Digital Commons Network^™

Applying A Federal Standard Of Care In Aviation Product Liability Actions, Lauren Lacey Haertlein, Justin T. Barkowski

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Ecological Homogenization Of Residential Macrosystems, Peter M. Groffman, Meghan Avolio, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Neil D. Bettez, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Susannah B. Lerman, Dexter H. Locke, James B. Heffernan, Jennifer L. Morse, Christopher Neill, Kristen C. Nelson, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Diane E. Pataki, Colin Polsky, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Tara L.E. Trammell

Geography

Similarities in planning, development and culture within urban areas may lead to the convergence of ecological processes on continental scales. Transdisciplinary, multi-scale research is now needed to understand and predict the impact of human-dominated landscapes on ecosystem structure and function.

The available download on this page is the author manuscript accepted for publication. This version has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process.

Manipulating Lipid Spreading Domain Formation With Compositional Gradients And Plasmonic Nanoparticles, Chen-Min Hung

CMC Senior Theses

After colliding two solid-supported spreading bilayers of different compositions, we produce a dynamic gradient as the newly-healed bilayer equilibrates. We apply this approach to study the formation of galactosyl ceramide (GalCer) domains. With a single experiment, we are able to explore the effects of varying cholesterol concentration on GalCer domains. To further control domain formation, we aimed to locally heat membranes with embedded plasmonic nanoparticles. However, we discovered a percolation threshold of spreading lipids over the array of nanoparticles. We found that surfaces with gold nanoparticles deposited at an average inter-particle distance of 40 nm inhibited lipid bilayer spreading, but …

Negotiating Human Rights Abuses Through The Moral Foundations Theory: An Attempt To Understand The Moral Motivations Behind The Male Guardianship System In Saudi Arabia, Female Genital Modification, And Child Marriage., Anoush Baghdassarian

CMC Senior Theses

The idea that there are universal human rights that can, and should, be enforced has been an increasingly wide-spread and popular belief, as well as a controversial one. Concerns of cultural relativism contrasted with stances of universalism spark an impassioned debate that permeates the dialogue of human rights today in all spheres: social, academic, and even those professional spheres that are tasked with creating and enforcing the laws regarding these issues. What does psychology have to say about this? After all, if it is a universal phenomenon, it must span across time, culture, and difference, and there must be trends …

Phage Display To Identify Functional Resistance Mutations To Rigosertib, Nedim Filipovic

CMC Senior Theses

In vitro protein selection has had major impacts in the field of protein engineering. Traditional screens assay individual proteins for specific function. Selection, however, analyzes a pool of mutants and yields the best variants. Phage display, a successful selection technique, also provides a reliable link between variant phenotype and genotype. It can also be coupled with high throughput sequencing to map protein mutations; potentially highlighting vital mutations in variants. We propose to apply this technique to cancer therapy. RAF, a serine/threonine kinase, is critical for cell regulation in mammals. RAF can be activated by oncogenic RAS, found in over 30% …

Red Lights, White Hope: Race, Gender, And U.S. Camptown Prostitution In South Korea, Julie Kim

CMC Senior Theses

U.S. military camptown prostitution in South Korea was a system ridden with entangled structures of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. This thesis aims to elucidate the ways in which racial ideologies, in conjunction with gendered nationalist ideologies, materialized in the spaces of military base communities. I contend that camptowns were hybrid spaces where the meaning and representation of race were constantly in flux, where the very definitions of race and gender were contested, affirmed, and redefined through ongoing negotiations on the part of relevant actors. The reading of camptown prostitutes and American GIs as sexualized and racialized bodies will …

A New Frontier: But For Whom? An Analysis Of The Micro-Computer And Women’S Declining Participation In Computer Science, Eliana Keinan

CMC Senior Theses

Though women’s participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has greatly increased over the past 60 years, women’s participation in computer science peaked in the 1980s. The paper searches for key motivators for women entering computer science at the peak in order to isolate factors for the subsequent steep decline. A major finding of the paper is that having a computer at home is (weakly) statistically significant as a determinant for female students choosing to pursue computer science. This relationship is insignificant for students in other STEM and non-STEM fields. A final section of the paper examines employment …

The Demandingness Of Morality: The Person Confined, Jose Salazar

CMC Senior Theses

Losing ownership and control over the development of and connection to our own person detaches us from the most innate embodiment of ourselves, our person. Without being able to develop and connect to our person, we become detached from expressing our identity, exercising our autonomy, and formulating our own values, the most intrinsic features our person encapsulates. While we yearn to act on our own projects to express our identity, exercise our autonomy, and formulate our own values the way we want, morality imposes huge demands on our person that restrain us from doing so. Morality’s major requirement to always …

Lemurfaceid: A Face Recognition System To Facilitate Individual Identification Of Lemurs, David Crouse, Rachel L. Jacobs, Zach Richardson, Scott Klum, Anil Jain, Andrea L. Baden, Stacey R. Tecot

Publications and Research

Background: Long-term research of known individuals is critical for understanding the demographic and evolutionary processes that influence natural populations. Current methods for individual identification of many animals include capture and tagging techniques and/or researcher knowledge of natural variation in individual phenotypes. These methods can be costly, time-consuming, and may be impractical for larger-scale, populationlevel studies. Accordingly, for many animal lineages, long-term research projects are often limited to only a few taxa. Lemurs, a mammalian lineage endemic to Madagascar, are no exception. Long-term data needed to address evolutionary questions are lacking for many species. This is, at least in part, due …

Rtfa Controls Development, Secondary Metabolism, And Virulence In Aspergillus Fumigatus, Ryan Myers

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Invasive aspergillosis by Aspergillus fumigatus is a leading cause of infection-related mortality in immune-compromised patients. This population group includes individuals infected with HIV, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant patients, and individuals with genetic immune deficiencies or hematological malignancies. The number of patients who fall into these categories is steadily increasing. In order to discover potential genetic targets to control A. fumigatus infections we characterized rtfA, a gene encoding a putative RNA polymerase II transcription elongation factor-like protein. Our recent work has shown that the rtfA ortholog in the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans regulates morphogenesis and secondary metabolism. The present …

Gender Queer Representation In The Box Spring, Kim Likier

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis, as well as the short film, The Box Spring, explores issues related to gender identity and expression. Through the lens of queer theory, the thesis ensconces the short film in the existing body of works relating to the aforementioned issues. In order to detail both the academic grounding and the process of film creation, there are seven main chapters. The first chapter covers the theoretical background, including a brief history of nonbinary individuals and information on transmasculine identities. In Chapter Two, the thesis covers the process of writing the script, as well as the impetus behind character and …

The Swords Of Damocles : Explaining Unconventional Weapon Non-Use In Modern War, Martin Claar

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the logic for unconventional weapon non-use during wars in the 20th Century. International relations scholarship has offered two primary explanatory factors for the non-use of radiological, biological and chemical weapons: either it is a result of power concerns and utility or due to adherence to taboo norms. However, these logics are insufficient in explaining oscillations in policy, near misses and instances of actual use. Thus, I argue that normative concerns based on the rules of war as associated with Just War theory impact the decisions concerning unconventional weapons. Consideration of the discriminatory and proportionality norms associated with …

Demographic Differences In The Causal Effects Of Obesity Status On Child Academic Achievement, Yoshie Hayasaka Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have found a negative correlation between obesity and academic achievement; however, determining and reaching a consensus about the nature of causality between these two variables have posed a challenge for scholars and researchers. If obesity does indeed have a negative causal effect on academic achievement, it has significant policy implications as it affects human capital investment. In this paper, I use the National Longitudinal Study of Youth-1979, Child and Young Adult data and estimate OLS, FE, traditional IV, and Lewbel IV models for children ages 5-12, stratified by race and gender. Under an individual fixed-effects model, I find …

Working Together To Beat The Odds : Factors That Influence The College Readiness Of Low-Income, Hispanic Students At Addison Trail High School : A Case Study, Adam Cibulka

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This case study investigated the factors that influenced the college readiness of low-income, Hispanic students at Addison Trail High School. The purpose of the qualitative study was to determine, through the eyes of the participants, four low-income, Hispanic students who graduated Addison Trail High School, what factors assisted them in becoming college ready. Through detailed interviews and analysis, themes emerged from the data as to how the participants became college ready. The data supported the finding that the participants became college ready because they challenged themselves, the school provided resources that did not exist at home and the participants felt …

An Evaluation Of Elk Home Range Variation In North Dakota, Jacqueline Marie Amor

Theses and Dissertations

In North Dakota, dispersing elk (Cervus elaphus) were colonizing areas of suitable habitat in Turtle Mountain, Pembina Hills, and Porcupine Hills, ND, USA. Although these 3 elk herds were small (~100–250 individuals each), they had been responsible for crop depredation in these areas. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department (NDGF) had little information on these elk herds. In cooperation with Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and Manitoba Department of Sustainable Development, NDGF contracted with the University of North Dakota (UND) to collect and analyze critical baseline information to better manage these elk herds. The objectives of this study were to …

Training Convolutional Neural Networks Using An Automated Feedback Loop To Estimate The Population Of Avian Species, Connor Ryan Bowley

Theses and Dissertations

Using automated processes to detect wildlife in uncontrolled outdoor imagery in the field of wildlife ecology is challenging task. This is especially true in imagery provided by an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), where the relative size of wildlife is small and visually similar to its background. In the UAS imagery collected by the Wildlife@Home project, the data is also extremely unbalanced, with less than 1% of area in the imagery being of wildlife. To tackle these challenges, the Wildlife@Home project has employed citizen scientists and trained experts to go through collected UAS imagery and classify it. Classified data are used …

Biodegradation And Biomodification Of Lignocellulose With A Main Focus On Lignin, Ivana Brzonova

Theses and Dissertations

Lignin is the second most abundant biopolymer, and the first most abundant source of phenolic structures, on Earth. Recent research has focused on lignin monomers as replacements for phenolic monomers derived from nonrenewable resources. Biological decomposition and conversion may be one way to accomplish this objective. In this study, the effects of two basidiomycetous fungi (Coriolus versicolor and Trametes gallica) and two actinobacteria strains (Microbacterium sp. and Streptomyces sp.) and their combination on lignocellulose (kenaf) decomposition was evaluated.

The results showed that after 8 weeks of incubation up to 34 wt. % of the kenaf biomass was degraded, and the …

An Investigation Of The Latent Structure Of Eating Disorder Behaviors And Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (Nssi), Erica Goodman Goodman

Theses and Dissertations

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI; deliberate harm to the self) and eating disorders frequently co-occur, and both place an individual at increased risk for suicide. Individuals who report NSSI are similar to those that report eating disorder behaviors on emotion regulation, impulsivity, and pain tolerance. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate how the relationship between NSSI and eating disorder behaviors is best understood, based on the intent of the behavior (e.g., “to hurt myself”) or the function (e.g., “I became less angry”). Participants were 493 undergraduate students (80% female; 90% white) who completed an online survey regarding lifetime NSSI and eating …

Developmental Factors And Maladjustment Indicators Of Specific Sexual Interests, Victoria Charlotte Mary-Rose Pocknell

Theses and Dissertations

Human sexual expression appears to be freer to vary past the need to procreate. This study explores the variability in the cues that elicit sexual arousal in the general population. It aims to better understand the developmental factors and negative outcomes of having a specific sexual interest. A sample (N = 1069) was gathered using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in which participants indicated sexual interests based on themes: Age, Physical Appearance, Clothing, Power, Risk, and Extrapersonal. The results suggest significant effects of sex, age, and hypersexuality on sexual interests. Therefore, analyses were run separately for men and women and age and …

Inner Strength In Mothers Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Oral Histories, Jennifer Weathersbee Steinberg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this oral history study was to describe the lived experiences of mothers of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and to further inform the Theory of Inner Strength in Women (TIS) (Dingley & Roux, 2014). Postmodern feminist oral history methods were used to answer the research questions which included: 1) What are the lived experiences of mothers of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? and 2) How do these experiences further inform TIS?

Interviews were manually coded directly onto the digital audio files using NVivo11Plus qualitative data management software. Three chronologic phases were identified among …

The Effects Of Utilizing Simulation To Promote Content Knowledge Acquisition And Problem-Solving Skills In A Stem Classroom, Jui-Ling Chiang

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This sequential explanatory mixed-methods design study explores the impact of simulation in promoting content knowledge acquisition and problem-solving skills in a STEM classroom. It also examines students' background factors and their relationship to the use of simulation. This study used the Web-Based Interactive Landform Simulation Model -- Grand Canyon (WILSIM-GC) as an instrument for developing content knowledge and problem-solving skills through pre- and posttests, a learning attitude scale, and focus group interviews. A quasi-experimental design was used to measure content knowledge growth and problem-solving skill growth at two separate times. Regression was conducted to examine the relationship between students' background …

The Association Between Body Esteem And School Engagement : The Role Of Victimization As A Mediator, Jacqueline Klossing

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Little research has examined the how body esteem impacts the educational environment for students, yet there are copious amounts of research indicating that body image and body esteem is a defining experience for individuals, particularly adolescents. The current study collected data in a sample of 669 middle school students from northern Illinois using self-report measures to examine the relation between body esteem and school engagement, with the prediction that victimization (both global and appearance-based) plays a mediating role in this relationship. The associations between these variables were explored, as well as the role gender plays in these relations. Results indicated …

Monitoring Pollen Counts And Pollen Allergy Index Using Satellite Observations In East Coast Of The United States, Murat Cagatay Kececi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Allergic diseases have become increasingly common over the world during the last four decades, and they are affecting millions of people. Pollination is an important process in the life cycle of plants. However, pollen exposure is associated with allergic diseases such as asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis (hay fever). As a result, the total annual expenditure for asthma-associated morbidity is about $56 billion in the United States, and the overall cost of allergic diseases is over $18 billion annually. For allergic rhinitis, the annual medical cost is approximately $3.4 billion. The intensity and frequency of the pollen exposures can be …

Effect Of Grazing Pressure On Cattle Grazing Cool Season Annual Forages, Brooke Brunsvig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ruminants can use plant fiber to produce food products that provide nourishment to humans. However, a precise understanding of specific plants selected by grazing ruminants remains elusive. Many long- and short-term factors impact cattle grazing behavior. Ultimately, grazing behavior can affect forage available for grazing, nutrient density of forage, dry matter intake, and animal performance. A myriad of grazing management strategies have been developed utilizing animal behavior to allow more efficient use of forage resources. Many management strategies based on manipulation of grazing behavior are simple and cost effective. Optimal performance of individual animals and amount of animal products produced …

The Cattle Dung Arthropod Community In Eastern South Dakota: Their Colonization, Impact On Degradation, And Response To Rangeland Management, Jacob Pecenka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cattle grazing operations are an important industry throughout the world and a vital component of the economy of the Northern Great Plains. Rangeland management is important to ensure that cattle grazing remains not only profitable but also environmentally sustainable. Conventionally managed rangeland systems that practice continuous grazing and repeated applications of chemicals such as avermectins pose a risk to the continuing productivity of rangelands. These practices have ecological consequences, primarily to the arthropod community that inhabits cattle dung pats. This diverse community works together to recycle dung pats and make the nutrients in dung accessible to the surrounding plant community, …

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis Of Oral Cells In The High Wavenumber Region, Fiona Lyng, Luis Felipe C.S Carvalho, Franck Bonnier, Cláudio Tellez, Laurita Dos Santos, Kate O´Callaghan, Jeff O'Sullivan, Luis Eduardo S. Soares, Hugh Byrne

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Land Use And Land Cover In Public Lands Of The Northwestern Great Plains And High Plains Ecoregions And The Implications For Grassland Birds, Dawn L. Siemonsma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Loss and degradation of grassland habitat are driving forces that contribute to widespread declines of grassland birds in the United States. Many studies have evaluated habitat needs for the conservation of grassland birds, but the relative contribution of public lands in representing and maintaining avian biodiversity remains poorly understood. Having a better understanding of the role that publicly managed grasslands play in the conservation of grassland bird habitat is important for assessing the value of the investment the American public makes in these lands. Therefore, I investigated spatial relations among variations in amounts and distributions of publicly owned and managed …

Effect Of Pre-Marketing Management Practices On Shrink Loss In Lambs, Ann Kolthoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of three common lamb pre-marketing management practices on live weight shrink loss. Additionally a producer survey was conducted to assess current marketing practices in the North Central region of the US. In these experiments, Exp. 1 (feeder lambs) and 2 (finished lambs), 60 commercial Polypay lambs (Exp. 1: 37.65 ± 0.30 kg of BW; Exp. 2: 52.56 ± 0.14 kg of BW) were allocated for each experiment to 3 treatment groups (n=20 lambs) in a 3 x 3 Latin square design. Treatments were the pre-marketing practices: original pen (ORG), transition pen (TRANS), …

Understanding The Effect Of Bvdv On Innate Immune Response Of Neutrophils, Neelu Singh Thakur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is one of the highly prevalent and economically important diseases of cattle industry worldwide. The two major consequences of this disease are persistent infection and immunosuppression. Several studies have been done to determine the underline mechanisms of BVDV-induced immunosuppression targeting antigen presenting cells, adaptive immune system cells and cytokine gene expression. However, very little research has been done to determine the effect of BVDV on neutrophils. Neutrophils are one of the most abundant while blood cells (WBC) in the peripheral blood, which play a critical role in the innate as well as adaptive immune response. …

Relationship Of The Fractal And Chemical Characteristics Of Self-Assembled Natural Organic Matter, Dennis K. Gibson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Natural Organic Matter (NOM) is a heterogeneous mixture formed by the degradation of organic substances during early diagenesis in surficial environments. It has been shown that the interaction of the components that comprise this mixture has a significant impact on its microbial mineralization to CO₂. The extent of NOM selfassembly is emerging as an important factor in understanding its role in the global geochemical carbon cycle, and it is beginning to appear that it may be more important than the chemical composition of a sample. The overall goal of this research is to establish NOM’s self-assembled “architecture” and …