Digital Commons Network^™

Novel Simulation To Avoid Bias In Measurement Of Hyperpolarized Pyruvate: Demonstrated In Phantom And In Vivo, Christopher M. Walker

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Dynamic nuclear polarization creates a transient hyperpolarized nuclear state that can dramatically increase the signal detected by magnetic resonance imaging. This signal increase allows real-time spectroscopic imaging of specific metabolites in vivo by magnetic resonance. Real-time imaging of both the spatial and chemical fate of hyperpolarized metabolites is showing great promise to meaningfully benefit clinical care of cancer patients. Imaging of hyperpolarized agents will have a larger clinical impact if it can function as a quantitative modality upon which clinical decisions can be made. However, quantitative measurement of hyperpolarized agents is currently difficult due to the restrictions imposed by the …

Assessing The Potential Clinical Impact Of Variable Biological Effectiveness In Proton Radiotherapy, Christopher R. Peeler Ph.D.

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

It has long been known that proton radiotherapy has an increased biological effectiveness compared to traditional x-ray radiotherapy. This arises from the clustered nature of DNA damage produced by the energy deposition of protons along their tracks in medium. This effect is currently quantified in clinical settings by assigning protons a relative biological effectiveness (RBE) value of 1.1 corresponding to 10% increased effectiveness compared to photon radiation. Numerous studies have shown, however, that the RBE value of protons is variable and can deviate substantially from 1.1, but experimental data on RBE and clinical evidence of its variability remains limited.

The …

The Ontology Of Immanence: Arriving At Being In Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain, Rachel R. Gilman

Theses and Dissertations

In response to the economic and political upheaval of World War I, Scottish Modernism explored the cultural and linguistic changes of a nation trying to identify itself amidst a world-wide conflict. Scholars and critics have considered Nan Shepherd's fiction in this context—focusing on issues of gender, female identity, language, and land—but have yet to look seriously at her work The Living Mountain and its contributions to the Modernist movement. More recently, critics like Louisa Gairn and Robert MacFarlane have called attention to Shepherd's small but powerful text in an ecocritical and philosophical light, reframing her contribution to issues of Scottish …

Some Spectral Properties Of A Quantum Field Theoretic Hamiltonian, Devin Burnell Mcghie

Theses and Dissertations

We derive the ground-state eigenvalues and eigenvectors for a simplified version of the 1-D QED single electron-photon model that Glasgow et al recently developed [2]. This model still allows for meaningful interaction between electrons and photons while keeping only the minimum needed to do so. We investigate the interesting spectral properties of this model. We determine that the eigenvectors are orthogonal as one would expect and normalize them.

An Ion Detection Scheme Employing Solid State Devices For Use In Portable Mass Spectrometers, Sanjiv Nath Pant

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a solid state approach to the ion detection system used in the back-end of modern mass spectrometers. Although various techniques already exist to detect ions – even with the sensitivity of a single particle, the existing techniques require high voltage or lower operation temperature to counteract the noise inherent in the system. The suggested design presents an alternative to the more popular detection system whereby the requirement of high operation voltage or low operation temperature can be precluded. This is made possible through the gate capacitance of a Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET). This thesis …

Evidence For The Validity Of The Student Risk Screening Scale In Middle School: A Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Matthew Porter Wilcox

Theses and Dissertations

The Student Risk Screening Scale—Internalizing/Externalizing (SRSS-IE) was developed to screen elementary-aged students for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD). Its use has been extended to middle schools with little evidence that it measures the same constructs as in elementary schools. Scores of a middle school population from the SRSS-IE are analyzed with Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MCFA) to examine its factor structure, factorial invariance between females and males, and its reliability. Several MCFA models are specified, and compared, with two retained for further analysis. The first model is a single-level model with chi-square and standard errors adjusted for the clustered nature …

A Secure, Reliable And Performance-Enhancing Storage Architecture Integrating Local And Cloud-Based Storage, Christopher Glenn Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

The constant evolution of new varieties of computing systems - cloud computing, mobile devices, and Internet of Things, to name a few - have necessitated a growing need for highly reliable, available, secure, and high-performing storage systems. While CPU performance has typically scaled with Moore's Law, data storage is much less consistent in how quickly performance increases over time. One method of improving storage performance is through the use of special storage architectures. Such architectures often include redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID). RAID provides a meaningful way to increase storage performance on a variety of levels, some higher-performing than …

Policing As Administration, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Police agencies should be governed by the same administrative principles that govern other agencies. This simple precept would have significant implications for regulation of police work, in particular the type of suspicionless, group searches and seizures that have been the subject of the Supreme Court's special needs jurisprudence (practices that this Article calls "panvasive"). Under administrative law principles, when police agencies create statute-like policies that are aimed at largely innocent categories of actors-as they do when administering roadblocks, inspection regimes, drug testing programs, DNA sampling programs, and data collection-they should have to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking or a similar democratically …

The Invisible Revolution In Plea Bargaining: Managerial Judging And Judicial Participation In Negotiations, Nancy J. King, Ronald F. Wright

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article, the most comprehensive study ofjudicial participation in plea negotiations since the 1970s, reveals a stunning array of new procedures that involve judges routinely in the settlement of criminal cases. Interviewing nearly one hundred judges and attorneys in ten states, we found that what once were informal, disfavored interactions have quietly, without notice, transformed into highly structured best practices for docket management. We learned of grant-funded problem-solving sessions complete with risk assessments and real-time information on treatment options; multicase conferences where other lawyers chime in; settlement courts located at the jail; settlement dockets with retired judges; full-blown felony mediation …

James D. Cox: The Shareholders Best Advocate, Randall S. Thomas, Harwell Wells

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article explores the historical development of the academic analysis of corporate law over the past forty years through the scholarship of one of its most influential commentators, Professor James D. Cox of the Duke University School of Law. It traces the ways in which corporate law scholarship changed from the 1970s to the present, including the rise of economic theory and empirical work in the study of corporate law. It shows how Professor Cox's early scholarship shaped and challenged economic orthodoxy, while his later work used empirical analysis to help corporate law become a more dynamic and richer field. …

Something To Talk About, Joni Hersch, Jennifer Bennett Shinall

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

To avoid the appearance of sex discrimination that would violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, both Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance and a common misunderstanding of the law have resulted in little or no information about family status being provided in pre-employment interviews. To investigate whether concealing family information actually improves women’s employment prospects, we conduct an original experimental study fielded on more than 3,000 subjects. Our study provides the first ever evidence that concealing personal information lowers female applicants’ hiring prospects. Subjects overwhelmingly preferred to hire candidates who provided information, regardless of content. Any explanation improved …

The Relationships Between Clergy Attachment Style, Leadership Style, And Clergy Professional Longevity, Marc Nelesen

Dissertations

This study investigates a relatively new area of research, namely, the relationship between attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980, 1988) and leadership theory. Attachment theory posits that human beings unconsciously established mental models of how relationships work. Depending on the kind and quality of early relational experiences, humans can associate feelings of security, anxiety, or avoidance with relationships. According to attachment theory, these associations are transferable and inform future relationships. Much of leadership theory suggests that relationships are a key component of effective leadership and may very well be the most important factor (Gardner et al., 2005). Recent quantitative studies …

Judging Foreign States, Zachary D. Clopton

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Famed foreign relations law principles, including the act of state doctrine, the public law taboo, and Zschernig’s foreign affairs preemption, rely on the notion that U.S. courts should not sit in judgment on foreign states. Judges in these cases, as well as scholars writing in the area, frequently suggest that U.S. courts should sit out of important disputes due to considerations of sovereign equality and international comity. Yet, in less attention-grabbing cases, U.S. courts routinely sit in judgment on foreign judgments, laws, legal systems, and interests, sometimes concluding that they do meet U.S. standards. The first goal of this project, …

Quantification Of Volatile Residuals In Polydioxanone By Gas Chromatography: Method Development, Validation And Implementation, Clayton Joseph Culbreath

All Theses

Bioresorbable polymers are increasingly utilized for implantable medical devices to avoid complications related to explant and/or long term responses to foreign materials. As with all polymeric materials, residual levels of unreacted monomer, and other volatiles, drastically affect the mechanical and chemical properties as well as the parameters required to process the material into a device. The 1,4-dioxane-2-one (PDO) monomer is a six membered ring that forms an ether-ester polymer via ring-opening polymerization (ROP) with intermediate absorption rate properties that are ideal for numerous implant situations. Developing devices using poly(1,4-dioxane-2-one) (PPDO, PDO, PDX, PPDX, or PDS) is complicated by residual levels …

Vanadium Diselenide: On The Verge Of Charge Density Wave, Menghan Zhou

All Dissertations

Charge density wave (CDW) is a many-body state of matter in which both lattice and electron density are modulated by a new periodicity. CDW features discrete translational symmetry breaking, and mostly occurs in low-dimensional materials. Although CDW behaviors have been found in many materials, the underlying mechanism and the driving forces of CDW transition are still unclear. In particular, the origin of CDW in two-dimensional materials, especially in layered transition metal dicalchogenides (TMDCs), may be distinct from that in one-dimensional materials.

In this dissertation, the CDW transition in VSe2, a layered TMDC material, is explored. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations …

It’S On Us: A Case Study Of Academic Integrity In A Mid-Western Community College, Ceceilia Parnther

Dissertations

Academic ethics and integrity are necessary elements of a quality education. The need for academic integrity education on campuses has been well documented (Bertram Gallant, 2008, 2016; Bertram Gallant & Drinan, 2006; Liebler, 2009; McCabe, Butterfield, & Trevino, 2004). Academic integrity is a cornerstone of the learning process (Bretag et al., 2014; Harp & Taietz, 1966). Higher education institutions have the opportunity to promote academic integrity and prevent academic misconduct on campus by providing clear guidelines, equitable resolutions, and student and faculty engagement. While researchers have examined four-year institutions approaches to academic integrity education, differences exist that are unique to …

Turning Points In The Lives Of Lesbian And Gay Adults Age 50 And Older, Anna M. Muraco, Karen I. Fredriksen-Goldsen

Sociology Faculty Works

Little is known about how lesbians and gay men perceive the turning points that define their life trajectories. This study uses qualitative interview data to understand which experiences lesbian women and gay men age 50 and older identify as turning points and explore gender differences. In depth, face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with a subset of participants (n=33) from the Caring and Aging with Pride survey. The most common turning points identified were relationship and occupation related. Lesbians more frequently identified the break-up of a relationship and occupational and educational related experiences as turning points. Gay men more commonly indicated …

Investigation Of Lipid Profile Patterns Along Latitude In An Eastern Australian Cline And After Stress Selection In The Laboratory, And Experiments On Stress Tolerance With Rnai Knockdown Of Lipid Biosynthesis Genes, Li Ko

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Homeoviscous adaptation in membranes and changes in energy storage lipids such as triacylglycerols (TAGs) are the two main themes of adaptation to environmental conditions. Basal patterns of lipid compositional profile of Drosophila melanogaster along a latitudinal gradient in the eastern coast of Australia indicate variations of lipidome associated with climatic patterns. Lipidome data were collected for eight locations along the eastern Australian cline for both sexes in D. melanogaster and D. simulans. To further investigate the relationship between lipidome patterns and environmental factors, we utilized laboratory selection studies using stress conditions including high temperature tolerance, desiccation survival, and chill-coma …

The Plasticity Of Functional Traits In The Dipterocarps Of Borneo, Ju Ping Chan

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Plasticity plays an important role in the adaptation of sessile organisms like plants to the environment. Plants have been shown to respond plastically in heterogeneous environments, with plants originating from more resource-diverse environments thought to display greater plasticity. There is also evidence that fast-growing species show greater plasticity, as acquisition of resources from resource flushes is greatly aided by faster adaptations. We tested these theories in a Bornean tropical rain forest among three soil specialization groups (clay specialists, sandy loam specialists, and generalists) using two treatments of soil (clay versus sandy loam) and two treatments of light (high versus low). …

Ignimbrites To Batholiths, Chad Deering

TechTalks

Ignimbrites sample large magma reservoirs in the Earth’s upper crust, sometimes digging deep enough to link the volcanic realm with the plutonic world. Integrating textural, petrological, geochemical, and geochronological information on such deposits with geophysical signals suggest incremental growth and evolution of subvolcanic magma bodies that are dominated by high crystallinity mush zones, but sometimes remain sufficiently liquid to erupt. The eruptible upper portions are either extracted melt from the mush and constitute only a small volumetric fraction of the vertically extensive mushy batholithic magma body. The high-flux, ignimbrite flare-up phases are typically preceded by waxing magmatism that prime the …

Clubs For The Unclubbable: Humor And Literary Sociability, Laura Kasson Fiss

TechTalks

What’s a club for the unclubbable? A book or magazine. This notion underlies a strain of humor about clubs in the aftermath of Britain’s 1870 Education Act. Beneath the jokes about men gathering to hide behind their newspapers lies an earnest aspiration to create a print equivalent of a club ethos: an institution that cultivates fellow feeling. Humorists such as Jerome K. Jerome, J. M. Barrie, Israel Zangwill and G. K. Chesterton jokingly redefined the club for new classes of readers, who tended to be “unclubbable” not because of the quality of their sociability, but for reasons of class, gender, …

Physicochemical Properties Of Phosphate Pregelatinized Musa Balbisiana Starch As Pharmaceutical Excipient, Deni Anggraini, Anita Lukman, Hilwan Y. Teruna

Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy Research

Starch is among the important pharmaceutical excipient, which is particularly used as filler in the tablet formulation and suspending agent. Starch from natural source has a potential to be developed as pharmaceutical excipient with comparable characteristics, including starch from Musa balbisiana (M. balbisiana). This study aimed to synthesize and evaluate physicochemical properties of phosphate pregelatinized M. balbisiana starch. We isolated the starch from M. balbisiana and performed pregelatinization. Since pregelatinized starch still could experience retrogradation which cause syneresis, chemical modification of pre-gelatinized starch was conducted using 5% of sodium tripolyphosphate at pH of 9-10. Physicochemical properties of phosphate pregelatinized starch …

Determining The Optimal Public Debt Threshold For Nigeria, Babatunde S. Omotosho, Sani Bawa, Sani I. Doguwa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper investigates the existence of threshold effects in the relationship between public debt and economic growth in Nigeria using quarterly data. Generally, we found empirical support for an inverted U-shape relationship between public debt types and economic growth. For total public debt as percentage of GDP, model results identified a threshold level of 73.70 per cent, while the estimated inflexion points for external and domestic debts were 49.4 and 30.9 per cent, respectively. The implication of this finding is that debt accumulation in excess of the estimated threshold levels could hurt economic growth. A retrospective examination of the country’s …

Volatility In The Nigerian Stock Market: Empirical Application Of Beta-T-Garch Variants, Olaoluwa S. Yaya, Abiodun S. Bada, Victor N. Atoi

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The Generalized Autoregressive Score (GAS), Exponential GAS (EGAS) and Asymmetric Exponential GAS (AEGAS) are new classes of volatility models that simultaneously account for jumps and asymmetry. Using these models, we estimate the dynamic pattern of the Nigeria All Share Index (ASI) from January 3, 2006 to July 22, 2014. Parameter estimates of the models were obtained using the Quasi Maximum Likelihood (QML) approach, and in-sample conditional volatility forecasts from each of the models were evaluated using the minimum loss function approach. Among the classical volatility models, the initial results detected IGARCH-t as the best model for predicting volatility in the …

The Causes Of Persistent Inflation In Nigeria, Victor O. Asekunowo

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study sought to identify the traditional and institutional inflation variables responsible for inflation phenomenon and the magnitude of the contribution of the identified variables to the rise in general price level. Secondary data on key macroeconomic variables in the economy from 1974 to 2013 were used. The data collected were analysed using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test. The results showed that there existed a longrun co-movement among the variables. Also, the ordinary least squares estimate showed that Real Effective Exchange Rate, Lagged Consumer Price Index, Real Broad Money and Real Profits were statistically significant in influencing Consumer …

A Three-State Markov Model For Predicting Movements Of Asset Returns Of A Nigerian Bank, Maruf A. Raheem, Patrick O. Ezepue

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

We present in this paper an alternative approach to determining and predicting the fluctuations in the daily prices and stock returns of a first-generation bank in the Nigerian Stock Market (NSM). The approach uses a three-state Markov to estimate the expected duration of the asset returns in states classified as rising (positive) (𝑅𝑘), falling (negative) state (𝑅𝑚) or stable (zero) state (𝑅𝑙). Related goodness-of-fit tests show that the Markov model fits the data adequately with an error rate of approximately 0.1. The maximum expected lengths of successively being in either positive or negative regime is 4 days, while that of …

Dynamic Effects Of Fiscal Policy On Output And Unemployment In Nigeria: An Econometric Investigation, Attahir B. Abubakar

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This study investigates the effect of fiscal policy shocks on output and unemployment in Nigeria under the Keynesian framework by employing the Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) methodology to analyse annual series on the relevant variables for the period 1981-2015. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test for unit root result shows all variables to be integrated of order one and Johansen Cointegration test confirms the presence of long run association among the variables. Findings of the SVAR model shows shock in public expenditure as having a positive long- lasting effect on output. Revenue shock was found to exert a positive effect (lower …

On Building Inference For The Statistical Neural Network With Application To Naira-Dollar Exchange Rate Efficiency: A Bootstrap Approach, Christopher Godwin Udomboso Dr, Francisco U. Saliu

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

In this study, we developed an inference procedure for the neural network using the bootstrap approach, and applied it to the market efficiency of the Nigerian exchange rate. Data used are exchange rate values from 2001 to 2015. We conducted a test on the market efficiency hypothesis, including test for relevance of individual and joint network inputs using method of partial derivative. The network architecture used is the multilayer perceptron. A valid statistical inference based on the estimated Statistical Neural Network was conducted using a well-known statistical resampling technique. Test of hypothesis that input or groups of inputs are relevant …

Modelling Nigerian Banks’ Share Prices Using Smooth Transition Garch Models, Olaoluwa S. Yaya, Damola M. Akinlana, Olanrewaju I. Shittu

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper examined the application of nonlinear Smooth Transition-Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (ST-GARCH) model of Hagerud on prices of banks’ shares in Nigeria. The methodology is informed by the failure of the conventional GARCH model to capture the asymmetric properties of the banks’ daily share prices. The asymmetry and non-linearity in the model dynamics make it useful for generating nonlinear conditional variance series. From the empirical analysis, we obtained the conditional volatility of each bank’s share price return. The highest volatility persistence was observed in Bank 6, while Bank 12 had the least volatility. Evidently, about 25% of the investigated …

Modelling Volatility Of The Exchange Rate Of The Naira To Major Currencies, Reuben O. David, Hussaini G. Dikko, Shehu U. Gulumbe

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The exchange rate between the Naira and other currencies has continued to witness variability with depreciation. This variability makes it difficult to predict returns. Against this background, this paper examines the naira exchange rate vis-a-vis four other currencies. The impact of exogenous variables in modelling volatility is considered using both the GARCH (1,1) and its asymmetric variants. Three of the four returns series showed heteroscedasticity. The results of the fitted models indicate that the majority of the parameters are significant and that volatility is quite persistent. Furthermore, the results of the asymmetric model indicate different impacts for both negative and …