Digital Commons Network^™

Is Local Food In Your Future?: An Analysis Of The Viability Of The Local Food Movement, Jennifer A. Sliney

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

The Local Food Movement has arisen in recent decades as a proposed solution to problems in the current food distribution system. Proponents of the movement look to solve problems such as unsustainable farming practices, greenhouse gas emissions, and unhealthy communities. Skeptics raise questions as to whether local food is truly capable of accomplishing any of those. The author proposes that as a solution, aspects of the Local Food Movement such as urban agriculture and attempts at community development should be taken more seriously in order to create a better future for the land and people alike.

Darkness In The City Of Light: The Great Roundup Of 1942 & France’S Role In The Shoah., Benjamin T.C. Mead

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This thesis explores the incident of the Vel d'Hiv Roundup in Paris in July of 1942. It was the largest roundup of Jews in France during WWII, and remains a topic that is still very taboo, but due to books like "Sarah's Key" and rising interest, other nation's roles in the Holocaust are being explored. The author drawing upon three focuses of study-- majors in History, Religious & Theological Studies, and a French minor-- attempts to show how the Holocaust impacted a nation who's national motto is "Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood."

The Effect Of Exercise Training Modality On Serum Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor Levels In Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes, Damon L. Swift, Neil M. Johannsen, Valerie H. Myers, Conrad P. Earnest, Jasper A. J. Smits, Steven N. Blair, Timothy S. Church

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been implicated in memory, learning, and neurodegenerative disease. However, the relationship of BDNF with cardiometabolic risk factors is unclear, and the effect of exercise training on BDNF has not been previously explored in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Men and women (N=150) with type 2 diabetes were randomized to an aerobic exercise (aerobic), resistance exercise (resistance), or a combination of both (combination) for 9 months. Serum BDNF levels were evaluated at baseline and follow-up from archived blood samples.

Results: Baseline serum BDNF was not associated with fitness, body composition, anthropometry, glucose control, …

A Statistical Method For Regularizing Nonlinear Inverse Problems, Chad Clifton Hammerquist

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Inverse problems are typically ill-posed or ill-conditioned and require regularization. Tikhonov regularization is a popular approach and it requires an additional parameter called the regularization parameter that has to be estimated. The Χ²method introduced by Mead in [8] uses the Χ² distribution of the Tikhonov functional for linear inverse problems to estimate the regularization parameter. However, for nonlinear inverse problems the distribution of the Tikhonov functional is not known. In this thesis, we extend the Χ² method to nonlinear problems through the use of Gauss Newton iterations and also with Levenberg Marquardt iterations. We derive approximate …

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of Spaced Trial Fading On Skill Acquisition: An Analysis Of Transfer Of Stimulus Control, Amanda Nicole Zangrillo Psyd

All Student Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to assess efficacy of spaced trial fading procedures on skill acquisition and transfer of stimulus control. Specifically, 3 participants were each taught a set of skills identified from the ABLLS or VB-MAPP. Each set of skills was randomly assigned to a no spaced-trial treatment group or spaced trial fading treatment group. In addition, maintenance and generalization probes were conducted following mastery to assess skill acquisition and transfer of stimulus control 1 week following treatment.

Regulation Of Foxc2 Expression And Function During Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition By Gsk-3Β, Maryam Shariati

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Metastasis is the ultimate cause for the majority of cancer-related deaths. The forkhead box transcription factor FOXC2 is known to be involved in regulating metastasis as well as a variety of developmental processes, including the formation of lymphatic and cardiovascular systems. Previous studies have shown that FOXC2 protein is localized either in the nucleus and/or in the cytoplasm of human breast tumor cells. This pattern of localization is similar to that of another forkhead family member, FOXO3a. Additionally, localization of FOXO3a is known to be differentially regulated by upstream kinase AKT. Therefore, I investigated whether FOXC2 localization could also be …

A Postmodern Sense Of Nostalgia: Demonstrating Through A Textual Analysis Of Twin Peaks How Cult Membership Can Be Inculcated., Nicholas G. Albanese

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This paper explores a “cult” following in television, by looking at various aspects of the program Twin Peaks. It seeks to answer the questions of how a television show that aired for only two seasons over two decades ago was and still is able to garner such a loyal fandom, and is there some primary factor for developing this cult status? In order to answer these questions, aspects of media studies such as narrative complexity, authorship and the cult status of a show, as well as elements from the show itself, such as postmodernism and manufactured nostalgia must be teased …

A Classroom Experiment: Implementing A Math-Talk Environment In A University Setting, Janice Bodily

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

A need for reform in teaching mathematics has long been recognized. The traditional classroom with the sage on the stage lacks a higher level of engagement for the students and therefore, produces a lower level of student satisfaction. The math-talk classroom is one attempt to engage students and to raise the level of interaction and discussion, thus enabling students to increase their level of comprehension. In an effort to create a math-talk experience in my Calculus II course, I applied the methodology of Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol (TTLP) to test its effectiveness in assisting the instructor in creating an …

2012 Honorable James R. Browning Distinguished Lecture In Law: Today's Supreme Court, General William K. Suter

Montana Law Review

Today's Supreme Court

Montana Administrative Law Practice: 41 Years After The Enactment Of The Montana Administrative Procedure Act, William L. Corbett

Montana Law Review

Montana Administrative Law Practice: 41 Years After the Enactment of the Montana Administrative Procedure Act

Recent Decisions Affecting The Montana Practitioner, Montana Law Review

Montana Law Review

Recent Decisions Affecting the Montana Practitioner

Frustrated Settlements: Common Problems And Solutions In Liability Settlements Invoking The Medicare Secondary Payer Statutes, Jeffrey R. Kuchel

Montana Law Review

Frustrated Settlements: Common Problems and Solutions in Liability Settlements Invoking the Medicare Secondary Payer Statutes

Agricultural Disaster Assistance, Bradley D. Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

This issue is the second in a series addressing current drought conditions, economic impacts and resources for Nebraska agriculture.

Making Good Management Choices During A Time Of Crisis, Matthew Stockton

Cornhusker Economics

This issue is the third in a series addressing drought conditions, economic impacts and resources for Nebraska agriculture.

A Mechanistic Study Of Catalytic Promiscuity In Protein Phosphatase 1, Yuan Chu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

"Catalytic promiscuous" enzymes, which possess additional activities besides their "native" activity, albeit with a lower efficiency than the main reaction, have become a new frontier for biochemistry and have received considerable attention. Catalytic promiscuity has been suggested to contribute to enzyme evolution through the mechanism of gene duplication followed by specialization of one of the two copies for the new function. Mimicking this evolutionary shortcut could also provide a more efficient route to changing the function of proteins by directed evolution.

The promiscuous phosphatase PP1 is a member of the phosphoprotein phosphatase (PPP) gene family, which is critical for the …

Electromechanical Actuator Bearing Fault Detection Using Empirically Extracted Features, Rahulram Sridhar

Theses

Model parameter estimation when coupled with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Bayesian classification techniques form a potentially effective fault detection scheme for Electromechanical Actuators (EMAs). This work uses parameter estimation algorithms based on linear system identification methods, derives a novel feature extraction algorithm based on PCA and analyzes its performance through simulations and experiments. A Bayesian classifier is used to create well defined EMA health classes from the extracted features. Research contributions on fault detection in EMAs are significant because EMA faults and their detection are not yet well understood. Potential future applications - such as in primary flight control …

The Construction Of Salvadoran Identity In A Houston Barrio: Lengua, Identidad Y Transnacionalismo, Stephanie Brock

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The present study examines Salvadoran identity construction in Segundo Barrio, Houston, Texas by utilizing a multi-disciplinary methodology. Linguistically, this is investigated by comparing two distinct Salvadoran corpora in order to not only obtain a more critical understanding of the role of language within Salvadoran identity construction but also to legitimize the lived experiences of this community through linguistic counternarratives. The internal factors employed during the semi-directed sociolinguistics interviews include self-identification, time spent in Houston and El Salvador, music and gastronomical choices, experiences with other Salvadorans and non-Salvadorans, and language use. All informants varied in external factors. Anthropologically, this work explores …

The Image Of The American Revolutionary Soldier And The Problem Of Historical Memory, Stephanie N. Powelson

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Pubic memories of the American Revolution have played a central role in the creation of an American national identity. As a result of the importance of these military memories in creating a sense of social cohesion, images of the men who fought in the Revolution have often been systematically created and propagated, thus leading to myths and stereotypes in popular culture. Master of Arts (MA), August 2012, 111 pp., 2 tables, 4 figures, 76 references, 8 titles. This thesis analyzes the images of the soldiers of the American Revolution in public memory and in professional historiography. There is a perplexing …

Walking Out: The Success Of The Edcouch-Elsa Student Walkout Of 1968 Through The Media, David Robles

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study demonstrates how the success of the Edcouch-Elsa walkout of 1968 was brought upon not only by its organization, non-violent tactics, land mark victory in federal court, and support from several of Mexican American organizations. What also aided the student movement in Edcouch-Elsa was the media attention and how it influence the Rio Grande Valley community not only to question the tactics being used towards Mexican American students in the local educational institutions, but also created public discourse over the issues of race, equality, and students’ rights. Using various academic books of the subject, newspaper clippings of the time …

African Slavery In Colonial Veracruz: The Factors That Aided Its Creation And Expansion, Veronica Nohemi Duran

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The focal point of this study is to prove that it was the simultaneous presence of five factors during the 16th and 17th centuries that allowed African enslavement in Veracruz to expand. I built upon previous works and authors to support my claim that it was the decline in native population, economic profits, religious apathy on the subject, social acceptance and government support that pushed for the systems creation and expansion. By discussing each of these factors in a chapter of their own, I concluded that in an almost cause and effect manner these factors are responsible for the expansion …

Comparisons Of Emotional Reactivity In Two Variations Of Schedules Of Reinforcement, Mayra A. Aguillon

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the frequency of behavior is affected by its consequences (Powell, Symbaluk & Honey 2009).The main focus of the study was to compare two different schedules of reinforcement: gradual group versus the abrupt group (FI-20 sec).Both groups were used to observe emotional reactivity in 8 Sprague Dawley female rats from the Behavioral Neuroscience lab at UTPA. The hypothesis presented was that animals will reveal less emotional reactivity in the gradual than in the abrupt. According to Skinner, behavior is affected more by the consequence that is followed. Results suggested that the abrupt …

Palabras Bajo El Mar, Silvia Mar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

En la presente colección de poemas, la cual se encuentra situada en el contexto de la poesía amorosa, tendrá el objetivo primeramente de llevar al lector al origen de esta colección, explicando asimismo su función dentro del contexto contemporáneo. Se explicará cómo y por qué fue gestándose este conjunto, mencionando la influencia de la estética de grandes poetas contemporáneos, así como la influencia de estímulos exteriores para la inspiración de un trabajo creativo. Se explicará también como se fue elaborando a través de la escritura, una visión propia del mundo y de la poesía.

A Study Of Limited English Proficient Students' Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Research-Based Best Practices In Developmental Education Reading Courses At The University Of Texas-Pan American, Mauricio Eugenio De Leon

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study is to assess the research-based best practices instructors at The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) implement in their developmental education reading courses, and if these practices effectively address our Mexican, Mexican-American, and Hispanic Limited English Proficient (LEP) population. The data I collected and analyzed for this study consisted of qualitative and quantitative self-evaluation and self- identity questionnaire feedback from students enrolled in developmental education reading courses focusing primarily on the students who are Mexican, Mexican-American, or Hispanic and LEP for the purpose of measuring these students’ perceptions of the teaching practices employed. In order to …

Mental Health Factors That May Contribute To Sexual Functioning, Monique Tenay Cano

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The present study investigated the relationship between mental health factors— depression, dysfunctional eating habits, and sexual abuse trauma—and sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction was measured with The Sexual History Form (Nowinski & LoPiccolo, 1979 as cited in Davis, Yarber, Bauserman, Schreer, & Davis, 1998), a self report questionnaire. Depression was measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D Scale) (Radloff, 1977). Dysfunctional eating habits were measured by the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q 6.0) (Fairburn & Beglin, 2008). Sexual abuse trauma was measured by a subtest—the Sexual Experiences Short Form Version Victimization—of the Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss et al., …

A History Of Labor Degradation On The Border, Hidalgo County, Texas, 1920-1970s, Edward David Avila

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Between 1920 and 1970 laborers in Hidalgo County were degraded and ranked among the lowest paid workers in the nation. Colonizers including land developers seeking to exploit the commercial agriculture potential of the Rio Grande Valley divided the working poor along race, gender, and class lines. Such labor strategy allowed Anglo Americans and in some cases elite Mexicans to subjugate working class Mexicans and Mexican Americans to substandard wages and miserable working conditions. This thesis argues the origin of the degradation of the working poor by analyzing wages, work conditions, race relations, and gendered dimensions of labor in the region. …

Improving Ethics Education In Accounting: Lessons From Medicine And Law, Chunhui Liu, Lee J. Yao, Nan Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The purpose of this paper is to offer accounting educators additional perspectives for ethics education by considering teaching approaches from medicine and law. It takes the form of literature review and argument. The paper finds that ethics education in accounting shows deficiencies in terms of code-bound content, less systematic formal training, less informal hands-on training, and less usage of partnering in comparison to ethics education in medicine and law, thereby producing students with higher moral cognitive capabilities. Based on these findings, the authors provide some recommendations for improvement.

Sampling And Ontologically Pooling Web Images For Visual Concept Learning, Shiai Zhu, Chong-Wah Ngo, Yu-Gang Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sufficient training examples are essential for effective learning of semantic visual concepts. In practice, however, acquiring noise-free training examples has always been expensive. Recently the rapid popularization of social media websites, such as Flickr, has made it possible to collect training exemplars without human assistance. This paper proposes a novel and efficient approach to collect training samples from the noisily tagged Web images for visual concept learning, where we try to maximize two important criteria, relevancy and coverage, of the automatically generated training sets. For the former, a simple method named semantic field is introduced to handle the imprecise and …

Shortest Path Computation With No Information Leakage, Kyriakos Mouratidis, Man Lung Yiu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Shortest path computation is one of the most common queries in location-based services (LBSs). Although particularly useful, such queries raise serious privacy concerns. Exposing to a (potentially untrusted) LBS the client’s position and her destination may reveal personal information, such as social habits, health condition, shopping preferences, lifestyle choices, etc. The only existing method for privacy-preserving shortest path computation follows the obfuscation paradigm; it prevents the LBS from inferring the source and destination of the query with a probability higher than a threshold. This implies, however, that the LBS still deduces some information (albeit not exact) about the client’s location …

The Case For Cloud-Enabled Mobile Sensing Services, Sougata Sen, Archan Misra, Rajesh Krishna Balan, Lipyeow Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We make the case for cloud-enabled mobile sensing services that support an emerging application class, one which infers near-real time collective context using sensor data obtained continuously from a large set of consumer mobile devices. We present the high-level architecture and functional requirements for such a mobile sensing service, and argue that such a service can significantly improve the scalability and energy-efficiency of large-scale mobile sensing by coordinating the sensing & processing tasks across multiple devices. We then focus specifically on the problem of energy efficiency and provide early exemplars of how optimizing query execution jointly over multiple phones can …

Uncertain Congestion Games With Assorted Human Agent Populations, Asrar Ahmed, Pradeep Reddy Varakantham, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Congestion games model a wide variety of real-world resource congestion problems, such as selfish network routing, traffic route guidance in congested areas, taxi fleet optimization and crowd movement in busy areas. However, existing research in congestion games assumes: (a) deterministic movement of agents between resources; and (b) perfect rationality (i.e. maximizing their own expected value) of all agents. Such assumptions are not reasonable in dynamic domains where decision support has to be provided to humans. For instance, in optimizing the performance of a taxi fleet serving a city, movement of taxis can be involuntary or nondeterministic (decided by the specific …