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Defining Problematic School Absenteeism Using Nonparametric Modeling, Kyleigh Kay Skedgell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Contemporary classification models of school absenteeism often employ a multitier approach for organizing assessment and treatment strategies. Researchers have yet to agree, however, on how to objectively define problematic school absenteeism and identify demarcation points for each tier. The present study aimed to inform a multitier approach by determining the most relevant risk factors for problematic school absenteeism. The most useful targets of assessment for problematic school absenteeism are also addressed. The present study examined problematic school absenteeism defined at three distinct cutoffs: 1%, 10%, and 15% of full school days missed. The present study evaluated interactions among several youth- …

Lgbt Microaggressions In Counselor Education Programs, Sarah Bryan

Dissertations

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people report they experience microaggressions, small daily insults and indignities that affect their well-being. For LGBT students, microaggressions have been shown to affect well-being and academic engagement. In order to serve LGBT students and model affirming behaviors, counselor educators must be able to recognize and address LGBT microaggressions when they occur; however, there is currently a paucity of research on LGBT microaggressions in counselor education programs. Most studies on attitudes toward LGBT people in such programs neglect the experiences of LGBT students. Moreover, the few existing studies of the experiences of LGBT …

Evolution Of Caffeine Biosynthetic Enzymes And Pathways In Flowering Plants, Ruiqi Huang

Dissertations

Convergent evolution generally refers to the independent evolution of similar biological function more than once in unrelated species. Caffeine is thought to have evolved by convergence, and is naturally produced through secondary metabolism in plants to defend against pathogen attack and insect feeding or to attract pollinators. The same caffeine biosynthetic pathway has been elucidated in Camellia (tea) and Coffea (coffee), in which xanthosine is sequentially methylated to caffeine via 7-methylxanthine and theobromine. However, although the same catalysis pathway is used, different (paralogous) enzymes in the SAMT/BAMT/theobromine synthase (SABATH) multigene family are used in the two species. In my dissertation, …

Egg Quality Traits And Predictors Of Embryo And Fry Viability In Red Snapper Lutjanus Campechanus, Agnés Bardon-Albaret, Eric Saillant

Faculty Publications

The quality of red snapper eggs is highly variable and unpredictable in aquaculture, leading to high mortality during early larval rearing. In this work, the viability of red snapper eggs was monitored from fertilization until unfed larvae expired because of exhaustion of vitelline reserves to determine egg quality traits in this species. The spawns were obtained via strip spawning wild-caught females following hormonal induction with chorionic gonadotropin. Females were induced immediately after capture (wild group, n = 17) or held captive for the entire maturation period prior to induction (captive group, n = 7). Candidate predictors of egg quality measured …

Oviposition Preference And Offspring Performance In Container Breeding Mosquitoes: Evaluating The Effects Of Organic Compounds And Laboratory Colonisation, David W. Allgood, Donald A. Yee

Faculty Publications

1. The preference–performance hypothesis (PPH) predicts that organisms lacking parental care should oviposit in habitats that optimise offspring performance. Preference–performance relationships were investigated for the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus Skuse) and the southern house mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus Say) (Diptera: Culicidae), two medically important container-breeding species, in response to an organic chemical blend mimicking decaying plant matter. Additionally, the effects of long-term laboratory colonisation of Cx. quinquefasciatus using wild and laboratory strains were evaluated.

2. Oviposition bioassays were conducted by releasing gravid mosquitoes into field enclosures with automobile tires containing low and high concentrations of the chemical blend, …

Bystander No More? Improving The Federal Response To Sexual Violence In Indian Country, Sarah Deer

Utah Law Review

For better or worse, the federal government has taken responsibility for providing for the protection of Native people. So long as the federal government refuses to allow tribes to govern themselves completely and independently, it is imperative that the federal government enact policies empowering Native survivors of sexual assault. The federal government must do more to protect tribal members from sexual predators, to safeguard reservations not only from career criminals but also to ensure that federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Services do not hire men with a history of violence against women or …

Upstanders, Whistle-Blowers, And Rescuers, Martha Minow

Utah Law Review

Communities of responsibility and the cultures that nurture them take many steps to build. An important step is to honor remarkable individuals with courage and commitment. Raphael Lemkin, Benjamin Ferencz, Luis Moreno Ocampo, Emmanuel Uwurukundo, Samantha Power, filmmaker Edet Belzberg, and Victor Koningsberger deserve recognition and honor. At the same time, we need to emphasize that an upstander does not need extraordinary qualities. Ordinary people can and do stand up in small and big ways against oppression and injustice. Education can help. Speeches can help. When we honor heroes, we should not simply recognize individual courage. Doing so can help …

Decoding Nonverbal Ability: A Theoretical Model For The Acquisition Of Nonverbal Decoding Skill, Julia Berger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Nonverbal communication adds multiple layers of meaning to social interaction above that conveyed by words. The comprehension of these nonverbal messages depends on individual ability which varies greatly between individuals. Variation in nonverbal communication ability and the variables of influence that have been associated with it over decades of research are the topic of this research project. Variables that have been correlated to nonverbal communication skill were used to develop a theory for the development of this skill and construct an evidence-based theoretical model that provides an explanation for nonverbal skill acquisition and variability. This model was also analyzed for …

Consensual Sexual Dysphoria: A Challenge For Campus Life, Robin West

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Law And The Modern Mind: Consciousness And Responsibility In American Legal Culture By Susanna L. Blumenthal, Lea Vaughn

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Trained Immunity By Β-1, 3 (D)-Glucan On Murine Monocytes In Vitro And Duration Of Response In Vivo, Pablo Garcia-Valtanen, Ruth Marian Guzman-Genuino, David L. Williams, John D. Hayball, Kerrilyn R. Diener

ETSU Faculty Works

The β-1, 3 (d)-glucan (β-glucan) present in the cell wall of Candida albicans induces epigenetic changes in human monocytes resulting in primed macrophages exhibiting increased cytokine responsiveness to reinfection. This phenomenon is referred to as trained immunity or innate immune memory. However, whether β-glucan can reprogramme murine monocytes in vitro or induce lasting effects in vivo has yet to be elucidated. Thus, purified murine spleen-derived monocytes were primed with β-glucan in vitro and assessed for markers of differentiation and survival. Important macrophage cell markers during monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation were downregulated and survival enhanced due to partial inhibition of apoptosis. Increased survival …

Marine Inspired 2-(5-Halo-1h-Indol-3-Yl)-N,N-Dimethylethanamines As Modulators Of Serotonin Receptors: An Example Illustrating The Power Of Bromine As Part Of The Uniquely Marine Chemical Space, Mohamed A. Ibrahim, Abir T. El-Alfy, Kelly Ezel, Mohamed O. Radwan, Abbas G. Shilabin, Anna J. Kochanowska-Karamyan, Howaida I. Abd-Alla, Masami Otsuka, Mark T. Hamann

ETSU Faculty Works

In previous studies, we have isolated several marine indole alkaloids and evaluated them in the forced swim test (FST) and locomotor activity test, revealing their potential as antidepressant and sedative drug leads. Amongst the reported metabolites to display such activities was 5-bromo-N,N-dimethyltryptamine. Owing to the importance of the judicious introduction of halogens into drug candidates, we synthesized two series built on a 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)-N,N-dimethylethanamine scaffold with different halogen substitutions. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro and in vivo antidepressant and sedative activities using the mouse forced swim and locomotor activity tests. Receptor binding studies of these compounds to …

Pulling The Plug On Microscopes In The Anatomy And Physiology Laboratory, Zvi Ostrin, Vyacheslav Dushenkov

Publications and Research

Virtual microscopy (VM) has been widely available for more than a decade, especially in clinical settings and medical schools. In recent years the movement away from conventional optical microscopy (OM) and towards VM has been accelerating and several VM websites are now available online and readily accessible to educators. VM can enhance the instructor’s ability to teach the histology component of anatomy and physiology classes, facilitate student learning, save time for both students and instructors, and ultimately save money that can be more productively used for other facets of the laboratory. The many pedagogical and practical advantages provided by VM …

The Moderating Role Of Sex On Gender Role Orientation’S Meditation Of Work-Family/Family-Work Conflict And Satisfaction Outcomes, Deirdre Lynn Paulson-O'Donovan

Dissertations

While biological sex has been examined in the work-family interface, findings have been inconsistent in determining if males and females differ in their experiences of work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC), and how conflict impacts their job, family, and life satisfaction. These inconsistent findings may be due to the changing roles of men and women, as not all men and women are adhering to traditional gender roles. Furthermore, many researchers have used incorrect terminology, indicating that they examined gender, when they actually assessed sex. Thus, the current study’s purpose was to address the shortcomings of the previous literature by …

Compensatory Women's Rights Legal Education In Eastern Europe: The Women's Human Rights Training Institute, Isabel Marcus

Journal Articles

To compensate for the absence/minimization of women's rights in the law faculty curriculum in post-socialist states, in 2002 a coalition of women's rights NGOs, funded by OSI, developed a Women's Human Rights Training Institute (WHRTI) in Sofia, Bulgaria. Now embarking on its sixth cycle and having graduated more than 100 lawyers (mostly working in NGOs in post-socialist states), WHRTI has developed a women's rights legal education and training program triad consisting of feminist legal theory, women's rights legal practice, and feminist legal pedagogy. The goal of the program is to educate and train lawyers to understand and use various domestic, …

Characterizing The Fate And Mobility Of Phosphorus In Utah Lake Sediments, Matthew Chambers Randall

Theses and Dissertations

An increasing number of lakes worldwide are impacted by eutrophication and harmful algal blooms due to nutrient inputs. Utah Lake is a unique eutrophic freshwater lake that is naturally shallow, turbid, and alkaline with high dissolved oxygen levels. Recently, the Utah Division of Water Quality has proposed a new limitation of phosphorus (P) loading to Utah Lake from wastewater treatment plants in an effort to mitigate eutrophication. However, reducing external P loads may not lead to immediate improvements in water quality due to the legacy pool of nutrients in lake sediments. The purpose of this study was to characterize the …

Optimization Of Mitochondrial Isolation Techniques For Intraspinal Transplantation Procedures, Jenna L. Gollihue, Samir P. Patel, Charles B. Mashburn, Khalid C. Eldahan, Patrick G. Sullivan, Alexander G. Rabchevsky

Physiology Faculty Publications

Background—Proper mitochondrial function is essential to maintain normal cellular bioenergetics and ionic homeostasis. In instances of severe tissue damage, such as traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, mitochondria become damaged and unregulated leading to cell death. The relatively unexplored field of mitochondrial transplantation following neurotrauma is based on the theory that replacing damaged mitochondria with exogenous respiratory-competent mitochondria can restore overall tissue bioenergetics.

New Method—We optimized techniques in vitro to prepare suspensions of isolated mitochondria for transplantation in vivo. Mitochondria isolated from cell culture were genetically labeled with turbo-green fluorescent protein (tGFP) for imaging and tracking purposes …

Enhancing Conservation Options: An Argument For Statutory Recognition Of Options To Purchase Conservation Easements (Opces), Federico Cheever, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

The most dynamic component of the conservation movement in the United States for the past three decades has been land conservation transactions. In the United States, land conservation organizations have protected roughly 40 million acres of land through transactions. Most of these acres have been protected using conservation easements. Climate change threatens the vast conservation edifice created by land conservation transactions. The tools of land conservation transactions are, traditionally, stationary. Climate change means that the resources that land conservation transactions were intended to protect may no longer remain on the land protected. Options to purchase conservation easements (OPCEs) have long …

The Effect Of Cocoa Flavanols On Β-Cell Mass And Function, Thomas John Rowley

Theses and Dissertations

A hallmark of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is β-cell dysfunction and the eventual loss of functional β-cell mass. Therefore, mechanisms that improve or preserve β-cell function could be used to improve the quality of life of individuals with T2D. Studies have shown that monomeric, oligomeric and polymeric cocoa flavanols have different effects on obesity, insulin resistance and glucose tolerance. We hypothesized that these cocoa flavanols may have beneficial effects on β-cell function. INS-1 832/13 derived β-cells and primary rat islets cultured with a monomeric catechin-rich cocoa flavanol fraction demonstrated enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, while cells cultured with total cocoa extract, …

First-In-Human Clinical Trial Of Oral Onc201 In Patients With Refractory Solid Tumors, Mark N. Stein, Joseph R. Bertino, Howard L. Kaufman, Tina M. Mayer, Rebecca A. Moss, Ann W. Silk, Nancy Chan, Jyoti Malhotra, Loma Rodriguez, Joseph Aisner, Robert Aiken, Bruce G. Haffty, Robert S. Dipaola, Tracie Saunders, Andrew Zloza, Sherri Damare, Yasmeen Beckett, Bangning Yu, Saltanat Najmi, Christian Gabel, Sioghan Dickerson, Ling Zheng, Wafik S. El-Deiry, Joshua E. Allen, Martin Stogniew, Wolfgang Oster, Janice M. Mehnert

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Purpose: ONC201 is a small-molecule selective antagonist of the G protein–coupled receptor DRD2 that is the founding member of the imipridone class of compounds. A first-in-human phase I study of ONC201 was conducted to determine its recommended phase II dose (RP2D).

Experimental Design: This open-label study treated 10 patients during dose escalation with histologically confirmed advanced solid tumors. Patients received ONC201 orally once every 3 weeks, defined as one cycle, at doses from 125 to 625 mg using an accelerated titration design. An additional 18 patients were treated at the RP2D in an expansion phase to collect additional safety, …

A Study On The Nonlocal Shallow-Water Model Arising From The Full Water Waves With The Coriolis Effect, Junwei Sun

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

The Equatorial Undercurrent is a significant feature of the geophysical waves near the equator, which is one of the key factors to explain El Niño phenomenon. However, based on β-plane approximation, the classical theory of geophysical waves ignored the vertical structure of the Equatorial Undercurrent. To obtain a better description of the equatorial waves, in this dissertation, I study the rotational-Camassa-Holm (R-CH) equation, which is a mathematical model of long-crested water waves near the equator, propagating mainly in one direction with the effect of Earth's rotation under the f-plane approximation. R-CH equation can be derived by following the formal asymptotic …

Herons And Egrets, Michael D. Hoy

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

Human-Wildlife Conflicts

Landscapes -- Herons and egrets commonly cause damage at aquaculture facilities and recreational fishing waters where fish are held at high densities. In one study, on average wading birds consumed from 4 to 24 golden shiners per day at minnow production facilities in Arkansas. Great blue herons and great egrets commonly feed at catfish production facilities in Mississippi. The tendency for herons and egrets to congregate in large feeding flocks often leads to extensive loss of fish at aquaculture facilities. Fish-eating birds also can have an impact on intensively managed sport fisheries. Damage occurs when herons and egrets …

The Role Of The Receptive Field Structure In Neuronal Compressive Sensing Signal Processing, Victor J. Barranca, George Zhu , '17

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

The receptive field structure ubiquitous in the visual system is believed to play a crucial role in encoding stimulus characteristics, such as contrast and spectral composition. However, receptive field architecture may also result in unforeseen difficulties in processing particular classes of images. We explore the potential functional benefits and shortcomings of localization and center-surround paradigms in the context of an integrate-and-fire neuronal network model. Utilizing the sparsity of natural scenes, we derive a compressive-sensing based theoretical framework for network input reconstructions based on neuronal firing rate dynamics [1, 2]. This formalism underlines a potential mechanism for efficiently transmitting sparse stimulus …

Gender Ambivalence, Fragmented Self, And The Subversive Nature Of James Tiptree, Jr.'S Science Fiction, Mihaela Stoica

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

James Tiptree, Jr.’s fiction which first appeared in the SF world in 1968 presents a paradox. Having established herself as an influential science fiction male writer for a decade, Alice Sheldon successfully defied preconceived notions about masculine and feminine writing styles. Her two adopted textual personas, Tiptree and Raccoona Sheldon, reflect different facets of her personality, and the writing produced under each pseudonym explores gender issues convincingly from both perspectives. While Tiptree’s stories can lend themselves to feminist themes, or challenges to feminism, the supposed male author’s ‘ineluctably masculine’ narrative style and the revelation that Tiptree was a pseudonym make …

Pro-Angiogenesis Therapy And Aging: A Mini-Review, Charles T. Ambrose

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

Apart from major illnesses and chronic afflictions, the elderly experience lesser ailments, such as muscle weakness, cold intolerance, and transient memory lapses. Physical signs in the aged include wrinkled skin and the slow healing of skin abrasions. These ailments and signs are grouped together because they may be due in part to an age-linked, waning microcirculation. A reduced capillary density (CD) throughout the body of aged people and animals has been reported in over 40 papers. The reduced CD is due in turn to declining levels of angiogenic growth factors (AGFs) throughout the body during old age, as documented in …

Awareness Of Holistic Care Practices By Intensive Care Nurses In North-Western Saudi Arabia, Hamdan M. Albaqawi, Vincent R. Butcon, Roger R. Molina

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To examine awareness of holistic patient care by staff nurses in the intensive care units of hospitals in the city of Hail, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A quantitative correlational study design was used to investigate relationships between intensive care nurse’s awareness of holistic practices and nurses’ latest performance review. Intensive care staff nurses (n=99) from 4 public sector hospitals in Hail were surveyed on their awareness of variables across 5 holistic domains: physiological, sociocultural, psychological, developmental, and spiritual. Data were collected between October and December 2015 using written survey, and performance evaluations obtained from the hospital administrations. Results were statistically …

Screening For Skin-Sensitizing Allergens Among Patients With Clinically Suspected Allergic Contact Dermatitis, Zahid Shakoor, Ahlam S. Al-Mutairi, Afnan M. Al-Shenaifi, Areej M. Al-Abdulsalam, Bashayer Z. Al-Shirah, Shahad A. Al-Harbi

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To detect common skin-sensitizing agents among patients experiencing allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). Methods: This was a retrospective study of 152 patients with clinically suspected ACD who underwent patch testing in an allergy clinic at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between January 2012 and February 2015. Of these patients, only 74 (48%) patients reacted to one or more contact allergens. This group of patients included 58 (78.4%) women and 16 (21.6%) men (mean age: 37.8±13.8 years). Patch testing was performed using the thin-layer rapid-use epicutaneous patch test panels. Results: Nickel sulfate was the most common sensitizing …

A Platform For The Discovery And Characterization Of Proteins That Associate With Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Rna Polymerase, Danielle N. Brogren

All NMU Master's Theses

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen notable for its ability to colonize the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. Once the bacterium infects and colonizes humans, it is extremely difficult to eradicate. This leads to long-term infections that significantly damage the lungs and other tissues. P. aeruginosa infections are challenging to treat due to the bacterium’s natural antibiotic resistance and the rise of multidrug resistant strains. Development of novel drug treatments are a necessity.

In all organisms, the regulation of gene expression is a highly controlled process. Remarkably, in P. aeruginosa bioinformatics studies showed that 20% of its genome is …

Fleas Of The American Pika: Diversity And Biogeography In North America’S Intermountain West, Niyomi Wijewardena

All NMU Master's Theses

American pikas (Ochotona princeps) are small mammals that are widely distributed across North America’s Intermountain West. Previous investigations revealed five geographically distinct mitochondrial lineages within O. princeps associated with different mountain systems of the Intermountain West. In contrast, diversity of endoparasitic helminths of pikas is not structured geographically in the same way. Instead, there are two primary parasite assemblages, one distributed across southwestern pika populations and one found across the northeastern part of the host range. These contrasting patterns suggest that the shared history of pikas and their parasites had different consequences for the evolutionary trajectories of these …

Kids Count The State Of The Child In Tennessee 2016, Tennessee. Commission On Children & Youth.

The State of the Child in Tennessee

No abstract provided.