Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of 1,9-dibromopentacyclo[5.4.0.02,6.03,10.05,9]undecane-8,11-dione (1,9-dibromo-PCU-8,11-dione) was performed by using an excess amount of m-chloroperbenzoic acid (3 equivalents) and resulted in the formation of the corresponding monolactone. The reaction would not proceed to the dilactone stage. The structure of the reaction product was established unequivocally via single crystal X-ray diffraction. Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of 1,9-dibromo-PCU-8,11-dione using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) was also performed and afforded a mixture of lactones. Only one of these lactones, which also contained an alkene functionality, could be isolated and characterized. 1,7-dibromo-PCU-8,11-dione was also reacted with CAN, yielding the mono-lactone, which has also been characterized.

The human opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, has been shown to kill the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. C. elegans has been a valuable model for the study of bacterial pathogenesis, and has reinforced the notion that common virulence and host defense mechanisms exist. Recently, the pyrimidine pathway was shown to regulate virulence levels. Therefore, mutations in the pyrimidine pathway of PAO1 showed decrease virulence in the nematode. When starving the nematode, bacterial resistance was also shown to increase. It was hypothesized that starvation induced the DAF pathway, which regulates the transcription of genes involved with the antibacterial defense mechanism. Further research will be conducted to test this theory by performing RNAi experiments for the genes functioning in the antibacterial defense mechanism.

Non-profits are increasing in size and scope to meet social needs that are unmet by the government. Declining financial support, government regulations, and increasing competition force non-profits to become more professional and efficient. Non-profits increasingly engage in commercial activities, joint ventures with for-profits, and employ business techniques such as business planning and marketing. An extensive body of research examines issues related to non-profit performance that supplies a framework for business planning. Business planning may help non-profits to sustain competitive advantages and long-term financial stability. This paper examines the challenges of writing a business plan for non-profits concluding with a sample business plan that takes into consideration advantages, risks, and limitations of non-profits.

I experimented with Hopfield networks in the context of a voice-based, query-answering system. Hopfield networks are used to store and retrieve patterns. I used this technique to store queries represented as natural language sentences and I evaluated the accuracy of the technique for error correction in a spoken question-answering dialog between a computer and a user. I show that the use of an auto-associative Hopfield network helps make the speech recognition system more fault tolerant. I also looked at the available encoding schemes to convert a natural language sentence into a pattern of zeroes and ones that can be stored in the Hopfield network reliably, and I suggest scalable data representations which allow storing a large number of queries.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a breastfeeding education program on breastfeeding initiation rates, breastfeeding knowledge, and attitude towards breastfeeding among teenage mothers at an urban school for pregnant and parenting teens. Breastfeeding initiation rose from 35.7% in the control group to 85.2% in the treatment group. The mean score on the Breastfeeding Knowledge Subscale was significantly higher for the treatment group but not the control group. There was not a significant increase in mean scores on the Breastfeeding Attitude Subscale. Participants who initiated breastfeeding scored also had a significant increase in scores from pretest to posttest on the Breastfeeding Knowledge Subscale, while participants who did not initiate breastfeeding did not.

Recent commercial developments have created a need for alternative materials and methods for imparting oil/grease resistance to paper and/or paperboard used in packaging. The performance of a novel grease resistant functional coating comprised of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), sodium tetraborate pentahydrate (borate) and acetonedicarboxylic acid (ACDA) and the application of said coating by means of flexographic press is presented herein. Application criteria is developed, testing procedures described, and performance assessment of the developed coating materials are made. SEM images along with contact angle data suggest that coating performance is probably attributable to decreased mean pore size in conjunction with a slightly increased surface contact angle facilitated by crosslinking of PVA molecules by both borate ions and ACDA.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (N=15) movements were determined with use of radio telemetry techniques to determine the utilization of corridor habitat on the Lake Ray Roberts Greenbelt Corridor (RRGC) in north central Texas. Home ranges were calculated using three estimation types. Male white-tailed deer tend to have home ranges twice that of female home ranges. Seasonal home ranges were largest during spring (Feb. - April) and fall (Aug. - Oct.) seasons. Males had greater seasonal variation in utilization than females. No statistically significant difference (p=0.24) between white-tailed deer locations when the RRGC experiences heavy human traffic compared to days when there is light human traffic. Linearity indices indicated home ranges less linear than expected (LI = 3.02). The RRGC should be maintained at its current status to provide a variety of vegetational types and protective cover for white-tailed deer and other wildlife of Denton County.

This paper deals with various topics in micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology beginning with microactuation, MEMS processing, and MEMS design engineering. The fabrication and testing of three separate MEMS devices are described. The first two devices are a linear stepping motor and a continuous rotary motor, respectively; and were designed for the purpose of investigating the frictional and wear properties of silicon components. The third device is a bi-stable microrelay, in which electrical current conducts through a secondary circuit, via a novel probe-interconnect mechanism. The second half focuses on engineering a carbon nanotube / SU-8 photoepoxy nanocomposite for fabricating MEMS devices. A processing method for this material as well as the initial results of characterization, are discussed.

Glutathione syntethase (GS) is an enzyme that belongs to the ATP-grasp superfamily and catalyzes the second step in the biosynthesis of glutathione. GS has been purified and sequenced from a variety of biological sources; still, its exact mechanism is not fully understood. Four highly conserved residues were identified in the binding site of human GS. Additionally, the G-loop residues that close the active site during catalysis were found to be conserved. Since these residues are important for catalysis, their function was studied computationally by site-directed mutagenesis. Starting from the reported crystal structure of human GS, different conformations for the wild type and mutants were obtained using molecular dynamics technique. The key interactions between residues and ligands were detected and found to be essential for enzyme activity.

Self injurious behavior (SIB), such as self-biting and head-banging, has been reported to occur in approximately 10% of captive, individually housed primates (Novak, Kinsely, Jorgensen, and Hazen, 1998). Accounts of the causes of SIB range from environmental to physiological. However, to date, no researchers have investigated the possible influence of social consequences, delivered by handlers and keepers, in the maintenance of SIB. There is only one research report showing that self-injury can be shaped in primates by the manipulation of food as a reinforcing consequence for the animal's behavior. The current study investigated the effects of social contact as potentially reinforcing consequences for the SIB displayed by an olive baboon (Papio hamadryas anubis). Results indicated that the behavior was maintained by attention from humans. As treatment, reinforcement was arranged for an appropriate alternative attention-getting behavior, resulting in increases in the appropriate alternative behavior and decreases in SIB.

Claremont Connections is a collection of fictional short stories about the relationships between the generations of women in one family and their friends.

This thesis explores the conditions under which mass rapes are more likely to be incorporated into the strategy of military or paramilitary groups during periods of conflict. I examine three societies, Rwanda , the former Yugoslavia , and Cambodia in a comparative analysis. To determine what characteristics make societies more likely to engage in rape as a military tool, I look at the status of women in the society, the religious cultures, the degree of female integration into the military institutions, the cause of the conflicts, the history of the conflict, and finally, the status of minority ethnic groups in each of these societies.

This data study concentrates on the past tense marking in the interlanguage (IL) of Chinese speakers of English. Following the assumptions of Hawkins & Lizska, (2003), it is assumed that unlike native speakers of English, Chinese speakers of English have a higher level of optionality within the past tense marking of their grammars. It is claimed that the primary reason for this occurrence is the lack of the functional feature T(ense) [+/-past] in Mandarin Chinese. If a particular functional feature is missing in a learner's L1 grammar, it is thought that it will be absent in one's L2 grammar as well. Three advanced Chinese speakers of English were tested on the past tense marking in their IL production. Both spontaneous oral and reading speech were used for this data analysis.

This project consists of an original composition, Voci Lontani, and a critical essay about the composition. In this piece, the idea of musical simultaneity is explored. Therefore, the piece focuses on the idea of contrast: between measured rhythms and indeterminate rhythms, between tonality and atonality, and between musics in separate tempos. In order to explore the significance of musical simultaneity, four important compositional concepts-the simultaneous juxtaposition of different musics, polyrhythmic structure, controlled indeterminacy, and quotation-are discussed. Also, several examples of twentieth-century music that use these concepts are analyzed in the essay.

This problem in lieu of thesis is a discussion of two topics: Brownian movement and quantum computers. Brownian movement is a physical phenomenon in which the particle velocity is constantly undergoing random fluctuations. Chapters 2, 3 and 4, describe Brownian motion from three different perspectives. The next four chapters are devoted to the subject of quantum computers, which are the signal of a new era of technology and science combined together. In the first chapter I present to a reader the two topics of my problem in lieu of thesis. In the second chapter I explain the idea of Brownian motion, its interpretation as a stochastic process and I find its distribution function. The next chapter illustrates the probabilistic picture of Brownian motion, where the statistical averages over trajectories are related to the probability distribution function. Chapter 4 shows how to derive the Langevin equation, introduced in chapter 1, using a Hamiltonian picture of a bath with infinite number of harmonic oscillators. The chapter 5 explains how the idea of quantum computers was developed and how step-by-step all the puzzles for the field of quantum computers were created. The next chapter, chapter 6, discus the basic quantum unit of information …

The post Civil War period known as Reconstruction remains a topic of interest for historians. Having avoided the experience of invasion by Northern troops during the Civil War, the people living in the interior of the state of Texas accepted Confederate defeat at first. However, with the instituting of Northern efforts at Reconstruction, such as the installation of Republican interim government officials, the arrival of Freedmen's Bureau agents, and in some parts the stationing of federal troops, conservative whites throughout the state became defiant toward the federal government and its policies. Some white southerners even went so far as to take up arms and become embroiled in open conflict with the federal government and its local institutions. As a result, Unionist whites and freedmen found themselves to be the targets of groups of desperados committed to upholding the Southern Cause and ensuring the return of the conservative Democratic party to power in Texas politics. This study focuses on Hunt County from the years 1860 - 1873 to determine to what extent violence played a role in the era of Reconstruction. An analysis of data primarily from county, state, and federal records forms the basis of this study. The information obtained …

The submarine and the spaceship fit in perfectly with the ideas of permanence and protection on which my work has been focusing. It is not coincidental that I have long been fascinated with the shapes and mechanisms of these vehicles. They are complex machines designed for a complex function; I find the precision of this to be appealing. I have used their shapes and mechanisms as design aspect in my thesis work. Also, in the studio, I have developed a type of Damascus steel bowl by modifying a technique once used for making gun barrels. I have made three small vessels inspired by spaceships and submarines using this modified technique.

The body of work originating from this Problem in Lieu of Thesis consists of paintings on canvas that incorporate representations of plant material. The impetus for the paintings was black and white photocopies created from mounds of plant material placed on a copy machine. The resulting copies contained forms that were organic in appearance, but unrecognizable as known objects. Parts of the most interesting and ambiguous copies were used to develop the imagery of the paintings. The new forms served the purpose of creating visual interest from unexpected images. Combined with traditional painting techniques, the selected forms produced paintings of mysterious and playful worlds similar to those parts of the environment not readily accessed, such as galactic space, microscopic organisms, and ocean depths.

A Country With No Name is a collection of thirty-four poems with a preface explaining the style and influences of the author. The preface defends plain-language techniques in poetry, using W.H. Auden, Wislawa Szymborska, and Paul Simon as examples of poets who take a similar approach. The poems range in topic from personal and familial to societal and abstract. The main subjects encompass interpersonal relationships, romantic and otherwise, and larger concerns, such as the effects of war and modern lifestyles.

Photoresist stripping with oxygen plasma ashing destroys the functional groups in organosilicate glass films and induce moisture uptake, causing low-k dielectric degradation. In this study, hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS), triethylchlorosilane and tripropylchlorosilane are used to repair the damage to organosilicate glass by the O2 plasma ashing process. The optimization of the surface functionalization of the organosilicate glass by the silanes and the thermal stability of the functionalized surfaces are investigated. These experimental results show that HMDS is a promising technique to repair the damage to OSG during the photoresist removal processing and that the heat treatment of the functionalized surfaces causes degradation of the silanes deteriorating the hydrophobicity of the films.

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921), who was considered a Wagnerian due to to his past work in Bayreuth and the Wagnerian traits of his Hänsel und Gretel, seems to have believed that to define himself as a composer, he had to engage somehow with that designation, whether through orthodox Wagner imitation or an assertion of his independence from Wagner's musical legacy. The latter kind of engagement can be seen in Humperdinck's Königskinder (1897), in which he developed a new kind of declamatory notation within the context of melodrama, thus fulfilling Wagnerian ideals as well as progressing beyond them. The effectiveness of Humperdinck's effort is seen in the ensuing critical reception, in which the realities of being heard as a Wagnerian composer are clarified.

This thesis analyzes the political career of Oran M. Roberts during the critical period from 1850 to 1873. Through a reassessment of Roberts's extensive personal papers in the context of modern historical scholarship, the author explains how Roberts's political philosophy reflected the biases and prejudices typical of his era, as well as his own material interests and ambitions. Topic areas covered include Roberts's position on the Compromise of 1850, his constitutional philosophy, his involvement in the secession movement in Texas (including his service as president of the state secession convention), his military career during the Civil War, his participation in Presidential Reconstruction, his views on Congressional Reconstruction, and his role in the process of "redemption" in Texas.

In this thesis I attempt to base an environmental ethic on a quality called naturalness. I examine it in terms of quantification, namely, as to whether it can quantified? I then apply the concept to specific areas such as restoration and conservation to create an environmental ethic and to show how such an ethic would be beneficial in general, and especially to policy issues concerning the environment. The thesis consists of three chapters: (1) the definition of nature and natural by way of a historical approach; (2) the place of humans in this scheme; and (3) the place of value and the discussion concerning quantification.

The ability to passivate metallic surfaces under non-UHV conditions is not only of fundamental interests, but also of growing practical importance in catalysis and microelectronics. In this work, the passivation effect of a surface iodine layer on air-exposed Ta for the copper electroless deposition was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Although the passivation effect was seriously weakened by the prolonged air exposure, iodine passivates the Ta substrate under brief air exposure conditions so that enhanced copper wetting and adhesion are observed on I-passivated Ta relative to the untreated surface.