Digital Commons Network^™

Characterization Of The Interaction Between Asic And Bk Channels In Glioma Derived Cell Lines, Michael Young

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Glioma are the most common form of brain tumor and carry a particularly poor prognosis that has remained unchanged over the past two decades. Increased activity of large conductance voltage gated and calcium activated potassium channels (BK channels) have been associated with the characteristic invasiveness and proliferation of the disease. Previous work has shown that these channels are inhibited by acid-sensing ion channels (ASIC) at physiological pH (7.4) and that this inhibition is relieved at acidic pH (6.0) commonly found in tumors (Petroff et al. 2008, Petroff et al. 2012). Previous work in our lab has shown that that this …

Establishing A Vegetative Cap For Sustainable Stabilization Of Copper Contaminated Soils In Torch Lake, Michigan, Virinder Pal Singh Sidhu

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Extensive mining activities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan have resulted in a number of contaminated sites with mine tailings. Several million metric tons of mine tailings were generated during the peak of copper (Cu) mining activities in this region. These tailings are called “stamp sands” because they were generated by crushing native Cu containing rocks, by a process known as stamping. The stamp sands were discharged into Lake Superior, other interior lakes and their shorelines, converting these areas into vast, fallow lands. The Cu contaminated stamp sands are being eroded back into …

How Do Manipulatives Help Students Communicate Their Understanding Of Double-Digit Subtraction?, Rabab Abi-Hanna

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Multi-digit subtraction is difficult for students to learn. The purpose of this study is to explore how second-grade students communicate their understanding of double-digit subtraction through the use of manipulatives/tools. This qualitative study reports on six case studies of second-grade students where clinical interviews were the main source of data. Findings suggest that manipulatives/tools helped reveal cognitive constructs and difficulties that the handwritten algorithms were not conveying. For example, students who exhibited an understanding of the subtraction process had not yet developed an understanding of ten and 10 ones interchangeability. These results highlight the potential role of manipulatives/tools as communication …

The Professional Identities Of Mainstream Teachers Of English Learners : A Discourse Analysis, Adrian D. Martin

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study investigated the professional identities of four mainstream teachers of English learners (ELs). Four teachers in two school contexts (urban and suburban) were interviewed five times and observed during formal instruction four times. Adopting a sociocultural perspective on identity, the study employed discourse analysis to answer the research questions: (a) what are the professional identities of four mainstream teachers of English learners in Northern New Jersey schools; (b) in what ways are these identities constructed by the participants; and (c) what seem to be the influences on these teachers' professional identities? The interview data were analyzed using three …

The Effects Of Heavy Metals And Microbes On Extracellular Enzyme Activity At Liberty State Park, Eleanor Urenna Ojinnaka

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The overall goals of this research were to 1) understand the influence of microbes and heavy metals on extracellular enzyme activity in soil environments and 2) explore the possibility of using living organisms, such as microbes, to improve the enzyme activity of contaminated, poor-functioning soil—bioremediation. Microbes exude enzymes into the soil, which are vital in the cycling of nutrients in soil communities. Thus, measuring extracellular enzyme activity can be used to quantify the health of soil. In this experiment, phosphatase enzyme was measured as a proxy for enzyme activity. The study site is a closed-off section of Liberty State Park …

Sentiments In Sustainability Data Collection : Understanding User Sentiment In Collaborative, Social Tagging Environmental Sciences Platforms, Nikita Sanjay Panchariya

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Many scientists throughout the world are exploring how the data can be analyzed and used for sustainability purposes. With these investigations there is significant need to collect and explore the data with mobile collaborative tools to enable real time interactions among the interested users and the researchers. The principle objective of this study is to explore an application of sentiment analysis on the collected heterogeneous data in the form of text, images, and location details that were collected using the Geotagger application and observe and infer users’ reactions and opinions of the geographical data they collect about.

Expression, Purification, Enzymatic And Inhibition Profile Of Brugia Malayi Dihydrofolate Reductase, Romy Perez-Abraham

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is an essential enzyme that plays an important role in the production of cofactors that are required in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis. The literature suggests that DHFR is a potential drug target for the elimination of the parasitic worm, B. malayi. B. malayi is one of the causative parasites of lymphatic filariasis, a globally neglected tropical disease. In this study, we expressed and purified B. malayi DHFR. Expression was carried out in E. coli with a His6-tagged construct, and purification was achieved through affinity chromatography using a special strain of E. coli cells called “LOBSTR.” The resulting …

Modeling The Formation Of Tetrahydropyranyl Radicals Via Hydrogen Abstraction, Robert Booth

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

A computational analysis was performed on the reaction between tetrahydropyran (THP) and atomic bromine in order to gain a better understanding of the energetics of the addition-elimination mechanism as compared to similar chemical reactions. Prior to the reaction energetics study, a separate analysis was performed on substituted tetrahydropyran derivatives in order to optimize the computational methods being used, to understand the extent of the anomeric effect in tetrahydropyran, and to understand solvent contributions to the energies of the tetrahydropyran derivatives. Trial calculations were performed using Hartree-Fock (HF) theory, Density Functional theory (DFT), and second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation (MP2) theory, and it …

Computing The Optimal Path In Stochastic Dynamical Systems, Martha Bauver

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In stochastic systems, one is often interested in finding the optimal path that maximizes the probability of escape from a metastable state or of switching between metastable states. Even for simple systems it may be impossible to find an analytic form of the optimal path, and in high-dimensional systems, this is almost always the case. The optimal path is of great importance, since it represents the most likely path of a rare switching or escape event. For instance, the optimal path for an infectious disease model represents a switching from an infectious state to the extinction of the disease within …

Canon Fodder In The Institutional Vessel : The Missing Voice Of The Student In Literary Canon And Curriculum Discourse, Meagan J. Dejong

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Are graduate students' part of the “canon wars,” which have been waged among scholars and institutions for more than twenty years to determine what should remain part of the literary canon and therefore part of the curriculum; or are graduate students merely “canon fodder”? My research attempts to define the canon, then examines whether scholar-critics or academic institutions have listened to the voice of the students regarding the creation and continued teaching of the canon, and finally explores the chasm between the “accessible” and “selective” canon. I ask whether any pedagogical approach values the student when implementing the canon through …

Adjusted Empirical Likelihood Method For Comparison Of Treatment Effects In Linear Model Setting, Xi Kang

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Empirical likelihood is a nonparametric method of statistical inference which was introduced by Owen. It allows the data analyst to use it without making distribution assumptions. Empirical likelihood method has been widely used not only for nonparametric models but also for semi-parametric models, with the effectiveness of the likelihood approach and good power properties. However, when the sample size is small or the dimension is high, the method is poorly calibrated, producing tests that generally have a higher type I error. In addition, it suffers from a limiting convex hull constraint. Many statisticians have proposed methods to address the performance. …

The Grey Men Of Empire: Framing Britain's Official Mind, 1854-1934, Blake Allen Duffield

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“The Grey Men of Empire: Framing Britain’s Official Mind, 1854-1934,” examines the crucial, yet too often-undervalued role of Britain’s imperial bureaucracy in forging the ethos and identity behind the policy-decisions made across the Empire. Although historians have tended to dismiss them as the faceless and voiceless grey men of Empire, this study argues that the political officers of the Colonial Services represented the backbone of British colonial administration and, quite literally, were responsible for its survival and proliferation. These so-called ‘men on the spot’—the District Officers, Assistant District Officers, and Cadets of the C.S.—made innumerable day-to-day, minute-to-minute decisions free from …

Development Of Electrochemical Sensors Suitable For In Vivo Detection For Neurotransmitters, Mengjia Hu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The electrochemical method of redox cycling was exploited to achieve new discoveries in neurotransmitter detection and to advance its suitability toward in vivo use. Redox cycling has advantages in signal amplification, selectivity of species based on their electrochemical reaction mechanisms, and limited or no background subtraction. Distinction of dopamine from norepinephrine in a mixture with an electrochemical method at unmodified electrodes was demonstrated for the first time in vitro. This ability resulted from a series of fundamental studies of redox cycling behavior of the catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine) using different electrode configurations. Taking advantage of the ECC’ mechanism associated …

Linear Trend Analysis: Implications For A Structural Fracture System And Applications Of Subsurface Fluid Migration, Northwest Arkansas And Eastern Oklahoma, Loren Labusch

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lineaments are mappable, simple or composite linear or curvilinear features of the Earth’s surface longer than one mile, which differ from the patterns of adjacent features and are presumed to reflect subsurface phenomenon such as faults and fractures. The usage of the term refers to the description Lattman published in 1958 and was the foundation for work by MacDonald in 1977, which is the basis for this project. Remote sensing techniques have provided a valuable means to analyze lineaments on a large scale in a relatively short time in comparison to field mapping methods. The products of such fracture studies …

Hardware Trojan Detection Via Golden Reference Library Matching, Lucas Weaver

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to the proliferation of hardware Trojans in third party Intellectual Property (IP) designs, the issue of hardware security has risen to the forefront of computer engineering. Because of the miniscule size yet devastating effects of hardware Trojans, few detection methods have been presented that adequately address this problem facing the hardware industry. One such method with the ability to detect hardware Trojans is Structural Checking. This methodology analyzes a soft IP at the register-transfer level to discover malicious inclusions. An extension of this methodology is presented that expands the list of signal functionalities, termed assets, in addition to introducing …

Investigating Mineral Stability Under Venus Conditions: A Focus On The Venus Radar Anomalies, Erika Kohler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Radar studies of the surface of Venus have identified regions with high radar reflectivity concentrated in the Venusian highlands: between 2.5 and 4.75 km above a planetary radius of 6051 km, though it varies with latitude. Previous research has proposed several theories on the source of these anomalies, including increased surface roughness, metallic materials with higher dielectric constants, or ferroelectric materials. Prior work suggests several processes that could be the origin of these anomalies, such as surface-atmospheric interactions or low lying clouds or fog. Alternatively, these anomalies could result from a semi-metallic compound trapped at the cooler conditions in the …

Future Flowers, Eszter Takacs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a book-length poem presented in three untitled parts.

Topics In The Detection Of Gravitational Waves From Compact Binary Inspirals, Shasvath Jagat Kapadia

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Orbiting compact binaries - such as binary black holes, binary neutron stars and neutron star-black hole binaries - are among the most promising sources of gravitational waves observable by ground-based interferometric detectors. Despite numerous sophisticated engineering techniques, the gravitational wave signals will be buried deep within noise generated by various instrumental and environmental processes, and need to be extracted via a signal processing technique referred to as matched filtering.

Matched filtering requires large banks of signal templates that are faithful representations of the true gravitational waveforms produced by astrophysical binaries. The accurate and efficient production of templates is thus crucial …

A Geochemical Analysis Of The Arkansas Novaculite And Comparison To The Siliceous Deposits Of The Boone Formation, John Byron Scott Philbrick

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Geochemical analyses of the Arkansas Novaculite, located within core structures of the Ouachita Mountains in west-central Arkansas, and penecontemporaneous chert of the lower Boone Formation, located atop the Springfield Plateau of southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas, and northeast Oklahoma, have identified a significant concentration of both aluminum and potassium. This would seem to eliminate a biogenic origin and favor a volcanic source of the silica that comprises these units. Trace and rare earth element (REE) analysis also suggests that the Arkansas Novaculite and the chert in the lower Boone Formation may have both been formed from the same volcanic source.

The …

Income Inequality In American Professional Sports Leagues, Joshua S. Thurman

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sports leagues provide an interesting window to view issues that larger economies face that are much harder to measure due to their complexity. These leagues have many policy tools similar to those used in major world economies such as minimum wage, price ceilings, labor unions, and revenue sharing, although the impact of these policies are much easier to measure in the closed economy model of a sports league because the income and output of every player in a given year is known. In this paper, I measure the level and trend of income inequality in the NBA, NFL, and MLB, …

Are Music Streaming Services Healthy For The Recorded Music Industry?, Elizabeth W. Pittman

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

To listen to music just a few hundred years ago would require hundreds of miles of travel, tons of wood and metal and ivory and copper strings, construction of a stage and audience platforms, human capital to perform the music of course, and lots of money. All of these variables would combine to produce an auditory experience of approximately 45 minutes total. Today, a single musician can produce the sound of dozens with just a laptop, and it can be consumed relatively cheaply with the click of a button. Digital services such as iTunes or Spotify give listeners access to …

Geological Conditions Required For The Fluvial Erosion Of Titan’S Impact Craters, Rebeca M. Kinser

Theses and Dissertations

In comparison to other icy satellites, Titan has a small number of impact craters on its surface. Its dense atmosphere screens smaller impactors from the surface, but this alone does not account for the lack of impact craters, especially at large diameters. This suggests that Titan has a relatively young surface and/or erosional processes have effectively removed craters from its surface. For example, fluvial erosion could degrade craters such that they would be unrecognizable from an orbiting spacecraft such as Cassini. The amount of erosion, however, will depend on a number of factors including the geological and meteorological conditions of …

Experimental, Numerical, And Analytical Slosh Dynamics Of Water And Liquid Nitrogen In A Spherical Tank, Jedediah Morse Storey

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding, predicting, and controlling fluid slosh dynamics is critical to safety and improving performance of space missions when a significant percentage of the spacecraft’s mass is a liquid. Computational fluid dynamics simulations can be used to predict the dynamics of slosh, but these programs require extensive validation. Many experimental and numerical studies of water slosh have been conducted. However, slosh data for cryogenic liquids is lacking. Water and cryogenic liquid nitrogen are used in various ground-based tests with a spherical tank to characterize damping, slosh mode frequencies, and slosh forces. A single ring baffle is installed in the tank for …

Instructional Approach And Mathematics Achievement: An Investigation Of Traditional, Online, And Flipped Classrooms In College Algebra, Dustin Daniel Files

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship three different instructional models had with students’ mathematics achievement. The research factors included group membership (flipped, online, and traditional), student demographics (gender, age, and race/ethnicity), and students’ affective domain (attitudes toward mathematics, mathematics self-efficacy with respect to algebra, and locus of control). The study used a quasi-experimental, modified nonrandomized pretest-posttest control group, involving intact classes of 117 students during the fall 2015 semester. The data collection instruments consisted of several different assessments: (a) a four-section questionnaire, (b) a test of prerequisite skills (TPRS), (c) three unit examinations, and (d) an …

Guatemalan Exiles, Caribbean Basin Dictators, Operation Pbfortune, And The Transnational Counter-Revolution Against The Guatemalan Revolution, 1944-1952, Aaron Coy Moulton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When U.S. officials in 1952 approved the first Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation to overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz, they unknowingly stepped into a regional conflict that, for nearly ten years, included dissident Guatemalan exiles, Caribbean Basin dictators, and the Guatemalan governments of Arbenz and his predecessor Juan José Arévalo. Since the mid-1940s, exiles and dictators had denounced the Guatemalan Revolution as the product of Mexican, Soviet, and international communism. The anti-communist ideology of Guatemalan exiles, Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, Honduran dictator Tiburcio Carías, and Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo facilitated various conspiracies aimed to destabilize Arévalo and Arbenz’s governments throughout …

The Maximal Thurston-Bennequin Number On Grid Number N Diagrams, Emily Goins Thomas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We will prove an upper bound for the Thurston-Bennequin number of Legendrian knots and links on a rectangular grid with arc index n.

TB(n)=CR(n)-[n/2]

In order to prove the bound, we will separate our work for when n is even and when n is odd. After we prove the upper bound, we will show that there are unique knots and links on each grid which achieve the upper bound. When n is even, torus links achieve the maximum, and when n is odd, torus knots achieve the maximum.

Experimental And Computational Studies Of Cortical Neural Network Properties Through Signal Processing, Wesley Patrick Clawson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies, both theoretical and experimental, of network level dynamics in the cerebral cortex show evidence for a statistical phenomenon called criticality; a phenomenon originally studied in the context of phase transitions in physical systems and that is associated with favorable information processing in the context of the brain. The focus of this thesis is to expand upon past results with new experimentation and modeling to show a relationship between criticality and the ability to detect and discriminate sensory input. A line of theoretical work predicts maximal sensory discrimination as a functional benefit of criticality, which can then be characterized …

Isotopic Identification Of Multiple Contributors Of Metal Ions In Mississippi Valley-Type Ore Deposits Along The Cincinnati Arch In South-Central Kentucky, William Travis Garmon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mississippi Valley-Type (MVT) ores are economically-viable deposits of sulfide minerals, often dominated by sphalerite (zinc-sulfide) in carbonate facies, and galena (lead-sulfide) in siliciclastic facies. MVT ores precipitate from migrating fluids, which carry base metals often complexed with chlorine ions within a basinal brine. This study identifies metal-contributing source-regions of the Burkesville MVT deposit using Pb-isotope ratios within sphalerite samples collected from the Burkesville deposit. The deposit is found in south-central Kentucky within the Middle-Tennessee ore district along the crest of the Cincinnati Arch, which is the anticlinal divide between the Appalachian Basin and the Illinois Basin. Competing theories argue that …

Influences Of Channel Dredging On Avulsion Potential At The Atchafalaya River, Gordon William Mccain

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1950, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) reported a rapid increase of water discharge from the Mississippi River to its distributary channel; the Atchafalaya River. If not prevented by man-made structures, the complete capture of the Mississippi River by the Atchafalaya River was predicted. The USACE report cites multiple causes for the observed increase in discharge partitioning, yet fails to assess the largescale channel dredging operations conducted throughout the Atchafalaya River Basin during the 1930's and 1940's as a potential cause for the increased discharge. To assess the role man-made interventions, specifically channel dredging, played in the increase …

The Effects Of Dynamic Graphing Utilities On Student Attitudes And Conceptual Understanding In College Algebra, Ryan Vail Thomas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to explore and characterize the effects of using a dynamic graphing utility (DGU) on conceptual understanding and attitudes toward mathematics, measured by the responses of college algebra students to an attitude survey and concepts assessment. Two sections of college algebra taught by the primary researcher are included in the study, with one group using the dynamic graphing utility Desmos (www.desmos.com), and the other using the TI-84 (or equivalent) graphing calculator as a control. The Precalculus Concept Assessment (Carlson, Oehrtman, & Engelke, 2010) was used to measure aspects of students’ conceptual understanding of course material, …