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Characterization Of Ccmans1, A Putative Mannan Synthase From Coffea Canephora, Janell A. Couperthwaite

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Mannans are a type of hemicellulosic plant cell wall polysaccharide that offer structural support and serve as energy reserves for developing plants. Coffee seeds are rich in mannans, and mannan content of coffee seeds impacts brew quality. Mannan backbones are synthesized by CSLA proteins. This study aims to characterize a CSLA enzyme from Coffea canephora (mannan synthase 1; CcMANS1) that has been implicated in the biosynthesis of backbones of coffee seed mannans. This enzyme has not been biochemically characterized and characterizing its activity will help contribute to an understanding of the differences between CSLA proteins that dictate the composition of …

Measures Of Greatness: A Lotkaian Approach To Literary Authors Using Oclc Worldcat, Alon Friedman, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

This study examines the productivity, eminence, and impact of literary authors using Lotka's law, a bibliometric approach developed for studying the published output of scientists. Data on literary authors were drawn from two recent surveys that identified and ranked authors who had made the greatest contributions to world lit- erature. Data on the number of records of works by and about selected authors were drawn from OCLC WorldCat in 2007 and 2014. Findings show that the distribution of literary authors followed a pattern consistent with Lotka's law and show that these studies enable one to empirically test subjective rankings of …

Cultural Distress: An Emerging Paradigm, Christine Dewilde, Candace W. Burton

School of Nursing Publications

Although cultural competence in practice is a common goal within the health care professions, little is known about the consequences of a lack of such competence in health and healing. We propose a novel theoretical framework of cultural distress to describe patient experiences of and reactions to care that does not incorporate attention to cultural needs. Use of the cultural distress model to guide research offers an innovative framework by which researchers may identify potential interventions such that patients never reach a level of cultural distress.

Seed Dispersal For The Unusual Inflated Berries Of Burmeistera (Campanulaceae), Diana Gamba, N. Maguiña, Camilo Calderón-Acevedo, Karina Torres, Nathan Muchhala

Biology Department Faculty Works

Examining dispersal is critical for understanding the diversity of Andean-centered plant lineages, like Burmeistera (Campanulaceae). One-third of its species present an unusual inflated berry. Unlike the bright colors of non-inflated fruits in the genus, these fruits are typically dull-green; however, the fact that the seeds are loosely held in the placenta and easily removed when touched seems to suggest adaptation to animal dispersal. We studied two inflated-baccate species, Burmeistera glabrata and B. borjensis, with the aim of testing the non-exclusive hypotheses that their seeds are dispersed by (1) small mammals, (2) slugs, or (3) adult flies that develop inside the …

Parental Factors Associated With The Request For Resuscitation For Infants Born At Periviability, Abiola Deborah Femi-Abodunde

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The purpose of this study is to determine factors associated with parental request for aggressive resuscitation for infants born at borderline viability, the period between 22 0/7 and 24 6/7 weeks of gestation. Between 2013 and 2016, 81 women were admitted to Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) for a potential delivery in this critical period. Eighty-four percent of patients elected aggressive resuscitation for their newborn and 16% chose comfort care only. Using bivariate analysis to evaluate statistical significance, 5 of 19 possible variables were included in our logistic regression model. This model demonstrated higher likelihood of a request for resuscitation …

Exploring The Role Of Dopamine Circuits In Eating Behavior, Kara Elizabeth Furman

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

In its simplest terms, obesity is a disease of exaggerated food intake. While current treatment of obesity focuses on changing behavior, few successful models of behavior modification have been developed. Even those treatments that are successful in the short-term, have failed to demonstrate lasting effect. The problem of over-eating, then, needs to be studied in terms of basic motivational programs that are encoded by the brain’s reward system. Understanding the way in which reward system activity directs eating behavior will allow more sophisticated and efficacious treatment options in the future. Several studies have focused on the nucleus accumbens (NAc) as …

Generic Drug Policy In The U.S. - Impact On Drug Prices And Shortages, Ravi Gupta

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Generic medicines offer a significantly cheaper alternative to brand-name drugs and have become an indispensable means of maintaining patient access and adherence to treatments. In recent years, as a result of monopolistic and oligopolistic conditions, generic drugs have begun to increase in price, sometimes exorbitantly. The competitiveness of drug markets with respect to the number of generic manufacturers and the implications for drug prices and shortages have not been systematically studied.

Two main analyses are presented in this study. First, using publicly available information, the timing of generic drug approvals and the total number of generic manufacturers for all small-molecule …

Insights On Fibrotic Diseases Using Single-Cell Analysis Methods, Azim Munivar

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is progressive, fatal lung disease with unclear mechanistic etiology and a dearth of treatment options. Transcriptional profiling has served a valuable tool in understanding the underlying perturbations in the lung tissues of patients and disease model systems, however whole tissue profiling obscures both the contribution of individual cells types in the diseased tissue as well as the contribution of non-fibrotic tissue surrounding the diseased tissue. The averaging effect confounds the ability to extract a strong disease signal and understand the cell-of-origin. Single-cell techniques have recently emerged that allow profiling of the transcriptomes of individual cells. In this …

Exploring The Interaction Of Drosophila Tdp-43 And The Type Ii Voltage-Gated Calcium Channel, Cacophony, In Regulating Motor Function And Behavior, Kayly M. Lembke, David B. Morton

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common adult onset motor neurodegenerative disease. The cause of the disease remains obscure, and as such there is no effective treatment or cure. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases are frequently characterized by dysfunction of the RNA-binding protein, TDP-43. Using model systems to understand the mechanisms underlying TDP-43 dysfunction should accelerate identification of therapeutic targets. A recent report has shown that motor defects caused by the deletion of the Drosophila TDP-43 ortholog, tbph, are not driven by changes in the physiology at the neuromuscular junction. Rather, defective motor burst rhythmicity and coordination, …

Environmental Impacts Of Oyster Aquaculture On The Coastal Lagoons Of Southern Rhode Island, Chelsea Elizabeth Duball

Open Access Master's Theses

Coastal lagoons are shallow estuarine systems which hold significant ecological and economic value to Rhode Island and its coastal communities. As the land around these coastal lagoons has been developed, excess inputs of nitrogen (N) from anthropogenic activity have entered the ecosystems. These inputs have resulted in eutrophication, leading to loss of ecosystem services and poor water quality. Oyster aquaculture has the potential to reduce N inputs via filter-feeding, helping to maintain water quality and ecosystem services.

In this study, I monitored water quality within aquaculture and control sites in three coastal lagoons located in southern Rhode Island, to assess …

The Effect Of Haptic Interaction And Learner Control On Student Performance In An Online Distance Education Course, Marty J. Park

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Today’s learners are taking advantage of a whole new world of multimedia and hypermedia experiences to gain understanding and construct knowledge. While at the same time, teachers and instructional designers are producing these experiences at rapid paces. Many angles of interactivity with digital content continue to be researched, as is the case with this study.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a significant difference in the performance of distance education students who exercise learner control interactivity effectively through a traditional input device versus students who exercise learner control interactivity through haptic input methods. This study …

Center Of Pressure Excursion During A Single Leg Standing Test In Ambulatory Children With Cerebral Palsy, Ryan Thomas Callahan

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most common disabling motor disorder found during childhood, occurring in 2.1-3.2 of every 1,000 births. Motor functionality of children with CP is commonly compromised and is classified with a gross motor function classification score (GMFCS) and with the gross motor function measure (GMFM). Balance ability has typically been assessed using single leg stance test (SLST) time but more recently, center of pressure excursion (COPE) has shown to be a more valid measurement in populations with altered motor abilities. However, COPE has not been used to test balance in the CP population, yet. This study …

Differences In The Muscle Activity For Baseball Hitters Of Varying Skill, Ethan M. Stewart

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

INTRODUCTION: Muscle activity and timing of the swing phases may contribute to the differences we see in athletes at different skill levels. The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences between mean muscle activity, peak muscle active and time to peak muscle activity for select muscles in the lower extremity as well as the differences between start times for swing phases and bat velocity prior to impact for a skilled and recreational group. METHODS: Twelve healthy subjects were split into two groups based on competitive level and analyzed hitting off of a tee. RESULTS: No significant differences were …

Campus As Home: An Examination Of The Impact Of Student Housing At The University Of Kentucky In The Progressive Era, James W. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This dissertation explores how student housing impacted the college campus of the University of Kentucky in the Progressive Era. Student housing has long been part of the college ideal but lacked full engagement by many administrators. Through three examinations, housing will be shown to have directly influenced the administrative, social, and staffing elements of the college campus. The role student housing played in the interaction of political, rural, and sociological changes on the campus during the time period allows exploration in detail while addressing the changes within those areas of the state as well. While housing was an afterthought by …

By Need And By Name: School Leaders Fostering Environments For Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Rebecca G. Roach

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Children raised by their grandparents are a steadily growing demographic in schools throughout the United States. When parents are unable to care for their children, grandparents sometimes assume the role of primary caregiver. This is especially true when they are faced with the threat of placing their grandchildren in the foster care system. More often than not, these grandparents are not adequately prepared for the challenges of raising children who have lost their parent through death, drug abuse or incarceration and few resources exist to guide elementary school principals to engage this demographic. Regardless of the growing numbers of caregiving …

Quantifying The Effects Of Hydrostatic Pressure On Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Binding By The Human Endothelium, Taylor R. Mckenty

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Fluid pressures regulate endothelial cell (EC) tubulogenic activity involving fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) and its receptor, FGF receptor 2 (FGFR2). Our lab has recently shown that sustained 20 mmHg hydrostatic pressure (HP) upregulates EC sprout formation in a FGF2-dependent fashion. This upregulation of sprout formation may be due to enhanced FGF-2 / FGFR2 interactions in the presence of 20 mmHg HP. We hypothesize that exposure of ECs to 20 mmHg sustained HP enhances FGF-2 binding kinetics. We used a custom hydrostatic pressure system, immunofluorescence, and FACS to quantify FGF-2 binding by ECs in the absence or presence of a …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Poly(Simvastatin) - Incorporated Copolymers And Blends For Bone Regeneration, Theodora Asafo-Adjei

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Common biodegradable polyesters such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) are used as drug delivery vehicles for tissue regenerative applications. However, they are typically bioinert, with drug loading limitations. Polymerizing the active agent or precursor into its respective biodegradable polymer would control drug loading via molar ratios of drug to initiator used for synthesis. Simvastatin was chosen due to its favorable anti-inflammatory, angiogenic, and osteogenic properties. In addition, its lactone ring lends itself to ring-opening polymerization and, consequently, the synthesis of poly(simvastatin) with controlled simvastatin release.

Simvastatin was first polymerized with a 5kDa methyl-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) …

Segment-Based Reliability Assessment For Water Distribution Networks, Erika Hernandez Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

In recent years, water utilities have placed a greater emphasis on the reliability and resilience of their water distribution networks. This focus has increased due to the continuing aging of such infrastructure and the potential threat of natural or man-made disruptions. As a result, water utilities continue to look for ways to evaluate the resiliency of their systems with a goal of identifying critical elements that need to be reinforced or replaced. The simulation of pipe breaks in water reliability studies is traditionally modeled as the loss of a single pipe element. This assumes that each pipe has an isolation …

Tunable Nanocomposite Membranes For Water Remediation And Separations, Sebastián Hernández Sierra

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Nano-structured material fabrication using functionalized membranes with polyelectrolytes is a promising research field for water pollution, catalytic and mining applications. These responsive polymers react to external stimuli like temperature, pH, radiation, ionic strength or chemical composition. Such nanomaterials provide novel hybrid properties and can also be self-supported in addition to the membranes.

Polyelectrolytes (as hydrogels) have pH responsiveness. The hydrogel moieties gain or lose protons based on the pH, displaying swelling properties. These responsive materials can be exploited to synthesize metal nanoparticles in situ using their functional groups, or to immobilize other polyelectrolytes and biomolecules. Due to their properties, these …

The Reflection And Reification Of Racialized Language In Popular Media, Kelly E. Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This work highlights specific lexical items that have become racialized in specific contextual applications and tests how these words are cognitively processed. This work presents the results of a visual world (Huettig et al 2011) eye-tracking study designed to determine the perception and application of racialized (Coates 2011) adjectives. To objectively select the racialized adjectives used, I developed a corpus comprised of popular media sources, designed specifically to suit my research question. I collected publications from digital media sources such as Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and Fortune by scraping articles featuring specific search terms from their websites. This experiment seeks …

Linguistic And Conceptual Metaphors Of ‘Heart’ In Learner Corpora, Aurora Mathews Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This corpus-based study examined English and Spanish learner language for ‘heart’ metaphors. Gutiérrez Pérez (2008) compared ‘heart’ metaphors across five languages and that study served as a reference framework for the work presented here. This work intended to find evidence of metaphor transfer and/or new metaphor learning in second language writing. Conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and linguistic or lexical metaphors (Falck, 2012) from both languages were considered in the analysis. This work analyzed ‘heart’ metaphors taken from two learner corpora, the Cambridge Learner Corpus and the Corpus de Aprendices de Español. Results were compared to the findings of …

Ionic Regulation Of Critical Cellular Processes In Non-Excitable Cells, Brandon M. Franklin

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

There are long-standing hypotheses that endogenous ion currents act to control cell dynamics in development, wound healing and regeneration. However, the mechanisms employed by cells to detect the electric field (EF) and translate it into a discernable message to drive specific cell behaviors, such as migration, proliferation and differentiation, are not well understood. A better understanding of how cells are able to sense EFs and react to them is vital to understanding physiological mechanisms are involved in regeneration. Ion channel signaling provides a reasonable suspect for mediating these effects based on their documented involvement in proliferation, migration and differentiation.

To …

Sexual Dimorphism In The Moss Bryum Argenteum And Its Implications For Sex Ratio Bias, Jonathan David Moore Iii

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

In dioecious plants, selection due to sex function differences has produced sex-specific life histories, morphologies, and physiologies. In many dioecious seed plants, dimorphisms and population sex ratios have been plausibly linked, but similar links are not yet apparent in dioecious bryophytes. Population sex ratio bias is often expected to favor the sex with lower investment in sexual reproduction, especially in resource-poor environments. Unlike in seed plants, bryophyte males may have higher average reproductive investment than females, which typically have low offspring production rates due to sperm limitation. However, traits aside from reproductive investment such as shoot and leaf arrangement may …

Examining The Role Of Host Use On Divergence In The Redheaded Pine Sawfly, Neodiprion Lecontei, Across Multiple Spatial Scales, Robin Kimberly Bagley

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Phytophagous insects make up over one quarter of described species on Earth, and this incredible diversity seems directly linked to feeding on plants. Comparative studies of sister groups have shown shifts to herbivory are consistently associated with increased species diversity in insects, but the reasons for this diversification remain unclear. While other explanations, such as decreased extinction rates or influences on population structure, exist, one prominent hypothesis suggests shifts and subsequent adaptation to novel host plants can lead to the evolution of reproductive barriers.

Given their extreme specialization on host plants in the genus Pinus and intimate, life-long association with …

Characterization Of A Large Vertebrate Genome And Homomorphic Sex Chromosomes In The Axolotl, Ambystoma Mexicanum, Melissa Keinath

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Changes in the structure, content and morphology of chromosomes accumulate over evolutionary time and contribute to cell, developmental and organismal biology. The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is an important model for studying these changes because: 1) it provides important phylogenetic perspective for reconstructing the evolution of vertebrate genomes and amphibian karyotypes, 2) its genome has evolved to a large size (~10X larger than human) but has maintained gene orders, and 3) it possesses potentially young sex chromosomes that have not undergone extensive differentiation in the structure that is typical of many other vertebrate sex chromosomes (e.g. mammalian XY chromosomes …

Fluvial-Lacustrine Processes Shaping The Landforms Of The Distal Paraguay Fluvial Megafan, Edward Limin Lo

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Tropical wetlands such as the Pantanal help regulate global biogeochemical cycles, but climate change is modifying these environments. Controls on environmental changes can potentially be assessed from ancient, well-dated lacustrine sedimentary records. An integrated field and laboratory approach was undertaken to study the limnogeology of Lake Uberaba in the northern Pantanal, and test whether the lake has preserved a reliable record of environmental change in its strata. This study was designed to understand how the basin accumulates sediment and to assess its sensitivity to hydroclimatic variability. The data showed that modern Lake Uberaba is a highly dynamic, freshwater fluvial-lacustrine basin. …

Effects Of Hydrologic Connectivity And Land Use On Floodplain Sediment Accumulation At The Savannah River Site, South Carolina, Jeremy E. Eddy

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Floodplains, and the sediment accumulating naturally on them, are important to maintain stream water quality and serve as sinks for organic and inorganic carbon. Newer theories contend that land use and hydrologic connectivity (water-mediated transport of matter, energy, and/or organisms within or between elements of the hydrologic cycle) play important roles in determining sediment accumulation on floodplains. This study hypothesizes that changes in hydrologic connectivity have a greater impact on floodplain sediment accumulation than changes in land use. Nine sediment cores from seven sub-basins were collected from the Savannah River Site (SRS), South Carolina, and processed for grain-size, radionuclide dating …

Women Of The Apocalypse: Afrospeculative Feminist Novelists, Bianca L. Spriggs

Theses and Dissertations--English

“Women of the Apocalypse: Feminist Afrospeculative Writers,” seeks to address the problematic ‘Exodus narrative,’ a convention that has helped shape Black American liberation politics dating back to the writings of Phyllis Wheatley. Novels by Zora Neale Hurston, Octavia Butler, and Alice Walker undermine and complicate this narrative by challenging the trope of a single charismatic male leader who leads an entire race to a utopic promised land. For these writers, the Exodus narrative is unsustainable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because there is no room for women to operate outside of the role of …

(B)Ordering Texas: The Representation Of Violence, Nationalism, And Masculine Archetypes In U.S.-Mexico Borderland Novels (1985-2012), Joshua D. Martin

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

The present project explores the narrative construction of masculinities, violence, and nationalism in three U.S.-Mexico borderland novels written by U.S., Mexican, and Mexican-American writers: Caballero (1930s-40s, pub.1996) by Jovita González and Eve Raleigh; Blood Meridian (1985) by Cormac McCarthy; and Texas: La gran ladronería en el lejano norte (2012) by Carmen Boullosa. Through the scope of masculinity, gender, and (post)colonial studies, this project examines how these authors incorporate hegemonic masculine archetypes and their attendant forms of violence (physical, economic, and epistemic) so as to interrogate claims to identity and national belonging along the Texas-Mexico border, against the backdrop of war …

Bluegrass Capital: An Environmental History Of Central Kentucky To 1860, Andrew P. Patrick

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation traces the long-term evolution of the Inner Bluegrass region of central Kentucky with a focus on the period between the first Euro-American incursions into the area and the Civil War era. Utilizing an agroecological perspective that analyzes cultivated landscapes for their ecological features, it explores the ever-shifting mix of cultural and natural influences that shaped the local environment. Most prominently, it reveals the extent to which intertwined strands of capitalism and slavery mingled with biology to produce the celebrated Bluegrass agricultural system.

It begins with an appraisal of the landscape before white men like Daniel Boone arrived, emphasizing …