Digital Commons Network^™

The Degree Of Faculty Use Of Authentic Assessment Strategies At A'Sharqiyah University, Sharif Abdelrahman Alsoudi, Amjad Ezat, Mueen Salman Al Nsraween

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

The study aimed to identify the degree of faculty use of authentic assessment strategies at A'Sharqiyah University (Oman). The study sample consisted of (59) faculty at A'Sharqiyah University, the results indicated that the degree of use of authentic evaluation strategies was at the average level in general, with an average of (3.26) percentage (66%). The results also showed the statistically significant differences in the degree of use of authentic assessment strategies attributable to the variable of receiving training in favor of faculty’s who received prior training on authentic assessment strategies. As well as significant differences attributed to years of academic …

The Use Of Psychometric Scale Theory In Formulating Gilliam Scale Gars-3 For Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder, Abbas Fadhil Abdulwahid, Muhammad Anwar, Khalid Jamal Jasim

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

The present paper aims to formulate Gilliam Scale GARS-3 for diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ADS) according to the use of psychometric scale theory. In order to achieve the aim of the paper, the researchers have followed the scientific steps in formulating the scale and verifying the credibility of the translation via checking the accuracy and subjectivity in transferring all the thoughts of the scale. Then, an expert in Arabic language has checked the scale which consists of (58) items of six dimensions. The scale was applied to (500) students inside the governmental and the private centers and on a sample …

Nikki Giovanni: The Poet Laureate Of The Black Community, Jinan Abdulla Shafiq

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

Black women have a long history and practise of activism that can be traced to pre-colonial Africa. Women writers of African descents have challenged the status quo of the cultural, political, and spiritual realms of their communities by using their skills to present women who challenge traditional roles and resist attacks of oppression. The paper deals with the suffering of women in general and black women specifically. The aim of the study is to give a voice to black women through Nikki Giovanni’s poetry, whom is considered the poets’ laureate. Her poems are like weapons against the oppressors. Using a …

The Theme Of The Quest Of Fatherhood In Charles Dickens's Novel Great Expectations, Ali Mohammed Segar

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

This research depends on the critical analysis method for the main events and characters in the novel. It assumes that the novelist Charles Dickens, in Great Expectations, like in his other novels, keeps on his attack on some specific abuses and injustices in the social system in England during the 19^th century. From the early beginning to the end of the novel, there is a parallel and simultaneous quest. The central character, Pip is an orphan boy who needs and unconsciously searches for a father, and the convict Ebel Magwitch who has lost his daughter, is looking for …

Investigating Strategies Developed By University Students In Learning English Vocabulary, Sundus Aj. Kamil

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

Vocabulary knowledge is an integral aspect in learning a foreign language since the connotations of new vocabularies are widely highlighted, whether by language teachers or syllabus designers themselves. Vocabulary learning is the core of language learning and teaching due to the bouncing role vocabulary plays in supporting learner’s repertoire of language. The present term-paper is intended to shed the light on the importance of learning new vocabularies and the strategies developed by learners in learning more vocabularies. The research is based on an experiment that a sample of (30)students of 2nd -year students in English Department at the College of …

Full-Text Search Using Elasticsearch, Akash Shrestha

Masters Projects

Search engines have changed the way we use the internet. They can search or filter out relevant and valuable content of interest to the users. But many of the applications we use today lack search or are just poor. So how can we leverage the same power of search engines in our applications? This project aims to look at “Full-Text Search” which allows us to do a text-based search in text-intensive data. The search will be performed by matching any, or all words of the query exactly or with some relevancy against the indexes created by the searching tool. The …

Scholastic A Cappella And The Construction Of Whiteness, Community, And Power, Daniel Fister

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Vocal-only student ensembles who cover contemporary popular music at most U.S. high schools and universities, known as a cappella groups, mold students as musical listeners and performers. Though predominantly composed of liberal and progressive people who value diversity and inclusion, a cappella communities perpetuate racialized inequities of sound and representation. I analyze how race, particularly whiteness, shapes the intersecting communities of scholastic a cappella through ideologies of sound (i.e. singing and arranging styles), social structures (i.e. audition processes, competition policies, and judging rubrics), and discourses (how a range of a cappella practitioners discuss, or not, social categories such as race …

Reassessing The History Of The Poverty Point Phenomenon: A Case Study From The Jaketown Site, Mississippi, Usa, Seth Bradley Grooms

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Towards the end of the Late Archaic period (ca. 4800-3000 cal BP), between 3,600 and 3,300 years ago, Native Americans engineered a colossal earthwork complex that covers approximately 200 hectares in northeast Louisiana. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site known as Poverty Point and the namesake for a material culture pattern documented to varying degrees at sites throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). However, the nature of interactions between these sites and the type site is poorly understood. The people who constructed the Poverty Point site lived on wild food resources. They hunted, fished, and gathered food from …

Inferring Adaptation In Social Microbes From Experimental Evolution Under Relaxed Selection, Tyler John Larsen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Microbes exist against a backdrop of other organisms, and the interactions between microbes have major consequences on their traits, their evolution, and their impact on the world. Microbial interactions and the adaptations that enable them are extremely diverse – they can unlock abilities beyond the reach of individual cells or lead to a population’s destruction, they can be temporary or permanent, they can be between genetically identical cells or different species entirely. The first chapter of this dissertation reviews microbial interactions and the related concept of the evolution of conflict and cooperation.To be certain a trait is an adaptation at …

Topics In International Finance, Jonathan Lennon Hsu

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on two main unanswered questions that lie at the intersection between international financing, international trade, and supply chains. Firstly, to what extent can international trade networks offer borrowing opportunities for firms that face significant barriers in traditional financing markets? Second, what are the potential impacts of financial globalization on firms’ borrowing and extension of trade credit?

The first chapter seeks to answer the first research question listed above: to what extentcan international trade networks offer borrowing opportunities for firms that face significant barriers in traditional financing markets? I show that firms use their trade flows to borrow …

Insights Into The Non-Osmoregulatory Function Of A Pollen-Specific Mechanosensitive Ion Channel, Kari Miller

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Pollen, the male gametophyte of flowering plants, delivers the sperm cells to the ovule to carry out sexual reproduction. During this process, the pollen grain undergoes dramatic physical changes. Survival requires careful control of cell mechanics, particularly the balance between protoplast expansion and cell wall resistance. One control mechanism is the use of a mechanosensitive (MS) ion channel, MscS-Like (MSL)8. This pollen-specific protein was previously shown to be essential for pollen survival during hydration and was proposed to function as a tension-gated osmoregulator. However, direct proof of osmoregulation during initial hydration has not yet been found. In fact, studies of …

Cultivating Life: Skill, Sovereignty, And The Nature Of Knowledge, Bradley Jones

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the cultivation of knowledge, nature, and farmers in U.S. alternative agriculture. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Hudson Valley of New York and Central Appalachia, I trace the movement of knowledge across prominent training guides, educational workshops, and apprenticeship programs designed to train the next generation of sustainable farmers. I argue that the knowledge communities of alternative agriculture (strive to) transmit not only technical capacity—the ability to productively farm sustainability—but also holistic ways of understanding the natural world and the human place in it. In doing so practitioners of alternative agriculture gain autonomy from the political-economic and …

Bioinformatics And Cancer Genomics Approaches To Advance Precision Medicine And Elucidate Tumor Mutational Landscapes, Kelsy Cotto

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Next-generation sequencing of DNA and RNA continues to be integrated into pre-clinical and clinical research. However, challenges still remain that impede the translation of findings into an improved understanding of human diseases or clinically actionable alterations. The projects described in this dissertation start with compiling efforts from experts who have identified druggable genes within the human genome, followed by in-depth analyses which characterize the pan-cancer landscape of splice-associated mutations and noncoding, regulatory mutations across multiple subtypes of breast cancer. In Chapters 2 and 3, substantial efforts were made to update the content and the user experience for the drug-gene interaction …

Emerging Insights Into A Role For Topoisomerase Iib And Methyl-Cpg Binding Protein 2 In Regulating Neuronal Transcription, Sabin Nettles

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The mammalian brain has unparalleled diversity of cell types with distinct molecular, morphological, connectional and functional properties. The specialization of these cells occurs during development through a series of spatially and temporally controlled changes in gene expression that are critical for proper assembly and function. Neurons in particular have complex and elaborate gene regulatory systems which allow specific combinations of genes to be expressed at distinct levels and at discrete developmental stages, giving rise to heterogenous neuronal subtypes. Identifying unique neuronal gene regulatory factors that contribute to the dynamic changes in gene expression are critical to understanding the molecular mechanism …

Generation, Characterization, And Treatment Of Functional Zebrafish Models For Musculoskeletal Disorders, Julia Nicole Whittle

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Musculoskeletal disorders in humans present with a broad range of phenotypes that vary in severity, onset, and genetic cause. The musculoskeletal system is comprised of complex and diverse tissues that make up the majority of total body mass. Thus, mutations in many different genes with differing structure and function can produce phenotypically similar developmental and morphological defects in the muscle and skeleton. In addition, the muscular and skeletal systems develop non-autonomously, wherein development and function of each will affect development of the other. Thus, mutations in genes responsible for development of this complex system have the potential to influence morphogenesis …

Synthesis And Application Of Functional Unimolecular [N]Catenanes In Novel Polymeric Materials, Mark Andrew Nosiglia

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) possess unique architectures and non-traditional degrees of freedom that arise from well-defined topologies that are achieved through precise mechanical bonding. Incorporation of MIMs into materials can thus provide an avenue to discover new and emergent macroscale properties. Here, the synthesis of a phenanthroline-based [2]catenane crosslinker and its incorporation into polyacrylate organogels is described. Specifically, Cu(I) metalation and de-metalation was used as a post-gelation strategy to tune the mechanical properties of a gel by controlling the conformational motions of integrated MIMs. The organogels were prepared via thermally initiated free radical polymerization, and Cu(I) metal was added in …

Canonical And Noncanonical Mechanisms Of Resistance To Arginine Starvation In Cancer, Leonard Christopher Rogers

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The enzyme argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1) catalyzes the condensation of citrulline and aspartate into argininosuccinate as part of the urea cycle and citrulline-nitric oxide cycle. This reaction is essential for mammals to synthesize the amino acid arginine, which is required for all cells. Nearly all human tissues express at least some ASS1, but they import most of their arginine from the extracellular space after it is produced and released by the kidneys. Most solid tumors lack a functional level of ASS1, including over 85% of sarcomas, which are cancers of connective tissues. Published evidence suggests that this provides a proliferation …

A War Of Compassion: Challenging The Species Barrier In The Works Of Céline And Léautaud, Dawn Mohrmann

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Jacques Derrida, when affirming the undeniability of animal suffering in L’Animal que donc je suis, states that there is “une guerre en cours … entre d’une part, ceux qui violent non seulement la vie animale mais jusqu’à ce sentiment de compassion et d’autre part, ceux qui en appellent au témoignage irrécusable de cette pitié” (50). This study investigates the nature of this ongoing war to which Derrida referred. I investigate both the nature of human cruelty and its counterpoint, empathy, which I propose as the response to the anthropocentrism that allows this struggle to continue. Through investigating theories of empathy, …

Circadian Circuitry And Glioblastoma: Interactions With Behavior, Carcinogenesis, And Clinical Practice., Anna R. Damato

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary adult brain tumor diagnosed, with a 15-month prognosis using current standard of care treatment which includes chemotherapy with temozolomide (Temodar, TMZ). Chronotherapy, the practice of considering time of day in treating a disease, has been shown to improve outcome in several cancers, but had not been applied to GBM. Previous work in the lab on a cultured murine mesenchymal GBM cell line showed a time-of-day dependent maximum in sensitivity to TMZ corresponding with the daily peak of Bmal1 and trough of Per2 expression, two core clock genes. Based on this finding, we sought …

The Enemy Within: An Investigation Of The Intracellular Bacteria In Urinary Tract Infections, Jennie Elizabeth Hazen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common diseases that are associated with significant morbidities. Multiple studies have indicated that multiple species of uropathogenesis bacteria invade and persist within bladder epithelial cells as a necessary step of uropathogenesis. Interestingly, many of these species are not canonically associated with intracellular infections. Although the first study describing bacteria within the urothelium was published two decades ago, this critical step of uropathogenesis remains relatively understudied.I established a murine model of community-acquired A. baumannii UTI, a previously unstudied manifestation of the disease. While immunocompetent mice resolved their infections quickly, immunocompromised mice displayed high bacterial burdens throughout …

A Universal Mechanism Of G Protein Inhibition, Tyson Daniel Todd

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

G protein coupled receptors transduce a truly staggering number of diverse extracellular signals including chemical messengers, physical force, and even photons into specific cellular responses through their coupling to heterotrimeric G proteins. G proteins amplify the originating signal through their binding to downstream effectors, activating a complex network of overlapping responses that allow the cell to respond perfectly to that specific stimulus. It is critical to the cell that this process is carried out faithfully in order to respond to the myriad environmental cues and avoid injury, exhaustion, and death for the individual cell or the development of pathology if …

Non-Canonical Beta-Lactam Antibiotics, Brett Wesley Virgin-Downey

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In canonical β-Lactam antibiotics, such as penicillin, the strained nature of the β-Lactam ring leads to acylation of the catalytic serine in the active site of transpeptidases. In 2018, our lab reported a novel mechanism for monocyclic β-lactam antibiotics in the inhibition of glutamine synthetase (GS) by a natural product, tabtoxinine-β-lactam (TβL) using a 3-hydroxy-β-lactam pharmacophore. This work aims to generalize the β-lactam scaffold from TβL to act as a warhead against ATP-dependent carboxylate-amine ligase enzymes, with dihydrofolate synthetase (DHFS) as the test case. A pure 3-hydroxy-β-lactam warhead was synthesized and ligated both chemically and chemoenzymatically to different pteridine mimics. …

Dysregulation Of Gene Expression In Non-Photosensitive Trichothiodystrophy, Brittany Townley

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The pre-mRNA life cycle requires intron processing; yet, how intron processing defects influence splicing and gene expression is unclear. Here, we find TTDN1, which is frequently mutated in non-photosensitive trichothiodystrophy (NP-TTD), functionally links intron lariat processing to the spliceosome. The conserved TTDN1 C-terminal region directly binds lariat debranching enzyme DBR1, while its N-terminal intrinsically disordered region (IDR) binds the intron binding complex (IBC). The IDR forms condensates in vitro and is needed for IBC interaction. TTDN1 loss causes significant intron lariat accumulation, as well as splicing and gene expression defects, mirroring phenotypes observed in NP-TTD patient cells. Ttdn1∆/∆ mice recapitulate …

Tracking Reducing Equivalents Between Cellular Compartments To Understand The Metabolic Demands Of Proliferation, Yahui Wang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Proliferating cancer cells compartmentalize metabolic reactions, many of which require reducing equivalents. This compartmentalization is functionally important, but it is challenging to study with current technologies. As a consequence, our understanding of proliferating metabolism has been limited. Here, I developed an approach to track reducing equivalents between cellular compartments. By applying this method to a panel of different cell lines under various conditions, I investigated a dysregulated metabolic phenotype in proliferating cells known as “aerobic glycolysis”. Aerobic glycolysis is characterized by an elevated rate of glucose fermentation to lactate irrespective of oxygen availability. Using the NCI-60 cell lines, I first …

Understanding Gene Regulation With High-Throughput Genome-Integrated Reporter Assays, Clarice Hong

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Proper spatiotemporal gene expression depends on specific interactions between cis-regulatory sequences (CRSs) and chromatin modifications at a genomic location. However, we do not yet understand the rules that determine how CRSs work together to influence gene expression. The goal of this thesis is to systematically assay and quantify how different genomic environments interact with CRSs to control gene expression output using a variety of genome-integrated massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs). First, we tested the hypothesis that core promoters confer specificity by only responding to compatible enhancers and chromatin in specific genomic environments. We measured the activities of hundreds of core …

Poverty, Child Maltreatment And Adverse Childhood Experiences – Just Comorbidities?, Darejan Dvalishvili

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Both child abuse and neglect (hereafter maltreatment) and poverty are serious social and public health problems that are related to numerous negative and costly outcomes as well as being related to other so-called adverse childhood experiences (ACES). A significant, yet recent, body of work suggests a strong, perhaps causal, relationship between poverty and maltreatment. Much remains unknown about how they are associated and whether or not a true causal relationship exists while controlling for other potential risks in the ecology. This dissertation conducted a secondary analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to help address this gap. First, …

Sik3 & Wnk Signals Through Fray To Regulate Glial K+ Buffering And Seizure Susceptibility In Drosophila Models Of Hyperexcitability, Lorenzo Laronn Lones

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

K+ homeostasis is important for maintaining healthy, physiological levels of neuronal activity. Glial cells play a central role in maintaining homeostatic ion gradients. In previous work from our lab, we unravel a glial K+ buffering program that is centered on a key kinase, salt-inducible kinase 3 (SIK3). SIK3-HDAC4 signaling in glial regulates the transcription of channels and transporters involved in water and ion transport. Defects in this pathway lead to peripheral nerve edema, neuronal hyperactivity, and seizure sensitivity. In an hyperexcitability mutant, eag Shaker, we show this pathway is downregulated and genetic activation suppresses seizure behavior. In this thesis, I …

The Effect Of Ionization Density In Applications Of Radiation Detection, Dosimetry, And Therapy, Daniel Mulrow

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation covers a wide range of topics but is linked by the common theme of radiation interacting with materials and studying the result of those interactions. The introduction describes the fundamentals of how radiation interacts with material and how we are able to detect that radiation and the application of how we use those interactions in radiation oncology. The thesis starts with a chapter detailing the temperature dependence of the photophysics in two organic scintillators. This chapter is the foundation for a future study that will look the degree to which these scintillators can distinguish between gammas and neutrons …

Analyzing The Interconnectedness Of The Human Genome, Nicholas Jacobs

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The human genome is much more interconnected than many people realize. In this thesis, I will outline two efforts to portray this idea. First, I will seek to display that cell fitness is an omniphenotype. That is to say, cell fitness can be used to determine whether an unknown factor interacts with a known factor for any phenotype. The human genome is sufficiently interconnected that if two factors interact with one another then that can be reflected by a multiplicative change in cell fitness. This change in fitness can be used to determine if a new factor of interest is …

Examination Of The Role Of Peer Effect On Board Diversity Among Us-Listed Companies, Liyang Wang

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Traditionally, government mandates and investor activism influence board diversity in the United States. This study proposes peer effects as a third important determinant of board diversity. The results suggest that companies consider the progress made by their peers when deciding their own diversity. Interestingly, companies only match the performance of their peers and will spend comparable efforts in improving their diversity according to their peer's progress. Meanwhile, the peer effect has grown stronger in recent years, and companies are more likely to track the performance of mid-level peers. The results provide evidence on a new channel that can affect board …