Digital Commons Network^™

Synthesis Of Cyclic And Linear Poly(Hydroxybutyrates) By Ring-Opening Polymerization Of Β-Butyrolactone With Amido-Oxazolinate Zinc Catalysts, Muneer Shaik

Theses and Dissertations

A series of amido-oxazolinate zinc complexes have been employed for the ring opening polymerization of β-butyrolactone (BBL). Experimental results show that these complexes efficiently catalyze the reactions, yielding cyclic poly(hydroxybutyrate)s (PHBs) with high molecular weights (Mn up to 196 kg/mol) and low dispersity. In contrast, in the presence of alcohol co-catalysts, the zinc-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization (ROP) reactions lead to the formation of linear PHBs end-capped by the alcohol initiator and hydroxylbutyrate. A possible mechanism for cyclic PHBs is proposed, in which the zinc catalysts function as a loose Lewis pair at elevated temperature, followed by a fast propagation through a …

Effect Of Cisplatin On Metallothionein Expression In Urotsa Cells Malignantly Transformed With Arsenite Or Cadmium, Brooke Alexandra Freeberg

Theses and Dissertations

Heavy metals Arsenite (As3+) and Cadmium (Cd2+) are known human carcinogens and exposure to them occurs through cigarette smoking, industrialization, and contaminated water sources. Epidemiological studies have shown that prolonged exposure to these heavy metals are associated with several health issues, including bladder cancer. With survival rates directly correlated to detection age and tumor stage, the demand for early detection would effectively cut costs and improve the patient prognosis of human bladder cancer.

Metallothioneins (MT) play an essential role in metal regulation, heavy metal detoxification, and cellular redox chemistry in cellular biological systems and tissues. Previous studies in literature have …

Other Duties As Assigned: Competencies Required Of Chief Financial Officers In Minnesota State Colleges And Universities, Shannon Martineau Jesme

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the perspectives of chief financial officers of public higher education institutions in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU) System regarding the professional competencies required of them, whether competencies have changed over time, and how competencies are acquired to successfully fulfill the demands of their position. Beyond the essential characteristics required for a CFO (chief financial officer) to perform the business side of their positions effectively, there are leadership competencies that are also required. Using a qualitative approach, this study explores the perceptions of CFOs regarding the knowledge and skills required of …

Small-Scale Characterization Of Additive Manufactured Ti-6al-4v Alloy Through Instrumented Indentation, Muztahid Muhammad

Theses and Dissertations

Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been favored by the transportation applications in the automotive and aerospace industries due to its good combination of excellent physical and mechanical properties. Ti alloys are naturally suited to additive manufacturing (AM) method, a layer wise manufacturing technique, since conventional manufacturing method of Ti alloys are quiet challenging. However, cooling rate and thermal processing history of AM Ti-6Al-4V alloy are quite different in comparison to conventionally fabricated Ti-6Al-4V alloy which leads to undesirable microstructures in the AM Ti-6Al-4V alloy with respect to large columnar prior β grains being found to grow potentially across the entire height from …

Differential Gene Expression Of Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer Marker Genes In A Model Of Arsenite And Cadmium Induced Bladder Cancer, Danyelle Beth Osowski

Theses and Dissertations

Urinary carcinoma is one of the most prevalent cancers across the United States and is among the leading cause of cancer related morbidities. With muscle-invasive urinary carcinoma having only 15% survival at stage T4, diagnostic tools of this type of cancer is necessary. This work sought to characterize a model of urothelial carcinoma into a specific muscle-invasive bladder cancer subtype, which has important implications in for prognosis, development of targeted therapeutic agents, and disease management. Our laboratory has developed an immortalized uroepithelial cell line, UROtsa, which can be malignantly transformed by arsenite (As+3) and Cd2+ and has been shown to …

Using Thermal Imaging To Characterize Groundwater Seepage In A North Dakota Fen, Ogochukwu Ozotta

Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater flow and its dissolved mineral transport plays a fundamental role in the ecology of many wetlands. Installation of equipment to map groundwater seepage, however, is invasive and may damage vegetation and potentially affect biodiversity. By mapping surface temperature remotely in the late summer, when the differential between warm soil and cold groundwater is the greatest, the temperature patterns may reveal areas of greatest upward gradient and flow.

To test the hypothesis, the effect that hydraulic gradient has on surface temperature in a fen located at the north end of the Cherry Lake Aquifer, Eddy County, ND (47.73, -98.66) was …

Northern Great Plains Blizzards In Past And Future Climates, Alexander Trellinger

Theses and Dissertations

Areas that reside in the high-latitudes such as the northern United States can experience hazardous conditions during the winter months due to snowstorms. When strong winds exist with falling or freshly fallen snow, blizzard conditions are able create significant personal, societal, and economic impacts for the Northern Great Plains. While the climatology for these extreme snowstorms is known, the frequency and intensity of how these events may change in a warming climate is not certain. In order to determine how extreme snowstorms may change in the future climate, climate models can be used but the horizontal and vertical grid spacing …

Digital Rock Reconstruction And Property Calculation Of Fractured Shale Rock Samples, Hongsheng Wang

Theses and Dissertations

As the preferential flow channels in the shale reservoir, the fracture systems including the natural micro-cracks and hydraulic fractures have received great attention from the whole energy industry worldwide. However, it is challenging to quantify the fracture systems in the shale rocks precisely because most of well-developed “histogram-based” image processing techniques cannot handle the case of small target segmentation. Because the fracture apertures are very thin, the over-segmentation or insufficient segmentation would lead to significant error in the quantification, including the fracture porosity, aperture, length, tortuosity etc., which would lead to serious mistakes to the property calculation.

In this research, …

Public Authority Liability And The Regulation Of Nanotechnology: A European Perspective, Nina Natalia Baranowska

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper argues that in certain circumstances public authorities should be liable for regulating nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is an emerging field of technology that enables to control shape and size of various structures, devices and systems at nanometer scale on which one nanometer is equal to one-billionth of a meter. In spite of being a nascent field of science and technology, its scope of application – in the food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, construction, textile, electronics, and agricultural industries – is expanding rapidly. The risks associated to nanotechnology, however, and its long-term consequences are still largely unknown, particularly in regards to its health …

The Aleph Bet: Debating Metaphors For Information, Data Handling And The Right To Be Forgotten, Chris Prince, Micheal Vonn, Lex Gill

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Court rulings in the European Union (EU) have now established that individuals may seek erasure of personal information posted online. Typically, this involves de-indexing a website from search results, and in some instances the removal of content from primary sources sites. This has, in turn, led to debate around both the logistics and the unintended consequences of removing information online, and subsequent discussions have grappled with a range of images and metaphors to map that new legal reality. This essay surveys that debate, the imagery it employs, and the various logics associated with these metaphors.

Battered Women Who Kill: Stereotype Influence Through The Media, Sonja Bauman

Theses and Dissertations

Research has suggested that stereotypes have significant influence over how individuals view women who experience domestic violence (Ayyildiz, 1995; Browne, 1989, 1993; Callahan, 1994; Goodmark, 2008; Jenkins & Davidson, 1990; Mahoney, 1991; Russell & Melillo, 2006; Schneider, 1986; Terrance & Matheson, 2003; Wimberly, 2007). It has also been suggested that battered woman syndrome may not be a complete or appropriate explanation of the emotions and experiences of battered women (Ayyildiz, 2007; Callahan, 1994; Schneider, 1986; Wimberly, 2007). The current study examined the influence of stereotype fit and battered woman syndrome nomenclature on public perceptions of a battered woman who killed …

Investigation Of Multi-Criteria Clustering Techniques For Smart Grid Datasets, Mitch J. Campion

Theses and Dissertations

The processing of data arising from connected smart grid technology is an important area of research for the next generation power system. The volume of data allows for increased awareness and efficiency of operation but poses challenges for analyzing the data and turning it into meaningful information. This thesis showcases the utility of clustering algorithms applied to three separate smart-grid data sets and analyzes their ability to improve awareness and operational efficiency.

Hierarchical clustering for anomaly detection in phasor measurement unit (PMU) datasets is identified as an appropriate method for fault and anomaly detection. It showed an increase in anomaly …

Dieter's Deficit: Preoccupation And Working Memory, Kelly Cuccolo

Theses and Dissertations

Preoccupying thoughts can cause disruptions of ones’ attentional system and may arise as the result of a clinical disorder, societal pressures, or individual predispositions. Goal acquisition requires one to be preoccupied with one’s behaviors in order for success to be achieved, for example dieters must monitor their weight and caloric intake. As dieting is a widespread phenomenon in American culture it is important to understand the cognitive effect of preoccupation. This study examines the relationship between obsessional thoughts about food, weight, and shape, and cognitive task performance. The performance of Dieters and Non-Dieters on a battery of specific working memory …

The Effects Of Priming On Trypophobia Prevalence, Rachel Collette Bock

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Examining Nodapl Through The Lens Of Social Movement And Participation Theories, Zeinab El-Rewini

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Free Expression On Campus: Mitigating The Costs Of Contentious Speakers, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

“If you’re afraid to offend, you can’t be honest.”

“If you offend me, I can’t hear what you’re trying to tell me.”

—overheard on campus

The debate over how colleges and universities should respond to contentious guest speakers on campus is not a new one. A quick look back to the early 1990s, among other times, shows commentators squaring off much as they do today about the tensions between protecting free expression and ensuring meaningful equality.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the issues that contested speakers address are also much the same as they have been for several decades – government action …

Sociocultural Interactions Of Cuban Doctors Participating In The More Doctors Program In Brazil, Joaquin Molina, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira, Leonardo Cavalcanti

Gastón Institute Publications

This book focuses on a different and underexplored attribute of the More Doctors Program by surveying doctors in the feld with the purpose of identifying important answers regarding the sociocultural interactions of Cuban doctors recruited by the program and of producing knowledge, while also making improvements in the participation, still limited, of foreign doctors in the primary care services offered by SUS. It proposes to induce perceptions, memories, and possible explanations to anyone who is somehow associated with the Program’s development, especially those committed to universal health care and primary assistance as the only paths to an effective health system. …

Using Multiliteracies To Engage And Empower Students With Complex Support Needs, Sudha Vaghul Krishnan

Doctoral Dissertations

Using Multiliteracies to Engage and Empower Students with Complex Support Needs This dissertation is comprised of two studies:

• Creating New Learning Spaces Using Multiliteracies with Students with Complex Support Needs

• Transforming Narrative Identity through Multiliteracies

Students with complex support needs (SCSN) are frequently denied access to meaningful and challenging literacy instruction. These studies explore how student- authored narratives in the individualized education plan (IEP), implemented during a multiliteracies curriculum, can simultaneously engage and empower SCSN. These studies are based on the qualitative research that I conducted from November 15, 2018 to February 11, 2018 at a special day …

Timing Of Market Entry For New Products: An Exploratory Case Study Of The Success Factors For Pioneering And Following, Eunsang Yoon, Hyeonjin Rim

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Launching a new product at the optimal time is imperative for the successful entry and penetration in the competitive market. Expectations of customers, responses of competitors, challenges of emerging start-ups, shortening of product life cycles, and global alliance of corporations are some of the evolving factors that are relevant to the timing decisions for a new product. This paper re-examines the timing-related strategic issues, reports an exploratory case study of the ninety-two pioneering or following market entries, and discusses the managerial implications for a firm’s market-entry decisions for a new product or service.

“Field” Research: Letting Corporate Communication Professionals’ Stories Inform Curriculum Development, Mary Stairs Vaughn, Jimmy Davis, Jeremy Fyke, Nathan Webb

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

We interviewed 25 corporate communication professionals to learn the competencies they see as necessary for entering and succeeding in their field. We then used what we learned to inform course-level and program-level changes to our corporate communication major. Our results detail: (1) the range of tactical, strategic, and dispositional competencies the interviewees identified as necessary for a career in corporate communication, (2) three categories of strategies for transitioning into the field, and (3) the subsequent curricular and course-level changes that resulted from our interviews. Our study concludes that students need broad training for a wide-ranging and rapidly-changing field, and they …

Lobbying As A Means For Expanding The Communication Instructional Base: A Second Look, Craig Newburger

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Members of our discipline should agree that communication scholars and instructors be the principal designers of the learning goals, subsequent activities and corresponding assessment of communication instruction on college campuses. There is ongoing broad interdisciplinary support that communication instruction be an essential learning outcome of general undergraduate education.

Complete Issue, Volume 37, Issue 2

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 37, Issue 2 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

The Readjustment Experiences Of Single Women Returning From Combat In Iraq And Afghanistan, Joanie Rainey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

On January 24, 2013, the Secretary of Defense rescinded the 1994-ground combat exclusion policy to integrate women into all occupations previously closed to them, particularly special operations, infantry, and armored divisions. This change in policy required military policy makers to establish gender-neutral standards for physically demanding jobs to meet the military's needs. Extensive research exists on the readjustment experiences of male veterans and families adapting to new lives after a service member returns from combat, yet the experiences of single women returning from combat remain empirically unexplored. The purpose of this study was to fill the gap in this area …

Sustainability Strategies For Immigrant Small Business Owners, Hope Obika Waobikeze

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2017, the Texas economy grew faster than the U.S. economy; however, the rate of failed immigrant-owned small businesses is an economic problem for the southwestern United States. The objective of this multiple case study was to explore strategies immigrant small business owners practiced in sustaining their businesses for longer than 5 years. The population of the study was 3 immigrant small business owners in the southwestern United States. The conceptual framework for this study was transformational leadership theory. Thematic analysis of interviews, member checking, participant observations, and field notes identified 5 emergent themes: acquired leadership skills (with transformational leadership …

The Creation Of Three Logical Connectors To Reapprove How Comprehensive And Effective The Neutrosophic Logic Is Compared To The Fuzzy Logic And The Classical Logic, Salah Bouzina, Djamel Hamoud

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Neutrosophic Sets And Systems

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

The Basic Notions For (Over, Off, Under) Neutrosophic Geometric Programming Problems, Huda E. Khalid, Florentin Smarandache, Ahmed K. Essa

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

A New Neutrosophic Cognitive Map With Neutrosophic Sets On Connections: Application In Project Management, Salah Hasan Saleh Al-Subhi, Iliana Perez Pupo, Roberto Garcia Vacacela, Pedro Y. Pinero Perez

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

A National Certification Programme For Academic Degrees In Cyber Security, S Furnell, M K, F Piper, C E, C H, C Ensor

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Association Integrated Report 2018; Go Beyond; Aicpa Annual Report, 2018, Association Of International Professional Accountants

AICPA Annual Reports

No abstract provided.