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Title: A study of types of magazine picture appeal and editors' ability to predict readers' picture-value judgment [sic]
Creator: Kao, Anne Li-an
Date: 1964
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: An evaluation of market coordination in the Bolivian rice industry
Creator: Moran, Michael Joseph
Date: 1968
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: A matrix of social and personality variables for the prediction of school achievement
Creator: Gigliotti, Richard Joseph, 1945-
Date: 1969
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Paper money and the Massachusetts Land Bank, 1740
Creator: Adams, Glenn Dallas
Date: 1950
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Improvements in fine-scale estimation and evaluation of geographic variables using climate data in East Africa
Creator: Hession, Sarah L.
Date: 2011
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Global environmental change has surfaced as a critical issue to both the scientific community and the general public. One aspect of particular concern involves climate change, which will exert impacts on ecosystems and economies, presenting considerable challenge to human adaptation. In Africa, a continent that is vulnerable due to multiple stressors and low adaptive capacity, climate change is expected to significantly affect both people and ecosystems. Adaptation strategies are being...
Show moreGlobal environmental change has surfaced as a critical issue to both the scientific community and the general public. One aspect of particular concern involves climate change, which will exert impacts on ecosystems and economies, presenting considerable challenge to human adaptation. In Africa, a continent that is vulnerable due to multiple stressors and low adaptive capacity, climate change is expected to significantly affect both people and ecosystems. Adaptation strategies are being developed using information from studies that evaluate the impacts of climate variability and climate change in Africa. Recommendations are made for local development of adaptation strategies due to the heterogeneity of climate change and its effects on East Africa's climate. However, global climate change models are coarse in scale and mask much of the local variation in regional climate, indicating the need for higher resolution climate data. This dissertation addresses this need by comparing spatially explicit statistical methods of interpolation and prediction, both theoretically and empirically; expanding upon the method of universal kriging by incorporating complex feedback relationships that may produce simultaneity between precipitation and its covariates; and evaluating precipitation patterns over space in East Africa through a case study. Mechanisms of precipitation have been considered in detail, expanding upon many other spatially explicit applications of prediction methods to date. Further, spatially explicit inferential regression models have been developed to better understand spatial patterns and variability in East African precipitation. Predicted maps of precipitation, generated at a resolution of 1 kilometer, accurately reflect the mesoscale influences of topography and the presence of large water bodies (i.e., Lake Victoria) as well as the seasonal influences of the passing of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). In terms of prediction, the spatially explicit methods considered herein clearly outperformed a global data set (i.e., the CRU TS 3.1) in terms of error and ability to reflect local variability. The method of local ordinary kriging generally outperformed the multivariate kriging techniques, indicating that precipitation patterns in areas of high topographic variability, such as East Africa, may be modeled as well or better using local search neighborhoods in the kriging process rather than using complex multivariate regression models. However, additional work to improve the multivariate regression models and overall levels of correlation are expected to yield improved prediction results. Furthermore, the case study successfully demonstrated that the newly developed method of universal kriging with instrumental variables performs similarly to other standard methods of estimation, and perhaps better in the presence of significant measurable simultaneity.
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Title: The biology of Solierella plenoculoides plenoculoides
Creator: Boggs, Gordon Lee
Date: 1968
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The feasibility of establishing a feed analytical service for Michigan cattle feeders
Creator: Bortel, William Lee
Date: 1966
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: A study of soil water movement as affected by drainage
Creator: Bornstein, Joseph
Date: 1949
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: From synthesis to behavioral activity in streams : investigations of putative sea lamprey pheromone components
Creator: Brant, Cory Olaf
Date: 2011
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus L.) has become a model species in the study of bile acid production and release into the environment where these compounds function as intraspecific chemical signals. Throughout the later stages of their life history, sea lampreys have been shown to rely upon pheromone communication to mediate reproduction. Laboratory and stream behavioral bioassays have implicated 3-keto petromyzonol sulfate (3kPZS) as a lamprey mating pheromone, but the full function of...
Show moreThe sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus L.) has become a model species in the study of bile acid production and release into the environment where these compounds function as intraspecific chemical signals. Throughout the later stages of their life history, sea lampreys have been shown to rely upon pheromone communication to mediate reproduction. Laboratory and stream behavioral bioassays have implicated 3-keto petromyzonol sulfate (3kPZS) as a lamprey mating pheromone, but the full function of this bile alcohol derivative remains to be elucidated. Further, the biosynthesis, regulation, and release of 3kPZS and other putative components of the pheromone remain only partially characterized. In Chapter 1 of this thesis, I observed the behaviors of migratory females to the presence of 3kPZS in streams across a typical migratory season. In Chapter 2, the synthesis, transport, and release of several steroid-derived compounds in adult male sea lampreys were further examined using analytical chemistry and molecular biology-based approaches in adult males. The data presented here further characterize the male mating pheromone in sea lamprey, contribute to the understanding of pheromone communication in vertebrates, and provide implications for controlling the invasive species in the Laurentian Great Lakes.
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Title: Evaluating the impact of Gliricidia sepium on soil organic matter in maize-based cropping systems in southern Malawi
Creator: Beedy, Tracy L.
Date: 2009
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Effect of cyclic AMP in modulating cell differentiation and survival behaviors
Creator: Zhang, Linxia
Date: 2010
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Electronic structure and excited state dynamics of chromium(III) complexes
Creator: Schrauben, Joel Nicholas
Date: 2010
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: How many fish are there and how many can we kill? : improving catch per effort indices of abundance and evaluating harvest control rules for lake whitefish in the Great Lakes
Creator: Deroba, Jonathan J.
Date: 2009
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: The synthesis and reactions of dichloromethaneboronic esters
Creator: Wu, Show-jen Grace
Date: 1971
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Assessing the involvement of altered neurotensin signaling in anorexia nervosa
Creator: Schroeder, Laura Elizabeth
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: ABSTRACTAssessing the Involvement of Altered Neurotensin Signaling inAnorexia NervosaByLaura Elizabeth SchroederAnorexia Nervosa (AN), characterized by a persistent and detrimental drive tolose weight via restriction of food intake and excessive exercise, is the psychiatricdisorder with the highest mortality rate. Very few options exist when consideringpharmacotherapies used to treat AN patients, and no drugs have been demonstrated tosignificantly improve weight gain. This highlights the need...
Show moreABSTRACTAssessing the Involvement of Altered Neurotensin Signaling inAnorexia NervosaByLaura Elizabeth SchroederAnorexia Nervosa (AN), characterized by a persistent and detrimental drive tolose weight via restriction of food intake and excessive exercise, is the psychiatricdisorder with the highest mortality rate. Very few options exist when consideringpharmacotherapies used to treat AN patients, and no drugs have been demonstrated tosignificantly improve weight gain. This highlights the need to not only find better drugbasedtherapies for AN but to also find druggable targets for this disorder. While AN isthought to be highly heritable, with heritability estimates ranging between 50-80%, it hasbeen challenging to identify significant genetic contributors. Thus, determining thegenetic risk factors of AN will first be required for development of better therapeutics.In an effort to better understand the genetic basis of AN, recent work has beenperformed to uncover rare genetic variants that confer high risk of disease development.Loss-of-function variants in Neurotensin (Nts) and Nts Receptor 1 (NtsR1) wereidentified in individuals with eating disorders. Nts is a neuropeptide known to regulateingestive and locomotor behavior. Nts modulates these behaviors centrally, and asubset of dopamine (DA) neurons with the ventral tegmental area (VTA) that coexpressNtsR1 are known to contribute to DA-mediated weight loss behaviors. Ablation of allNtsR1 VTA neurons was shown to promote excessive locomotor activity without asufficient increase in feeding, leading to low body weight. Finally, increased fiberdensities have been found within the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) of individuals withAN, and the LHA is a region with a significant population of Nts neurons known tomodulate both feeding and activity. We therefore hypothesized that Nts populations infeeding centers, such as the LHA, receive altered input from structures associated withAN and that alterations and/or disruption of Nts signaling promotes AN-like behaviors.This hypothesis was explored via three different approaches. First, the locationand density of Nts populations within the brains of NtsCre; Floxed GFP mice weremapped, and this revealed the presence of Nts in regions implicated in regulation offeeding and AN. The next approach involved determining if disrupted Nts signalingincreases risk for development of AN-like behaviors. This was accomplished bycharacterizing NtsR1-deficient mice both at baseline and after exposure to anadolescent-stress model of AN. This study revealed that deficiency of NtsR1 is agenetic risk factor that, when interacting with risks of being female and exposure toadolescent stress, promotes aberrant feeding, excessive locomotor behaviors, andcompulsive anxiety behaviors analogous to those observed in AN. Finally, a rabiesvirus-based method was used to identify direct inputs to LHA Nts neurons, and thishighlighted the existence of afferents, and thus top-down control, from structuresimplicated in AN. In addition, densities of these inputs were determined in mousemodels of AN, and this demonstrated that afferent inputs to LHA Nts neurons areincreased from sites associated with AN.Altogether, the data presented in this thesis highlight the possible genetic andneurocircuitry alterations to the Nts-NtsR1 system that may promote and/or be the resultof development of AN. These data also indicate the need for future studies to betterunderstand the mechanism by which such alterations in Nts signaling promote thisdisease.
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Title: The effect of kind and concentration of sugar on gluten formation and character
Creator: Meiske, Donna Poland
Date: 1957
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Mechanisms of southern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys torridus) muscle resistance to the paralytic and lethal toxins in Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus) venom
Creator: Parigi, Abhijna A.
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Voltage-gated sodium ion channels (Nav¬¬¬¬¬¬) are transmembrane proteins responsible for initiating electrical signals in excitable cells. Because Nav channels play a crucial role in neuromuscular coordination, they are targeted by a diverse array of neurotoxins produced across the animal kingdom. Arizona bark scorpions (Centruroides sculpturatus) produce toxins that disrupt Nav channel function, causing pain, muscle paralysis and respiratory failure. Southern grasshopper mice (Onychomys...
Show moreVoltage-gated sodium ion channels (Nav¬¬¬¬¬¬) are transmembrane proteins responsible for initiating electrical signals in excitable cells. Because Nav channels play a crucial role in neuromuscular coordination, they are targeted by a diverse array of neurotoxins produced across the animal kingdom. Arizona bark scorpions (Centruroides sculpturatus) produce toxins that disrupt Nav channel function, causing pain, muscle paralysis and respiratory failure. Southern grasshopper mice (Onychomys torridus) hunt bark scorpions. In response to selection by scorpion venom, grasshopper mice have evolved physiological resistance to toxins that cause pain and death. Although previous work identified modifications in one grasshopper mouse Nav channel (Nav1.8) that provide resistance to venom pain, mechanisms underlying resistance to muscle paralysis remain unknown. In skeletal muscle, Nav1.4 channels regulate muscle contraction. Previous studies showed that toxins in C. elegans and C. vittatus venoms disrupt Nav1.4 gating mechanisms. Thus, I tested the hypothesis that C. sculpturatus venom contains toxins that target Nav1.4, and that grasshopper mice are resistant to the effects of these toxins via molecular changes to their Nav1.4. Using molecular and electrophysiological analyses, I compared the structural and functional properties of grasshopper mice Nav1.4 channels to those of house mice and rats (rodents that are both sensitive to scorpion venom) and found that grasshopper mice Nav1.4 has evolved reduced sensitivity to C. sculpturatus venom. Further, I identified amino acid changes in the grasshopper mice Nav1.4 protein that contribute to reduced toxin sensitivity. Finally, I show that the beta subunits (accessory proteins that modulate Nav1.4 channel gating kinetics) of grasshopper mice do not have species-specific effects on channel function in the presence or absence of venom. My results demonstrate that highly conserved proteins can be evolutionarily modified with minimal effects to their baseline functional properties.
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Title: " ... To do credit to my nation, wherever I go" : West Indian and Cape Verdean immigrants in Southeastern New England, 1890-1940
Creator: Edwards, Janelle Marlena
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This work is a community study that centers the experiences of black immigrants as an overlapping diaspora in multi-ethnic and transnational African-American history. It argues that, through the operationalization of their familial networks, ethnic organizations, and neighborhood enclaves, black immigrants in New England depart from traditional histories of assimilation and acculturation. Though much scholarship has been dedicated to the politically charged organizations and black immigrant...
Show moreThis work is a community study that centers the experiences of black immigrants as an overlapping diaspora in multi-ethnic and transnational African-American history. It argues that, through the operationalization of their familial networks, ethnic organizations, and neighborhood enclaves, black immigrants in New England depart from traditional histories of assimilation and acculturation. Though much scholarship has been dedicated to the politically charged organizations and black immigrant participation in New York, this microhistory of Southeastern New England's port cities -- Providence and New Bedford--demonstrates the commonplace, quotidian lives of West Indians and Cape Verdeans as neighbors, friends, and relatives who experienced and adapted to their diaspora condition differently. While West Indians altered their community landscape and eventually assimilated into the African-American community, Cape Verdeans retained a Cape Verdean ethnic identity, bolstered by their transnational shipping fleet and the constant flow of people, goods, and ideas from the homeland.
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Title: Toward zero delay video streaming
Creator: Al-Qassab, Hothaifa Tariq
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Video streaming has been growing rapidly since the beginning of this century and it is expected to continue growing. With rapid growth of Internet traffic led by video traffic, the Internet busy hours on both mobile and fixed connection segments will double before the end of this decade. Meanwhile, transmission delay is a well-known problem in video streaming and it has been addressed by many prior works that demonstrated the feasibility of reducing packet delays over the Internet by...
Show moreVideo streaming has been growing rapidly since the beginning of this century and it is expected to continue growing. With rapid growth of Internet traffic led by video traffic, the Internet busy hours on both mobile and fixed connection segments will double before the end of this decade. Meanwhile, transmission delay is a well-known problem in video streaming and it has been addressed by many prior works that demonstrated the feasibility of reducing packet delays over the Internet by employing a variety of end-to-end techniques. This thesis consists of two parts that introduce new video streaming frameworks over the Internet and over connected-vehicle networks, respectively. Our objective in the first part of this thesis is to improve video streaming over the Internet. The emerging of new technology such as the HTTP-based Adaptive Streaming (HAS) approach has emerged as the dominant framework for video streaming mainly due to its simplicity, firewall friendliness, and ease of deployment. However, recent studies have shown that HAS solutions suffer from major shortcomings, including unfairness, significant bitrate oscillation under different conditions and significant delay. On the other hand, Quality-of-Service (QoS) based mechanisms, most notably multi-priority queue mechanisms such as DiffServ, can provide optimal video experience but at a major cost in complexity within the network. Our objective in this thesis is to design an efficient, low complexity and low delay video streaming framework.We call our proposed Internet streaming framework Erasable Packets within Internet Queues (EPIQ). Our proposed solution is based on a novel packetization of the video content in a way that exploits the inherent multi-priority nature of video. An important notion of our proposed framework is Partially Erasable Packet (PEP) that has two key attributes: (1) Each PEP packet carries multiple segments corresponding to multiple priority levels of the video content; and (2) High priority segments are placed next to the packet header while low-priority segments are placed toward the tail of the PEP packet. Furthermore, to evaluate our framework performance, we developed an analytical model for EPIQ that shows significant improvements when compared to the conventional and multi-priority queue video transmission models. Our proposed solution consists of a new Active Queue Management (AQM) that is similar to the RED algorithm. Under congestion, a best-effort AQM router can simply erase an arbitrary portion of a PEP packet starting from its tail where we denote this process as Partial Erasing (PE). To complement partial erasing in the AQM, a rate control protocol similar to TFRC is proposed to ensure fairness for video and non-video traffic. We demonstrate the viability of the proposed framework by simulating High Definition (HD) Video on Demand (VoD) streaming on the popular network simulator ns-2. Our results show that EPIQ provides improvements in video quality in terms of PSNR by at least 3dB over traditional video streaming formworks. In addition, packet loss ratio and delay jitter performance are comparable to the optimal video streaming mechanism that is offered by multi-priority systems such as DiffServ.The main objective of the second part of the thesis is to develop a vehicle active safety framework that utilizes video streaming and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication for driver warning. Most prior efforts for V2V safety applications have been limited to sharing vehicle status data between connected vehicles. On the other hand, video streaming has been mainly proposed for video contents sharing between vehicles or dashboard camera sharing.We propose a Cooperative Advanced Driver Assistance System (C-ADAS) where vehicles share visual information and fuse it with local visuals to improve the performance of driver assistance systems. In our proposed system, vehicles share detected objects (e.g., pedestrians, vehicles, cyclists, etc.) and important camera data using the DSRC technology. The vehicle receiving the data from an adjacent vehicle can then fuse the received visual data with its own camera views to create a much richer visual scene. The sharing of data is motivated by the fact that some critical visual views captured by one vehicle are not visible or captured by many other vehicles in the same environment. Sharing such data in real-time provides an invaluable new level of awareness that can significantly enhance a driver-assistance, connected vehicle, and/or autonomous vehicle’s safety-system. The experimental results showed that our proposed system performed as intended and was able to warn drivers ahead of time, and consequently, it could mitigate major accidents and safe lives.
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Title: Evaluation of passive UHF radio frequency identification transponder performance using different packaging materials
Creator: Zhang, Yuanchenxi
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology plays an important role in supply chains by providing possibilities of improved security, efficiency and visibility of item tracking and management. In order to achieve the expected functionality of RFID technology, it is critical to understand factors that influence RFID transponder performance.The objective of this research was to determine the effect of packaging materials on the performance of passive UHF RFID transponders in a simulated...
Show moreRadio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology plays an important role in supply chains by providing possibilities of improved security, efficiency and visibility of item tracking and management. In order to achieve the expected functionality of RFID technology, it is critical to understand factors that influence RFID transponder performance.The objective of this research was to determine the effect of packaging materials on the performance of passive UHF RFID transponders in a simulated manufacturing environment. Three general-purpose passive transponders were tested when they were attached to four packaging materials. Performance parameters of read range, which is the maximum distance the transponder can be detected by the interrogator, and orientation read rate, which is the percentage of orientations in which the transponder was read, out of the randomly chosen set of orientations evaluated based on rotation, tilt, or incline of the transponder within three-dimensional space, were quantified and analyzed. The results showed that packaging materials had a consistent effect on read range and orientation read rate across different antenna designs of passive dipole antenna transponders. Transponder antenna designs had a significant effect on read range and orientation read rate. Interrogator antenna polarizations had a significant effect on transponder read range but did not have a consistent effect on transponder orientation read rate.
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