam elastic properties on the behavior of load-deformation properties of upholstered furniture cushions. A 3×3×3×2 experiment design experiment was designed to study effects of fabric cover type (less stiff, stiff, and stiffer), foam thicknesses (5 inch, 5.5 inch, and 6 inch), human weight level (105 lb., 140 lb., and 190 lb.), and seat foundation type (panel and spring) on cushion stiffness. Experimental results indicated that the increase of cushion stiffness was significant as fabric cover stiffness, foam thickness, and human weight level increased. There was no significant difference between two types of seat …

Dimensionality Reduction Of Hyperspectral Imagery Using Random Projections, Vineetha Menon

Theses and Dissertations

Hyperspectral imagery is often associated with high storage and transmission costs. Dimensionality reduction aims to reduce the time and space complexity of hyperspectral imagery by projecting data into a low-dimensional space such that all the important information in the data is preserved. Dimensionality-reduction methods based on transforms are widely used and give a data-dependent representation that is unfortunately costly to compute. Recently, there has been a growing interest in data-independent representations for dimensionality reduction; of particular prominence are random projections which are attractive due to their computational efficiency and simplicity of implementation. This dissertation concentrates on exploring the realm of …

A Theoretical Analysis Of Multiproduct Mergers: Application In The Major Meat Processing Sectors, Benjamin Lee Sanderson

Theses and Dissertations

The research is motivated by the significant increase in multiproduct mergers in the meat-protein processing sector, whereby the largest firms now process beef, pork, and chicken. This thesis conducts a theoretical merger analysis, accounting for both within- and across-submarket substitution of demand related goods. The model developed is suitable for analyzing markets in which there are identifiable consumer submarkets within a larger market. The results indicate two primary findings. The first finding is that Bertrand firms have a unilateral incentive to merge. Firms involved in a given merger increase profit, as well as those not included in the merger. Second, …

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Hybrid Fuel With Radially Azimuthally Partitioned Paraffin Cells, Joseph F. St Columbia

Theses and Dissertations

Additively manufactured fuels are becoming more common in the area of hybrid rockets due to the enhanced possibilities provided by computer aided design and improved additive material technology. When integrated with a highly compliant yet energetic paraffin wax, the additive manufactured material can help support the paraffin wax during the burn, and improve overall performance. This study investigates thin-walled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene structures that separate paraffin wax into azimuthally partitioned cells. The fuel grains are tested using a vertical test stand, custom nitrous system, and data acquisition system. The computer program Chemical Equilibrium with Applications is used to compare common …

America Reads-Mississippi/Americorps Reading Program's Impact On Mississippi Community College Attendance, Charity Yarbrough

Theses and Dissertations

Since the inception of AmeriCorps programs, reading, education and civic engagement has been emphasized in a large portion of the United States. Members enlist to serve schools and communities for 1 year, possibly 2. Upon completion of a member’s year(s) of service an education award is given which can be used to attend a community college, university or repay student loans. This study showed how AmeriCorps/America Reads programs partnered with community colleges and universities which recruited members to volunteer at school sites and community centers tutoring students in classrooms to improve reading, grades, engage in community service activities, use education …

A Binding Energy Study Of The Atomic Mass Evaluation 2012 And An Updated Beta-Decay Study Of Neutron-Rich 74cu, James L. Tracy Jr

Theses and Dissertations

A study of ground state binding energy values listed in the Atomic Mass Evaluation 2012 (AME2012) using an interpretive approach, as opposed to the exploratory methods of previous models, is presented. This model is based on a postulate requiring all protons to pair with available neutrons to form bound alpha clusters as the ground state for anN = Z core upon which excess neutrons are added. For each core, the trend of the binding energy as a function of excess neutrons in the isotopic chain can be fit with a three-term quadratic function. The quadratic parameter reveals a smooth decaying …

The Greatest Gift, Eric F. Spina

President's Blog: From the Heart

If truth be told, as I drove from a downtown meeting to campus, I felt as if were 10 years old again and heading down the stairs to see what was under the Christmas tree. I had tremendous anticipation for what this evening would bring.

Stopping The Stigma, Jennifer Saunders

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Towering Sounds, Larry Clow

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Mariah Goulet: Winner Of The Annual Concerto Competition, Susan Adams

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Ubit Me!, Thomas Simmons

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

2016-12-09, Morehead State University. Board Of Regents.

Morehead State Board of Regents Agenda Books and Meeting Minutes

Board of Regents meeting minutes for December 9, 2016.

Newsroom: Logan On Judicial Diversity 12-09-2016, Kate Nagle, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Chemical Weapons And Other Atrocities: Contrasting Responses To The Syrian Crisis, Tim Mccormack

International Law Studies

Why has the use of chemical weapons in Syria engendered such a substantive multilateral response in stark contrast to almost every other egregious international law violation perpetrated against the civilian population? Various theories have been offered but the explanation has little to do with humanitarian concerns for Syrian victims and is more readily explicable by unusual (in the Syrian context) alignment of U.S. and Russian national interests. Bashar al-Assad was convinced to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention, to surrender his stockpiles of chemical weapons and to co-operate with international investigators deployed under UN Security Council auspices amid a cacophony …

Differences In Utilization Of Dental Procedures By Children Enrolled In Wisconsin Medicaid And Delta Dental Insurance Plans, Pradeep Bhagavatula, Qun Xiang, Aniko Szabo, Fredrick Eichmiller, Christopher Okunseri

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Few studies have directly compared dental procedures provided in public and private insurance plans for enrollees living in dental health professional shortage areas (DHPSAs). We examined the rates for the different types of dental procedures received by 0–18-year-old children living in DHPSAs and non-DHPSAs who were enrolled in Medicaid and those enrolled under Delta Dental of Wisconsin (DDW) for years 2002 to 2008.

Methods

Medicaid and DDW dental claims data for 2002 to 2008 was analyzed. Enrollees were divided into DDW-DHPSA and non-DHPSA and Medicaid-DHPSA and non-DHPSA groups. Descriptive and multivariable analyses using over-dispersed Poisson regression were performed to …

Management Of Coastal Navigation Channels Based On Vessel Underkeel Clearance In Transit, Brandan Scully

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) spends approximately $2 billion annually to investigate, construct, and maintain projects in its portfolio of coastal navigation infrastructure. Of that expenditure, approximately $1 billion is spent annually on maintenance dredging to increase the depth of maintained channels. The USACE prioritizes maintenance funding using a variety of metrics reflecting the amount of cargo moving through maintained projects but does not directly consider the reduction in the likelihood for the bottom of a vessel's hull to make contact with the bottom of the channel that results from maintenance dredging investments. Net underkeel clearance, which …

Network Interdiction Models And Algorithms For Information Security, Apurba Kumer Nandi

Theses and Dissertations

Major cyber attacks against the cyber networks of organizations has become a common phenomenon nowadays. Cyber attacks are carried out both through the spread of malware and also through multi-stage attacks known as hacking. A cyber network can be represented directly as a simple directed or undirected network (graph) of nodes and arcs. It can also be represented by a transformed network such as the attack graph which uses information about network topology, attacker profile, and existing vulnerabilities to represent all the potential attack paths from readily accesible vulnerabilities to valuable target nodes. Then, interdicting or hardening a subset of …

Numerical Investigation Of Airfoil Self-Noise Generation At Low Reynolds Number, Tarik Lyas

Theses and Dissertations

In the advent of increasing the number of operable unmanned aerial systems (UAS) over the next years, a challenge exists in regard to the noise signature that these machines may generate. In this work, we perform advanced computational simulations to study the flow around an airfoil and the associated noise radiating to the near- and farield. The airfoil size and the freestream velocity are representative of a typical UAS. The study is aimed at investigating the characteristics of the aerodynamic noise radiating from an airfoil at various angles of attack, Reynolds number and Mach number. The numerical tool is a …

Validation Of A Mesh Generation Strategy For Predicting Ice Accretion On Wings, Rania Bassou

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have been developing techniques to predict inlight icing in order to determine aircraft behavior under different icing conditions. A key component of the techniques is the mesh generation strategy. Automated meshing facilitates numerical simulation of ice accretion on realistic aircraft configurations by deforming the surface and volume meshes in response to the evolving ice shape. The objective of this research is to validate an ice accretion strategy for wings, using a previously developed meshing strategy. The intent is to investigate the effect of varying numerical parameters, on the predicted ice shape. Using this framework, results are simulated for rime …

Coupled And Uncoupled Earth Pressure Profiles In Unsaturated Soils Under Transient Flow, Syed Gous Andrabi

Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this research is to evaluate the behavior of earth pressure profiles in unsaturated soils under transient flow. In the first part, an empirical correlation is proposed to obtain the fitting parameters of Brooks and Corey’s soil-water retention model from Fredlund and Xing’s model. The retention models and the proposed equivalency between the models were assessed for 601 soil samples from the unsaturated soils hydraulic database (UNSODA). In the second part, a coupled one-dimensional hydro-mechanical model is introduced and is implemented into Rankine’s earth-pressure model to represent active and passive earth pressure profiles in unsaturated soils under …

Power Generation And Solar Panels For An Msu Cubesat, Soundouss Sassi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a power generation study of a proposed CubeSat at Mississippi State University (MSU). CubeSats are miniaturized satellites of 10 x 10 x 10 cm in dimension. Their power source once in orbit is the sun during daylight and the batteries during eclipse. MSU CubeSat is equipped with solar panels. This effort will discuss two types of cells: Gallium Arsenide and Silicon; and which one will suit MSU CubeSat best. Once the cell type is chosen, another decision regarding the electrical power subsystem will be made. Solar array design can only be done once the choice of the …

Internal State Variable Plasticity-Damage Modeling Of Aisi 4140 Steel Including Microstructure-Property Relations: Temperature And Strain Rate Effects, Reda Nacif El Alaoui

Theses and Dissertations

Mechanical structure-property relations have been quantified for AISI 4140 steel under different strain rates and temperatures. The structure-property relations were used to calibrate a microstructure-based internal state variable plasticity-damage model for monotonic tension, compression and torsion plasticity, as well as damage evolution. Strong stress state and temperature dependences were observed for the AISI 4140 steel. Tension tests on three different notched Bridgman specimens were undertaken to study the damage-triaxiality dependence for model validation purposes. Fracture surface analysis was performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to quantify the void nucleation and void sizes in the different specimens. The stress-strain behavior exhibited …

Large Eddy Simulation Study Of The Effect Of Large Wind Farms On Humidity, Oumnia El Fajri

Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric boundary layer flows around wind turbines distributed in a large wind farm can be examined by the use of large eddy simulation (LES), which is based on the assumption that large eddies in the flow are anisotropic and depend on the mean flow and the configuration geometry, while smaller eddies are isotropic and homogeneous, and can be modeled via subgrid scale models. In this thesis, a pseudo-spectral LES code with inflow conditions imposed through a precursor concurrent simulation is utilized to model the flow around a single wind turbine or a large wind farm operating in thermally-stratified conditions. The …