Vista: August 26, 2022, University Of San Diego

USD Vista (1965-)

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Modeling Of Aba-Dependent Expression Of The Arabidopsis Rd29a Gene, Ruth Ndathe, Renee Dale, Naohiro Kato

Faculty Publications

The abscisic acid (ABA) signaling pathway is the key defense mechanism against drought stress in plants. In the pathway, signal transduction among four core proteins, pyrabactin resistance (PYR), protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C), sucrose-non-fermenting-1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2), and ABRE binding factor (ABF) leads to altered gene expression kinetics that is driven by an ABA-responsive element (ABRE). A most recent and comprehensive study provided data suggesting that ABA alters the expression kinetics in over 6,500 genes through the ABF-ABRE associations in Arabidopsis. Of these genes, termed ABA gene regulatory network (GRN), over 50% contain a single ABRE within 4 kb of …

Cotton/Soybean Insect Newsletter, August 26, 2022, Jeremy K. Greene

Clemson University Cotton/Soybean Insect Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Marine Gastropod Conomurex Luhuanus (Strombidae) Has High-Resolution Spatial Vision And Eyes With Complex Retinas, Allison R. Irwin, Suzanne T. Williams, Daniel Isaac Speiser, Nicholas W. Roberts

Faculty Publications

All species within the conch snail family Strombidae possess large camera-type eyes that are surprisingly well-developed compared with those found in most other gastropods. Although these eyes are known to be structurally complex, very little research on their visual function has been conducted. Here, we use isoluminant expanding visual stimuli to measure the spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity of a strombid, Conomurex luhuanus. Using these stimuli, we show that this species responds to objects as small as 1.06 deg in its visual field. We also show that C. luhuanus responds to Michelson contrasts of 0.07, a low contrast sensitivity …

Advocating For Higher Wages For Archival Student Workers: Or How To Stop Exploiting Your Students, Megan M. Mummey

Library Presentations

No abstract provided.

Ud In The News Aug. 20-26, University Of Dayton

News Releases

Our Sunday Visitor featured the University's efforts to educate students about their Catholic faith and Mary, the mother of Jesus. ASEE First Bell and local media highlighted a new virtual reality lab bringing buildings to life for civil engineers.

Understanding The Feelings And Experiences Of Patients With Periodontal Disease: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis, Jun Yin, Yan Li, Mingyu Feng, Li Li

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Patients' experiences, feelings, and perceptions play key roles in quality of life and dental care quality, but they are poorly understood in periodontal disease. Therefore, this meta-synthesis aimed to gain deep insights into the feelings, experiences, and perceptions of people living with periodontal disease.

METHODS: Electronic database searches in PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Open AIRE were conducted up to December 2021 (updated in June 2022). The JBI Critical Appraisal Tool was used for quality assessment. Then reviewers integrated findings from qualitative studies with a thematic synthesis approach.

RESULTS: A total of 567 …

Staff Council Agenda, Georgia Southern University

Staff Council Meeting Minutes & Agendas

No abstract provided.

Staff Council Meeting Minutes, Georgia Southern University

Staff Council Meeting Minutes & Agendas

• Staff Council
• Presidential Updates & Comments | Updates from Dr. Kyle Marrero are as Follows
• Human Resources | Updates from Vickie Shaw
• Treasurer Report | Updates from Scott Taylor, Chair
• Committee Reports

Whom Do You Want To Be Friends With: An Extroverted Or An Introverted Avatar? Impacts Of The Uncanny Valley Effect And Conversational Cues, Se Jung Kim

Dissertations - ALL

With the rapid growth of social virtual reality platforms, an increasing number of people will be interacting with others as avatars in virtual environments. Therefore, it is essential to develop a better understanding of the factors that could impact initial personality assessments and how they affect the willingness of people to befriend one another. Thin-slice judgment constitutes a quick judgment of a personality based on an avatar, and it could be impacted by the avatar’s appearance, particularly if the avatar elicits an uncanny valley effect that brings negative emotions such as eerieness. However, personality judgments and friendship decisions could also …

Teaching At Southern, Georgia Southern University

Faculty Center: News & Publications

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Communities Moving Past The Daddy Daughter Dance: Adapting Gender-Exclusive Events For The 21st Century, Ezra Temko, Emily Love, Destiny Baxter, Heidi Masching, Adam Loesch

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Executive Summary

Parent-child community events like father-daughter dances are a celebrated tradition in many communities. However, when these events specify the gender of who can participate, they exclude many families. They also tend to reinforce gender stereotypes (e.g., a dance for girls and a sports event for boys), and are legally questionable for public school and associated P.T.A./P.T.O. sponsors that may be violating federal Title IX requirements and for local governments that may be violating the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

Contemporary U.S. society is made up of families that come in diverse forms and …

Georgia Southern Golf Course Newsletter, Georgia Southern University

Athletics: News & Publications

• Get Golf Ready - only $149!
• Time to Renew your Golf Annual Pass!
• Youth can play for ONLY $5!
• What is Get Golf Ready?

Two Essays On Corporate And Institutional Investors’ Usage Of Options, Financial Constraints, And Firm Performance, Bharat Patil

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation consists of two major parts. Essay I examines the relationship between the firm’s derivative risk management and its financial constraint. Firms face a wedge between their internal and external financing for their investments. I test whether this wedge reduces the firm’s financial constraint when it hedges using interest rate, foreign currency, and commodity derivatives. Using a difference-in-difference framework around the implementation of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 123R, this study shows a strong causal relationship between hedging intensity and the financial constraint. I find that net debt increases for the derivative hedging firms, on the other hand, cash holding …

Design Of Novel Metalloenzymes And Investigation Of Protein-Metal Interactions, Alona Kulesha

Dissertations - ALL

Metalloproteins are the proteins that utilize metals or metal complexes as cofactors and exhibit a wide range of functions from oxygen transport and regulation of transcription to hydroxylation of alkanes and water splitting, even though they employ a limited set of metals and metal-binding ligands. The investigation of metalloprotein amino acid sequence, structure and function relationships can uncover the principles behind natural metalloprotein design and opens the possibility of their implication as scaffolds for the design of novel catalysts and biomaterials. Protein engineering is a set of techniques that allows to install new functionalities into existing proteins or to design …

Three Essays On Nuclear Operations, Capabilities, And International Conflict, Kyungwon Suh

Dissertations - ALL

What is the effect of military operations of nuclear weapons, defined broadly as the management of nuclear weapons and the implementation of doctrinal concepts by which the military uses nuclear weapons in peacetime and combat, on international conflict outcomes? This dissertation explores how employment dimensions of military nuclear operations influence patterns of interstate military conflicts. The existing quantitative literature on nuclear weapons and international conflict mainly explores the impact of nuclear weapons possession on patterns of interstate conflict by using crude metrics of nuclear capabilities, such as binary measures of nuclear proliferation and a simple warhead count. These research practices …

“A Sense Of Safe Connection”: An Affective Narrative Exploration With Queer Teenage Writers In An Out-Of-School Time Program, Gemma Cooper-Novack

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explores three adolescent writers’ and one adult writing instructor’s development of and visceral relationship to writer identity and LGBTQ+ identity through the development of an out-of-school time community of writers, Write It Out, on Zoom over the course of three months. Making critical use of affect theory (Dutro, 2019a & 2019b; Ahmed, 2002; Ehret, 2018), the study asks the following research questions: 1) How do LGBTQ+ teenagers’ experiences and identities manifest in a queer virtual OST community of writers?; 2) How did these LGBTQ+ teenagers’ affective experiences meet those of their instructor, a queer writer and educator, in …

Advanced Lithium Metal Batteries: Functional Electrolyte Additive And Lithium Metal/Solid-State Electrolyte Interface Engineering, Abiral Baniya

Dissertations - ALL

Majority of the energy in current world is produced and consumed by burning non-renewable fossil fuel sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas, etc. It is taking a toll on our planet earth due to high rates of carbon and greenhouse emissions. This calls for an urgent need of energy transition from conventional fossil fuel to renewable and sustainable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, etc. However, harnessing energy from such renewables are constrained by their intermittency and non-dispatchability, requiring some sort of efficient energy storage systems that can provide continuous energy supply. Batteries in general are considered …

Implementing The Mindfulness-Based Kindness Curriculum In An Inclusive Setting: Effects On Prosocial Behavior, Emily Cary

Dissertations - ALL

Low rates of prosocial behavior are associated with poor academic, emotional, and behavioral outcomes, including physical aggression, externalizing problems, criminal justice convictions, lower academic achievement, and more peer rejection. Using a cluster randomized control trial, this study examined the effects of the mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum (N = 26), compared to a matched control condition consisting of a social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, Merrell’s Strong Start (N = 20). Outcome measures included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Head Shoulders Knees and Toes task, which are measures of prosocial behavior including self-regulatory skills. These assessments were administered to 5 …

Do Adverse Childhood Experiences Mediate The Relationship Between Autistic Traits And Borderline Personality Traits?, Alyne Rodrigues

Dissertations - ALL

Background: Previous studies have found comorbid autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) diagnoses in clinical samples, higher autistic traits in individuals with BPD compared to control groups, and co-occurrence of autistic traits and BPD traits in community samples. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are highly prevalent among autistic individuals and individuals diagnosed with BPD. However, to date, cumulative ACEs have been neglected as a potential mediator of the association between ASD and BPD. The present preliminary cross-sectional study examined whether retrospective self-reported ACEs, before 18 years of age, explained the relationship between current self-reported autistic traits and current …

Redundancy And Developmental Coordination In Myxococcus Xanthus: Insights From The Phenome, Jessica A. Comstock

Dissertations - ALL

Genotype-to-phenotype mapping can typically involve disrupting the function of a gene and observing the impact of mutation on phenotype. While this can be a powerful tool for uncovering gene function, complicating factors such as influences between genes and the environment, epistatic interactions with other genes, and genetic redundancy could all potentially mask the phenotype of a mutation such that functional inferences cannot be made. On the level of the single gene, this may not be particularly informative, but it is possible that studying phenotype in this way at a genome scale might allow for the observation of patterns between genes …

Mechanologic: Designing Mechanical Devices That Compute, Michelle Berry

Dissertations - ALL

Despite their initial success and impact on the development of the modern computer, mechanical computers were quickly replaced once electronic computers became viable. Recently, there has been increased interest in designing devices that compute using modern and unconventional materials. In this dissertation, we investigate multiple ways to realize a mechanical device that can compute, with a main focus on designing mechanical equivalents for wires and transistors. For our first approach at designing mechanical wires, we present results on the propagation of signals in a soft mechanical wire composed of bistable elements. When we send a signal along bistable wires that …

Leveraging Isocyanate Chemistry For Low Cost And Highly Functional Hydrogels, Henry Beaman

Dissertations - ALL

The development of novel biomaterials is an important step in providing higher quality products for wound healing, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. Progress is consistently being made in the development of new polymers, yet new polymer systems are often expensive and/or involve complex multistep synthesis methods. These limitations could hinder the translation and scalability of functionalized materials. To address the issues of complex synthesis and high cost, we have devised strategies for polymeric modification using isocyanate chemistry. Isocyanates are used in the manufacturing of polyurethanes. Isocyanates are highly reactive with common functional groups, such as amines, hydroxyls, and carboxylic acids. …

Bleeding Red: The Relationship Between Feminism, Brand Activism Skepticism, And Attitudes About Menstrual-Realistic Advertisements, Adriana S. Mucedola

Dissertations - ALL

Beginning in the early 2000s, menstrual product advertisers in the U.S. and other developed countries began to use red liquid in their advertising to represent period blood rather than the blue liquid used in the past, which is often criticized because it portrays stigmatizing representations of menstruation. These more “menstrual-realistic” advertisements instead communicate that bleeding is normal and arguably help correct past wrongdoings relating to the tainted history of stigmatizing menstrual product ads. This imagery has garnered mixed reactions from the public, including praise, disgust, and skepticism. Extant research demonstrates that consumers prefer media that align with their preexisting beliefs; …

Distortion Estimates For Conformal Maps Predicated On Geometric Properties Of A Domain, Christopher G. Donohue

Dissertations - ALL

Geometric properties of a domain in the complex plane reflect important informationabout the conformal maps to and from the domain. We examine a variety of geometric properties and use them to construct explicit global distortion bounds for both the compression and stretching of conformal map. Compressive distortion is controlled when the modulus of the derivative of a complex function is bounded from below, expansive distortion when it is bounded above. For the initial set of results, we quantify the degree to which a convex domain is nearly round with two parameters; radii of the largest inscribed disk and smallest circumscribed …

Numerical Investigation Of The Effect Of Inlet Turbulence Intensity On A Bluff-Body Stabilized Flame At Near Blow-Off Condition, Amir Ali Montakhab

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis investigates the effect of a boundary condition on the dynamics of a bluff-body stabilized f lame operating near blow-off condition. Special emphasis is given to the effect of inlet turbulence intensity. This work is motivated by the understanding that more stringent regulations on fossil fuels generated emissions necessitate the design of combustion systems that operate at very fuel-lean conditions. Combustion at very lean conditions, however, induces flame instability that can ultimately lead to flame fluttering and eventual extinction. The dynamics of the flame at lean conditions can therefore be very sensitive to its boundary conditions. To better understand …

Investigating The Role Of The Transcriptional Coregulator Cited2 In Regulating Intermediate Progenitor Proliferation And Modulating Behavior, Nikolaus R. Wagner

Dissertations - ALL

The mammalian neocortex develops from a thin layer of neuroepithelial cells into a robust mosaic of differentiated neurons organized into distinct layers and functional areas. This process requires a complex choreography of transcription factors and epigenetic regulators to be spatially and temporally activated in a precise manner. Disruptions in any aspect of this delicate process may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, or intellectual disability. One such transcriptional coregulator that is a crucial regulator of neocortical development is Cited2. Previous work demonstrated that forebrain-specific Cited2 loss-of-function causes a reduction in neocortical progenitor proliferation which leads to reduced …

Immigrant Entrepreneurs And The Contingent Value Of Personal Legitimacy, Kurian George

Dissertations - ALL

Despite growing recognition of the importance of the founder’s personal legitimacy for successful venturing, various questions remain with respect to what founder legitimacy is and how it is achieved. My review of the legitimacy literature reveals that founder legitimacy can be conceptualized as both a characteristic and a process, and that the entity signaling the founder’s legitimacy can be the founder, an organization, or even an industry or region. My review also shows that the expertise needed for founder legitimacy is taken for granted in most studies. To develop a better understanding of how founders acquire and signal personal legitimacy, …

Investigation Of Holographic Lattice Theories, Muhammad Asaduzzaman

Dissertations - ALL

The Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, also known as holography, has been the focus of a great deal of interest and research for the last two decades. It has improved our understanding of general relativity and quantum field theories simultaneously through the interplay between these two different kinds of theories. However, there are still many aspects of holography that we do not understand or demand further analysis. Perturbative quantum field theory and perturbative metric expansion techniques are not equipped to investigate holography in some of the most interesting regimes such as the strongly interacting gravitational theory in anti-de Sitter …

Switched Kinematic And Force Control For Lower-Limb Motorized Exoskeletons And Functional Electrical Stimulation, Chen-Hao Chang

Dissertations - ALL

Millions of people experience movement deficits from neurological conditions (NCs) that impair their walking ability and leg function. Exercise-based rehabilitation procedures have shown the potential to facilitate neurological reorganization and functional recovery. Lower-limb powered exoskeletons and motorized ergometers have been combined with functional electrical stimulation (FES) to provide repetitive movement, partially reduce the burden of therapists, improve range of motion, and induce therapeutic benefits. FES evokes artificial muscles contractions and can improve muscle mass and strength, and bone density in people with NCs. Stationary cycling is recommended for individuals who cannot perform load-bearing activities or have increased risks of falling. …