Digital Commons Network^™

A Cloning Strategy For Expression Of Fungal Hemicellulases In Plant Systems, Amer Alrudayan

Masters Theses

Lignocellulosic biomass is notoriously difficult to deconstruct into lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose fractions without the use of biochemical, chemical, and/or mechanical pretreatments. These pretreatment strategies add operational cost and in some cases produce hazardous waste that poses health and safety risks. Direct biological pretreatment from biomass-degrading bacteria and fungi may significantly reduce the costs and risks associated with these traditional strategies due to the innate ability of these organisms to modify plant cell walls. An additional measure that could further reduce the expenses associated with lignocellulosic biomass fractionation is genetic modification of the lignocellulosic feedstocks, which can be accomplished by …

The Transcriptome Response Of The White-Rot Fungus Trametes Versicolor To Wild-Type And Lignin-Modified Hybrid Poplar, Anbarah Alzabaidi

Masters Theses

Plant biomass is a renewable and sustainable feedstock for biofuel production that can reduce societal dependence on fossil fuels. However, the production of liquid biofuels from the non-starch (i.e. lignocellulosic) material through fermentation technology is limited due to the complexity of the cell wall structure. This necessitates the use of chemical, thermal, and/or mechanical pretreatment technologies, which adds significant capital, operational, and environmental costs. Biological pretreatment strategies have the potential to mitigate these expenses by harnessing the innate ability of specialized bacteria and fungi to deconstruct lignocellulose. White-rot fungi (e.g. Trametes versicolor) have been shown to be …

Flavodoxin, The Hydrogen Atom Of Flavoproteins: A 19f Nmr Study Of Dynamics And Conformational Changes Utilizing Flavodoxin From Rhodopseudomonas Palustris, Taylor Varner

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Flavodoxin is a small, highly stable protein that contain a single FMN cofactor used to transfer single electrons at low potentials. The organism Rhodopseudomonas palustris contains a long-chain flavodoxin. Long-chain flavodoxins are characterized by a 20 amino acid loop that is proposed to allow interactions with partner proteins. We plan to utilize this protein as a model to build our repertoire with protein fluorination and fluorine NMR in flavoproteins. This tool kit will then be applied to the study of a partner protein of interest that is capable of performing electron bifurcation. We have incorporated m-fluoro tyrosine into flavodoxin and …

William & Mary Commencement (October 10, 2021), College Of William & Mary

Commencement Exercises

No abstract provided.

Mettle Under The Stars, June Forte

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A woman in her 30s enlists in the Army in pursuit of the GI Bill education benefits. Through her assignment as a photojournalist at Fort Carson, she came to know three Fourth Infantry Division Generals whose strengths of character and leadership styles profoundly influenced her life.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. …

Shape Tuning Of Silicon Nano-Tip Arrays Through Reactive Ion Etching For Cold Field Emission, Giridhar Tulasi Ram Sankabathula

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Large area silicon nano-tip arrays have been predominantly used as cold cathode electron sources in the wide range of field emission applications. Various fabrication methodologies have been developed over the decades to obtain sharp-pointed field emitters. In this thesis, we mainly emphasized on reproducing high aspect ratio field emitters and to study their surface topographical changes encountered through reactive ion etching. A discrete set of high-density field emitters have been fabricated over the large area surfaces through a three-step nanofabrication process. The surface curvatures of the obtained emitter tips are finely tuned with multiple oxidation cycles to achieve a tip’s …

Polarization In Social Networks Under A Proposed Model, Ashley L. Seyfried

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The mathematical study of opinion dynamics started in 1956, with French. Since the explosion of social media, this study has increased in popularity. In this paper, we propose a new model to apply to a social network graph. With this model, the opinions of actors are in the range [0,1]. We use the Normal probability distribution to model these opinions in conjunction with a group of parameters. We allow for the uncertainty of members in the network. We then ran simulations to find the values of these parameters that do not lead to a network becoming polarized. Different states of …

Get Out (2017), Us (2019), And Jordan Peele's New Black Body Horror, Brady Simenson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis provides an analysis of Jordan Peele’s films, Get Out (2017) and Us (2019). The thesis contextualizes Get Out and Us as part of a protracted cultural conversation regarding monstrous images of the cinematic black body that began with Hollywood’s early monster films and continued into the culturally subversive era of blaxploitation horror films. While blaxploitation cinema reclaimed images of the racial Other that had been represented in the early creature feature subgenre, no such notable movement has subverted the more recent body horror subgenre. Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us shift this subgenre toward racially inverted body horror. …

Exploring Hip Hop Pedagogy In The Lives Of Four African American Adolescents, Roland Steele

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to examine how participation in an after-school hip hop pedagogy program influenced the social and academic lives of four African American male adolescents. The researcher viewed this study through the conceptual framework of culturally relevant teaching that incorporated hip hop pedagogy. Hip-hop is currently one of the most popular forms of music and represents the dominant culture of today’s inner-city youth. This study centered on how hip hop pedagogy is being used to educate African American male students.

The study participants consisted of four African American male adolescents who attended an after-school hip …

Development Of Machine Learning Models To Predict The Online Impact Of Research, Mohammed Murtuza Shahzad Syed

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Scientific research is being increasingly shared online in a way such that there is a need to develop methodologies to measure the impact of specific papers in ways that go beyond traditional indicators of scholarly citations and beyond the scholarly community. In this thesis, new machine learning models are developed to measure and predict the impact ofresearch in the online context. The extent to which research papers are mentioned on social media platforms, i.e., their online sustainability, indicates the public's interest in and perhaps even the level of understanding of scientific topics. A research paper having a long lifespan, i.e., …

Canine And Criminal Bias: The Relationship Between Stereotypes And Perceptions Of Punishment, Jamie I. Thomas

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis I provide an analysis of punitive perceptions of animal crimes and argue that the lack of value seen in animal’s lives affects perceptions of punishment for animal crimes. Specifically, I examine the role of animal attitudes and race on perceptions of crimes against dogs and will address the following question with a vignette survey design: How do racial stereotypes interact with dog breed stereotypes when considering punishment for animal crime? This research expands on factors that influence perceptions of punishment of animal crime, including racial differences that may affect attitudes about animals. This study contributes to the …

Peer Review Of Teaching Portfolio For Hort 306: Greenhouse Operations & Management, Stacy Adams

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

A Greenhouse Operations and Management course designed specifically to serve the needs of horticulture students at an institution of higher learning has transitioned teaching philospophy to additionally serve any student with a potential use of a greenhouse in instruction, community outreach, research, extension, early childhood development, and thearapy. Through the Peer Review of Teaching Project, the course is explored, analyzed and redeveloped with intentional purpose.

Online Engagement And Overall Performance: Tmfd 123: Clothing & Society Benchmark Portfolio – A Peer Review Of Teaching Portfolio, Claire Nicholas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark course portfolio examines TMFD 123: Clothing & Society, a large enrollment, online delivery course offered in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In addition to detailed discussion of existing course materials, activities, and assessment tools, the portfolio focuses on the issue of student engagement and peer-to-peer interaction. It also tracks the impact of the introduction of a Yellowdig discussion forum assignment in an effort to boost engagement, create a sense of community, and foster connections between course materials and concepts and students’ everyday lives. The latter objective intersects with several of …

Teac 413m: Teaching Multilingual Learners In Content Areas – A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The purpose of this benchmark portfolio was to trace the process of designing, teaching and assessing TEAC 413M: Teaching Multilingual Learners in Content Areas, a required course for the B.Ed secondary education major. My objectives for this portfolio are to: a) document the impacts of different instructional strategies employed in TEAC 413M, and to b) reflect on the course success and shortcomings and develop pathways for the future course design and development. A secondary goal was to examine translation of course content into students’ own teaching and planning for their students through a variety of activities and assessments throughout the …

An Exploration Of Student Engagement And Learning Within A Newly Online Version Of Teac 861: Teaching In A Pluralistic Society - A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Amanda R. Morales

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Given the current racial, economic, and socio-political tensions in K-12 education, the work of teacher preparation arguably has never been more important or difficult. This benchmark portfolio targets a core required course aimed at increased teachers’ cultural competence and equity literacy, 861: Teaching in a Pluralistic Society. In this portfolio, I focus primarily on methods and mechanisms I used to increase student engagement in and critical reflection on a social justice-oriented curriculum in a new online format. I describe the context for the course, my initial anxieties around teaching the course online for the first time, student demographics, my redesigned …

Course Portfolio For Mech 416/816: Engineering Acoustics, Spring 2019 And 2020 - A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Keegan J. Moore

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The aim of this portfolio is twofold: first, the portfolio serves to document the author’s approach to teaching while also providing the means for the author to reflect on and improve his approach; second, this portfolio evaluates the effect of a discussion-based approach and a solution-based approach to delivering practice exams on student performance on formal examinations. The discussion-based approach focuses on team-based discussions of one problem from a practice exam for 10-15 minutes before receiving feedback from the instructor on that specific problem or topic. After receiving feedback from the instructor, the students move onto another problem in the …

A Benchmark Portfolio Evaluation Cyaf 280: Family Science, Carrie L. Hanson-Bradley

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio describes the process of revising and assessing student learning in CYAF 280 Family Science. The course is housed in the department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies and provides an introduction to family science with an emphasis on the intersection of theory, research, and real-life application. CYAF 280 is a large-section undergraduate course and is required for CYAF Majors. It is also an ACE 6 course and draws students from multiple disciplines. This portfolio describes the process of utilizing a backwards design to revise course goals and learning objectives. An outline and justification for a schedule revision are …

A Covid-19 Informed Benchmark Portfolio Of Teaching For Slpa 988: Dementia, Kristy Weissling

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The focus of this peer review of teaching portfolio was SLPA 988: Dementia. The course is offered in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders within the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This is an elective course at the graduate level which has a primary target of students in the master’s degree program in speech-language pathology. It is an advanced 900 level course and comes after students have completed at least one semester of clinical work with patients. My goal was to better understand how to improve the course as it transitions from …

Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio: Sped 852 - Instructional Methods For Teachers Of Students With Visual Impairments, Mackenzie E. Savaiano

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

No abstract provided.

Russ391: Russian Culture And Civilization Through Film - A Peer Review Of Teaching Portfolio, Olha Tytarenko

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The Benchmark Portfolio traces the process of revamping my survey course RUSS391 “Russian Culture and Civilization Through Film” taught for the second time in Spring 2020. In addition to The primary goal of the course was to acquaint students with major developments in the cultural and political life of twentieth and twenty-first-century Russia examined through the prism of cinema. In addition to main course objectives, my teaching goal was to engage students in the subject, incite their intellectual curiosity, and create a productive learning experience conducive to the development of critical thinking. In this course portfolio, I discuss my teaching …

Reflections On Teaching Cyaf 374, Curriculum Planning In Early Childhood Education: A Peer Review Of Teaching Portfolio, Christine Kiewra

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this course portfolio, I reflect on teaching methods and materials as they relate to course goals and learning outcomes for an undergraduate early childhood education course, CYAF 374. This course offers students a developmental, child-centered approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating learning experiences for children from birth to grade 3. The course is for students who are preparing to teach in Early Childhood, Inclusive Early Childhood, or Primary classrooms. The focus of my reflection and evaluation is on principles of effective teaching practice, experiential learning, reflective practice, and collaboration implemented throughout the course. Finally, I reflect upon successes and …

Peer Review Of Teaching Portfolio For Jour 304: Multimedia Journalism, Olga Pierce

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The term multimedia journalism, as used in the field, is vague and can describe a wide-ranging set of skills, including writing, audio/video production, graphic design, data analysis, and even front-end web development. For this reason, past multimedia offerings in our college have been described as ‘kitchen sink courses’ with many disparate elements thrown in. Through the Peer Review of Teaching Project, the course is analyzed and focused to include a coherent progression of skills.

Critical Thinking, Perspective-Taking, And Cultural Humility In Global Refugee Health Studies: A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Julie A. Tippens

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio examines the third iteration of a course I developed for the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies: CYAF 493 – Global Case Studies in Refugee Health and Wellbeing. The primary goal of this course is for students to think critically about the social and structural determinants of refugee health and wellbeing. I have also integrated three core course values to guide instruction: critical thinking, perspective-taking, and cultural humility. Student learning and engagement was analyzed through four areas: (1) a baseline assessment of students’ perceptions of refugees, (2) weekly homework reflections, (3) a book review assignment, and (4) …

Course Portfolio For Math 309: Introduction To Mathematical Proofs - A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Josh Brummer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this course portfolio, I examine dimensions of an active learning curriculum developed for a sophomore-level undergraduate course serving as an introduction to mathematical proofs. Prominent course goals include developing effective practices for communicating mathematics using formal language, learning to read, comprehend, and evaluate the validity of mathematical proofs, and practicing to write rigorous and concise mathematical proofs. I explore a new piece of collaborative annotation software called Perusall to help students read and understand mathematics together, and I analyze mastery level grading scales across exams throughout the semester. The portfolio also contains information about the structure and syllabus for …

A Benchmark Teaching Portfolio During Covid-19 Transition For Mngt 360: Managing Behavior In Organizations, Jia Yu

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio describes the revisions and assessments made to MNGT 360: Managing Behavior in Organizations in the midst of COVID-19. This course is offered in the Department of Management within the College of Business at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My goal was to improve the course design by evaluating the more effective teaching methods and assessment tools for this course. I experimented with several new teaching methods and assessment tools such as Kahoot!, online exams and offered some empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of the tools. I found that participation based assignments are an important predictor of overall class …

“Thus In The Beginning All The World Was America”: The Effects Of Anti-Protest Legislation And An American Conquest Culture In Native Sacred Sites Cases, Elizabeth Hampton

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Exploring Secondary Students’ Abilities In Judging The Credibility Of Digital Content On The Internet, Katie Dailey

Masters Theses

The shift from print to digital environments has created an opportunity and responsibility for educators to focus on instructional planning and practices that reflects the growing complexity of online texts students helping to ensure that their students are information literate. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the how 83 eleventh grade high school English students judge the credibility of information on the internet. The researcher used methodological triangulation to qualitatively analyze by comparing and aligning data from the survey results, observations of students during class discussions, responses to class assignments, and the quality ratings of students’ think-aloud …

Interprofessional Education: A Team Approach In The Classroom, Casey E. Humphrey, Karina Christopher, Cassandra Catherine Ginn

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Interprofessional education is an increasingly common component of course work for health care professionals. Extant research provides examples of these collaborations across multiple health disciplines, however, there is no research that addresses interprofessional education between the fields of occupational therapy and dietetics. This study was conducted in order to fill the gap of extant research related to unique collaborations between occupational therapy and dietetics. The Interprofessional Attitudes Scale was given to occupational therapy and dietetic students pre/post participation in an interprofessional, active learning, educational case-study. There was one item on the scale that demonstrated a statistically significant change (“shared learning …

“Lol, No, I Didn’T Read”: Students’ Difficulties With Choosing Strategies For Success, Amanda W. Joyce, Jana Hackathorn

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

The purpose of this investigation was to examine how student expectations for their performance in a class related to strategies used to succeed in that class. Results from our study suggest that, even though students are good judges of their academic capabilities, they are not any more or less likely to engage in effective learning strategies even when they begin the semester expecting lower final grades.

A Contract For Success: Increasing Student Engagement And Confidence Through Grade Contracts, Dominic Ashby, Margaret Frozena, James Franklin Mcclure

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

This paper explores the impact of grade contracts upon student engagement and confidence in classes. The co-researchers designed a grade contract based upon those described in the literature by Danielewicz & Elbow (2009) and Inoue (2014), and integrating departmental learning outcomes. The contracts were used in the co-researchers’ Spring 2018, Fall 2018, and Spring 2019 First-Year Writing (ENG101 and ENG102) and upper division English (ENG345 and ENG405) courses. Through an IRB-approved study, student reactions to the use of grade contracts were assessed in three ways: coding students’ reflective essays completed at the end of each semester, conducting interviews with student …