Digital Commons Network^™

Oxford Nanopore Technology: A Promising Long-Read Sequencing Platform To Study Exon Connectivity And Characterize Isoforms Of Complex Genes, Gopinath Rajadinakaran

Doctoral Dissertations

The central dogma states that the genetic information contained in DNA flows to RNA through the process of transcription which, in turn, can result in protein synthesis through translation. Alternative splicing is a mechanism by which multiple mRNA isoforms are generated from a single gene. Ultracomplex genes, characterized by their ability to encode hundreds to thousands of isoforms, arise from a combination of multiple splicing events. Our understanding of alternative splicing improved vastly in the past decade due to the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. The NGS technologies are powerful and have enabled scientists to measure the expression of …

Thermal Physiology And Developmental Plasticity Of Pigmentation In The Harlequin Bug (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), Carly D. Sibilia, Kelly A. Brosko, Christopher J. Hickling, Lily M. Thompson, Kristine L. Grayson, Jennifer R. Olson

Biology Faculty Publications

Traits that promote the maintenance of body temperatures within an optimal range provide advantages to ectothermic species. Pigmentation plasticity is found in many insects and enhances thermoregulatory potential as increased melanization can result in greater heat retention. The thermal melanism hypothesis predicts that species with developmental plasticity will have darker pigmentation in colder environments, which can be an important adaptation for temperate species experiencing seasonal variation in climate. The harlequin bug (Murgantia histrionica, Hemiptera: Pentatomidae, Hahn 1834) is a widespread invasive crop pest with variable patterning where developmental plasticity in melanization could affect performance. To investigate the impact of temperature …

Growing Aesthetics Into The Biowall, Jacob Torres, Wiliam Hutzel, Anthony Hyde, Jose Garcia

International High Performance Buildings Conference

Aesthetic Considerations for Biowall Design & Operation A Biowall is a plant-based filter used to improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in a residence. This area of research leverages NASA’s 30 years of experience on plant filtration capabilities. A result of that research is NASA’s Top 10 Air Filtering Plant list. These plants are identified for their ability to remove carbon based and Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) contaminants from the air; non-toxicity to human plant owners; ease of growth; and expected lifespan. In addition to improving IAQ, a Biowall has a unique and important role in the aesthetics of the space …

The Effectiveness Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication Application Implementation In Improving Student With Autism Verbal Communication, Nurul Aina Nazri, Aliza Alias

Journal of ICSAR

Augmentative and Alternative Communication is widely used in the educational context as a learning aid for improving verbal communication among students. The aims of this research are to study the effectiveness of Augmentative and Alternative Communication implementation in improving students with autism verbal communication. This research was conducted at one of the primary school in Machang, Kelantan. 2 students with autism participate in this study as a respondent and divided into treatment group and controlled group. Pre and post-tests were conducted to collect and analyze data. Finding in this research shows there was a significant difference between the pre and …

The Effect Of Mingle Model To Improve Reading Skills For Students With Dyslexia In Primary School, Irdamurni Irdamurni, Kasiyati Kasiyati, Zulmiyetri Zulmiyetri, Johandri Taufan

Journal of ICSAR

Dyslexia is a cognitive process failure in acquiring information when reading. Children normally have been able to read at the age of 6 or 7 while children with dyslexia might still struggle with reading even when they reach 12. This research was conducted by mingle model in order to improve reading skills for dyslexic students in primary grades. The subjects selected were 23 students with dyslexia in primary grades. The research used purposive sampling and the data collected by conducting the reading test to the students. Descriptive analysis was performed as the method and intervention technique employed was mingle model. …

Table Of Contents

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Mingle Model To Improve Reading Skills For Students With Dyslexia In Primary School, Irdamurni Irdamurni, Kasiyati Kasiyati, Zulmiyetri Zulmiyetri, Johandri Taufan

Journal of ICSAR

Dyslexia is a cognitive process failure in acquiring information when reading. Children normally have been able to read at the age of 6 or 7 while children with dyslexia might still struggle with reading even when they reach 12. This research was conducted by mingle model in order to improve reading skills for dyslexic students in primary grades. The subjects selected were 23 students with dyslexia in primary grades. The research used purposive sampling and the data collected by conducting the reading test to the students. Descriptive analysis was performed as the method and intervention technique employed was mingle model. …

The Effectiveness Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication Application Implementation In Improving Student With Autism Verbal Communication, Nurul Aina Nazri, Aliza Alias

Journal of ICSAR

Augmentative and Alternative Communication is widely used in the educational context as a learning aid for improving verbal communication among students. The aims of this research are to study the effectiveness of Augmentative and Alternative Communication implementation in improving students with autism verbal communication. This research was conducted at one of the primary school in Machang, Kelantan. 2 students with autism participate in this study as a respondent and divided into treatment group and controlled group. Pre and post-tests were conducted to collect and analyze data. Finding in this research shows there was a significant difference between the pre and …

Measurement Of Methylamines In Seawater Using Solid Phase Microextraction And Gas Chromatography, Mark F. Fitzsimons, Charlotte H.L. Cree, Ruth Airs, Stephen D. Archer

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The methylamines form part of the marine organic nitrogen pool. Although they are ubiquitous in marine systems, little is known about their distribution, production and fate in the marine environment. Analytical methods have been developed for their analysis in marine waters, but these have employed custom-made apparatus, limiting data to a few studies. Here, we report a method developed for the determination of methylamines in seawater which combines headspace solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) and gas chromatography with selective nitrogen detection. Gaseous methylamines were pre-concentrated from water samples (approximately 1 L) at elevated temperature, onto a polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene SPME fibre. The analytes …

Experimentally Increased Incubation Temperature Affects Posthatching Development, Offspring Begging And Parental Care, And Nestling Survival In Three Species Of Wild Bird, Alexander J. Mueller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

It is now widely accepted that recent climatic changes have had a causal effect on changing avian life histories. However, evidence for this is largely observational, whereas cause-and-effect inference requires an experimental approach. Here, we assess effects of experimentally increased temperature during incubation on posthatching development in three species of wild songbird, the Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis), Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), and prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea). Increased incubation temperatures (i) reduced the duration of the incubation and nestling periods, (ii) reduced posthatching begging for food by nestlings, and (iii) reduced posthatching survival in Carolina chickadees and prothonotary warblers, while nestling …

First Description Of A Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus) Actively Depredating An Adult Sandhill Crane (Antigone Canadensis), Andrew J. Caven, Joshua D. Wiese, William R. Wallauer, Kristin J. Mosher

Western North American Naturalist

From late February to early April the Central Platte River Valley in Nebraska is home to the largest gathering of Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) in the world and increasingly serves as a foraging ground for migrating Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). On 7 March 2017, we documented a subadult Bald Eagle depredating an adult Sandhill Crane. Though evidence suggests that Bald Eagles depredate Sandhill Cranes on rare occasion, the process of that depredation has not been described in the scientific literature. The Sandhill Crane effectively defended itself several times against hovering attacks from the Bald Eagle by …

Synchronization In An Externally Driven Mechanical Oscillators Experiment, Sumit Chhabria

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Our experimental system studies the effects of externally controlled oscillation on directly and indirectly driven system of metronomes. This is analogous to many practical systems such as pacemaker effect on heart cells, the external light effect on the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the brain. Here the pacemaker can be compared to an external driving force to the system where the heart cells are our oscillating system. Also, in the suprachiasmatic nucleus cell system, the external input is external light which synchronizes the cell. We explore the synchronization of directly and indirectly driven metronomes due to externally provided forcing.

We designed an …

American Indian Student Motivation At A Tribal College, Rebecca L. Izzo

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between motivational characteristics of American Indian college students attending a tribal college. The Inventory of School Motivation (ISM) was utilized to identify motivational constructs. The literature in general continues to portray American Indian students as the lowest academically achieving subgroup as well as having a lack of persistence and high dropout rate in higher education. This study identified areas that support motivation to attend college, which then can be shared with the tribal college to develop programs and innovations to recruit and sustain American Indian students in education, as well as …

Bioengineering Of An In Vitro Microphysiological Human Alveolar Model, Ayesha Arefin

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Drugs tested on animal models do not always produce the same results in humans; a reliable in vitro lung model can bridge the divide between the two. Because the alveolus is a target for several drugs, an alveolar model can be a platform for both designing drugs and studying lung diseases. A model should allow for gas exchange, growth of primary alveolar epithelial cells, extracellular matrix production, and have similar mechanical properties to alveoli, creating an environment conducive to normal metabolic activity and cellular responses. Existing artificial alveolar models that use polymeric membranes to sustain lung cells are limited by …

Was The Professional Development I Conducted In South Africa Evident In Teachers’ Practices Many Years Later?, Darlene Demarie

Journal of Practitioner Research

I conducted professional development by working alongside the teachers I hired at a child development center in South Africa. I spent one year and 9 months there while I was a Fulbright CORE Scholar from 2007 to 2009. After 8 years with only two short visits back, the digital tools (photographs and videos) I used and reviewed with teachers at the time of the professional development also helped me to assess the impact of that professional development. I saw how it influenced the teachers' practice and noted what was similar and what had changed over the years.

Modification And Assessment Of A Residential Summer Program For High School Women, Aimee Cloutier, Guo Zheng Yew, Siddhartha Gupta, Kalpani Dissanayake, Paula Monaco, Susan Mengel, Audra Morse

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The importance of reducing the gender gap in engineering programs by recruiting and retaining female students is well recognized. Although women hold roughly half of all jobs in the United States, only 24% of STEM jobs are occupied by women. The problem is even more pronounced for engineering, where women held about 12% of jobs as of 2013 (Corbett & Hill, 2015). Consequently, interactive, hands-on outreach programs are a common tool used by universities to encourage interest in engineering from K–12 students. Engineering—Get Into Real Learning (E-GIRL) is a week-long, residential summer program offered by Texas Tech University for female …

The Role Of The Serotonin Transporter (Sert) In Peripheral Serotonin Dynamics In The Gulf Toadfish, Opsanus Beta, Molly Hope Broome Amador

Open Access Dissertations

Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is a powerful neurochemical with diverse physiological effects in vertebrates. In mammals, peripheral 5-HT is tightly regulated by uptake through the 5-HT transporter (SERT) into a circulating platelet storage pool. Teleost fish possess SERT but do not appear to have a similar circulating 5-HT storage pool; thus, this dissertation sought to elucidate alternate mechanisms of 5-HT control in the periphery of a model teleost, the Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta). Toadfish SERT was first sequenced and characterized, revealing high conservation with other teleost SERTs, a ubiquitous distribution of transcript—with particularly high levels of transcript in the heart—and …

Combatting Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: An Evaluation Of The My Life, My Choice Program In Kentucky, Chelsea M. Dyer

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Chelsea M. Dyer on July 11, 2018.

Hearing To Examine Warrantless Smartphone Searches At The Border: Hearing Before The Subcomm. On Fed. Spending Oversight & Emergency Mgmt. Of The S. Comm. On Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 115th Cong., July 11, 2018 (Statement Of Laura K. Donohue), Laura K. Donohue

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Psychological Factors And The Relation Between Neighborhood Conditions And Latino Health: A Mixed Methods Study, Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa

Psychology ETDs

Latinos, the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the US, face multiple health inequities including higher rates morbidity and mortality. Despite the importance of context and the wide range of stressors faced by this population, the majority of the literature on Latino and immigrant health concentrates on issues related to cultural adaptation processes. Using a socialdeterminants of health framework, the present convergent mixed methods study investigated the relation between neighborhood conditions and Latino health with a psychological lens. A total of 361 Latino residents of Bernalillo County, the largest county in Albuquerque, New Mexico, were recruited to complete a series of …

Novel Metrics For Quantifying Bacterial Genome Composition Skews., Lena M Joesch-Cohen, Max Robinson, Neda Jabbari, Christopher G Lausted, Gustavo Glusman

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

BACKGROUND: Bacterial genomes have characteristic compositional skews, which are differences in nucleotide frequency between the leading and lagging DNA strands across a segment of a genome. It is thought that these strand asymmetries arise as a result of mutational biases and selective constraints, particularly for energy efficiency. Analysis of compositional skews in a diverse set of bacteria provides a comparative context in which mutational and selective environmental constraints can be studied. These analyses typically require finished and well-annotated genomic sequences.

RESULTS: We present three novel metrics for examining genome composition skews; all three metrics can be computed for unfinished or …

Perspectives In Immunotherapy: Meeting Report From The Immunotherapy Bridge (29-30 November, 2017, Naples, Italy)., Paolo A Ascierto, James Brugarolas, Luigi Buonaguro, Lisa H Butterfield, David Carbone, Bruno Daniele, Robert Ferris, Bernard A Fox, Jérôme Galon, Cesare Gridelli, Howard L Kaufman, Christopher A Klebanoff, Ignacio Melero, Paul Nathan, Chrystal M Paulos, Marco Ruella, Ryan Sullivan, Hassane Zarour, Igor Puzanov

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Immunotherapy represents the third important wave in the history of the systemic treatment of cancer after chemotherapy and targeted therapy and is now established as a potent and effective treatment option across several cancer types. The clinical success of anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen (CTLA)-4, first, and anti-programmed death (PD)-1/PD-ligand (L)1 agents in melanoma and other cancers a few years later, has encouraged increasing focus on the development of other immunotherapies (e.g. monoclonal antibodies with other immune targets, adoptive cell transfer, and vaccines), with over 3000 immuno-oncology trials ongoing, involving hundreds of research institutes across the globe. The potential use of these …

High-Ability Students With Emotional Behavioral Disorders: An Exploration Of Intelligence As A Protective Factor, Karen L. Cross Phd

Doctoral Dissertations

Given the increased numbers of students being served by disability services offices at the postsecondary level, a better understanding of how intelligence functions as a protective or risk factor is essential to inform services for adolescents in secondary education. Therefore, this study examined whether intelligence functions as a protective factor against the negative effects of adverse childhood experiences and their role in the onset of Emotional Behavioral Disorders (EBDs). Consequently, school service provision was also examined, as it has the potential to serve as a protective factor against long-term disorder prevalence. Finally, the personality characteristic openness was evaluated to determine …

Geographic Variation In Larval Metabolic Rate Between Northern And Southern Populations Of The Invasive Gypsy Moth, Carolyn May, Noah Hillerbrand, Lily M. Thompson, Trevor M. Faske, Eloy Martinez, Dylan Perry, Salvatore J. Agosta, Kristine L. Grayson

Biology Faculty Publications

Thermal regimes can diverge considerably across the geographic range of a species, and accordingly, populations can vary in their response to changing environmental conditions. Both local adaptation and acclimatization are important mechanisms for ectotherms to maintain homeostasis as environments become thermally stressful, which organisms often experience at their geographic range limits. The spatial spread of the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) after introduction to North America provides an exemplary system for studying population variation in physiological traits given the gradient of climates encompassed by its current invasive range. This study quantifies differences in resting metabolic rate (RMR) across …

Volume 55, Number 46: July 11, 2018, University Of North Dakota

University Letter Archive

No abstract provided.

Empoword: A Student-Centered Anthology & Handbook For College Writers, Shane Abrams

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

EmpoWord is a reader and rhetoric that champions the possibilities of student writing. The textbook uses actual student writing to exemplify effective writing strategies, celebrating dedicated college writing students to encourage and instruct their successors: the students in your class.

Through both creative and traditional activities, readers are encouraged to explore a variety of rhetorical situations to become more critical agents of reading, writing, speaking, and listening in all facets of their lives. Straightforward and readable instruction sections introduce key vocabulary, concepts, and strategies. Three culminating assignments (Descriptive Personal Narrative; Text-Wrestling Analysis; Persuasive Research Essay) give students a chance to …

The Parthenon, July 11, 2018, Sadie Helmick

The Parthenon

No abstract provided.

The Graphic Design Archive: Generating Higher Levels Of Scholarship Through A User Experience Approach To Scholarly Image Database Design, Jenna Shay

Theses

Innovations in the user experiences of digital image collections have taken image-based searching from the realm of basic one-way searches and sorts and delivered users a new world of dynamic and interactive explorations that offer mechanisms for higher-level cognitive functions such as comparing, analyzing, sorting, sharing, designing, and creating in an intuitive environment. While innovations in image search functionality often occur first in non-academic applications (e.g., social media), image archives meant to amasse and preserve visual information for the ages would benefit by adopting and adapting search innovations.

Students and scholars that access image-based archives of information to gather resources …

Analytical “Bake-Off” Of Whole Genome Sequencing Quality For The Genome Russia Project Using A Small Cohort For Autoimmune Hepatitis, Daria V. Zhernakova, Sergei Kliver, Nikolay Cherkasov, Gaik Tamazian, Mikhail Rotkevich, Ksenia Krasheninnikova, Igor Evsyukov, Sviatoslav Sidorov, Pavel Dobrynin, Andrey A. Yurchenko, Valentin Shimansky, Irina V. Shcherbakova, Andrey S. Glotov, David L. Valle, Minzhong Tang, Emilia Shin, Kathleen B. Schwarz, Stephen James O'Brien

Biology Faculty Articles

A comparative analysis of whole genome sequencing (WGS) and genotype calling was initiated for ten human genome samples sequenced by St. Petersburg State University Peterhof Sequencing Center and by three commercial sequencing centers outside of Russia. The sequence quality, efficiency of DNA variant and genotype calling were compared with each other and with DNA microarrays for each of ten study subjects. We assessed calling of SNPs, indels, copy number variation, and the speed of WGS throughput promised. Twenty separate QC analyses showed high similarities among the sequence quality and called genotypes. The ten genomes tested by the centers included eight …

Validating The Accuracy Of Neatwork, A Rural Gravity Fed Water Distribution System Design Program, Using Field Data In The Comarca Ngöbe-Bugle, Panama, Maria Briones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the sustainable development goals to increase access to improved water there are still 884 million people in the world without access to an improved water source (WHO, 2017). One method to improve access to water in rural, mountainous areas, is through construction of gravity fed water distribution systems. These systems should be designed based upon fundamental principles of hydraulics. One method of doing so in a time efficient manner with minimal engineering knowledge is to utilize a downloadable computer program such as Neatwork, which aids in design of rural, gravity fed water distribution systems and has been used by …