THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GENETIC ALGORITHM TECHNIQUE TO SOLVE THE INVERSE GROUND WATER PROBLEM ASSOCIATED WITH ACCRETION TO A SEMI-CONFINED AQUIFER

GENTRY, RANDALL WILSON THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS 1998 국내박사

Molecular ecology of chlorobenzoate degraders in soil

Gentry, Terry Joe The University of Arizona 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

A series of three experiments were conducted to determine the diversity of indigenous chlorobenzoate (CB) degraders in soil and to investigate the use of different methods of bioaugmentation for remediation of contaminated soil. In the first study, soil was amended with either 500 or 1000 μg of 3-CB g<super>−1</super> and was either uninoculated or inoculated with the 3-CB degrader <italic>Comamonas testosteroni</italic> BR60. Bioaugmentation with <italic>C. testosteroni</italic> BR60 increased 3-CB degradation at both contaminant levels, and the increase was more pronounced at the higher level due to contaminant inhibition of indigenous 3-CB degraders. Bioaugmentation also appeared to reduce the deleterious effects that 3-CB contamination had on indigenous soil microbial populations as evidenced by changes in culturable heterotrophic bacterial populations. In the second study, two similar pristine soils were contaminated with 500 μg of 2-, 3-, or 4-CB g<super>−1 </super>. The two soils differed in their ability to degrade the compounds with one degrading 2- and 4-CB and the other degrading 3- and 4-CB. Several hundred degraders were isolated, grouped according to DNA fingerprints, and selected degraders were identified by 16S rDNA sequences. The identity of the CB degraders differed between the two soils. The results indicated that the development of 2-, 3-, and 4-CB degrader populations was site-specific even for the soils that developed under similar soil-forming conditions. The third study also used the two soils from the second study. This project investigated the potential for use of activated soil, which contained an indigenous degrader population, as a bioaugmentation inoculant. An aliquot of a given soil that contained an indigenous 2-, 3-, or 4-CB degrader population was added to a soil that did not have an indigenous degrader population for the same contaminant. The study found that bioaugmentation with activated soil increased degradation of each 2-, 3-, and 4-CB but only if the activated soil was pre-exposed to the contaminant prior to use for bioaugmentation. The results from these three studies indicate that CB degrader populations are diverse and variable in pristine soils and, if not present in contaminated soils, appropriate degrader populations may be established via different bioaugmentation strategies.

Beyond Augustine: The ethical structure of community (John Rawls, Alasdair MacIntyre)

Gentry, Glenn D Baylor University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation attempts to find a middle ground between deontology and teleology, where accounts of both the right and the good as expressed in the virtues provide second order resources for an ethical system, but where the ultimate ground of ethics is divine-human community. The middle ground phenomenon affirms a realist account of the good in a way that Kant does not; likewise, it depends on commitments to values and personal relationships central to moral acts. In the first chapter, I argue that John Rawls' justification pluralistic tolerance is unrealistic because, many religious communities ground moral judgment in the real and transcendent nature of God. Consequently, moral judgments derived from such comprehensive doctrines carry more weight morally than judgments that come from a social contract. In chapter two, I argue that the dilemma Alasdair MacIntyre poses in After Virtue, points to virtues as substantial ethical resources but that an Augustinian tradition offers a viable alternative. Furthermore, because of Augustine's view of original sin and love, his ethic of love provides resources that MacIntyre's version of virtue ethics lacks. In the third chapter, I outline Augustine's ethic of love along with the way he understands our participation in the Good. While much of Augustine's theory is convincing, it does not provide a suitable account of love for our neighbor. Augustine's uti/frui distinction undermines our love of a neighbor. Finally, in the fourth chapter, I argue that the use-enjoyment distinction can be replaced by a distinction between love as care-giving and love as worship. Love is an attribute of human nature rather than a relationship between two beings. This understanding of love moves away from the context of Greek metaphysics toward the context of human nature as created in the image of God.

Role of DNA interactions in modulating the activity of human topoisomerases and anticancer drugs

Gentry, Amanda C Vanderbilt University 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

Abstract not available.

The relationship between school size and academic achievement in Georgia's public high schools

Gentry, Kathy Joy University of Georgia 2000 해외박사(DDOD)

Educators and policy makers have debated the issue of school size for decades. Previous research about the issue of school size has been inconclusive concerning the relationship between school size and academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between school size and academic achievement in Georgia's public high schools. Since research indicated that many factors influence academic achievement, this study controlled for two possible influences on academic achievement: ethnicity of students (through sampling), and percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch (through analysis of covariance). Based on the test of significant differences among the group classifications it was not necessary to control for the percentage of teachers with advanced certification in this sample. This study utilized one way analysis of variance to determine if significant differences existed among high schools of varying sizes. The 116 schools included in the sample were classified into four groups: [Group 1 (1575–2826), Group 2 (1200–1574), Group 3 (850–1199), and Group 4 (≤ or 849)]. Three dependent variables were included in this study: (a) the 1998–1999 Georgia High School Graduation Tests, (b) the 1998–1999 total Scholastic Assessment Test scores, and (c) the percentage of students eligible for Georgia's HOPE Scholarship Program. There was a consistent pattern in the Scheffe multiple range tests (Alpha = .05). No significant difference was found across all variables between Group 1 and Group 2 and Groups 2 and 3. There were significant differences between Group 4 and Groups 1 and 2 and between Groups 3 and 1. This study of Georgia's public high schools found that in the three academic areas analyzed, students in the larger schools scored higher on achievement measures than students in the smaller schools (less that 850 students). Although the results of this study were in favor of the larger schools when cognitive learning was analyzed, affective and behavioral dimensions of learning were not investigated. It is recommended that further investigations consider school size as it relates to the behavioral and affective dimensions of learning before making the overall declaration that “bigger schools are better.&rdquo.

Substance and Sense: Objects of Power in the Life, Writings, and Legacy of the Tibetan Ritual Master Sog bzlog pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan

Gentry, James Duncan Harvard University 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

This thesis is a reflection upon objects of power and their roles in the lives of people through the lens of a single case example: power objects as they appear throughout the narrative, philosophical, and ritual writings of the Tibetan Buddhist ritual specialist Sog bzlog pa Blo gros rgyal mtshan (1552-1624) and his milieu. This study explores their discourse on power objects specifically for what it reveals about how human interactions with certain kinds of objects encourage the flow of power and charisma between them, and what the implications of these person-object transitions were for issues of identity, agency, and authority on the personal, institutional, and state registers in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Tibet. My investigation of Sog bzlog pa's discourse on power objects shows how the genres of narrative, philosophy, and liturgy are related around such objects, each presenting them from a slightly different perspective. I illustrate how narratives depict power objects as central to the identity of Sog bzlog pa and his circle, mediating relations that are in turn social, political, religious, aesthetic, and economic in tone, and contributing to the authority of the persons involved. This flow of power between persons and objects, I demonstrate further, is connected to tensions over the sources of transformational power as rooted in either objects, or in the people instrumental in their ritual treatment or use. I show how this tension between objective and subjective power plays out in Sog bzlog pa's philosophical speculations about power objects and in his rituals featuring them. I also trace the persistence of this discourse after Sog bzlog pa's death in the seventeenth-century state-building activities of Tibet and Sikkim, and in the present day identity of Sikkim's Buddhist population. Power objects emerge as hybrid subject-object mediators, which variously embody, channel, and direct the flow of power and authority between persons, objects, communities, institutions, and the state, as they flow across boundaries and bind these in their tracks. Finally, I illustrate how this discourse of power objects both complicates and extends contemporary theoretical reflections on the relationships between objects, actions, persons, and meanings.

Forecasting consumer adoption of technological innovation: Choosing the appropriate diffusion models for new products and services before launch

Gentry, Lance Cameron Michigan State University 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

Within the vast literature on various forecasting models, there is consensus that no single diffusion model is best for every situation. Experts in the field have asked for studies to provide empirically based guidelines for recommending when various models should be used. This research investigates multiple diffusion models and provides recommendations for which diffusion models are appropriate for radical and really new products and services before the launch of the innovation. In addition, a forecasting classification grid is proposed.

Targeting the Ras-Ral effector pathway for cancer treatment

Gentry, Leanna R The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2015 해외박사(DDOD)

The RAS oncogene is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancers, and this activated Ras oncoprotein has been shown to be required for both cancer initiation and maintenance. Great strides have been made in understanding Ras signaling in cancer since the discovery of its involvement in human cancers in 1982, with numerous Ras effector pathways and modes of Ras regulation having been identified as contributing to Ras-driven oncogenesis. However, there has been limited success in developing strategies for therapeutically targeting Ras-driven oncogenesis. One effort that has gained popularity in recent years is the inhibition of Ras effector signaling. The Ral ( Ras-like) small GTPases, discovered shortly after Ras in an attempt to identify RAS-related genes, are activated downstream of Ras by Ral guanine nucleotide exchange factors (RalGEFs). The Ral family members have since emerged as critical regulators of key cellular processes and, importantly, have been characterized as playing a role in tumorigenesis and invasion of multiple cancer types. Interestingly, divergent roles for RalA and RalB are often observed in within a cancer. Due to the high affinity of Ral for GTP, which activates Ral upon binding, the Ral GTPase family cannot be targeted directly. Therefore, indirect inhibition of Ral must be considered for targeting Ral-dependent phenotypes in Ras-driven cancers. This could be achieved through inhibition of Ral association with the plasma membrane, which is thought to be required for its activation and subsequent signaling. Alternatively, downstream effectors of Ral with validated roles in cancer could be inhibited. Posttranslational processing of the CAAX motif located on the C-termini of Ral GTPases, among other proteins, has been considered essential for their proper subcellular localization, activation, and function. The first and essential step of this process is prenylation by GGTase. Prenylation signals for further CAAX processing by the enzymes RCE1 and ICMT, which are under consideration as therapeutic targets. We determined that the modifications regulated by these enzymes have distinct roles and consequences for Ral GTPases. We found that both RalA and RalB require RCE1 for association with the plasma membrane, and that the absence of RCE1 caused a sustained activation of both RalA and RalB. In contrast, ICMT deficiency disrupted plasma membrane localization of RalB but not RalA, whereas RalA depended on ICMT for efficient localization to recycling endosomes. Furthermore, ICMT deficiency caused increased stability of RalB protein but not RalA. Lastly, we found that palmitoylation was critical for proper subcellular localization of RalB but not RalA. In summary, we identified isoform-specific consequences of CAAX modifications that could be contributing to the divergent localization and activities of the Ral proteins. In order to address inhibiting Ral effectors, we sought to determine the effect of inhibiting TBK1, a kinase that is a validated effector of RalB, in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, a disease characterized by greater than 90% of cases containing a K-Ras mutation. We found that a novel small molecule inhibitor of TBK1, while effective at inhibiting signaling, had a minimal effect on pancreatic cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. However, when combined with inhibition of ERK1/2, we found a synergistic proliferation defect and induction of apoptosis. This suggests combination approaches with TBK1 inhibitors may provide therapeutic benefit in the treatment of K-Ras-driven pancreatic cancer. Overall, this work provides further insight into strategies for targeting Ral for the treatment of cancer.

The Momentum Yield of Clustered SNe

Gentry, Eric S ProQuest Dissertations & Theses University of Cali 2019 해외박사(DDOD)

Stars are born in clusters and massive stars die relatively quickly, so we expect core collapse supernovae (SNe) to be clustered in both space in time. Despite this, traditional SN feedback models assume SN blasts are isolated and do not interact. In my thesis I show that clustering might have a very large effect on the final momentum added into the SN's host galaxy's interstellar medium (ISM.

The Othello Effect: The Performance of Black Masculinity in Mid-Century Cinema

Gentry, Charles Eugene University of Michigan 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation attempts to theorize the performance of black masculinity in the mid-twentieth century as a cultural process, by analyzing films with narratives that creatively confronted the problem of race and intercultural relations in the modern Atlantic world, and by directly or discreetly invoking the archetype of the tragic black hero. Examining the film careers of Paul Robeson, Harry Belafonte, and Sidney Poitier, this thesis argues that international travel and transnational work were not only significant in the development of a sense of cultural identity for these performers as individuals, but also essential to the transformation of the African American image in popular culture. It offers a critical interpretation of screen performances, celebrity persona, and political activism, and contends that the heroic figure of black masculinity was often a contradictory and controversial subject for critical inquiry, yet it was integral to the popular revaluation of racial representations in the United States. The "Othello effect" describes the signifying power of black masculinity to achieve social change through performance practices, and the reactionary tendency of normative structures to contain or control these practices. With respect to Othello, Robeson welcomed the role throughout his career and repeatedly embodied its potential meanings, for which he was initially admired but eventually stoked fear and resentment in a postwar period of popular consensus. Belafonte encountered the Othello trope obliquely in Island in the Sun (1957), then inverted its connotations in his independent films. Poitier repeatedly wrestled with the idea of playing the part, and then portrayed another version of the noble Moor in The Long Ships (1964), but later rejected it.