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Open Access
A CASE STUDY OF A RADIATION DETECTION EQUIPMENT PROGRAM: DO THE ADVOCACY COALITION FRAMEWORK AND THE ISSUE ATTENTION CYCLE INFORM CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET DECISIONS?
(2016-08-12) Chamblin, Kimberly; Copeland, Gary; Jenkins-Smith, Hank; Damphousse, Kelly; Kim, Young; Gabert, Trent
The influence of policy knowledge and public interest upon the policy making process is described in this dissertation. The manner in which major policy change takes place, particularly as legislators gain technical understanding of an issue, is exhibited through this case study of a national security program. Specifically, this work concludes that steady increases in funding for the nuclear materials detection program were reversed as public interest waned and as legislators learned more about the limited efficacy of the program. These findings are consistent with hypotheses derived from the application of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and the Issue Attention Cycle (IAC). The ACF provides a basis for integrating factors external to the bureaucratic subsystem into analysis of policymaking processes. The research indicates that legislators applied the knowledge they gained through congressional hearings to a significant budget-related decision. At the same time, consistent with IAC, this work concludes that the timing of this major budget decision occurred alongside a significant decline in public attention. Combining the two theoretical frameworks, this dissertation offers a conclusion regarding how both policy-oriented learning and public issue attention influence policy change. This case study is distinct because of the issue’s complexity and the broad public interest and bipartisan support it received. These circumstances led to a context that allowed me to consider what makes learning possible as legislators must constantly absorb tremendous quantities of information on a variety of topics. The characteristics of this case also provided me with the opportunity to develop an analytical schema to process complete data sets representing both related newspaper coverage and congressional hearings in an objective manner. This project is an integrative model that shows linkages, indicating that the convergence of public issue attention and legislator policy knowledge factors is significant enough to account for the major radiation detection equipment policy change that took place in 2008 and 2009. Data reveal that radiation detection program budget decreases did occur in conjunction with a gradual decline in public attention and enhanced Congressional policy-oriented learning, and that broad initial coalition support for robust nuclear detection equipment funding eventually shifted to support other approaches to deterring nuclear terrorism. This finding should encourage additional research using the ACF and IAC to explain both sources of policy change and policy-oriented learning. Keywords: policy knowledge, policy-oriented learning, Issue Attention Cycle, Advocacy Coalition Framework, subsystems, coalitions, stages heuristic, policy core beliefs, secondary policy beliefs.
Open Access
Chromosome Organization and Segregation in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa
(2017-12) Bhowmik, Bijit Kumar; Rybenkov, Valentin V.; Zgurskaya, Elena; Rajan, Rakhi; Bourne, Christina; Libault, Marc
The faithful propagation of genetic information from a mother to its progeny is one of the most fundamental aspects of life. Encoding the entirety of an organisms' genetic information onto chromosomes poses a unique set of problems that cells are required to overcome for proper genetic flow. In bacteria, one or more DNA molecules are condensed almost 1000-fold in order to fit within the small vicinity of a single cell. While undergoing significant compaction, the chromosome must also retain its accessibility in order to perform various DNA dependent processes. Although several key elements of chromosome organization have been identified, our knowledge regarding this process remains limited. In order to maintain genetic integrity, newly replicated chromosomes must faithfully segregate into daughter cells before the completion of cell division. Unlike in eukaryotes, chromosome replication and segregation in bacteria occur concurrently. How a bacterial chromosome maintains coordination between replication, segregation, and cell division is still unclear. The role of chromosome organization in segregation is also not fully understood. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to acquire a better understanding of these complex biological processes which will in-turn illuminate our comprehension of the most basic and fundamental aspects of life. Elucidation of such processes will enable the potential to better manipulate chromosomes which can have various applications including but not limited to anti-microbial drug discovery, anti-cancer therapy, and creating programmable artificial cells.
Open Access
A Cohort Analysis of Postsecondary Education
(2015-05-08) Burnam, Amanda J.; Beutel, Ann; Bass, Loretta; Woodham Burge, Stephanie; Peck, B. Mitchell; Anderson, Kermyt G.
This study looks at factors that predict whether young people apply to and attend a postsecondary institution, and if they do attend, what level (two-year or less vs. four-year) and type (public vs. private) of postsecondary institution they first attend. Three different perspectives are used: family social capital, intersectionality, and the life course. Panel data for the sophomore cohorts of High School and Beyond (HS&B) and the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) are used. The data are analyzed with logistic regression and multinominal logistic regression models. The results support the family social capital perspective (e.g., parental education and family structure were significant in almost every single model). There was some support for intersectionality (e.g., there were some differences in the effects for Asian men vs. Asian women and African American men vs. African American women, relative to white women. Support for the life course perspective was limited to cohort differences in the effects of mother’s aspirations, respondent’s educational expectations, and GPA quartiles.
Open Access
Considering a Framework for How the Supreme Court Should Conceptualize the Press Clause of the First Amendment in the Network-Society Era
(2013-12) Schroeder, Jared C.; Kerr, Robert; Gade, Peter; Craig, David; Self, Charles; Wert, Justin
The Internet has made it possible for anyone to become a publisher, thus challenging traditional conceptualizations of the press and the press clause of the First Amendment, which has historically been understood in terms of the institutional media. The changes in the way members of a democratic society communicate have raised questions regarding how the courts should interpret the press clause in the network era. This dissertation utilized David Altheide’s qualitative document-analysis process to systematically assess three bodies of discourse in order to propose a unified framework in which the courts can ground questions concerning the future of the press clause in the network era. That method of qualitative document analysis was applied to the narratives represented within lower-court rulings concerning cases in which citizen publishers argued for press-related protections, Supreme Court decisions regarding Internet questions that relate to the First Amendment, and essential theoretical conceptualizations of the role of communication in a democratic society. Drawing upon the thematic insights that emerged through the analysis of the bodies of discourse, this dissertation proposes that courts focus on the process through which messages are composed and delivered. Such an approach is consistent with the Supreme Court’s press-clause jurisprudence and the dominant philosophical conceptualizations that emerged in the analysis regarding the role of the press in a democratic society, while at the same time relating with understandings regarding the unique dynamics of communication in the network era.
Open Access
DESIGN, SYNTHESIS, AND APPLICATION OF DUAL FUNCTIONING BODIPY PHOTOSENSITIZERS: A THERANOSTIC PHOTODYNAMIC APPROACH FOR CANCER THERAPY
(2015-05) Watley, Ryan; Nicholas, Kenneth; Halterman, Ronald; You, Youngjae; Pulat, Simin; Richter-Addo, George
Development of concomitant photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photosensitizer fluorescence detection (PFD), termed theranostics, is of primary interest as combining the two modalities stands to offer a more personalized cost effective “see, treat, and monitor” approach. As a minimally invasive drug-device strategy, the standard protocol involves photosensitizer (light sensitive drug) or fluorophore administration followed by light activation. Specifically, PDT is an approved regimen for the treatment of non-malignant and neoplastic disease. The cytotoxic effect derives from an activated photosensitizer reaction with local oxygen, which produces a tumor damaging species known as singlet oxygen. PFD employs a fluorophore as an invaluable tool for monitoring photosensitizer bio-distribution along with delineating healthy and diseased tissue in the native environment. The two, PDT and PFD, are distinguished via competing photochemical mechanism of administered drugs, which in part hampers their combined application. A photosensitizer’s therapeutic efficacy is invariably linked to intersystem crossing, which attenuates fluorescence required for imaging. Improving fluorescence yield of photosensitizer’s stands to impart information concerning drug location and concentration. These parameters are vital for determining the optimal time of illumination within PDT. Furthermore, fusion of PDT and PFD enables impromptu eradication of detected disease and subsequent monitoring of photodynamic response when targeted photosensitizers are used. This dissertation explores the design and synthesis of NIR dual functioning mono-BODIPY photosensitizers for optical image-guided PDT. The synthetic methodology excludes conventional incorporation of halogens as heavy atoms, which alter photophysical properties. Moreover, identification of the key structure photophysical property relationship for obtaining both effective fluorescence and singlet oxygen generation was uncovered along with elucidation of the photochemical mechanism. Above all, application through fluorescence bio-distribution studies and whole body in vivo imaging facilitates more effective tumor ablation through optimizing drug-light intervals for PDT. The objective of this dissertation is to develop NIR BODIPY photosensitizers applicable for imaging and therapy with one PS. Chapter I describes ingenious efforts to develop NIR BODIPY dyes, yet none have surfaced as dual agents for fluorescence detection and therapy. In addition, Chapter I highlight functionalization of NIR BODIPY dyes for improving water solubility, and tethering to cancer specific biomolecules. In Chapter II, citing the weak fluorescence of porphyrin based PS and populated triplet state of BODIPY fluorophores, intersystem crossing and production of singlet oxygen was accomplished without the use of heavy halogen atoms such as Br and I. The heavy atom effect significantly reduces the fluorescence, thus limiting its dual-application. BODIPY and thiophene units were fused for extended conjugation with varying electronic effects. An investigation into the structure photophyscial property relationship concluded electron-withdrawing groups enable singlet oxygen generation absent conventional heavy atom incorporation. The lead compound, SBDPiR690 has an inherent brightness and phototoxic power of 26,400 M-1cm-1 and 50,400 M-1cm-1, respectively. The design and synthesis of several analogs resulted in an improved SBDPIR688 analog with a brightness of 37, 440 M-1cm-1 and phototoxic power of 45,120 M-1cm-1. Chapter III demonstrates the translation of our lead compound SBDPiR690 photo physical properties in vitro and in vivo. Specifically, concentration dependence on cell survival illustrates minimal dark toxicity at the cell monolayer. Furthermore, brightness of the parent compound proved advantageous for non-invasive imaging of bio-distribution. The pharmacokinetic pattern helps establish an optimal drug light interval for vascular-targeted PDT, which was successful in total eradication of sub-cutaneous colon 26 tumor. In Chapter IV, we modify parent compounds through incorporating functional groups potentially facilitating improved aqueous solubility and overall improved pharmacokinetics. The inclusion of ester moieties through substitution of the boron center disrupts singlet oxygen generation in our improved analog SBDPiR688. However, ester synthons at the peripheral sites of the lead compound SBDPiR690 maintain its therapeutic capability through singlet oxygen generation. The ester functionality offers potential conjugation of target specific ligands for improved pharmacodynamics.
Open Access
Free College for Whom? How Policy Design and Public Management Shape Program Access and Success
(2019-07) Bell, Elizabeth; Fryar, Alisa; Carlson, Deven; Workman, Samuel; Garn, Gregg; Ghosh Moulick, Abhisekh
Drawing on theory from political science, policy process, and policy analysis/evaluation, this project investigates the different streams by which policy design influences the effectiveness of tuition-free college initiatives. My dissertation takes a different approach than previous literature by drawing connections across literature in policy process theory and public administration—including the social construction of target populations, administrative burden, and street-level bureaucracy—to formulate a holistic policy design framework. The central contention of my dissertation is that there are three main pathways through which policy design influences the success or failure of policy: political, administrative, and operational. First, I argue that there is a fundamental tension between the most politically advantageous and the most effective policy design, with risk averse policymakers often choosing the former to remain in line with perceptions of fairness among the public. Second, I find that politically motivated policy designs are translated through administrative agencies by bureaucrats that exercise uneven uses of discretionary power, which translates to inequities in access to free college programs. Third, I find that the alignment of policy tools and eligibility requirements with client needs structure who benefits and who loses, which meaningfully impacts whether policy outcomes are aligned with policy goals. Together, this project leverages public policy and public administration theories on the social construction of target populations, administrative burden and street-level bureaucracy to better understand the conditions under which politically shaped governmental policies aimed at extending the ladder of opportunity will meaningfully reduce inequality in college access and success.
Open Access
IMAGE AND VIDEO ENHANCEMENT USING SPARSE CODING, BELIEF PROPAGATION AND MATRIX COMPLETION
(2014-12-01) Barzigar, Nafise; Cheng, Samuel; Verma, Pramode; Sluss, James; Ray, William; Bodurka, Jerzy
Super resolution as an exciting application in image processing was studied widely in the literature. This dissertation presents new approaches to video super resolution, based on sparse coding and belief propagation. First, find candidate match pixels on multiple frames using sparse coding and belief propagation. Second, incorporate information from these candidate pixels with weights computed using the Nonlocal-Means (NLM) method in the first approach or using SCoBeP method in the second approach. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is demonstrated for both synthetic and real video sequences in the experiment section. In addition, the experimental results show that my models are naturally robust in handling super resolution on video sequences affected by scene motions and/or small camera motions. Moreover, in this dissertation, I describe a denoising method using low-rank matrix completion. In the proposed denoising approach, I present a patch-based video denoising algorithm by grouping similar patches and then formulating the problem of removing noise using a decomposition approach for low-rank matrix completion. Experiments show that the proposed approach robustly removes mixed noise such as impulsive noise, Poisson noise, and Gaussian noise from any natural noisy video. Moreover, my approach outperforms state-of-the-art denoising techniques such as VBM3D and 3DWTF in terms of both time and quality. My technique also achieves significant improvement over time against other matrix completion methods.
Open Access
Paths to Success: Analyzing the Journeys of Four Women of Color
(2018-05-02) Lepinay, Robin; Maiden, Jeffrey; Vaughn, Courtney; Smith, Joan; Vargas, Juanita; Kates, Susan; Gutierrez, Kathrine
This dissertation is a literary analysis as it applies to the writing of memoir. It is a study that focuses on the memoirs of four specific minority women of color who came of age during the historical time-period in this country known as the Civil Rights Era. Their stories reflect the times in which they were lived out. There are four points that were the lenses that I used in conducting the analysis of the four memoirs that are examined in this research study. 1. Purpose-the reason for which something is done. 2. Writing Style-a combination of diction or syntax that includes word choice, word order, sentence construction, organization, use of figurative language and symbolism. 3. Point of View-the perspective from which the story is told 4. Theme(s)-the main idea or general message of the work, including the truth or believability of the author Literary analysis focuses on how plot, structure, character, setting and many other techniques are used by the author to create meaning. It encourages one to think about how and why a poem, short story, novel, memoir or play was written. I used a number of data collection methods as the researcher of this study. The means of data collection I used came in the forms of interview transcripts, story telling, autobiographical writing, documents such a journal entries and pictures, and audio and video recordings. In a basic linear and chronological approach, this research project encompassed the study of four single individuals embracing stories from their lives, and exploring the learned significance of those individual experiences. In this study, I created an aggregate of narratives, each bearing on the others. It is, by no means, an exhaustive collection of women's memoir. The significance of this study lies in the contribution towards a practical critique that the writing of memoir has had on certain women of minority status.