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Social Groups Characterization And Dynamics: A Network Science Approach, Josemar Faustino Da Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

Over the course of our lives, we tend to transition through many social groups. From an early age, our first social group is our family, then we have our schoolmates, later in life, our coworkers, and likely another family. As we move from one group to another, we embed ourselves in the dynamics of social groups’ losses and gains of new members. These dynamics are a complex system of interactions, which at scale, form the structural basis of our societies. In many years of sociological research, the details of social group interactions remained poorly understood. Certainly, not because of lack …

Gut Content Analysis Of Benthic Foraging Fish Compared To Invertebrate Infauna Distributions In Dredged Vs. Undredged Habitats, Danielle Louise Juzwick

Theses and Dissertations

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) has experienced a loss in seagrasses due to organic sediment accumulation and harmful algal blooms. Seagrasses are an essential nursery habitat for many fishes and benthic invertebrates. IRL fish known to utilize benthic habitat and feed on invertebrates include Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulates), juvenile Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), and Mojarra (Eucinostomus spp.). The most abundant major infaunal taxa of the IRL are crustaceans, polychaetes, and mollusks. Environmental dredging in the IRL’s Turkey Creek is intended to improve water quality, remove harmful sediments and restore benthic habitat. Such dredging may impact benthic invertebrate populations and, indirectly, …

Working With Environmental Economists, Annika Marie Rieger, Joerg Rieger

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Awareness of environmental degradation, culminating in the broad global transformations of human-caused climate change, is no longer a peripheral issue. And while there may be some debate of climate change, a simple denial is no longer an option in light of the data and the agreement of 97 per cent of scientists. In light of the sheer magnitude of the challenge, which has the potential to threaten human survival, much of what we know must be rethought, including traditional academic disciplines. In this essay, an environmental sociologist and a theologian enter into a conversation with environmental economists and others concerned …

Air Quality Monitoring Wireless Sensor Network With Electrochemical Sensing Elements, Saeed Faisal Malky

Theses and Dissertations

Harmful atmospheric pollutants have been attributed to causing adverse weather conditions and health problems, which are particularly prevalent in more populated global regions, such as megacities. Nongovernmental and international agencies throughout the world have likewise called for increased awareness and action to effectively counter the increased rates of air pollution, as the consequences seem ominous. Meanwhile, in several major urban landscapes such as Saudi Arabia, no modern apparatus or efficient systematic mechanisms exist for the qualitative detection of dangerous pollutants and gases. The current counterparts for hazardous gas measurements are expensive, bulky and cumbersome to set up. Thus, sensor devices …

Public Nuisance Claims After Conagra, Steven Czak

Fordham Law Review

This Note examines the continuing harms of lead-based paint and attempts by cities and states to hold manufacturers and distributors liable for abatement under the public nuisance doctrine. Such suits have stretched traditional conceptions of public nuisance, particularly on the threshold issue of whether pervasive lead paint in residences infringes on a common right held by the public. This Note reviews the major lead paint public nuisance cases from across the country. The plaintiffs were unsuccessful in each case for a variety of reasons until ten California counties prevailed in People v. ConAgra in November 2017. While subsequently reduced by …

An Experimental Model Of Chemically-Induced Ulceration Of The Buccal Mucosa Of Mus Musculus, Erik Idrus, Pratiwi Dwi Hartanti, Dewi Fatma Suniarti, Sri Redjeki Prasetyo, Yuniardini Septorini Wimardhani, Ajiravudh Subarnbhesaj

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: Ulceration caused by chemical agents used in dental practice for in-office or home-used is a common event, resulting in discomfort and pain. Treatments for such conditions are still being developed, requiring extensive experiments both in vitro and in vivo studies. At present, a standardized experimental mouse model for mucosal ulceration caused by a chemical inducer to study the pathogenesis of ulceration and to develop medications for treatment of ulceration is still not available. The aim of this study was to create a chemically induced model of ulceration of the buccal mucosa of mice. Methods: An in vivo …

2019 Index

New Mexico Historical Review

No abstract provided.

The Books Of Padre Antonio José Martínez, La

New Mexico Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Mechanized Advent Calendar, Oma Skyrus, Sigrid Derickson, Tyler Koski, Daniel Clifton

Mechanical Engineering

Within this document, the “Naughty and Nice” team will describe the details associated with the completion of this project, which involves creating an animated advent calendar for the Cambria Christmas Market. The problem, the customers and stakeholders, and the general goals of the project are introduced. The team conducted background research; how this research helps in finding a solution or supporting the needs of the sponsor is illustrated. Initial research includes interviews with the sponsor and potential users, patent and existing product searches, and some technical research pertaining to the subject. The team found that there are not many existing …

Moral Outrage Is Elicited By Others’ Beliefs Just As Much As Their Actions: Implications For Workplace Ideological Discrimination, Emily Rose Galeza

Theses

Moral outrage is an emotional, cognitive, and behavioral response to moral violations, resulting in a desire to punish the transgressor. Previous research has examined moral outrage toward transgressive behaviors, but no studies have examined the potential for moral outrage to be roused by another’s beliefs alone. Do people experience moral outrage at one another’s thoughts? If so, how do they punish someone who has roused their outrage but has “done nothing wrong”? In Study 1 (n = 209), I examined moral outrage reactions at people’s unacceptable beliefs on three topics (pedophilia, sexual assault, fraud) by comparing moral outrage elicited by …

Social Discounting Of Clean Water And Environmental Sustainability, Ashley Katz

Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine choice-making as it relates to providing a source of clean water to those at varying social distances. A discounting survey was completed by 65 participants asking them to choose between spending a specified about of money on plastic water bottles that have a 100% chance of harming the environment or spending $1000 on a water filtration system that has a 0% chance of harming the environment. Results indicated that as social distance increased, responding became more impulsive as evident by a steeper amount of discounting. For “Person #1”, 27.69% of participants chose …

Project Management And Strategy Alignment In Academia, Kelly Atkins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study analyzed the understanding of project and strategy alignment in higher education institutions. Literature revealed many projects fail because projects are not aligned to strategy. There is an abundance of project management literature in many industries; however, literature on project management in academia is deficient. This qualitative case study sought to close the gap of understanding project management and strategy alignment in academia. The researcher conducted a review of literature and interviews in order to gain insight in the understanding of project and strategy alignment in two higher education institutions. Three themes were developed based on these interviews: alignment, …

Uncovering The Zeb1 Interactome To Identify Novel Regulators Of Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Roxsan Manshouri

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, due in part to the robust affinity of lung cancer cells to metastasize. Understanding the processes that contribute to metastasis provides promise for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets. Epithelial-tomesenchymal transition (EMT) is a proposed model for the initiation of metastasis. During EMT cell adhesion and polarity is reduced, allowing epithelial cancer cells to dissociate from the primary tumor and invade distant organs. The transcription factor zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) has been reported to uniquely correlate with NSCLC disease progression and to …

The Effect Of Traumatic Brain Injury On Tau Pathology By A Potential Seeding Mechanism, George Edwards Iii

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The misfolding, aggregation and accumulation of specific proteins is the overarching concept in protein misfolding disorders (PMDs). The microtubule associated protein tau is known to form insoluble filaments known as neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) composed of hyperphosphorylated tau (pTau) found in a subset of PMDs called tauopathies, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), among others. Misfolded tau engenders a structurally alternative intermediate conformation that is prone to aggregate having amyloidogenic properties. Formation of amyloids, such as tau aggregates, is proposed to follow a nucleation-polymerization model where misfolded, soluble oligomeric seeds can trigger native proteins to misfold and …

Determination Of Thymic Epithelial Cell Composition And Proliferation During The Perinatal To Adult Transition, Scott Casey

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

T-cells develop in the thymus based on signaling from multiple stromal cell types, particularly thymic epithelial cells (TECs). The thymus develops rapidly during the perinatal time period (birth – 10 days in mice) before reaching a period of homeostasis (10 days – 6 weeks). The mechanisms that initially promote and subsequently limit expansion of the TEC compartment are not known. However, previous reports from our lab suggest that the Cyclin D1-RB-E2F pathway plays a key role in regulating the perinatal to adult transition. We have previously shown that inactivation in TEC of retinoblastoma (RB) family members through deletion of RB …

Assessment Of New Innovations In Pet/Ct For Respiratory Motion Correction, Joseph Meier

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In oncological imaging, Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) is a vital tool used for stating and treatment response assessment of patients due to its ability to visualize and accurately quantify the bio-distribution of radiolabeled pharmaceuticals. However, due to the long acquisition times, respiratory motion blur is unavoidable in PET images especially in the lower lung and upper abdomen. This leads to reductions in measured radiotracer concentration and lesion detectability all of which can potentially result in incorrect management of patients. Multiple methods exist to correct for respiratory motion but are rarely used in the routine clinical setting because of: 1) …

Shakespeare And Experimental American Poetry, Alan Golding

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Why the particular emphasis proposed in my title on Shakespeare’s importance for experimental or avant-garde American poetry? We can take Shakespeare’s significance for American poetry generally, as for most writers in the English language, as a given. One can certainly trace Shakespeare’s presence in a wide range of more mainstream twentieth-century poetry, from John Berryman to Anthony Hecht to Sylvia Plath, and anthologies of poetic responses to Shakespeare abound. But the use of the ultimate canonical Anglophone writer by experimental poets dedicated to changing the context of writing and reception in their own time raises some interesting questions not just …

High Stakes: Throwing A Hail Mary To Congress For A Federal Ban On Sports Betting In College Athletics, Kaitlyn Kallert

Journal of Law and Policy

The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision overruling the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act’s (“PASPA”) federal prohibition on sports betting as unconstitutional under the Tenth Amendment has cleared the way for states to legalize sports gambling, which, in turn, has proven a controversial subject. Supporters of state legalization of sports gambling “argue that legalization will generate revenue for states and critically weaken illegal sports betting operations, which are often commissioned by organized crime.” However, as the Supreme Court notes, opponents contend that the legalization of sports betting will expose America’s youth to accessible gambling, “encourage people of modest means to squander …

Abject Adaptations, Annamarie E. Williams

All Theses

Abject Adaptations is a body of work that contemplates harmful, external forces surrounding women’s bodies and how these bodies adapt in order to possess agency. The work examines these external forces, adaptations and agencies using a variety of conflicting visual cues that border on the grotesque, as well as the beauty and playfulness of highly rendered illustration. Processes include the application of mixed media techniques that layer watercolor, watercolor pencil, colored pencil, graphite pencil and acrylic paint. These techniques provide a colorful and playful dichotomy to the abject forms being rendered. The cartoonish way the forms are rendered make them …

Bacterial Diversity Of The Gut Of Cotinis Nitida, Roy Attila Kucuk

All Theses

Adult and larval Holometabolous insects exhibit radically different gut morphologies tied to their differing natural histories. Additionally, like other animals, these organisms frequently show distinctive morphological and physiological partitioning of their digestive systems, and this reflects on resident microbial communities. A review of the literature reveals bacteria have formed various symbioses with holometabolous hosts, differing widely in the context of host-symbiont services and patterns of colonization. The significance of these organisms in shaping host evolution and vice-versa is, at present, unclear, but intriguing in the context of host phylogeny.

Using high throughput 16S amplicon sequencing, the bacterial community of the …

Microfabricated Substrate To Achieve In Vivo-Like Cardiomyocyte Morphology And Electrical Propagation In Neonatal Cell Culture, Tiffany Yu

All Theses

Because of the complexity of the in vivo environment, much physiological and pathological understanding of the human body is obtained through cell culture. To gain clinically relevant knowledge, having a cell culture model that mimics the corresponding in vivo tissue would be advantageous. For example, when studying the mechanical and electrical coupling between cardiac cells, imitating in vivo cellular morphology correlates with improved electrical coupling. This has applications within drug screening; by being able to test for cardiotoxicity with a cell culture model, this reduces the resources needed to screen pharmaceuticals for negative side effects. In conventional cardiomyocyte culture, cells …

On To Wisteria: Designing An Action-Adventure Role-Playing Game For The Empowerment Of The Preteen Female Audience, Kira Noelle Foglesong

All Theses

This thesis document details the design for an original action-adventure role-playing game (AARPG) specifically targeted towards the preteen female audience, ages 10-12, as well as the production of a promotional trailer to communicate the design. This thesis aims to bring this untapped market to an already established video game genre in order to communicate to this young female audience that these games are not “just for boys” by providing a clear example of an empowering and inclusive game that is designed to appeal to their demographic. Given that there are currently no AAA action-adventure RPGs targeted towards this group as …

Diabetic Nephropathy: Review Of Novel Experimental And Clinical Strategies, Amal M. Mahfoz, Nahed M. Hassanein, Afaf A. Shoka, Hekma A. Abd El- Latif

Bulletin of Faculty of Pharmacy Cairo University

Background: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is considered a severe disorder which affects health worldwide. New more active treatment options are required. Despite a large number of drugs already being available for treatment of hyperglycemia in diabetes, current oral antidiabetic agents often do not provide adequate glycemic control. Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) blockers are novel agents to slow the progression of DN. Method: The present review provides an overview of recent studies on DN management, especially the use RAAS blockers and their antidiabetic effects. References were mainly identified through PubMed search until December 2016 and backtracking of references in pertinent studies. Results: This …

Role Of Cryptococcus Neoformans Pyruvate Decarboxylase And Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Enzymes In Acetate Production And Virulence, Mufida Ahmed Nagi Ammar

All Dissertations

The basidiomycete Cryptococcus neoformans is is an invasive opportunistic pathogen of the central nervous system and the most frequent cause of fungal meningitis. C. neoformans enters the host by inhalation and protects itself from immune assault in the lungs by producing hydrolytic enzymes, immunosuppressants, and other virulence factors. C. neoformans also adapts to the environment inside the host, including producing metabolites that may confer survival advantages. One of these, acetate, can be kept in reserve as a carbon source or can be used to weaken the immune response by lowering local pH or as a key part of immunomodulatory molecules. …

The Effect Of Anthropometric Properties Of Self-Avatars On Action Capabilities In Virtual Reality, Ayush Bhargava

All Dissertations

The field of Virtual Reality (VR) has seen a steady exponential uptake in the last decade and is being continuously incorporated into areas of popular interest like healthcare, training, recreation and gaming. This steady upward trend and prolonged popularity has resulted in numerous extravagant virtual environments, some that aim to mimic real-life experiences like combat training, while others intend to provide unique experiences that may otherwise be difficult to recreate like flying over ancient Egypt as a bird. These experiences often showcase highly realistic graphics, intuitive interactions and unique avatar embodiment scenarios with the help of various tracking sensors, high …

The Impact Of An Intronic Dopamine Receptor Type-2 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism On Growth, Reproduction And Prolactin Gene Expression In Beef Bulls, Andrea Decarlo

All Dissertations

Prolactin (PRL) is a ~22 kDa peptide hormone reported to regulate over 300 distinct biological functions in vertebrates. Tonic inhibition of prolactin (PRL) by dopamine binding to dopamine receptor-type 2 (DRD2) is well established and changes in PRL serum concentration resulting in detrimental effects to male reproductive physiology have been observed. Release and synthesis of PRL may be altered due to a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the DRD2 gene. The objective of these studies were to evaluate associations of a previously identified DRD2 SNP to PRL serum concentrations, growth traits, semen quality, and PRL gene expression in beef bulls. …

Modeling Of Household Evacuation Decision, Departure Timing, And Number Of Evacuating Vehicles From Hurricane Matthew, Roa'a Jaber Mohammad Alawadi

All Dissertations

This dissertation investigates households’ evacuation decision, number of household vehicles used in evacuation, and departure timing from Hurricane Matthew. Regarding the evacuation decision, this dissertation takes a step further by presenting three level evacuation decision models that include full, partial, and no evacuation alternatives rather than the binary evacuate/stay decision. Multinomial (MNL) regression and random parameter MNL techniques were utilized to develop the prediction models. Results showed that some of the variables which affect the evacuate/stay decision have different influences on the three alternatives. The preferred MNL model was tested for random parameters and one random parameter (age of the …

The Role Of Self-Reflection In The Spiritual Quest To Make Meaning Of Experiences, Ikenna Q. Ezealah

All Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the role that self-reflection has in the spiritual quest to make meaning of experience. It also examined how spiritual quest can operate within moments of spiritual struggle in order to make meaning of the experience through a process of self-reflection. In the literature view, relevant theories and concepts by preeminent scholars in the field of spirituality were examined. Though the spirituality of students in higher education was discussed in the literature, as well as the concepts of self-reflection (Bassot, 2013, Grossman, 2009), spiritual quest (Astin, Astin & Lindholm, 2011; Vaughan, 2002), and …

Development Of A Nucleus Pulposus Implant For Intervertebral Disc Repair, Joshua Dillon Walters

All Dissertations

The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a fibrocartilaginous tissue connecting adjacent vertebrae in the spinal column. It comprises three distinct tissues: a gelatinous core known as the nucleus pulposus (NP), concentric fibrous rings encircling the NP known as the annulus fibrosus (AF), and the superior/inferior cartilaginous endplates (CEPs). The complex mechanical interplay of these tissues allows the IVD to withstand complex loading in the spine while maintaining trunk stability and flexibility. IVD pathologies, such as IVD degeneration (IDD) and herniation, are associated with cell-mediated inflammation in vivo. This inflammation creates a catabolic environment which degrades the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the …

The Impact Of Ergot Alkaloid Consumption During Gestation On Maternal Performance And Fetoplacental Development, Jessica Lynn Britt

All Dissertations

Tall fescue is the primary cool season perennial forage grass in southeastern US for grazing livestock. Tall fescue the is known to be drought tolerant , disease resistant, grazing tolerant and overall very hardy. Many of these attributes common to fescue are due to a symbiotic relationship between the fescue plant and an endophyte, Epichloë coenophiala , which produces a class of mycotoxins known as ergot alkaloids. These ergot alkaloids are similar in structure to several biogenic amines, such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. When consumed, ergot alkaloids cause a syndrome known as fescue toxicosis which causes problems with weight …