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The Q Rule In Bacteriodetes And The Identification And Characterization Of Porphyromonas Gingivalis Glutaminyl Cyclase., John Andrew Houston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Porphyromonas gingivalis, a major pathogen associated with chronic periodontitis, secretes variety of proteins, majority of which begins with glutamine. Several of these proteins were found with pyroglutamate (pGlu) at N-terminus suggesting the presence of this posttranslational modification pathway in P.gingivalis. The observation that N-terminal glutamine is over-represented as the first amino acid after signal peptide cleavage, and subsequent confirmation of pGlu formation on the nascent protein via mass spectrometry, led us to conclude that an enzyme must be present as the executor of this reaction. Hypothesis: PG2157 is a glutaminyl cyclase and is responsible for the cyclization of …

Inspiratory Muscle Recruitment During Swallow And A Comparison Across Airway Behaviors., Allison V. English

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During swallow, a negative esophageal pressure is present that, along positive pressure from the tongue, which works to move the bolus through the pharynx into the esophagus. This negative esophageal pressure is thought to be produced via recruitment of chest wall inspiratory muscles (diaphragm and parasternal). This current study aimed to examine respiratory muscle recruitment across behaviors which have known inspiratory muscle activity (eupnea, augmented breath and cough) and compare to swallow. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in amplitude and muscle recruitment over 75 ms between swallow and eupnea, but cough and augmented breath would …

Exploring The Role Of Ptn1 In Ustilago Maydis., Lalu Murali Krishna Vijayakrishna Pillai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Signal transduction is a key aspect of biological life. Cell signaling involves a series of biochemical and molecular steps that regulate the normal cellular functions, and any disruption at any of these steps is likely to have substantial impacts on cell physiology. The current study was aimed at the characterization of ptn1 of Ustilago maydis, a basidiomycete fungus. When the U. maydis, ptn1 gene was either deleted or overexpressed, it was found that the deletion of this gene lead to reduced virulence, spore production, and germination rate; effects of the overexpression were more subtle or not discernable. Previous studies …

A Multi-Plot Assessment Of Vegetation Structure Using A Micro-Unmanned Aerial System (Uas) In A Semi-Arid Savanna Environment., Nicholas E Kolarik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have emerged as a capable platform for measuring vegetation health, structure and productivity. Products derived from UAS imagery typically have much finer spatial resolutions than traditional satellite or aircraft imagery, allowing the spectral and structural heterogeneity of vegetation to be mapped and monitored with more detail. This study uses UAS-captured imagery from the Chobe Enclave of northern Botswana. Flights were conducted across a gradient of savanna sites classified as grass-, shrub-, or tree-dominated. We compare multiple approaches for extracting woody vegetation structure from UAS imagery and assess correlations between in situ field measurements and UAS estimates. …

A New Fantasy Of Crusade : Sarras In The Vulgate Cycle., Christopher Michael Herde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Lancelot-Grail Cycle was written at a critical juncture for the crusading movement, twenty years after the fall of Jerusalem. Its popularity rose through the 13th and 14th centuries during which the last crusader kingdom of Acre fell. With its combination of religious and chivalric themes and repeated motif of Christian knights in the East, the Cycle draws many parallels between its Arthurian narrative and the crusades. Despite this, the city of Jerusalem is almost completely absent from the text, overshadowed by Sarras, a nonexistent city. As the text’s most important eastern location, Sarras serves as a commentary on Jerusalem, …

Discourses In Practice : A Qualitative Case Study Of An Elementary Esl Teacher And Her Four Congolese Students., Emily Lynn Zuccaro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this qualitative case study, I examine the ideological becoming—the ways individuals develop their beliefs and ways of viewing the world—of an English as a Second Language (ESL) newcomer literacy teacher and her four Congolese students. These individuals developed beliefs about their identities as a teacher of culturally and linguistically diverse children and students in U.S. schools. I situate my study in Bakhtinian sociocultural theory and draw on translanguaging theory to account for language learners’ creative and flexible uses of their language knowledge in different contexts. Ideological becoming occurs between the tension of authoritative and internally persuasive Discourses (Gee, 2014)—ways …

Paraoxonase 2 Is Critical For Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Proliferation., Aaron Whitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) comprises 85% of lung cancer diagnoses and is plagued by drug resistance. Thus, elucidating the underlying mechanisms of NSCLC is paramount to expand future treatment options. Paraoxonase 2 (PON2), an intracellular enzyme with arylesterase and lactonase functions, has well-established anti-atherosclerotic activity. Recent studies show PON2 is overexpressed in a variety of tumors and confers drug resistance, although these interactions have not been thoroughly examined in NSCLC. Thus, we sought to investigate the role of PON2 in cellular proliferation using PON2-knockout mice, primary mouse cells, and NSCLC cell lines. Using these approaches, we demonstrate that PON2 …

Development Of A Lectin-Fc Fusion Protein With Antiviral And Anti-Cancer Activity., Matthew William Dent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the development of a novel lectin-Fc fusion protein and its antiviral and anti-cancer activity. The molecule, Avaren-Fc (AvFc), is a fusion of a variant of the actinomycete lectin actinohivin (Avaren) and the Fc region of human IgG1, and is selective for the terminal α1,2-mannose residues found at the ends of high-mannose-type glycans that can be found on the surface of certain heavily glycosylated viruses and cancer cells. Here, AvFc was found to be able to neutralize simian immunodeficiency virus as well as Hepatitis C virus with nanomolar IC₅₀ values. Furthermore, AvFc recognizes a number of cell …

Speech Articulation In Children With Williams Syndrome Or 7q11.23 Duplication Syndrome., Myra Jean Fallon Huffman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Williams syndrome (WS) and 7q11.23 duplication syndrome (Dup7) are associated with communication disorders (Huffman et al., 2013). However, articulatory accuracy has not been systematically examined in these populations. The dissertation involved two studies. Using standardized citation assessment, Study 1 addressed articulatory accuracy with regard to age norms and differences between groups. Results indicated that for both groups, (a) consonant accuracy was significantly below expectations, (b) older children pronounced consonants with significantly better accuracy than younger children, (c) children with IQs at or above 70 earned significantly higher articulation standard scores, and (d) for particular groups of consonant sounds, arranged as …

Numerical Investigation Of Coalescence-Induced Self-Propelled Behavior Of Droplets On Non-Wetting Surfaces And Wedged Surfaces., Yan Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When small drops coalesce on a superhydrophobic surface, the merged drop can jump away from the surface due to the surface energy released during the coalescence. This self-propelled behavior has been observed on various superhydrophobic surfaces and has potential applications in areas related to the heat and mass transfer, such as heat exchangers, anti-icing and anti-frost devices, thermal management and water harvesting. The jumping velocity model was obtained based on published experimental data and the balance of various energy terms described in previous studies. However, the self-propelled mechanism is still not fully understood. In this study, the self-propelled droplet phenomenon …

3d Printed Smart Mobile, Bingfang Chen

Publications and Research

The goal of this research project is to design and build a prototype of a smart mobile robot to participate and compete in IEEE Micro-mouse and similar competitions. The robot has to find its way out of a maze as quickly as possible, by exploring and learning the paths in the maze. 3D printing technology will be used to build a lightweight robot frame so that it can move at a fast speed.

Turf For Teams: Considering Both The Team And I In The Work-Centered Design Of Systems, Vickie Nguyen

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Teams are an inherent part of many work domains, especially in the healthcare environment. Yet, most systems are often built with only the individual user in mind. How can we better incorporate the team, as a user, into the design of a system? By better understanding the team, through their user, task, representational, and functional needs, we can create more useful and helpful systems that match their work domain. For this research project, we utilize the TURF framework and expanded it further by also considering teams as a user, thus, creating the TURF for Teams framework. In addition, we chose …

Green Practices Among Fashion Manufacturers: Relationship With Cultural Innovativeness And Perceived Benefits, Dooyoung Choi, Tae-Im Han

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine green practices implemented among fashion manufacturers and identify factors that drive the adoption of those practices, specifically focusing on a company’s cultural innovativeness and the perceived benefits of green innovations. An online survey was created containing both open-ended and multiple-choice questions using Likert scales. Data were gathered from 29 fashion manufacturers that were identified by the Google search engine and then approached. Qualitative data were analyzed to obtain insights into fashion manufacturers’ green practices and a cluster analysis was conducted to categorize companies into distinct groups based on their level of green …

Mental Health On Trial: An In-Depth Look At The Criminalization Of Mental Illness In The United States Criminal Justice System, Addison Elise Shemin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The criminal justice system was created to identify, incarcerate, and rehabilitate men and women that have broken the law. However, over two million people with mental illnesses are placed into jails every year. The lack of proper psychological evaluation and diagnosis coupled with misunderstood evidence and economic hardship has produced a system that treats these men and women as criminals rather than someone suffering from an illness. When an individual with mental health issues comes into contact with the criminal justice system they are often improperly evaluated by first responders, wrongfully convicted, and inappropriately sentenced. The lack of proper psychological …

Music, Language, And Rhythmic Timing, Rhimmon Simchy-Gross

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neural, perceptual, and cognitive oscillations synchronize with rhythmic events in both speech (Luo & Poeppel, 2007) and music (Snyder & Large, 2005). This synchronization decreases perceptual thresholds to temporally predictable events (Lawrance et al., 2014), improves task performance (Ellis & Jones, 2010), and enables speech intelligibility (Peelle & Davis, 2012). Despite implications of music-language transfer effects for improving language outcomes (Gordon et al., 2015), proposals that shared neural and cognitive resources underlie music and speech rhythm perception (e.g., Tierney & Kraus, 2014) are not yet substantiated. The present research aimed to explore this potential overlap by testing whether music-induced oscillations …

Local And Central Controllers For Microgrids, Edgar Ariel Escala Calame

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this thesis is to serve as a guide, so readers are able to learn about microgrids and to design simple controllers for different AC microgrid applications. In addition, this thesis has the objective to provide examples of simulation cases for the hierarchical structure of a basic AC microgrid which can be used as a foundation to build upon, and achieve more complex microgrid structures as well as more sophisticated power-converter control techniques.

To achieve these objectives, the modeling of voltage source converters and control design in the z-domain are presented. Moreover, the implementation and transient analysis …

Hormone Signaling, Gene Expression, And Mitochondrial Hormone Receptor Expression In Avian Muscle (Cells), Kentu Rushadd Lassiter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mitochondria are vital to the proper growth and function of muscle cells since they’re responsible for the majority of ATP production used for cellular energy. Previous studies have investigated how differences in mitochondrial function affects feed efficiency (FE) in broilers phenotyped for High and Low FE. Low FE broilers have been shown to have increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), thus contributing to higher levels of oxidative stress and damage seen in these birds. Global gene and protein expression studies conducted on breast muscle of the High FE and Low FE phenotypes have suggested that differences in mitochondrial function …

Evaluation Of Crop Tolerance And Weed Control In Corn And Grain Sorghum With Atrazine Replacements, Jacob Thomas Richburg

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Atrazine is a foundational herbicide for weed control in both corn (Zea mays L.) and grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] production. However, studies have shown that while atrazine may be an effective herbicide for preemergence and postemergence control of weeds, it also has risks. The low Koc of atrazine as well as its extensive use over the past 50 years have led it to become the most common groundwater contaminant near agricultural soils. Given these findings, atrazine has faced severe scrutiny while under consideration for reregistration. In the event that atrazine is not reregistered, corn and grain sorghum producers …

Table Of Contents

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgments, So Ra Ko

University of Richmond Law Review

I present the last book of Volume 53, the last in a series of four print issues the University of Richmond Law Review publishes throughout the academic year. Our publications would not have been possible without those who generously dedicated their time to this organization. As those before me, I take these first few pages of this final book to offer my gratitude to those who have contributed to the successes of the Law Review.

Transitional Equality, Suzanne A. Kim

University of Richmond Law Review

Legal discussions of inequality often focus on the virtues of one legal status or regulatory structure over another, but a guarantee of the right to a particular legal status does not ensure a lived experience of equality in that status. In moments of legal change, when a person or class of persons obtain a new status or gain rights that had previously been denied to them, the path from one legal status to another becomes critically important and may itself be impacted by race, gender, age, and other factors. The process of transitioning to a new status can be complex …

When The Problem Is The Solution: Evaluating The Intersection Between The U Visa “Helpfulness” Requirement And No-Drop Prosecution Policies, Diane Mickelson

University of Richmond Law Review

When Congress introduced the U visa in 2000, it intended to create a program that not only protected immigrant victims of domestic violence from deportation, but also strengthened law enforcement’s ability to investigate crimes and encouraged victims to report the abuse. Traditionally, immigrant victims are particularly vulnerable to domestic violence and have been provided with few options to leave the relationship without risking their immigration status. However, while the U visa provides immigration protections to broad categories of victims, it contains a unique “helpfulness” requirement that compels victims to continually cooperate with law enforcement in order to receive the necessary …

May 2019, Swosu Bulldog Wellness Committee

SWOSU BULLDOG WELLNESS

Physical Fitness and Sports Month

Southwestern Oklahoma State University is supporting the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition in honor of National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. During the month of May, we challenge all adults to get active every day!

Mcsa Executive Minutes 05/01/2019, Morris Campus Student Association

Morris Campus Student Association

No abstract provided.

Neurocardiac Risk Stratification 6 Hours After Resuscitation From Cardiac Arrest, A Bilkanovic, Z Haxhija, L Lucas, J Dziodzio, R R. Riker, T May, H Friberg, D B. Seder

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Introduction:

• An increasing number of patients are resuscitated from out-ofhospital cardiac arrest. Triage to optimal treatment pathways could improve and increase the efficacy of post-resuscition care.

• Despite great variability in etiology, duration, and patterns of injury from cardiac arrest, post-resuscitation treatment guidelines emphasize standard treatments. We hypothesize that by categorizing competing risks very early after resuscitation, it may be possible to improve the efficacy and efficiency of care.

• When measured very early after resuscitation, suppression ratio (SR, the percentage of suppressed EEG), correlates with severity of brain injury and the likelihood of poor neurological outcome.

• The …

Prions To Pathways: Safeguarding Against Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease In The Operating Room, Jessica Mary Adams Atkinson, Sonja Carol Orff

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Introduction:

As defined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC, 2018), Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is a rapidly progressive, rare, transmissible, and fatal illness. Miscoiling of healthy proteins caused by an abnormal isoform of cellular glycoprotein resulting in protein folding has been found to be the molecular mechanism during the pathological process of this malady (Figure 1), (Castle, Gill, 2017). The current problem is that few recommendations are available for organizations to consider how to manage potential CJD patient cases, and institutions are left to compile and develop their own guidelines and/or protocols for clinical practice. The standards of care for …

Comparing Absorbed Doses Of Properly And Improperly Collimated Abdominal Exposures, Ignacio Birriel

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

The purpose of this study was to calculate and compare the absorbed doses of properly and improperly collimated repeat examination exposures and to measure the anode heel effect to determine the difference in intensity between the cathode and anode ends of the x-ray beam. The investigators wanted to document the amount of additional radiation a patient receives due to improper collimation techniques and determine whether the difference in intensity between the anode and cathode ends of the x-ray beam was large enough to cause concern for increased patient absorbed doses for specific radiography examinations.

Holistic Assessment Of Narrative Discourse: A Progress Monitoring Tool, Teigan Beck

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate the validity, developmental sensitivity, and scoring reliability of a rubric for measuring the holistic quality of stories for preschool and school age children.

Method: 224 children, ages 4-7, told stories in a single structured context which were then scored by a group of trained raters using the Holistic Assessment of Narrative Discourse (HAND) to evaluate aspects of its psychometric adequacy, specifically validity, developmental sensitivity, and inter-rater reliability.

Results: The results showed that the scores on the HAND were a valid measure of narrative quality that were sensitive to developmental …

Cell Imaging And Data Analysis For Biomaterial-Mammalian Co-Cultures, Jefferson Pontsler

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Microscopic bioimaging is a useful approach to study cell-biomaterial interactions which are vital to the biomedical application of biomaterials. Through microscopic imaging, numerous cellular responses, such as proliferation, uptake, and death, can be recorded, characterized and analyzed.

In this thesis, I first provided basic introductions to the imaging techniques and analysis tools, especially those that are highly relevant to the studies of biomaterials and cell interactions. I also detailed the adaptation of these techniques and tools in the application of two specific research projects in biomaterials, with special focuses on the imaging and analysis.

The first project assessed the subtle …

The Effects Of Student Learning When Subtitles Are Added To Videos, George T. Taylor

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project investigated whether adding subtitles to educational videos increases learning among middle school students. A convenience sample (N=387) of Technology and Engineering middle school students were separated into two groups during the third term of both the 2018 and 2019 school years, where one group of students viewed videos with subtitles and the other group viewed the identical videos without subtitles. After viewing the videos, students immediately took a multiple-choice test. The test scores were used to analyze the variance between the two different groups. The results reveal that students who viewed videos with subtitles had slightly …