The Mars Science Laboratory mission aims to land a car-sized rover on Mars’ surface and operate it for at least one Mars year in order to assess whether its field area was ever capable of supporting microbial life. Here we describe the approach used to identify, characterize, and assess environmental...
The Phoenix mission, launched on 4 August 2007, landed in the far northern
plains of Mars on 25 May 2008. In order to prepare for the landing events and the
90-sol mission, a significant amount of work has gone into characterizing the atmospheric
environment at this location on Mars for...
Statistical modeling has evolved around building increasingly more complex models, even though it is common knowledge among statisticians that an optimal model size usually exists for any given data set. Having overly complex models leads to imprecise parameter estimates and tends to increase the subjective role of the modeler, which...
A Right-hook (RH) crash is a common type of bicycle-motor vehicle crash that occurs between a right-turning vehicle and through-moving bicycle at an intersection. At signalized intersections, RH crashes can occur at the onset of the green or during the latter portion of the green phase. In spite of the...
Kanter (1977) conceptualized five dimensions of the
interdependence between work and family: occupational
subculture, job absorption, time and timing, rewards and
resources, and the emotional climate of work. Each of
these dimensions affects the functioning and satisfaction
of families and marriages. This research examined how
four of these dimensions (occupational...
Much of our knowledge about transgender (folks who identify as not cisgender) lives in universities centers around barriers experienced, feelings of exclusion, and being victims of harassment and violence. This thesis describes conversations regarding captured gender euphoric moments from five students at a large university. They came together through a...
Image segmentation continues to be a fundamental problem in computer vision and image understanding. In this thesis, we present a Bayesian network that we use for object boundary detection in which the MPE (most probable explanation) before any evidence can produce multiple non-overlapping, non-self-intersecting closed contours and the MPE with...
Neotropical characiform fishes form one of the most diverse freshwater ichthyofauna in the world. Knowledge of evolutionary processes that generated and maintain the immense characiform lineage and morphological diversity is still poorly understood. When did characiform lineages diversify? How have major geological and environmental changes affected diversification? Why are some...
Myxozoans are an enigmatic group of obligately parasitic, microscopic cnidarians. They diverged from their free-living relatives over 600 million years ago and have highly reduced genomes. However, they have retained nematocyst stinging cells which characterize the phylum Cnidaria. Free-living cnidarians utilize this cellular weaponry for defense and predation whereas the...
The structure and mechanics of tissues affect many important cellular functions such as migration, differentiation, and growth. Mechanical interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM), as well as ECM-mediated mechanical communication between cells, plays a part in coordinating collective cellular dy- namics during critical processes such as morphogenesis, tissue...
North America, with over 400 species of Astragalus (Fabaceae), is one of three major centers of diversity, all of which comprise the majority of the nearly 1750 species of Astragalus worldwide. One of the most diverse species, Astragalus lentiginosus of Section Diphysi, is a polymorphic complex of over 40 varieties,...
Stable expression of transgenes is required for commercial uses of genetically engineered trees. To better understand the stability of transgene expression under field conditions, we studied transgene expression and RNA interference (RNAi)-induced transgene suppression in 2,480 transgenic poplars (460 transgene insertion events) over three years. Stability of expression was assessed...
The concepts of medicine and health are becoming conflated. This can be
seen in the language of medicine and health: medicine is discussed in terms of
health and health in terms of medicine. A review of literature by medicine and
health scholars gives evidence of the conflation and of its...
The relationship between the self and the body forms the basis of many philosophical speculations throughout history. This thesis investigates the self‐body relationship in a modern medical context, connecting abstract ideas about the mind and embodiment with ethical decision making in healthcare. Naturalist, Feminist and property conceptions of the body...
The ethics of implant technology is a wide-ranging topic in the field of bioethics. This paper intends to add to the ethical discourse of implant technology by addressing a new class of implants applicable to orthopedic surgery. These new implants are engineered mechanisms that attach muscles to tendons and bones...
Modeling of slope flow circulations in idealized axisymmetric craters is used to understand (1) the large surface pressure amplitude observed in Gale Crater by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station and (2) the shallow convective boundary layer (CBL) suggested by Curiosity imagery. Air temperatures vary within craters with greater amplitudes than...
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The phylum Cnidaria contains three main branches: Anthozoa (corals, sea anemones) Medusozoa (jellyfish, hydra), and Endocnidozoa. This latter branch is characterized by parasitism and contains the microscopic fish-parasites Myxozoa. Myxozoa are highly simplified, consisting of only a few cell types, however they have retained the nematocyst stinging cells and complex...
Responsible Pedagogy is examination of contemporary education in the United States. Responsible educators are dedicated to being representative, responsive, and respectful. These three principles guide the best teaching and learning that are taking place in classrooms across the country. Launched in 2003, Shakespeare in American Communities is the most ambitious...
Background
Feline injection-site sarcoma (FISS) is a rare and aggressive tumor associated with vaccines, drug injections, and skin trauma in cats. The understanding of FISS remains limited, posing challenges in its diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. In this study, we analyzed the differential expression of miRNAs and their target genes in...
This thesis explores some of the ethical issues pertaining to the use of so-called radical enhancement technology. Key concepts analyzed include “normal function”, “human being”, and “personhood.” I argue that the use of these key concepts in the debate thus far has lacked philosophical rigor, and that a reexamination of...
To derive ellipsoid heights on passive marks with cm-level accuracy, many current specifications require the collection and adjustment of long-duration, static Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sessions. To increase efficiency, a survey procedure that includes real-time kinematic vectors from a real-time GNSS network (RTN) was evaluated. Thirty different “hybrid” networks...
The purpose of this thesis is to engage in a linguistic-conceptual inquiry into what it
proposes might for analytical purposes be conceived—and which it hence stipulatively
defines—as Applied Value Words. After constructing the conceptual framework through
which to identify, and within which to characterize Applied Value Words, this thesis then...
The Interactive Virtual Laboratories (IVLs) are a series of two-dimensional simulations designed to help students conceptually learn difficult concepts in thermodynamics. Three studies were performed to help elucidate how the IVLs affect student learning. In the first study, eight students were observed while completing one of the IVLs. The students...
Treatment of extrahepatic portosystemic shunts provides many options, including cellophane banding. These cellophane bands are secured with a ligation clip. Weck® offers two forms of these: the stainless steel Hemoclip, and the polymer Hem-o-lok. This in vitro study compares the mechanical strength of these two of types of clips by...
The low-level baroclinic eddy activity seen in the NASA Ames Mars General Circulation Model (MGCM) for simulations under three annual dust cycles are characterized. Simulations were conducted with both radiatively active and radiatively inert clouds (RAC and non-RAC, respectively) for 11 continuous annual cycles for each dust case. Model results...
The abolition of the Atlantic slave trade was a long struggle in
British Parliament between the slave trade defenders and the abolitionists.
The Act of 1807 officially abolished the Atlantic slave trade, eighteen years
after the initial abolition proposal to Parliament. William Wilberforce was a
member of a committee that...
Cometabolic biodegradation processes are potentially useful for the
bioremediation of hazardous waste sites. In this study the potential application of phenol-oxidizing
and nitrifying bacteria as "priming biocatalysts" was examined in the
degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), aryl ethers, and aromatic
ethers. We observed that a phenol-oxidizing Pseudomonas strain cometabolically...
Airborne discrete-return lidar is an active remote sensing technology capable of obtaining accurate, fine-resolution three-dimensional measurements over large areas. Discrete-return lidar data produce three-dimensional object characterizations in the form of point clouds defined by precise x, y and z coordinates. The data also provide intensity values for each point that...
The Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily of transcription factors that plays a key role in the regulation of bile acids, lipid and glucose metabolisms. The regulative function of FXR is governed by conformational changes of the ligand binding domain (LBD) upon ligand binding....
This project focuses on the classification of
vegetation as a habitat for wild turkeys. The
vegetation classification discussed here is only one
part of a study looking at habitat requirements,
seasonal use patterns, and brood-rearing habits of
wild turkeys in Southern Oregon. The vegetation
classification was performed for an area...
For a key season in the annual water cycle (L[subscript s]~120°) a mesoscale model is used to study atmospheric water vapor and water ice clouds in the northern polar region of Mars. Model results at high-resolution (15 km) allow the examination of various mesoscale aspects of the circulation in this...
Many of Earth’s terrestrial large carnivore species are threatened with extinction. As a result, some of the ecological effects associated with these species may be lost. With the goal of furthering large carnivore conservation research, I conduct three global scale analyses involving these species. First, I explore prey depletion as...
Proportion data falling in the continuum (0, 1) are very common in practice. It can also happen that an inflated number of zeros (or ones) occur with proportion data. There are extensive studies of zero-inflated data in the literature. Almost all of them, however, focus on zero-inflated count data. Furthermore,...
This thesis proposes an approximate maximum likelihood estimator and
likelihood ratio test for parameters in a generalized linear model when two or
more random effects are present. Substantial progress in parameter estimation
for such models has been made with methods involving generalized least squares
based on the approximate marginal mean...
Two novel and highly related C₂H₂ zinc finger proteins (CTIP1/BCL11A/EVI9 and CTIP2/BCL11B/Rit1) have been implicated in COUP-TF signaling, etiology of myeloid and lymphoid malignancies, and hematopoietic cell development. However, the precise cellular function(s) and the contribution of these proteins to neoplastic processes and hematopoietic cell development remain unknown. The goal...
Throughout most of the developed world, surgical sterilization via gonadectomy has become a common tool for combating the overpopulation of unwanted dogs as well as to eliminate the risk of reproductive diseases in pet dogs. In the dog as in other normal adult mammal, the hypothalamus secretes gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH),...
BCL11B is a transcriptional regulatory protein that plays essential roles during mouse embryonic development. BCL11B is expressed and functions in the immune and nervous systems as well as within ectodermal organs. Multiple studies have characterized the roles of BCL11B in T cells, brain, and skin. However, very little is known...
Differential expression (DE) analysis allows us to identify genes that respond differently under varying experimental conditions, therefore granting us an understanding of the molecular basis of phenotypic variation. Following the identification of significantly differentially expressed genes, it is often of the researcher's interest to elucidate hidden patterns or groups in...
Calcium channel blockers (CCB) was studied extensively in cardiology for their tissue
protective effect following myocardial infarction; we hypothesized that administration of
a CCB would interfere with the processes that result in exercise-induced muscle damage
(EIMD) and delayed onset muscle soreness. To investigate the effects of a CCB on a...
Modern geospatial data are frequently represented in some type of three-dimensional (3D) coordinate system, for example geodetic latitude, longitude, and ellipsoid height (φ, λ, h) derived from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). But for engineering and surveying work, φ, λ, h coordinates are usually converted to a topocentric system consisting...