http://hdl.handle.net/1957/8 The University Honors College requires a senior thesis for receipt of OSU’s most prestigious degree, the Honors Baccalaureate. 2013-05-23T10:19:59Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/38176 Culture: The Cornerstone of Effective International Marketing Strategies between the United States and China Vogt, Alison Marie From improving technologies to increasing access to modern infrastructure and wealth, our once parceled and divided world is slowly “flattening”, or becoming more globally integrated. As a result of this changing climate of business, companies must recognize the harm that a narrow view on culture and experiences can cause in international consumer markets. Therefore, understanding culture is vital to developing successful international marketing strategies. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of cultural differences and minimizing cross-cultural marketing barriers, thus illuminating the path toward effective marketing efforts between American and Chinese companies. It discusses cultural differences between China and the United States and reviews self-referencing criterion, ethnocentrism, country of origin effects, and international product adaptation. It also analyzes opinions of actual business executives in both China and the United States regarding international business practices. 2013-04-15T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/38175 Strain construction to test the significance of antiactivation in Pseudomonas quorum sensing Goff, Shannon Elise The quorum sensing regulatory pathway has been extensively studied for its impact on the virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic pathogen that causes acute and chronic infections in immunocompromised individuals such as those suffering from the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis. Part of the quorum sensing pathway that has not been adequately described is the mechanism behind the accumulation of a threshold concentration of autoinducer. Recently, a protein, QteE, has been shown to inhibit the transcriptional regulator LasR. LasR binds the autoinducer molecule 3-oxo-dodecanoyl-homoserine lactone produced by the synthase LasI. QteE could also have a role in preventing the autoinducer of one cell binding its own LasR and inducing quorum sensing without a threshold concentration of autoinducer, essentially “short-circuiting” the cell. A co-culturing experiment with two QteE-deficient strains of P. aeruginosa, one LasI-proficient and the other LasI-deficient, would determine if this hypothesis is correct. The co-culturing experiment requires a method to differentiate between two different strains of bacteria grown together in the same medium, which in this case is tagging one strain with a red fluorescent protein, mCherry. For this thesis, I integrated a plasmid containing mCherry (pVM3) into the chromosome of the P. aeruginosa strains, and then confirmed their fluorescence with spectroscopy and microscopy. I also attempted to confirm the chromosomal location of the insertion by PCR. 2013-04-15T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/38174 Bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass: assessing genes linked to acetic acid stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Montgomery, Tyler P. Lignocellulosic biomass represents a vast and renewable source of fermentable sugar for production of biofuels. However, native lignocellulose—comprised of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin—is refractory to degradation because the crystalline cellulose is not easily hydrolyzed by cellulases. Standard chemical treatments of lignocellulose to reduce the crystallinity of cellulose prior to enzymatic hydrolysis also generate fermentation inhibitors, including acetic and other organic acids, furfural, hydroxymethyl furfural, and phenolic compounds. To increase the acetic acid resistance of one of the major microorganisms used to ferment lignocellulose-derived sugars, mutations in three genes were introduced and evaluated in a prototrophic laboratory strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S288c, and were introduced into the industrial strain D5A. Previous work had shown that loss of FPS1, encoding an acetic acid channel, and loss of EDE1 and MVB12, encoding proteins involved in endocytosis, increased acetic acid resistance. Disruption of FPS1 in S288c resulted in somewhat greater resistance at low concentrations (80-120 mM acetic acid) but not at concentrations greater than 120 mM. Combined genetic and molecular analyses of the disruptions of FPS1, EDE1 and MVB12 in D5A indicated that D5A was diploid, and that only one of the two alleles of each of these genes had been deleted. 2013-04-15T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37704 Optimization of Pulsed Laser Deposited Piezoelectric Thin Films for Microelectromechanical Systems Kearney, Dylan R. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is well known to exhibit some of the strongest piezoelectric responses, explaining why it is at the heart of piezoelectric-based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) research. The use of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) to synthesize PZT offers many advantages over alternative deposition techniques, mainly regarding its ability to maintain target to film stoichiometry, as well as in-situ crystallization of the deposited film. Pb(Zr₀.₅₂Ti₀.₄₈)O₃ was deposited onto platinized silicon substrates via PLD. PZT on platinized silicon was selected as a baseline for the thin film deposition optimization process due to the vast amount of work done in the research community regarding this system. As such, there is abundant data available for trend comparison. Θ-2Θ x-ray diffraction scans verified the crystal structure of the films as phase-pure (00l) PZT when deposited using a 30 mol% excess lead target, while film thicknesses were measured using variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE). Electrical characterization revealed high-quality ferroelectric films, remanent polarization ~ 30 μC/cm², dielectric loss ~ 1%, and dielectric constants up to 1370. Once the baseline for PZT deposition using PLD had been established, the potential to apply the same principles and methodologies to a more novel system was explored. Ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD)-MgO offers a low-cost, flexible substrate that has a similar crystal lattice to that of PZT, thus it can be used for epitaxial growth. However, the IBAD substrate requires the deposition of a conductive bottom electrode, the lattice structure of which must also match the underlying MgO and overlying PZT. LaNiO₃ (LNO) is often used as a bottom electrode in such systems, as it fulfills the aforementioned requirements. PZT/LNO/IBAD-MgO films were deposited, with in-plane orientation being measured via x-ray diffraction ø scans. Future work will focus on optimizing the epitaxial nature, as well as improving the ferroelectric responses of these films on IBAD substrates. 2013-03-21T00:00:00Z