Genetics

The replication of positive strand RNA viruses requires association with host membranes and frequently results in membrane proliferation and rearrangement. The fact that widely divergent virus families share form and function of replication strategies is likely due to common evolutionary origin and suggests that elucidating the reproduction strategies of one virus provides insight to virus life cycles in general.Red clover necrotic mosaic virus (RCNMV) is a positive-strand RNA virus in the Diant...

Forestry

Sustainability has become a focus for forest management all over the United States, but particularly for the South, where harvest intensity has increased in recent years. Considerable interest has focused on the effects of high intensity silvicultural practices and short rotations on ecological processes, biodiversity, and wildlife habitat. In order to better understand these effects, we conducted a comparative study of second and third rotation plant communities and the effects of silvicultural...

Electrical Engineering

Senthil N Velu. Charge Based Modeling in State Variable Based Simulator. (Underthe direction of Dr. Michael B. Steer.)A new parameterized nonlinear device model formulation is described that enablesthe same computer code to be used in any circuit analysis (ie. Harmonic Balance,Transient and D.C) routine with no charge conservation issues. The parametricdescription provides great flexibility for the design of nonlinear device models. Thenumber of parameters or state variables required is the mini...

English

HOLLIS, AMANDA JULIA. Creating Structure: Verbal and Visual Architecture in Chaucer. (Under the direction of Linda T. Holley.)Chaucer uses physical structures in his dream-vision House of Fame and The Canterbury Tales in order to shape the action of his poetry. I am particularly concerned with the way in which Chaucer uses these buildings to narrate space. Building on theoretical foundations of Horace, St. Augustine, and Boccaccio, Chaucer outlines his own theory of how issues of sight and tradi...

Mathematics Education

ABSTRACTCLINKSCALES, MICHAEL JOHN. Computer-Assisted Instruction Versus Traditional Classroom Instruction: Examining Students Factoring Ability in High School Algebra One. (Under the direction of Karen Flanagan Hollebrands.)The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction compared to the traditional instruction of a classroom teacher in mathematics. The results of the study are based a series of tests administered to two classes of Algebra I students. Th...

Psychology

This study assessed the performance of participants in haptic and visual discrimination tasks involving the surfaces: abrasive paper and Japanese sharpening water stones. A recent study using abrasive paper surfaces showed that participants visual discrimination of smooth stimuli was more accurate than the haptic discrimination of those same smooth stimuli (Bozoglu-Sinclair, 2001). These results differed from those of an earlier experiment, which examined visual and haptic performance in the dis...

Statistics

Sen, Kapildeb. Unit Root Tests in Time Series and Stochastic Volatility Models (Under the direction of Dr Sastry G. Pantula).Providing appropriate forecasts of time series data into the future depends crucially on whether the time series under consideration is non-stationary (i.e. has a unit root) or stationary. In the context of a Stochastic Volatility Model (SVM), the presence of a unit root in financial data has important implications for the pricing of various financial instruments. We propo...

Civil Engineering

Four full-scale field lateral load tests were conducted to independently verify the Weathered Rock Model for P-y Curves published by Cho (2002). Class A performance predictions were developed and presented to North Carolina Department of Transportation officials prior to testing. Performance predictions were calculated using the Weathered Rock Model, Reese¡¯s Method for P-y Curves in Weak Rock (Reese, 1997), and the Stiff Clay Model (Reese, Cox, and Koop, 1975). Field testing w...

Nuclear Engineering

The work presented in this thesis is a part of an ongoing research project conducted to gain insight into the applicability of inverse methods to developing adaptive simulation capabilities for core physics problems. Adaptive simulation is a simulation that utilizes past and current reactor measurements of reactor observables (e.g. core reactivity and incore instrumentation readings) to adapt the simulation in a meaningful way to improve agreement with reactor observables. To perform such adapti...

Sociology

AbstractHYDE, KATHERINE ANN. Holding Disillusionment at Bay: Latino/a Immigrants and Working Class North Carolinians Expose and Reinforce the American Dreams Discrepancies. (Under the direction of Jeffrey Leiter and Barbara Risman.)This dissertation examines how a group of twenty-eight working class people in North Carolina, including African Americans, whites and Latino/a immigrants, cope with the discrepancy between the American dreams promises and premises and their own reality. I analyze int...

Plant Pathology

Strains with mutations in the avrBs2 locus of Xanthomonas axonopodis (syn. campestris) pv. vesicatoria, which causes bacterial spot in pepper (Capsicum spp.), were detected and caused disease in pepper containing the Bs2 resistance gene. Aggressiveness and competitiveness of the mutant strains was evaluated under laboratory and field conditions. Three strains each of races 3, 4, and 6 were separately inoculated on susceptible pepper plants (cv. Camelot) in field plots with one race/plot. Inoculu...

Biomathematics

TAO, WENLI. Testing Patterns of Nucleotide Substitution Rates at Multiple Genes. (Under the direction of Spencer V. Muse.)Studying patterns of nucleotide substitution rates at multiple loci can help provide clues to the evolution and function of genes. The computational drawback of the maximum likelihood version of relative ratio tests becomes a concern when a large number of pairwise comparisons are performed among multiple genes. We propose a new version of relative ratio test, including four ...

Comparative Biomedical Sciences

Lawhon, Sara Dyann. Genetic and environmental regulation of virulence genes in <I>Salmonella enterica</I> serovar Typhimurium. (Under direction of Craig Altier and Paul Orndorff)The purpose of this research has been to assess the effect of the genetic regulator, CsrA, and environmental conditions on the expression of virulence genes in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. CsrA is an RNA binding protein that alters messenger RNA stability in E. coli and regulates v...

Public Administration

SHAFER, DAVID MICHAEL. Proxies and Partners: Relationships between Grant Givers and Grant Receivers in Federal Fellowship Programs.(Under the Direction of James H. Svara.)<br> <br>The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the factors that have an impact on implementation and effectiveness of intergovernmental grant programs at the grantee-level to enable grantors to better select, control and learn from their grantees. Data are collected via both annual ...

Public Administration

<b>WEINSTEIN, MEREDITH BLACKWELL. Public perception of law enforcement s treatment of suspects in North Carolina: Testing conflict, attitude consistency, and ecological based theories. (Under the direction of Michael L. Vasu.)</b><br><br>This research study examines whether citizens of North Carolina perceive the existence of discrimination in the treatment of suspects by law enforcement officers. The study was undertaken to ascertain the f...

Electrical Engineering

VIJAYCHAND , SHUBHA,. Time Step Control in Transient Analysis. (Underthe direction of Michael B. Steer)The time-step control algorithm has a dramatic impact on the accuracy andsimulation time in transient circuit simulation. A new time-step control algorithmis presented based on a novel estimation of the truncation error. Thenew truncation error estimation uses di®erence between Backward Euler andTrapezoidal numerical integration techniques. The results of this technique arecompared wit...

Computer Networking

This thesis studies the effect of non-negligible signaling delays on the performance of wavelength-assignment heuristics, wavelength reservation schemes, routing schemes, holding time (average being 1/

Crop Science

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) is an important forage and turfgrass species, widely distributed throughout the world, including North and South America, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. As a turfgrass, it is widely used in winter overseeding of warm-season turfgrasses. Summer persistence is a major problem for overseeding use of the species.To solve this problem through biotechnology approach, we introduced an E.coli argE gene into perennial ryegrass. ArgE gene encodes N-acetylornithi...

Materials Science and Engineering

AbstractPARKER, CHARLES BERNARD. Size Effects and Reliability Of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 Thin Films. (Under the direction of Angus I. Kingon)Thin films of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 (BST) deposited by Liquid Source MOCVD were investigated. BST is a candidate dielectric for future-generation DRAM and as a tunable dielectric. Two areas of both scientific and commercial interest were investigated. The first area is the effect of decreasing dimension on ferroelectric properties. Several theories of size effects in ferroelectr...

Psychology

ABSTRACTSmith, Alisa, R. The Structure and Relationship of Work-Related Interests & Needs.(Under the direction of J. W. Cunningham.)Measures of work-related interests (the Interest Inventory, Career Orientation Profile-Work Activity Preferences, and US Employment Services Questionnaire) and measures of needs (the Inventory of Work-Related Needs, Career Orientation Profile-Benefits and Opportunities, and Minnesota Importance Questionnaire) were used to clarify the nature of these domains....

Toxicology

Androgens activate the androgen receptor (AR) to stimulate transcription of gene products that mediate local control of morphogenesis of the male reproductive tract. The fungicide vinclozolin (V) interferes with male reproductive tract development by antagonizing the AR. In this dissertation research, we investigated whether V also may elicit antiandrogenic effects by suppressing the AR or suppressing epidermal growth factor (EGF) and its receptor. EGF has been implicated as a local contributor ...

Counselor Education

DILLON, MAURA. Lessons from Field: Five Middle School Coordinators Balancing Comprehensiveness and Feasibility in Peer Mediation Programs. (Under the direction of Stanley Baker.)The purpose of this qualitative study has been to develop a list of preliminary ideas about how to create peer mediation programs that are both realistic and maximally beneficial. The research involved reviewing recommendations made in the professional literature for creating successful programs and soliciting practical ...

Adult and Community College Education

ABSTRACTGOSSETT, JOHN DORSEY. Economic Development And Community Colleges: Attributes, Attitudes And Satisfaction Levels Of Western North Carolina Stakeholders. (Under the direction of Wynetta Y. Lee)North Carolinas Rural Prosperity Task Force and the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center have both suggested two very different states in North Carolina: the thriving urban areas and the stagnant rural areas. Both agencies recommended using the North Carolina Community College System as ...

English

The purpose of this paper has been to explain the process by which I established the text of John Donnes The Good Morrow. In order to construct the text I examined the forty manuscripts and seven seventeenth-century editions that contain part or all of the poem, and I transcribed the poem from each source. Then I collated the transcriptions using a computer software program called the Donne Variorum Collation Program. I filiated the manuscripts based on verbal variants and, through investigation...

Civil Engineering

Zhao, Yanqing. Permanent Deformation Characterization of Asphalt Concrete Using a Viscoelastoplastic Model (Under the direction of Dr. Y. Richard Kim)The objective of this research is to develop an accurate and advanced material characterization model for predicting response of asphalt mixtures subjected to compression loading. The first step of the modeling is to check the validity of the time-temperature superposition principle for asphalt concrete with growing damage and viscoplastic strain i...

Materials Science and Engineering

ABSTRACTARESHKIN, DENIS ALEXEYEVICH. SELF-CONSISTENT ENVIRON-MENT-DEPENDENT TIGHT-BINDING. METHODOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS. (Under direction of Professor Donald W. Brenner)In the last several years dramatic advances have been demonstrated in the area of quantum electronic transport. A large part of transport methodology is borrowed from quantum chemistry methods. Many studies in this field use well-established general-purpose ab-initio computer codes, which are sometimes not well suited for transpo...

Chemical Engineering

High dielectric constant (high-k) insulators areimportant for advanced MOS devices to limit gateleakage and increase gate capacitance. Reactionsbetween high-k s and the substrate duringdeposition or post-deposition processing lead toan increase in the equivalent oxide thickness,and the mechanisms that control the changes needto be well understood. We investigate yttrium-based high-k dielectrics formed by oxygen plasmaassisted CVD on Si(100), using two differentyttrium diketonate precursors. Char...

Computer Science

<b><center>ABSTRACT</center></b><br><br>YANG, KAI. Pair Learning In Undergraduate Computer Science Education. (Under the direction of Laurie Williams.)<br><br>Anecdotal evidence in industry and academia has shown that pair programmers, whereby two programmers work collaboratively on the same task on one computer, can produce higher quality design and code than solo programmers who work...

Chemistry

AbstractBURNS, SCOTT THOMAS. Characterization and Prediction of Partition Coefficients of Uncharged Solutes into Micelles and Liposomes using Electrokinetic Chromatography. (Under the direction of Morteza G. Khaledi.)Liposome and micelle electrokinetic chromatography (EKC) were used to determine retention factors (k) that are directly related to partition coefficients (K) and the phase ratio (f) as: k = K*f. Linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) models were used to elucidate the contributi...

Electrical Engineering

Peović, Nemanja. Selective Chemical Vapor Deposition of Heavily Boron Doped Silicon-Germanium Films from Disilane, Germane and Chlorine for Source/Drain Junctions of Nanoscale CMOS (under direction of Dr. Mehmet C. Öztürk).As metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) are scaled for higher speed and reduced power, new challenges are imposed on the source/drain junctions and their contacts. Future junction technologies are required to produce ultra-sha...

Crop Science

Bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) is the primary choice for athletic fields and golf course fairways in the southeastern United States. Its superior heat and drought tolerance as well as excellent recuperative capacity allow it to withstand many of the stresses often associated with recreational turf. There are several new cultivars on the market with little available information regarding their performance. Six cultivars of bermudagrass, TifSport, Tifway, GN-1, Quickstand, Navy Blue, and Tifton 10 we...

Computer Engineering

Multicast is finding a lot of application in modern day networks and the Internet. There are various existing protocols that support the wide range of requirements demanded by these applications. If all the receivers in a multicast group are required to get all the packets at moreor less the same time (i.e. synchronized reliablereceiving), then the transmission rate of the source ends up being controlled by the rate of the slowest receiver in this group. Although, this is a requisite in some app...

Comparative Biomedical Sciences

Methylation of DNA regulates in part genomic imprinting which plays a critical role in fetal development. Changes in methylation patterns can induce alterations of gene expression leading to abnormal growth and/or morphological defects. 5-AZA-CdR inhibits DNA methylation, thus altering gene expression. It was believed that in mammals, epigenetic defects could not be inherited because they are cleared and reset during gametogenesis and/or embryogenesis. However, recent publications sustain the ex...

Genetics

Rapidly-evolving genes which exhibit an increased rate of amino acid substitution, resulting in greater amino acid sequence difference, often provide insight into the mechanisms of adaptation and speciation. In this dissertation research, the evolution of rapidly-evolving genes under selection was examined. Homologues to the <I>Arabidopsis APETALA3 (ASAP3/TM6)</I> and <I>APETALA1 (ASAP1)</I> floral regulatory genes and the <I>...

Applied Mathematics

Williams, Scott Everett. The Lageos Satellite: A Comprehensive Spin Model and Analysis. (Under the direction of Dr. Arkady Kheyfets). <br><br>A thorough investigation into the theoretical modeling of the Laser-Ranged Geodynamics Satellite (Lageos I) spin state evolution is presented. Starting from an existing dynamical model, we analyze in detail each of the models assumptions and explore possible enhancements. Additional concerns not considered by the original model ...

Computer Science

Intrusion Detection has been studied for about twenty years. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) are usually considered the second line of defenseto protect against malicious activities along with the prevention-based security mechanisms such as authentication and access control. However, traditional IDSs have two major weaknesses. First, they usually focus onlow-level attacks or anomalies, and raise alerts independently, though there may be logical connections between them. Second, there are a l...

Economics

The purpose of this study is to compare the posttreatment economic performances of countries which implemented IMF- designed recovery programs, and the counterfactual, all-encompassing capital and exchange controls, as a policy response to financial crisis. By doing so, I aim to find out which policy response provides crisis-hit countries better assistance in the short-run recovery process.I extend the scope of the Rodrik & Kaplan study by including additional IMF-assisted crisis countri...

Psychology

This study compared the effectiveness of two different knowledge acquisition methods in terms of their ability to measure the structure of a student s procedural mental model of computer programming as it evolved in a classroom setting over the course of a semester. Ratings and backward thinking tasks were used to estimate the structure of students procedural mental models at several points throughout an introductory programming course. For both methods, comparisons between the student s procedu...

Mechanical Engineering

ABSTRACTMOU, GANG. Modeling and Control of a Magnetostrictive System for High Precision Actuation at a Particular Frequency. (Under the direction of Dr. Paul I. Ro.)A magnetostrictive actuator made of Terfenol-D alloy can generate high mechanical strains with broadband response and provide accurate positioning. These characteristics have been employed as controllers and vibration absorbers in industrial and heavy structural applications, such as fast tool servo systems and precision micropositio...

Civil Engineering

Recent developments in on-board instrumentation enable measurement of vehicle activity and emissions under real-world conditions as opposed to laboratory tests. Variability in vehicle emissions as a result of variation in vehicle operation, roadway characteristics, or other factors can be represented and analyzed more reliably than with other measurement methods.The primary purpose of this dissertation is to develop methodologies for on-board vehicle activity and emissions data collection and da...

Nuclear Engineering

A Newton-BICGSTAB solver has been developed to reduce the CPU execution time of the FORMOSA-B boiling water reactor (BWR) core simulator. The new solver treats the strong non-linearities in the problem explicitly using the Newtons method, replacing the traditionally used nested iterative approach. The Newtons method provides the solver with a higher-than-linear convergence rate, assuming that a good initial estimate of the unknowns is provided. Within each Newton iteration, an appropriately prec...

English

Although Jack Kerouac has begun to be recognized as one of the great 20th century American writers, scholars have not yet fully explored the influence that his conflicting religious beliefs had on his work. Kerouacs internal struggle to reconcile his Buddhist and Catholic thinking, and his ultimate attempt to embrace Catholicism, had a profound effect on his writing, giving it the religiously tumultuous charge that is essential to Kerouacs distinctive writing style. This study addresses Kerouacs...

Industrial Engineering

ABSTRACTKLOYPAYAN, JIRAWAN. Solving Complex Modeling of System-on-a-Chip (SOC) Test Automation and Optimal Resource Allocation by Neural Networks. (Under the direction of Professor Yuan-Shin Lee.)The objective of this research is to optimize the testing time and test resource allocation for System-on-a-Chip (SOC). The mathematical formulation and the neural networks with different techniques are proposed to solve these SOC test problems. First, a fixed-weight neural network combined with heurist...

Agricultural and Resource Economics

ABSTRACTHINTZE, LUIS HERNANDO. Characteristics, transaction costs, and adoption of modern varieties in Honduras (Under the direction of Dr. Mitch Renkow and Dr. Gerald Carlson).This dissertation researches the factors contributing to the low levels of adoption of improved maize varieties and the choice of maize varieties among small farmers in Honduras. An agricultural household model is developed. It explicitly incorporates two explanations from the adoption literature that have not yet been te...

Electrical Engineering

A novel approach is implemented for synthesizing equivalent circuits. The approach called the Foster s approach finds its application in the transient simulation of distributed structures.The implementation is analogous to that of a Voltage Controlled Current Source, as it is a natural way to handle Admittance Matrix. The two main features of this method are its guaranteedcausality and good numerical stability. The method is tested by simulating a six port power/ground plane and comparing the re...

Adult and Community College Education

Burke, Travis B. Defining Competency and Reviewing Factors That May Impact the Perceived Importance, Knowledge and Use of Competencies in The 4-H Professional s Job. (Under the direction of R. David Mustian)The focus of this study was to identify and describe competencies and how they impact knowledge, importance and use in the 4-H professional s job. Relationships of socio-demographic factors (age, education, gender, ethnic background) and organizational factors; program resources, tenure, disc...

Entomology

This project was undertaken to better understand the ecology of kudzu growing in the United States, and to determine differences between plants from North Carolina and from the native range of this plant, in China. Specific goals of this project were to: 1) evaluate the development and feeding of a native herbivore, <i>Pseudoplusia includens</i> (Walker), the soybean looper, on kudzu and to determine if it could be used as a model herbivore for future studies; 2) dete...

Microbiology

ABSTRACTDEAN, TIMOTHY RICHARD. Characterization of In Vitro Selected RNA Aptamers for the RB69 RegA Translational Repressor Protein and Optimization of in vitro Selection Utilizing Complex Targets. (Under the direction of Eric S. Miller.)The purpose of the research has been to characterize the nucleic acid sequence requirements necessary for recognition by the translational repressor protein RegA. RegA, from bacteriophage RB69 and T4 related bacteriophages, is a translational repressor protein t...

Occupational Education

Hass, Lanny Wayne. Communication Preferences and Job Satisfaction Levels of NorthCarolina Cooperative Extension Faculty. (Under the direction of Dr. Richard T. Liles andDr. David Jenkins.)The purpose of this study is to determine the job satisfaction levels andcommunication preferences of North Carolina Cooperative Extension faculty. Inaddition, this study examines the relationships between these two factors and fiveselected demographic variables (gender, race, age, tenure and job title). The da...

Zoology

Population declines of Neotropical migratory landbirds are attributed primarily to habitat fragmentation, higher rates of predation, and brood parasitism. These findings have stimulated many studies of avian reproductive success and comparisons of the source-sink dynamics of avian populations in fragmented and contiguous forests. Limited demographic data often impose a number of simplifying assumptions on source-sink models of forest passerines, such as assumptions about the number of possible b...