Digital Commons Network^™

Enacting “Technology” And Everything Else: Gendered Practices And The System Of Crop Intensification, Natasha Susan Koshy

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is a qualitative examination of the functioning of a rural

development project in a Himalayan region of India, with a special focus on a

particular project activity centred around an agro-ecological method of crop

production, the System of Crop Intensification (SCI). Environmental changes and

disasters along with rapid transformations in the rural economy in Uttarakhand has

engendered a renewed interest in non-mainstream farming practices. However, the

success and/or failure rates of adoption of new agricultural methods and technologies

remains a poorly understood phenomenon. Studies of adoption rates tend to focus on

the aspects of the technology itself, rather …

The Ageing Of The Archives: Community, Conflict, And Queer Potential At The Lesbian Herstory Archives, Rebekah Orr

Dissertations - ALL

The Lesbian Herstory Archives is the oldest and largest lesbian archives in the

world. This dissertation project examines the role of this community archive in

building, defining, redefining, and sustaining community over time. More

specifically, this dissertation seeks to explore the relationship between queer

archives and community through the following research questions:

1. How does the act of archiving produce community?

2. How does a community archive and project of collective memory, rooted

in a specific identity, respond to a radically shifting socio-political

climate?

3. In what ways does the deployment of community produce boundaries of

inclusion and exclusion?

Drawing …

Online Learning With Bandits For Coverage, Mahmuda Rahman

Dissertations - ALL

With the rapid growth in velocity and volume, streaming data compels decision support systems to predict a small number of unique data points in due time that can represent a massive amount of correlated data without much loss of precision. In this work, we formulate this problem as the {\it online set coverage problem} and propose its solution for recommendation systems and the patrol assignment problem.

We propose a novel online reinforcement learning algorithm inspired by the Multi-Armed Bandit problem to solve the online recommendation system problem. We introduce a graph-based mechanism to improve the user coverage by recommended items …

Vitamin B12 Bioconjugates In Pharmaceutical Design, Jayme Leigh Workinger

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

This thesis addresses several questions focused on the vitamin B12 (B12) dietary uptake pathway, in particular that of the enteric B12 transport protein intrinsic factor (IF) and its receptor cubilin, and the expression and exploitation of IF/cubilin in pharmaceutical development.

Q1: (Chapter 2) Does an 89Zr-B12 conjugate allow for improved background/noise ratio, relative to 99mTc and 64Cu B12 conjugates, in in vivo tumor uptake?

Goal: Conduct positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and biodistribution studies in mice bearing MDA-MB-453 breast cancer tumors using a new 89Zr-B12 conjugate.

Q2: (Chapter 3) What is the uptake of systemically administered holo-intrinisic factor bound …

Semi-Open Space And Micro-Environmental Control For Improving Thermal Comfort, Indoor Air Quality, And Building Energy Efficiency, Meng Kong

Dissertations - ALL

Local air delivery, heating, and cooling combined with local space partition and confinement (called semi-open space or SOS) have the potential to provide micro-environment that is tailored to the individual preference of the occupants, and hence increase the percentage of satisfied occupancy from currently 80% to near 100%. This research investigates the use of a micro-environmental control system (µX) and semi-open space (SOS) to efficiently provide the desired thermal comfort and air quality conditions for individual occupants while the ambient air temperature set-points were relaxed for reducing the overall energy consumption of the building. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model …

“In Our Own Words”: The Phenomenological Exploration Into The African American Experience Of Relational Therapy With White Therapists, Melody Michele Brown

Dissertations - ALL

The consideration of one’s cultural context is a critical component of systemic therapy. Marriage and family therapy literature underscores this importance with a wealth of information on working with various diverse family systems. The literature has not adequately reflected the voices of the African American client. The purpose of this study was to understand the African American experience in relational therapy with White clinicians. Phenomenological methodology was employed via semi-structured interviews with eleven participants across the United States. The findings revealed three themes (lived experiences of African Americans, lack of culturally responsive clinical practice, and what works in therapy). The …

Associative Pattern Recognition For Biological Regulation Data, Yiou Xiao

Dissertations - ALL

In the last decade, bioinformatics data has been accumulated at an unprecedented rate, thanks to the advancement in sequencing technologies. Such rapid development poses both challenges and promising research topics. In this dissertation, we propose a series of associative pattern recognition algorithms in biological regulation studies. In particular, we emphasize efficiently recognizing associative patterns between genes, transcription factors, histone modifications and functional labels using heterogeneous data sources (numeric, sequences, time series data and textual labels).

In protein-DNA associative pattern recognition, we introduce an efficient algorithm for affinity test by searching for over-represented DNA sequences using a hash function and modulo …

Collaboration And Conflict In Transnationally-Dispersed Zimbabwean Families, William John Suk

Dissertations - ALL

Approximately one quarter of Zimbabwean adults left their country of birth during the past twenty years. These sojourners are increasingly dispersed as tightening immigration regimes in preferred destinations and fluctuating global opportunities lead them to places with fewer historical links to Zimbabwe. This dispersive process fractures many families between multiple international locations. Nevertheless, the idea of family remains centrally important to diasporans, who work with relatives around the world to care for children and elders, to acquire important documents like passports, and to prepare for an eventual return home. Following from performative and relational theorizations of kinship, this dissertation argues …

Limits Of Liberation: Youth And Politics In Brazil's Landless Rural Workers' Movement, Melinda Gurr

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis examines the forces that strengthen and weaken young people’s involvement in Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement, the MST, during the twilight of the PT years, 2012-2014. The MST responds to displacement, environmental devastation, and capital- intensive development by fighting for land reform and socialist transformation. Although the MST’s politics of redistribution have attracted significant attention from activists and academics worldwide, little ethnographic attention had yet been paid to the experiences and subjectivities of rural youth affiliated with the movement. By attending to structural conditions, dynamics of family, sexuality, and gender, and political socialization in three regions of Brazil, …

Generalization Programming And Performance Feedback: A Writing Intervention With Third-Grade Students, Rigby Dawn Malandrino

Dissertations - ALL

Despite the importance of explicitly programming generalization in the context of intervention studies (Stokes & Osnes, 1989), the research base is limited, especially with respect to academic interventions. Given that writing is a particular area of concern in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012), this is an important area to target. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the benefit of incorporating explicit generalization programming tactics into a performance feedback intervention that has received support for increasing students’ writing fluency (Hier & Eckert, 2014). Toward this aim, 52 third-grade students were randomly assigned to …

Debtors' Proposed Chapter 11 Plan

Catholic Dioceses in Bankruptcy

No abstract provided.

Are Fireworms Venomous? Evidence For The Convergent Evolution Of Toxin Homologs In Three Species Of Fireworms (Annelida, Amphinomidae), Aida Verdes, Danny Simpson, Mandë Holford

Publications and Research

Amphinomids, more commonly known as fireworms, are a basal lineage of marine annelids characterized by the presence of defensive dorsal calcareous chaetae, which break off upon contact. It has long been hypothesized that amphinomids are venomous and use the chaetae to inject a toxic substance. However, studies investigating fireworm venom from a morphological or molecular perspective are scarce and no venom gland has been identified to date, nor any toxin characterized at the molecular level. To investigate this question, we analyzed the transcriptomes of three species of fireworms— Eurythoe complanata, Hermodice carunculata, andParamphinome jeffreysii—following a venomics approach to identify putative …

The Core Of Professional Growth In Work-Related Teacher Education, Leena Aarto-Pesonen, Päivi Tynjälä

The Qualitative Report

This paper presents a Glaserian grounded theory study of adult students’ holistic professional growth in a two-year tailored, work-related, teacher qualification program in physical education. The data consisted of reflective learning diaries, interviews and the written texts of 20 adult students. The data analysis followed the stages of Glaserian grounded theory analysis with substantive and theoretical coding processes carried out using the constant comparative method. The article presents the emotional core and its properties (criticality, ethicality and empowerment) of physical education teacher students’ professional growth. In addition, the article introduces a substantive theory of a process of adult students’ multifaceted …

Prevalence And Possible Factors Associated With Anaemia, And Vitamin B 12 And Folate Deficiencies In Women Of Reproductive Age In Pakistan: Analysis Of National-Level Secondary Survey Data, Sajid Bashir Soofi, Gul Nawaz Khan, Kamran Sadiq, Shabina Ariff, Atif Habib, Sumra Kureishy, Imtiaz Hussain, Muhammad Umer, Zamir Suhag, Arjumand Rizvi, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Objective: To determine the prevalence and possible factors associated with anaemia, and vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies in women of reproductive age (WRA) in Pakistan.
Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on data collected through the large-scale National Nutrition Survey in Pakistan in 2011. Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin levels <12 g/dL, vitamin B12 deficiency as serum vitamin B12 levels of <203 pg/mL (150 pmol/L) and folate deficiency as serum folate levels <4 ng/mL (10 nmol/L).
Results: A total of 11751 blood samples were collected and analysed. The prevalence of anaemia, vitamin B12 deficiency and folate deficiency was 50.4%, 52.4% and 50.8%, respectively. After adjustment, the following factors were positively associated with anaemia: living in Sindh province (RR 1.07; 95%CI 1.04 to 1.09)P<0.00, food insecure with moderate hunger (RR 1.03; 95%CI 1.00 to 1.06)P=0.02, four or more pregnancies (RR 1.03; 95%CI 1.01 to 1.05)P<0.00, being underweight (RR 1.03; 95%CI 1.00 to 1.05)P=0.02, being overweight or obese (RR 0.95; 95%CI 0.93 to 0.97)P<0.00 and weekly intake of leafy green vegetables (RR 0.98; 95%CI 0.95 to 1.00)P=0.04. For vitamin B12 deficiency, a positive association was observed with rural population (RR 0.81; 95%CI 0.66 to 1.00)P=0.04, living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (RR 1.25; 95%CI 1.11 to 1.43)P<0.00 and living in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (RR 1.50; 95%CI 1.08 to 2.08)P=0.01. Folate deficiency was negatively associated with daily and weekly intake of eggs (RR 0.89; 95%CI 0.81 to 0.98)P=0.02 and (RR 0.88; 95%CI 0.78 to 0.99)P=0.03.
Conclusions: In Pakistan, …

Adhesion Characterization Of Portland Cement Concrete And Alkali-Activated Binders Under Different Types Of Calcium Promoters, Long Yuan Li

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

The Application And Usefulness Of Economic Analyses For Water Quality Management In Coastal Areas, Sheri L. Jewhurst, Kate K. Mulvaney, Marisa J. Mazzotta

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Economic studies are increasingly sought as tools to contribute to water quality management in estuaries and coastal communities, yet little is known about how the results from existing studies have been received and utilized by the organizations who solicited them. We interviewed managers from eight organizations who solicited economic studies over the past 15 years to understand how useful the studies were to their organizations and what economic research would be most helpful for their management needs. In terms of utility for coastal managers, there are a number of limitations in the studies. These include lack of site-specific data, the …

Welcome To The Inaugural Issue Of Collaborations: A Journal Of Community-Based Research And Practice, Scotney D. Evans

Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice

This is an introduction to the inaugural issue of Collaborations: A Journal of Community-based Research and Practice. Collaborations is a free, open access, online journal, sponsored by the University of Miami and Rutgers University. We’ve created this journal to be a home for sharing research, practice, and learning emanating from community-university collaborations.

Annotated List Of Ontario Lepidoptera, By J. C. E. Riotte. 1992. Royal Ontario Museum, Publications In Life Sciences, Miscellaneous Publication. Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Thronto, Ontario, Canada M5s 2c6. 208 Pp. Soft Cover, 15 X 22.5 Cm. Isbn 0-88854-397-2. $19.95 Canadian (About $16.00 U.S.), Eric H. Metzler

The Great Lakes Entomologist

(excerpt)

I was eager to review this publication. When I was a young person, first starting the pursuit of Lepidoptera, any literature that increased my knowledge was as valuable as the specimens I collected. Checklists were especially welcome. A primary purpose for the formation of The Ohio Lepidopterists society was to record the occurrence of Lepidoptera in Ohio. My ardent commitment to document Ohio's fauna over the past 20 years gives me insight into the work necessary to create and produce a publication of this type.

Notes On The Life Histories Of Chlosyne (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) And Agrypon (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), Andrew H. Williams

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Ambrosia trifida is reported for the first time as a larval food plant of Chlosyne nycteis. Chlosyne nycteis and C. harrisii are reported as hosts of Agrypon prismaticum and A. alpinum, respectively; the first report of wasps in Agrypon parasitizing species in Nymphalidae.

New Food Plants And First Wisconsin Records Of Publilia Modesta Var. Brunnea (Hemiptera: Membracidae), Andrew H. Williams

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Publilia modesta var. brunnea was found feeding on 14 species of Aster­aceae at three sites in three Wisconsin counties in 1994-1996. This is the first report of P. modesta using these plants and of its occurrence in Wisconsin, an eastward extension of its reported distribution.

First Report Of The Alfalfa Blotch Leafminer (Diptera: Agromyzidae), And Selected Parasites (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) In Minnesota And Wisconsin, Usa, W. D. Hutchison, P. K. O'Rourke, D. W. Bartels, E. C. Burkness, J. C. Luhman, J. Heard

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Alfalfa blotch leafminer, Agromyza frontella, has been a serious pest of alfalfa, Medicago sativa, in the northeastern U.S. and in eastern Ontario, Canada. Until recently, the western edge of the A. frontella distribution in the U.S. was limited to eastern Ohio. We document for the first time, the occurrence of A. frontella in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Alfalfa stems damaged by A. frontella, based on adult feeding punctures, obvious blotched leafmining or the presence of larvae, were first found in 3 northern Minnesota coun­ties during October, 1994. Infested counties included Lake of the Woods, Cook and Lake, all …

Unusual Sex Allocation In A Solitary Parasitoid Wasp, Sphaeropthalma Pensylvanica (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), Robert W. Matthews

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Sphaeropthalma pensyluanica reared from cocoons of the organ pipe mud dauber, Trypoxylon politum from Georgia over several years yielded only adult males. Possible explanations for this sex-biased emergence from this host are (1) obligatory heteronomous heterotrophy, in which the two sexes develop on entirely different hosts; (2) differential mortality in the immature stage, with female larvae dying during development; and (3) facultative size- dependent sex allocation, with female eggs laid only on hosts smaller than T. politum.

Sex-Related Color Patterns In Elytral Vittae Of Diabrotica Virgifera Virgifera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Louis S. Hesler, Leslie Hammack

The Great Lakes Entomologist

We evaluated the color patterns of elytral vittae by sex in adults of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera leConte. Our study examined >1000 beetles taken from a field population, a laboratory colony, and a reference collection containing 712 specimens from 15 of the United States and from the province of Ontario, Canada. The humeral and sutural vittae of each beetle's elytra were classified as being separate, partially confluent, or totally confluent with each other. The distribution of these elytral patterns was not independent of sex. Males tended to have confluent or partially confluent vittae, whereas females largely had separate vittae. Nonetheless, all …

Chemiluminescent Tags For Tracking Insect Movement In Darkness: Application To Moth Photo-Orientation, Joseph L. Spencer, Lawrence J. Gewax, James E. Keller, James R. Miller

The Great Lakes Entomologist

The flight tracks of Manduca sexta (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) flying toward a 5 watt incandescent light bulb were recorded under low light conditions with the aid of a camera-mounted photomultiplier and a glowing marker technique. Small felt pads bearing a chemiluminescent (glowi ma­erial, Cyalume®, were affixed to the abdomens of free-flying moths. insects orienting to a dim incandescent bulb were easily visible to the naked eye and were clearly captured on videotape. On their initial approach to the light source, M. sexta were found to orient at a mean angle of -0.220 ± 2.70 (mean ± SEM). The speed of the …

Tomicus Piniperda (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) Reproduction And Behavior On Scotch Pine Christmas Trees Taken Indoors, Robert A. Haack, Robert K. Lawrence

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Tomicus piniperda, the pine shoot beetle, is an exotic insect that was first found in North America in 1992. A federal quarantine currently restricts movement of pine products, including Christmas trees, from infested to uninfested counties. We conducted a study to determine if T. piniperda would re- produce in Christmas trees that were cut and taken indoors during the Christmas season. Twelve Scotch pine, Pinus sylvestris, Christmas trees infested with overwintering T. piniperda beetles were cut in Indiana in early December 1993 and taken to Michigan. Four trees were dissected immediately, while the other 8 trees were taken …

Habitat Associations Of Sympatric Violet-Feeding Fritillaries (Euptoieta, Speyeria, Boloria) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) In Tallgrass Prairie, Ann B. Swengel

The Great Lakes Entomologist

At 106 tallgrass prairies in the midwestern USA, 18,055 individuals of six fritillary species (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) were counted in 552.9 hr and 987.1 kill of transect survey effort from 14 June to 13 September during 1988-96. The relative abundance of Euptoieta claudia, Speyena cybele, S. aphrodite, S. idalia, Boloria selene, and B. bellona was analyzed for significant patterns relative to five habitat factors. Topographic diversity (i.e., whether the site was uniform or contained both uplands and lowlands) produced the most significant effects. Prairie patch size and vegetation type (wet, mesic, dry) also produced numerous significant patterns. When management type was …

Online Meeting Assistance, Nishant Redkar, Sures Kumar Thoddu Srinivasan, Anubha Verma, Chhavi P. Gupta, Arijit De, Chanchal Agarwal

Defensive Publications Series

Online meetings sometimes offer a poor user experience to participants. Participants benefit from being able to access prior portions of an ongoing meeting, e.g., that they missed due to connectivity problems or because of interruptions. This disclosure describes a meeting helper that, with user permission, records and transcribes meeting content. The content is made available during and after the meeting. The meeting helper eliminates the need for participants to take notes during a meeting and offers improved user experience.

Adjustment Of Screen Brightness In Low-Power State, Julius D'Souza

Defensive Publications Series

Consumer electronic devices generally switch their screens to a low-power or off state when the device is not in active use. During periods of inactivity, the application processor of the device is in a sleep state. For always-on devices, the application processor periodically wakes up to update screen content, e.g., displayed time. However, such wake-up does not include any adjustments of screen brightness, and the screen may be difficult to read during inactive periods despite such periodic updates. This disclosure describes techniques to update screen brightness, and hence maintain screen readability, when the screen is in a low-power state. The …

Clearwing Moths Captured By Ultraviolet Light Traps In Southern Ohio (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), Foster Forbes Purrington, David J. Horn

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Trapping with ultraviolet light in mixed-oak forests of Lawrence and Vinton Counties, Ohio in 1995 and 1996 yielded 46 Synanthedon acerni and four Synanthedon arkansasensis, a clearwing moth record new for the state.

Resistance Of Scotch Pine Varieties To Zimmerman Pine Moth (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) And Its Impact On Sales In A Choose And Cut Christmas Tree Plantation, Clifford S. Sadof

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Nine varieties of Scotch pine, Pinus sylvestris, were assessed for their susceptibility to Zimmerman pine moth, Dioryctria zimmermani, in a choose and cut Christmas tree plantation. Trees were examined for wounds to estimate their susceptibility to this pest 7 years after planting in the field. Numbers of trees remaining after seasonal sales in years 7 and 8 were used to estimate marketability of each variety. Infestation rates varied significantly among varieties (11-75%). After sales, proportions of trees remaining also varied significantly among varieties (7-52%). Although Belgian trees were the most moth resistant, they were the least purchased by the …