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University of Alabama at Birmingham

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Articles 3331 - 3360 of 5836

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Compression, Bethany Anne Mitchell Jan 2014

Compression, Bethany Anne Mitchell

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Compression , a nonfiction novel-in-progress, examines the author's twisting relationship with her father in the context of her exploration into the traditional archery world. A proud new owner of a 72-inch English longbow, the author's dependence on archery increases as her father's sudden onset of paranoid schizophrenia pushes the two of them widely off target. This novel-in-progress incorporates humor into the real story of a teen coming of age just as her father begins to drift away, a period of years swirling with doubt, confusion, anger, and loss as the author attempts to find a new normal and establish her …

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Intrinsic And Extrinsic Brain Activity In Children With Autism Before And After A Visualization Language Intervention, Donna Murdaugh Jan 2014

Intrinsic And Extrinsic Brain Activity In Children With Autism Before And After A Visualization Language Intervention, Donna Murdaugh

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Deficits in language comprehension have been widely reported in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Recent evidence from neuroimaging research has found that individuals with ASD tend to recruit visuospatial imagery to comprehend language (Kana et al., 2006). The theory of cortical underconnectivity in autism suggests that in tasks that can be interpreted either visually or verbally, brain regions associated with language and visuospatial processing will be substantially less functionally integrated (especially between frontal and more posterior regions) than healthy-matched controls (Just et al., 2004). Indeed, cortical underconnectivity in individuals with ASD has been documented, not only in extrinsic brain …

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American Options And Semilinear Parabolic Partial Differential Equations In Weighted Sobolev Spaces., Terrence K. Muthoka Jan 2014

American Options And Semilinear Parabolic Partial Differential Equations In Weighted Sobolev Spaces., Terrence K. Muthoka

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To value an American option as a function of time t and price of the underlying asset S is currently a major research problem in both Financial Markets and for academic purposes. Options and more general financial derivatives (also known as contingent claims) are now an important tool in risk management. One of the earliest models used in pricing derivatives is the Black-Scholes model, for which the movement in the price of the underlying asset on which the claim is based is modeled by geometric Brownian motion. Other models used for theoretical and numerical analysis of American options include the …

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My Life In Pop Culture: A Journey Through My Past In Essay Form, Mark Trammell Jan 2014

My Life In Pop Culture: A Journey Through My Past In Essay Form, Mark Trammell

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A personalized look at my life as it has been affected by popular culture, in particular movies and music, with additional asides regarding my work as an entertainment critic and what led me to critique popular culture for a living. I also have included essays that delve into personal ancedotes regarding the various cars I have driven, the jobs I have had, the concerts I've attended, and my experiences with technology over the years. All of it is interspersed with various asides concerning my background, upbringing, and general experiences as they relate to the popular culture being discussed.

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Parent And Child Factors In Relation To Mealtime Problem Behavior Of Children With And Without Autism Spectrum Disorder, Eva Trinh Jan 2014

Parent And Child Factors In Relation To Mealtime Problem Behavior Of Children With And Without Autism Spectrum Disorder, Eva Trinh

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environmental temperatures on TSD by again using the red-eared slider as a laboratory

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Post-Release Job Training And Enhanced Access To Employment Opportunities For Released Offenders: Incentives To Reducing Recidivism, Emmanuel Etim Umoh Jan 2014

Post-Release Job Training And Enhanced Access To Employment Opportunities For Released Offenders: Incentives To Reducing Recidivism, Emmanuel Etim Umoh

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Researchers studying the effect of employment on recidivism have shown that offenders who are employed after serving time in prison are less likely to recidivate (Kyvsgaard, 1990). These scholars also indicated that employment for released offenders is positively related to a delay in re-offending. Such findings support the belief that job security increases the interval between release from prison and re-offending. In this study I expand on existing recidivism studies to investigate how post-release job training and greater access to employment opportunities for ex-prisoners affects recidivism. The effect of educational status is also measured to determine whether a high school …

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Phase Transitions And Anomalous Compressibility In 1-2-2 Fe-Based Superconductors, Walter O. Uhoya Jan 2014

Phase Transitions And Anomalous Compressibility In 1-2-2 Fe-Based Superconductors, Walter O. Uhoya

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Interplay of pressure and chemistry play an important role in discovery of novel properties such as high temperature superconductivity (high-Tc). In 2008, Hosono et al discovered superconductivity at 26 K in iron-based layered LaFeAsO (1-x)Fx. This observation was a surprise since iron based compounds are generally known to be magnetic and non-superconducting. This was quickly followed by the discovery of high temperature superconductivity in a second class of Fe-based layered pnictides AFe2As2 (1-2-2) (A= Ba, Sr, Ca, Eu). The undoped (parent) 1-2-2 compounds are non-superconducting at ambient pressure but become superconducting when their structures are tuned by the application of …

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Integrated Functioning Of The Mirror Neuron System And Its Role In Imitation Deficits In Autism, Heather Wadsworth Jan 2014

Integrated Functioning Of The Mirror Neuron System And Its Role In Imitation Deficits In Autism, Heather Wadsworth

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Deficits in imitation have been widely reported in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A proposed dysfunction of the mirror neuron system (MNS), the neural network underlying imitation, has been the subject of recent debate in ASD literature. However, while some research has found evidence of MNS abnormalities in ASD, recent studies have cast doubt onto the mirror neuron hypothesis of ASD as it is currently depicted. There is also behavioral evidence that the imitation deficit is not unitary, and therefore may not have one-to-ne correspondence with a malfunction of all aspects of MNS. Since functional imitation involves …

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Print Vs. Pulpit: Representations Of Religion In The Harlem Renaissance, Sondra Bickham Washington Jan 2014

Print Vs. Pulpit: Representations Of Religion In The Harlem Renaissance, Sondra Bickham Washington

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At the turn of the twentieth century, African American race leaders believed that literature and other creative works could strengthen the fight against the social, economic, and political oppression facing members of their race across the country. However, when younger writers began explicitly focusing their narratives and poems on the more taboo and less religious elements of African American life such as heavy drinking, sensual dancing at jazz and blues clubs, and unmarried sexual relationships, black religious leaders often expressed opposition to their creative work. This sometimes harsh disapproval only served to create a larger gap between the religious and …

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Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Function Following Burn Injury, Katie Leigh Wilson Jan 2014

Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Function Following Burn Injury, Katie Leigh Wilson

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The pathophysiological response to burn injuries involves severe inflammation and a hypermetabolic state, both contributing to prolonged muscle atrophy. However, the relationship between inflammation and hypermetabolism following burn injury is poorly defined. Catabolism results from energy storage depletion, in part due to futile substrate cycling, and preferentially involving amino acids. This rapid turnover of amino acids leads to massive, full body muscle wasting. The extent and duration of muscle loss is directly related to the total body surface area burned (TBSA). Severely burned patients may experience metabolic derangements and impaired muscle synthesis for up to two years. In order to …

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The Bear And The Tiger: Decoding Attitudes And Anxieties Towards Nature Through A.A. Milne's Winnie-The-Pooh In Post-Wwi Britain, Joanna Catherine Wilson Jan 2014

The Bear And The Tiger: Decoding Attitudes And Anxieties Towards Nature Through A.A. Milne's Winnie-The-Pooh In Post-Wwi Britain, Joanna Catherine Wilson

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This thesis aims to demonstrate how the two volumes of Winnie-the-Pooh stories, published in 1926 and 1928, and written by A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard, operate as a unique lens through which early twentieth-century attitudes towards nature and wildlife in Britain may be discerned, and in particular how the stuffed animal characters of Pooh the bear and Tigger the tiger represent a shift in post-war British worldviews concerning nature and domination. The initial stage of this investigation determines how the exceptionally broad demographic constituting the audience for children's fiction makes the medium a particularly expressive record of the …

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Using Computers And The Internet: The Experiences Of Older, Vicki P. Winstead Jan 2014

Using Computers And The Internet: The Experiences Of Older, Vicki P. Winstead

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reproduction such as egg survival, hatchling survival, and sex ratios. The initial two

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Finding Bands In Optical Coherence Tomography Images Using Curve And Function Fitting, Douglas Howard Ross Jan 2014

Finding Bands In Optical Coherence Tomography Images Using Curve And Function Fitting, Douglas Howard Ross

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Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive method to create a volume of data that is a measurement of the reflectance properties of tissue. The retina of the human eye has a layered structure that presents as bands in the OCT images. Evaluation of OCT images can be used to diagnose abnormal structure due to disease or damage. The principal task in evaluating the OCT images is segmentation. While the images can be evaluated by trained personnel, the quantity of OCT image data is increasing rapidly, therefore, the creation of methods for automatic segmentation is vital. Prior work in segmenting …

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Longleaf, John Saad Jan 2014

Longleaf, John Saad

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The poems in this collection generally focus on the relationship between people and place, specifically the landscapes and cultural habits of South Alabama. Many of the poems meander through dense woodlands and backwaters while confronting life, death, destruction, and renewal. The speakers and characters that populate these poems often shoulder some anxiety that becomes enmeshed in and informed by their physical surroundings. Ecology, therefore, plays a major role in the poetry, particularly that of the Coastal Plain's historic longleaf pine habitat and the necessary land management practice of "fire ecology." Additionally, the poetry explores land use from multiple angles. One …

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Genetic And Epigenetic Changes Regulated By Bioactive Molecules In Cancer Therapeutics, Sabita Saldanha Jan 2014

Genetic And Epigenetic Changes Regulated By Bioactive Molecules In Cancer Therapeutics, Sabita Saldanha

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Cancer biogenesis stems from genetic and epigenetic changes that regulate various signaling pathways responsible for growth, division, and proliferation. Genetic changes occur through mutations that contribute to loss of function, overexpression or repression of proteins involved in metabolic pathways. The changes place individuals at risk to diseases, including cancer. However, epigenetics is a mechanism of gene control that occurs through changes in chromatin structure without alterations to the DNA sequence and is mostly reversible. Epigenetic alterations have been implicated in colorectal cancers (CRCs), transforming normal colonic epithelial cells. Aberrant DNA methylation and chromatin modifications have been shown to contribute to …

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The Effects Of Estrogen On Learning And Memory, Carol Yvette Harden Jan 2014

The Effects Of Estrogen On Learning And Memory, Carol Yvette Harden

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Learning is the process in which new information is acquired and requires cellular modifications that occur in the hippocampus. These cellular changes can be seen through behavioral modifications which indicate memorization of the previously learned material. Increases in phosphorylation of the extracellular regulated protein kinase (ERK), a subfamily of MAPKs alters synaptic efficacy making it a correlate for learning and memory. Additionally, surges in plasma 17ß estradiol (E2) levels can increase synaptic plasticity, suggesting an importance for the role of E2 in cognition. Both human and animals studies have shown that elevated levels of estrogen correlated to an enhancement in …

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An Analysis Of Tax-Revenue Diversifcation Of State Governments (2000-2011), Muhammad Ali Hanif Jan 2014

An Analysis Of Tax-Revenue Diversifcation Of State Governments (2000-2011), Muhammad Ali Hanif

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States are facing tremendous challenges in the Twenty-First Century. Changing federal-state relationships, demographic changes, and economic changes are creating fiscal stress for states. Within all these challenges, one of most important one is frequent economic fluctuations that are creating fiscal instability for American States. Theorists have argued that states needs to overcome revenue instability for continuation of state programs, which can be done by increasing revenue diversification. Thus, by using data from the US Census Bureau between years 2000 to 2011, this paper attempts to determine whether states are increasing revenue diversification over time. The findings suggest that states have …

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Understanding Non-Helical Nuclease Resistant Dnas And Their Roles In Tlr9 Mediated Cellular Invasion, Katherine Leigh Hayden Jan 2014

Understanding Non-Helical Nuclease Resistant Dnas And Their Roles In Tlr9 Mediated Cellular Invasion, Katherine Leigh Hayden

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Non-helical DNA structures such as hairpins and G-quadruplexes found in the non-coding regions of chromosomes have been implicated in a number of biological processes such as control of genetic expression and in dysregulation causing diseases such as cancer. Recent studies from our laboratory have found that apoptotic DNA released from cancer cells, a synthetic G-quadruplex forming telomeric sequence, and a highly thermal stable DNA hairpin can induce an invasion response from a variety of cancer cell types. This invasion has been demonstrated to be mediated through a toll-like receptor protein found within the endosomes of the cell. We hypothesize that …

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Examining Predictors Of The Longitudinal Trajectories Of Diabetes Distress And Depressive Symptoms In A Sample Of Older Adults With Diabetes, Larita Jones Jan 2014

Examining Predictors Of The Longitudinal Trajectories Of Diabetes Distress And Depressive Symptoms In A Sample Of Older Adults With Diabetes, Larita Jones

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Objectives: The authors investigated the relationships between race, cognitive function, life-space mobility, comorbidity, and depressive symptoms over time; as well as the relationships between race, cognitive function, life-space mobility, comorbidity, and diabetes distress over time. Methods: The sample included 224 community-dwelling older adults (age 65<) previously diagnosed with diabetes. The current study utilized data from telephone interviews at three different time points (baseline, 1 year follow up, and 2 year follow up). Results: A number of significant correlations were found. Potentially most importantly, results from the final model indicated that those participants who were lowest in self-efficacy were the most at-risk for experiencing diabetes distress and/or depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Findings suggest that interventions aimed at reducing diabetes distress and/or depressive symptoms within this population should focus on social support and disease specific self-management education as two cost-effective and easily manipulated avenues to achieving this goal.

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Escape Home, Liliann Kane Jan 2014

Escape Home, Liliann Kane

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the effects of specific temperatures on sex ratios in the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, giving a

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Effects Of Biological, Environmental, And Nutritional Factors On Fecal Pellet Size And Morphology In The Sea Urchin Lytechinus Variegatus, Lacey Nicole Dennis Jan 2014

Effects Of Biological, Environmental, And Nutritional Factors On Fecal Pellet Size And Morphology In The Sea Urchin Lytechinus Variegatus, Lacey Nicole Dennis

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Sea urchins are an important economic resource for many international fisheries and are an important animal model in developmental biology. Currently, health of cultured sea urchins is evaluated by behavior or through invasive examination of internal tissues. Destructive sampling is not conducive to longitudinal studies and a non-invasive method of evaluating sea urchin health would have practical application. Evaluation of the egesta could provide a valuable predictor of physiological well-being. The size and morphology of fecal pellets produced by the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus under a variety of environmental and nutritional conditions were characterized in terms of 2-dimensional area, length, …

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Abnormalities Of Glutamate Neurotransmission Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Christopher Dorsett Jan 2014

Abnormalities Of Glutamate Neurotransmission Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Christopher Dorsett

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This project aims to investigate abnormalities in glutamate neurotransmission in the rat cortex following traumatic brain injury (TBI). The overarching hypothesis is that excessive glutamate release originating at the site of injury begins an excitotoxic cascade leading to increased intracellular calcium and cell death. Glutamate, the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system, facilitates learning, memory, and other cognitive functions via activation of metabotropic and ionotropic glutamate receptors. A family of Na+- dependent excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) on the plasma membranes of neurons and glial cells facilitate the rapid removal of glutamate from the synaptic cleft, maintaining …

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Stress And Myostatin In Salmoninae, Nicholas Galt Jan 2014

Stress And Myostatin In Salmoninae, Nicholas Galt

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The relationship between the muscle growth inhibitor, myostatin, and the stress response has been extensively studied in mammals, and myostatin is now known to partially mediate the degradative effects of stress in skeletal muscle. In fish, this relationship has not yet been clearly described. Herein, the effects of two stress mimetics, cortisol treatment and crowding, on myostatin-1a, -1b, and -2a expression in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki), Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) are described. In study I, no clear effects on myostatin mRNA expression were detected in rainbow trout …

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A Sinner In The City: Contextualizing The Magdalen Master Vita Panel C. 1280, Kristen Nicole Latulipe Jan 2014

A Sinner In The City: Contextualizing The Magdalen Master Vita Panel C. 1280, Kristen Nicole Latulipe

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This thesis shows that the vita panel of Mary Magdalen, now exhibited in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, was originally commissioned for a convertite house, rather than a mendicant monastery, as had been hitherto suggested. Painted c. 1280 by the Florentine painter known as the Magdalen Master, the work features a hair-clad Magdalen flanked by eight scenes from her life and legend. There is no extant documentation regarding the panel's commission. This thesis offers the Florentine convertite house of Santa Maria Maddalena as the likeliest original location for the Accademia Magdalen. Founded c. 1257, this institution was among the first …

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Characterization Of Murine And Human Breast Cancer Stem Cells In Vitro And In Vivo, Carnella Lee Jan 2014

Characterization Of Murine And Human Breast Cancer Stem Cells In Vitro And In Vivo, Carnella Lee

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Breast cancer stem cells (BCa-SC) are considered as a rare population of cells which cause resistance to chemotherapy in breast cancer (BCa). This population is characterized in humans and mice by CD24- CD44+ ALDH1+ phenotype and expresses mesenchymal properties that differ from the normal epithelial CD24+ CD44+ phenotype expressed in the majority of BCa cells. It has been widely accepted that tumor growth is sustained by BCa-SC that are similar to normal stem cells in which they have the ability to self-renew and differentiate. However, unlike their normal counterparts, BCa-SC are rare cells within tumors with the ability to self-renew …

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Internet Use And Mental Health/Well-Being In Old Age: Exploring The Roles Of Social Integration And Social Support, Ronald William Berkowsky Jan 2014

Internet Use And Mental Health/Well-Being In Old Age: Exploring The Roles Of Social Integration And Social Support, Ronald William Berkowsky

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The escalating pressures put on the US healthcare system, due in part to the growing needs of the expanding older adult population, has motivated research dedicated to more fully understanding the mental health and mental well-being needs of this population and ways to address these needs and alleviate the pressure on the healthcare system. An increasing area of interest is in examining the role information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as Internet-connected computers and smartphones, in the health of older adults. Research has shown that ICTs can successfully be used to help treat, manage, and cope with mental health/well-being issues, …

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Ap2 Clock Mutant Mice: Baseline Characteristics And Novel Responses To A Lipopolysaccharide Challenge, Tana Birky Jan 2014

Ap2 Clock Mutant Mice: Baseline Characteristics And Novel Responses To A Lipopolysaccharide Challenge, Tana Birky

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Circadian rhythms are the daily biological changes present within most organisms that occur in a predictable, approximately 24 hour pattern, even in the absence of external stimuli. These rhythms occur both at a global and cellular level, and although the molecular mechanics are highly conserved, their functions may vary depending on the tissues in which they are expressed. These functions include various aspects of metabolic processes such as satiety signaling and cellular proliferation. In order to explore the specific functions of circadian rhythms within adipocytes, a mouse model with Clock disruption driven by the fatty acid-binding protein 2 (aP2) promoter …

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Sociocultural Disposition And Psychosocial Adjustment: An Examination Of The Relationship Of Self-Efficacy, Optimism, And Hope To Social And Psychological Adjustment Among Urban Minority Youth, Latoya J. O'Neal Jan 2014

Sociocultural Disposition And Psychosocial Adjustment: An Examination Of The Relationship Of Self-Efficacy, Optimism, And Hope To Social And Psychological Adjustment Among Urban Minority Youth, Latoya J. O'Neal

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This dissertation examines the relationship between sociocultural disposition, as protective factors, and social and psychological adjustment among urban minority youth. Pierre Bourdieu's concept of the habitus provides the theoretical foundation for sociocultural disposition as a factor influencing the reproduction of poor psychosocial adjustment. Sociocultural disposition is operationalized as self-efficacy, optimism, and hopelessness. Data from this study are from the Birmingham Youth and Technology Study (BYTS) which was conducted during the 2008-2009 school year by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression was used to test six hypotheses regarding the relationship between sociocultural disposition …

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Effect Of Upper-Extremity Rehabilitation On Effort Required To Use The More Affected Arm After Acquired Brain Injury, Brad Sokal Jan 2014

Effect Of Upper-Extremity Rehabilitation On Effort Required To Use The More Affected Arm After Acquired Brain Injury, Brad Sokal

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Constraint-Induced Movement therapy, or CI therapy, is one of the few techniques that controlled, randomized studies show to substantially reduce the incapacitating motor deficit of the more-affected upper-extremity of patients with mild to moderately severe hemiparesis. The therapy for individuals with mild to moderate motor impairment of their more-affected arm involves a) training of more-affected arm for 3.5 hours per day for 10 consecutive weekdays, b) following shaping principles when conducting the training, c) restraining the less-affected arm for a target of 90% of waking hours, and d) administering a package of behavioral techniques designed to transfer gains to daily …

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Devitrification Of Iron Based Metallic Glasses At High Pressures And High Temperatures, Andrew Kevin Stemshorn Jan 2014

Devitrification Of Iron Based Metallic Glasses At High Pressures And High Temperatures, Andrew Kevin Stemshorn

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High pressure high temperature devitrification of a Fe85Si10B5 and a Fe78B13Si9 metallic glass was conducted at constant pressures with simultaneous in situ energy dispersive x-ray powder diffraction measurement. After the application of pressure a constant heating rate was applied. Heating the sample in each case resulted in crystallization with two distinct stages. Pressure is found to strongly affect crystallization temperature. Each stage of crystallization is identified using crystallographic analysis. Complementary high pressure room temperature studies were conducted for each sample.

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