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Impact Of L-Arginine Transportation On Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cell Function, Cansu Cimen Bozkus Jan 2015

Impact Of L-Arginine Transportation On Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cell Function, Cansu Cimen Bozkus

Open Access Dissertations

Inflammatory chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome has been linked to autoimmune inflammation. Likewise, prostatitis has been linked to prostate cancer development and progression. A better understanding of the mechanisms by which inflammation is regulated may provide the foundation for novel approaches to controlling inflammation. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are a heterogeneous population of immature cells that expand during benign and cancer-associated inflammation. MDSC are characterized by their ability to potently inhibit T cell responses. Therefore, by dampening inflammation, MDSC benefit autoimmune diseases. Instead, they aggravate cancer by blocking antitumor immune responses. Identification of mechanisms underlying MDSC activities can enable the …

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Signal Enhancement And Data Mining For Biological And Chemical Samples Using Mass Spectrometry, Yuezhi Du Jan 2015

Signal Enhancement And Data Mining For Biological And Chemical Samples Using Mass Spectrometry, Yuezhi Du

Open Access Dissertations

Mass spectrometry has been actively involved in the areas of healthcare, pharmaceutics, environmental analysis, food industry and forensics due to its ability to provide molecular information at trace levels. Recently, because of the complexity of chemical and biological samples, computer-assisted mass spectra analysis, including signal enhancement, statistics and machine learning, has been drawn more and more attention especially for researches in biomarker identification, sample classification and omics-related areas where high volume of data is generated.

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The Organization Of Mitochondrial Quality Control And Life Cycle In The Nervous System In Vivo In The Absence Of Pink1, Swathi Devireddy Jan 2015

The Organization Of Mitochondrial Quality Control And Life Cycle In The Nervous System In Vivo In The Absence Of Pink1, Swathi Devireddy

Open Access Dissertations

Maintenance of healthy mitochondria is crucial in cells, such as neurons, with high

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Aptitude In L2 And L3 Learners Of German, Katharina Neema Kipp Jan 2015

Aptitude In L2 And L3 Learners Of German, Katharina Neema Kipp

Open Access Dissertations

This study aims at contributing to the notoriously under-researched field of

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Characterization Of The Function Of The Dead-Box Rna Helicase Dbp2, Wai Kit Ma Jan 2015

Characterization Of The Function Of The Dead-Box Rna Helicase Dbp2, Wai Kit Ma

Open Access Dissertations

In eukaryotes, there are highly coupled mechanisms that require RNA-binding proteins to facilitate gene expression. Proper RNA structure and ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex formation are critical for gene expression. DEAD-box proteins are the largest class of RNA helicases that play fundamental roles in RNA and RNP structure remodeling. However, the precise biological role of the vast majority of the ~ 40 members in this family has not been completely described. Therefore, my research focused on characterizing the role of the DEAD-box RNA helicase Dbp2 during gene expression in S. cerevisiae.

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Second Language Writing Instructor Written Feedback Practices In An Esl Freshman Composition Class: A Complexity Theory Perspective, Masakazu Mishima Jan 2015

Second Language Writing Instructor Written Feedback Practices In An Esl Freshman Composition Class: A Complexity Theory Perspective, Masakazu Mishima

Open Access Dissertations

This case study investigated second language writing instructors’ written feedback practices from a complexity theory perspective. The purpose of the research was to explore and examine contextual factors and their impact on instructor written feedback practices. Data were collected from two ESL writing instructors and two ESL writers through surveys, interviews, and classroom observations. Based on the results, a complexity theory-based model of second language writing instructor written feedback practices was developed to represent the complexity of written feedback practice situated in the specific instructional context. The findings suggest that the instructors were under constant influence of five different contextual …

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Manganese Toxicity: Accumulation In Bone, Effect On Brain Neurochemistry, And Impact On Adult Neurogenesis, Stefanie O'Neal Jan 2015

Manganese Toxicity: Accumulation In Bone, Effect On Brain Neurochemistry, And Impact On Adult Neurogenesis, Stefanie O'Neal

Open Access Dissertations

O’Neal, Stefanie L. Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2015. Manganese Toxicity: Accumulation in Bone, Effect on Neurochemistry, Impact on Adult Neurogenesis. Major Professor: Wei Zheng.

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Proteogenomic Insights Into The Nature Of Chemoresistance In Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, Brett Noel Jan 2015

Proteogenomic Insights Into The Nature Of Chemoresistance In Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, Brett Noel

Open Access Dissertations

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) is a hematopoietic cancer caused by the formation of the Philadelphia chromosome, a reciprocal translocation of the ABL1 oncogene on chromosome 9, and the breakpoint cluster region gene (BCR) chromosome 22, resulting in the BCR-ABL oncoprotein. BCR-ABL is a constitutively active tyrosine kinase that regulates cell growth and differentiation, leading to uncontrolled cell proliferation by deregulating downstream signaling pathways.

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A Comparison Of Two Instructional Sequences In An Intelligent Tutoring Program On Multiplicative Concepts And Problem Solving Of Students With Mathematics Difficulties, Joo Young Park Jan 2015

A Comparison Of Two Instructional Sequences In An Intelligent Tutoring Program On Multiplicative Concepts And Problem Solving Of Students With Mathematics Difficulties, Joo Young Park

Open Access Dissertations

One of the crucial goals of the National Councils of Teachers Mathematics standards (2000) was to have all students, including students with mathematics difficulties (MD), to succeed in establishing a higher-order thinking in mathematic.

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Photonic Metasurfaces For Spatiotemporal And Ultrafast Light Control, Amr Shaltout Jan 2015

Photonic Metasurfaces For Spatiotemporal And Ultrafast Light Control, Amr Shaltout

Open Access Dissertations

The emergence of photonic metasurfaces - planar arrays of nano-antennas - has enabled a new paradigm of light control through wave-front engineering. Space-gradient metasurfaces induce spatially varying phase and/or polarization to propagating light. As a consequence, photons propagating through space-gradient metasurfaces can be engineered to undergo a change to their momentum, angular momentum and/or spin states.

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The Impact Of Mobile Network Forensics Evidence On The Criminal Case Processing Performance In Macedonia: An Institutional Analysis Study, Filipo Sharevski Jan 2015

The Impact Of Mobile Network Forensics Evidence On The Criminal Case Processing Performance In Macedonia: An Institutional Analysis Study, Filipo Sharevski

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the contribution of the localization data, network-management data, and content-of-communication data in the case processing performance in Macedonia. The mobile network forensics evidence was analyzed respective to the impact of the mobile network data variety, the mobile network data volume, and the forensic processing on the case disposition time. The results from this study indicate that the case disposition time is negatively correlated with the network-management data volume and positively correlated with the content-of-communication data volume. The relevance of the network-management data was recognized in the highly granular service behavior profile developed …

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After-Hours Mobile Technology Use And Its Effect On Burnout Experienced By Student Affairs Professionals, Anne Stark Jan 2015

After-Hours Mobile Technology Use And Its Effect On Burnout Experienced By Student Affairs Professionals, Anne Stark

Open Access Dissertations

This study examined the possible effect between the after-hours mobile technology use by student affairs professionals and work place burnout experienced by student affairs professionals. Similar to Owens (2014), data for this study were collected by employing the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Christina Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1986). The collected data in this study were explored by the statistical method of multiple regression. While the number of responses was not high enough to determine statistically significant differences, the data did not show a strong correlation between after-hours mobile technology use and workplace burnout experienced by student affairs professionals.

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Economic Development And Child Nutrition In Nepal, Ganesh Thapa Jan 2015

Economic Development And Child Nutrition In Nepal, Ganesh Thapa

Open Access Dissertations

Child malnutrition rates in Nepal are among the highest in the world. Government and non-governmental agencies are actively seeking various pathways that might be useful to improve child nutrition outcomes in Nepal, fill gaps in understanding surrounding nutrition drivers, and shorten the time required to attain the Millennium Development Goals. This dissertation includes three essays that use a range of data, including nationally representative data on the growth of children nutrition below five years of age, to identify potential pathways for improving child nutrition in Nepal.

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Mental Health And Human Minds: Some Theoretical Criteria For Clinical Psychiatry, Natalia Washington Jan 2015

Mental Health And Human Minds: Some Theoretical Criteria For Clinical Psychiatry, Natalia Washington

Open Access Dissertations

When it comes to the topic of mental illness, there are three broad areas of concern that are of interest to all of us as human beings—and to the theorists, researchers, and clinicians who wish to offer help—besides knowing what our symptoms are. First, we might be interested in finding out some normative facts about ourselves as individuals, such as whether or not we are mentally healthy, perhaps to what extent, and how this should affect our motivations. A second area of concern involves descriptive facts our minds. In what ways do we deviate from typical human psychological nature, and …

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Framework For Incorporating Network Connectivity In Transportation Systems Evaluation, Wubeshet Woldemariam Jan 2015

Framework For Incorporating Network Connectivity In Transportation Systems Evaluation, Wubeshet Woldemariam

Open Access Dissertations

In transportation investment evaluation, agencies often do not consider the impact of proposed projects in terms of the increased connectivity of the parent network. Thus, agencies may be inadvertently omitting a key and critical goal of transportation investment evaluation and decision making, particularly in regions and countries with sparse networks. This dissertation develops a framework for measuring network connectivity performance for use as an input for the evaluation process and is applicable to existing or proposed networks in any mode of transportation. The steps for the framework include selection of network performance measures (PMs), scaling the PMs, determining the level …

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The Effects Of Instigation, Anger, And Emotion Regulation On Intimate Partner Violence Related Behaviors: Examination Of The Perfect Storm Theory, Erica Lynn Birkley Jan 2015

The Effects Of Instigation, Anger, And Emotion Regulation On Intimate Partner Violence Related Behaviors: Examination Of The Perfect Storm Theory, Erica Lynn Birkley

Open Access Dissertations

The present study was an empirical evaluation of I³ “perfect storm” theory (“I-Cubed”;Finkel & Eckhardt, 2013; Finkel, 2014), in which the interactive risk processes of instigation, emotion regulation, and trait anger were examined in the prediction of intimate partner violence (IPV) related behaviors. In a 2 X 4 between subjects design, a sample of college undergraduates (N = 180) with a history of IPV were randomly assigned to use 1 of 4 emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, distraction, suppression, or no instruction) while listening to either a anger arousing (instigation) or neutral (no instigation) imagined relationship scenario presented using the …

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The Role Of Bicultural Self-Efficacy And Cognitive-Affective Factors On Psychological Well-Being, Alexandra Broustovetskaia Jan 2015

The Role Of Bicultural Self-Efficacy And Cognitive-Affective Factors On Psychological Well-Being, Alexandra Broustovetskaia

Open Access Dissertations

Due to increasing number of immigrant and international students, examining factors that contribute to this population’s well-being is of outmost importance. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of bicultural self-efficacy in the relationship between cognitive-affective factors of emotional intelligence (EI) and ambiguity tolerance (AT) and psychological well-being. Immigrant and international students (N = 176) completed measures of Bicultural Self-Efficacy Scale (BSES; David, Okazaki, & Saw, 2009), Trait-Meta Mood Scale (TMMS; Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, & Palfai, 1995), Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale-II (MSTAT-II; McLain, 2009), and Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS; Ryff, 1989). The following hypotheses …

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Casablanca Of The Caribbean: Cuban Refugees, Local Power, And Cold War Policy In Miami, 1959-1995, Mauricio Fernando Castro Jan 2015

Casablanca Of The Caribbean: Cuban Refugees, Local Power, And Cold War Policy In Miami, 1959-1995, Mauricio Fernando Castro

Open Access Dissertations

Castro, Mauricio F. Ph.D., Purdue University, August 2015. Casablanca of the Caribbean: Cuban Refugees, Local Power, and Cold War Policy in Miami, 1959-1995. Major Professor: Jon Teaford

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Evaluation Of The Safety Systems In The Next Generation Boiling Water Reactor, Ling Cheng Jan 2015

Evaluation Of The Safety Systems In The Next Generation Boiling Water Reactor, Ling Cheng

Open Access Dissertations

The thesis evaluates the safety systems in the next generation boiling water reactor by analyzing the main steam line break loss of coolant accident performed in the Purdue university multi-dimensional test assembly (PUMA). RELAP5 code simulations, both for the PUMA main steam line break (MSLB) case and for the simplified boiling water reactor (SBWR) MSLB case have been utilized to compare with the experiment data. The comparison shows that RELAP5 is capable to perform the safety analysis for SBWR. The comparison also validates the three-level scaling methodology applied to the design of the PUMA facility.

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High Pressure Micro-Scale Studies Of Fast-Hydropyrolysis And Catalytic Hydrogenation Of Biomass And Related Model Compounds, Harshavardhan Choudhari Jan 2015

High Pressure Micro-Scale Studies Of Fast-Hydropyrolysis And Catalytic Hydrogenation Of Biomass And Related Model Compounds, Harshavardhan Choudhari

Open Access Dissertations

Biomass is a major source of renewable carbon which can be converted to hydrocarbon fuel with the aim of reducing the dependence on fossil based sources. Fast pyrolysis of biomass followed by catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oil is considered a promising biomass conversion route to produce drop in hydrocarbon fuels. The H2Bioil process was proposed as an integrated high pressure fast hydropyrolysis and catalytic vapor phase hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) pathway for utilizing biomass to produce high energy density fuel. During fast hydropyrolysis biomass is rapidly heated to generate a complex mixture of compounds with high oxygen content (35-40 wt %). In the …

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An Experimental Characterization Of Tip Leakage Flows And Corresponding Effects On Multistage Compressor Performance, Reid Adam Berdanier Jan 2015

An Experimental Characterization Of Tip Leakage Flows And Corresponding Effects On Multistage Compressor Performance, Reid Adam Berdanier

Open Access Dissertations

The effect of rotor tip clearances in turbomachinery applications has been a primary research interest for nearly 80 years. Over that time, studies have shown increased tip clearance in axial flow compressors typically has a detrimental effect on overall pressure rise capability, isentropic efficiency, and stall margin. With modern engine designs trending toward decreased core sizes to increase propulsive efficiency (by increasing bypass ratio) or additional compression stages to increase thermal efficiency by increasing the overall pressure ratio, blade heights in the rear stages of the high pressure compressor are expected to decrease. These rear stages typically feature smaller blade …

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Physical Chemistry Of Colloidal-Nanoparticle Interactions, Necla Mine Eren Jan 2015

Physical Chemistry Of Colloidal-Nanoparticle Interactions, Necla Mine Eren

Open Access Dissertations

Following the advances in the design and characterization of engineered nanoparticles, biomaterials came into contact with the nano-world. Among many implementations of bio-nanotechnology, there is an increasing scientific and industrial interest in designing complex/hybrid structures (micro/macro) by merging the advantageous of inorganic colloidal particles (fixed shape, hard matter) with organic biopolymers (flexible shape, soft matter).In the current dissertation, nanostructured silica suspensions with tunable rheological characteristics were designed via steric and electrostatic interactions. Perturbation of short range interactions, protein bridging and silica re-dispersion were reported to play key roles in the macro-structure formation as determined by light scattering, steady state shear …

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Boolean And Brain-Inspired Computing Using Spin-Transfer Torque Devices, Deliang Fan Jan 2015

Boolean And Brain-Inspired Computing Using Spin-Transfer Torque Devices, Deliang Fan

Open Access Dissertations

Several completely new approaches (such as spintronic, carbon nanotube, graphene, TFETs, etc.) to information processing and data storage technologies are emerging to address the time frame beyond current Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) roadmap. The high speed magnetization switching of a nano-magnet due to current induced spin-transfer torque (STT) have been demonstrated in recent experiments. Such STT devices can be explored in compact, low power memory and logic design. In order to truly leverage STT devices based computing, researchers require a re-think of circuit, architecture, and computing model, since the STT devices are unlikely to be drop-in replacements for CMOS. The potential …

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Exploring The Constitutive And Social Processes Of Ethics In Multidisciplinary Engineering Design Teams, Megan Kenny Feister Jan 2015

Exploring The Constitutive And Social Processes Of Ethics In Multidisciplinary Engineering Design Teams, Megan Kenny Feister

Open Access Dissertations

This study seeks to examine the communicative constitution of ethics in team-based design projects in an engineering education context. Engineering and design work involve complex social processes and ethical decision-making activities and collaboration (Bucciarelli, 2010). The understanding and development of ethics in future engineers is a primary concern for engineering educators, students, and the governing bodies that oversee this field (ABET, 2013; NAE, 2012). Specifically, given the highly fluid and subjective nature of ethics and the complications of the team-based context, challenges arise about how to move beyond codes and standards that are intended to guide ethical conduct (ASEE, 2012; …

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Genetic Regulation Of Maize And Sorghum Under Abiotic Stress, Alexandar Lewis Renaud Jan 2015

Genetic Regulation Of Maize And Sorghum Under Abiotic Stress, Alexandar Lewis Renaud

Open Access Dissertations

Climate extremes of temperature, drought and flooding continue to challenge global agricultural production and food security. If modeling studies are accurate, climate variability and drought will be a more prevalent occurrence in the future, not only inhibiting grain yield but also stressing water resources. Thus, it is critical to breed for improved climate resilience in agronomic crops and understand the genetic mechanisms conferring adaptation to water-limited environments.

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Immunotherapy Of Folate Receptor Expressing Cancers, Nimalka Achini Bandara Jan 2015

Immunotherapy Of Folate Receptor Expressing Cancers, Nimalka Achini Bandara

Open Access Dissertations

The folate receptor (FR) is a GPI anchored cell surface glycoprotein that functions to facilitate folic acid uptake and mediate signal transduction. With the introduction of multiple folate-targeted drugs into the clinic, the question has arisen regarding how frequently a patient can be dosed with a FR-targeted drug or antibody, and whether dosing frequency exerts any impact on the availability of FR for subsequent rounds of FR-mediated drug uptake. Although the rate of FR recycling has been examined in murine tumor models, little or no information exists on the impact of FR occupancy on its rate of endocytosis. The studies …

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Rural Appalachian Community College English Part-Time Faculty: A Look At Roles And Relationships, Ruby Robinson Jan 2015

Rural Appalachian Community College English Part-Time Faculty: A Look At Roles And Relationships, Ruby Robinson

Open Access Dissertations

Community colleges have played an important role in post-secondary education, especially in the rural Appalachian region. Historically, community colleges have employed an overwhelming majority of part-time faculty. This study investigated the perceptions of the professional roles and relationships of the English part-time faculty at rural Appalachian community colleges, and included the department and the rural Appalachian community. The findings identified multiple roles of part-time faculty as teacher, advisor / mentor, institutional insider, community player, income provider and Appalachian citizen. Within the English departments at the colleges involved in this study, retired public school teachers filled a unique set of these …

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Loyalty On The Line: Civil War Maryland In American Memory, David Graham Jan 2015

Loyalty On The Line: Civil War Maryland In American Memory, David Graham

Open Access Dissertations

During the American Civil War, Maryland did not join the Confederacy but nonetheless possessed divided loyalties and sentiments. Although Maryland's government remained loyal to the Union during war, many regions and cities in the state harbored strong Confederate sympathies. In particular, Baltimore was a stronghold for Confederate sympathizers and became a central setting for contention between those supporting the Union and those in favor of secession and the secessionist cause. More than 46,000 Maryland soldiers fought for the Union while perhaps 25,000 soldiers from the state joined the Confederate Army. As a slaveholding state that did not secede, Maryland, along …

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Notch Signaling Regulates Adipogenesis And Energy Metabolism, Pengpeng Bi Jan 2015

Notch Signaling Regulates Adipogenesis And Energy Metabolism, Pengpeng Bi

Open Access Dissertations

Evolutionarily unprepared for high caloric diets and sedentary lifestyles, humans are now unprecedentedly susceptible to obesity and its associated metabolic disorders. Obesity is resulted from malfunction of the overloaded white adipocytes, which are the primary default storage sites of energy surplus. Another two types of adipocytes can also be found in human: beige and brown adipocytes. In opposite to white adipocytes, beige and brown adipocytes ameliorate obesity by burning lipids for thermogenesis. Thus, an increase in beige/brown adipocyte content in adipose tissue, termed browning would raise energy expenditure and reduce adiposity.

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Social Antecedents And Health Consequences Of Productive Activity, Seoyoun Kim Jan 2015

Social Antecedents And Health Consequences Of Productive Activity, Seoyoun Kim

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three empirical papers that investigate social antecedents and health consequences of productive activity. The ideas of productive activity and productive aging are the main concepts guiding the dissertation. The project is innovative by (a) testing how components of capital influence productive activities, (b) replicating analyses of productive activity and chronic inflammation in a Korean sample, and (c) examining sleep as a potential mediator and moderator of the relationship between productive activities and chronic inflammation. Chapter 2 attempted to contribute to the knowledge on productive aging by testing components of human, social, and cultural capital and older …

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