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This dissertation examined the application of evidence-based tutoring for oral reading fluency (ORF) to a natural setting, using teachers as parent trainers. Measures used to determine the impact of parent tutoring included treatment integrity, student reading outcomes, attitudes towards involvement and reading, and social validity. Six teachers (second through fourth grade) were trained in a 3-hour workshop to develop individualized tutoring programs with parents. Following training, the teachers trained seven parents and students to use individualized tutoring programs. Training followed a behavior skills training model and incorporated video modeling and printed instructions to increase efficiency. A multiple-baseline design was used to evaluate the effect of training on parents' use of evidence-based reading strategies and of tutoring on students' ORF. During baseline, parents were asked to practice reading with their child as they typically do. During intervention, parents used the evidence-based tutoring program developed with the teacher. Multiple dimensions of treatment integrity were measured to provide a comprehensive picture of how the tutoring influenced child outcomes, and to inform future practices. The results showed that teachers' treatment integrity of parent training was high. Six parents showed immediate improvement in their use of evidence-base strategies, but levels of adherence, quality, and dosage varied across parents. Engagement remained high during baseline reading sessions and structured tutoring sessions. Four out of seven of the students showed significant improvements in ORF. Teachers and parents indicated positive beliefs about parent involvement at baseline and post-intervention. Student attitudes towards reading were also generally high and did not show a systematic change from baseline to intervention. Social validity ratings from teachers, parents, and students were favorable, indicating that they perceived the intervention to be acceptable. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between treatment integrity, student outcomes, and beliefs about involvement. Discussion also focuses on the need for additional research in natural settings to more closely examine the conditions needed for successful implementation of parent tutoring programs and the effect on student outcomes. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This thesis describes a series of studies designed to further develop an antigen treatment regime involving mucosal immunisation with somatic nematode antigens to modify the immune response and reduce production losses associated with Trichostrongylus colubriformis infections in sheep. The aim of the first study (Chapter 3) was to determine the larval stage specifity of T. colubriformis antigen to induce successful tolerance. Thirty-six five-month-old Poll Dorset x East Friesian lambs were born and raised indoors and allocated hierarchically by live weight (mean 30.50 ± 0.67 kg) into one of six treatment groups (n=6). The antigens investigated for successful immunisation were evaluated using single somatic and purified antigens that were prepared from each larval stage of T. colubriformis (L3, L4 and L5) and one combination antigen consisting of all three larval stages. Antigen doses containing either 7.5 µg L3, 5.5 µg L4 and 10.5 µg L5 or a combination of all three were contained in 200 µl PBS and injected into the rectal submucosa once per week for three weeks. The ability to induce mucosal tolerance was determined by measuring liveweight gains of lambs trickle infected with 2,000 T. colubriformis day⁻¹ and fed ad libitum of a pelleted complete ruminant diet containing 12.15 MJME kgDM⁻¹ and 173 g CP kgDM⁻¹. Apart from liveweight gains antibodies and cytokines in serum, faecal egg counts (FEC), worm burden, worm length, carcass composition and serum levels of phosphorous, urea, total protein and albumin were measured. The antigen treatment reduced worm establishment and worm length in all groups with the greatest effect in the lambs injected with the antigen combination. Furthermore, it boosted a Th2 immune response reflected as elevated IL-4 cytokines and induced immunity rather than tolerance indicated by elevated antibodies and reduced FEC. The objective of the second study (Chapter 4) was to identify the optimal delivery route of T. colubriformis antigen to stimulate mucosal tolerance by investigating the intra-rectal and subcutaneous routes in four-month-old lambs. Thirty-five Coopworth lambs were born on pasture, allocated hierarchically by sex and live weight (mean 35.73 ± 1.32 kg) into one of five treatment groups (n=7) and housed indoors for the trial. The most efficient antigen from Chapter 3, i.e. the larval combination antigen, was used. Two groups were injected with antigen into the rectal submucosa or subcutaneously in the neck area using the treatment protocol from Chapter 3. One group was immunosuppressed with weekly intramuscular injections of methylprednisolone acetate 40 mg ml⁻¹ at a dose 1 ml 30 kg live weight⁻¹ for six weeks. The lambs were trickle infected with 3,000 T. colubriformis day-1 and fed ad libitum lucerne pellets containing 10.26 MJME kgDM⁻¹ and 214 g CP kgDM⁻¹. The ability to induce mucosal tolerance or immunity was determined by measuring the same parameters as in Chapter 3. Treatment reduced the worm establishment and female worm length in both antigen treatment groups with the greatest effect in the lambs injected intra-rectally. The antigen treatment induced a Th2 immune response with increased serum antibody responses and elevated IL-4 cytokine concentrations. Reductions in serum protein and serum albumin concentrations were alleviated in the antigen treated groups. Moreover, the intra-rectally injected group had greater performance during the last 21 days of the study compared with the untreated infected group. The final study (Chapter 5) was conducted as a field study with 72 sets of crossbred mixed-sex twin lambs that were born on low contaminated pasture and sequentially allocated into one of six treatment groups (n=24) based on birth order, and balanced for sex. The lambs were injected with a somatic antigen either at birth or at weaning (three months of age) to explore the importance of age and previous nematode exposure on the ability to induce mucosal tolerance or immunity to gastrointestinal nematodes. Two groups were injected with the T. colubriformis larval combination used in Chapters 3 and 4 at the intra-rectal submucosa three times a week apart. One group was injected subcutaneously with 1 mg kg live weight-1 of the long-acting anthelmintic Cydectin and used for positive growth control. One of the twins from each set was used as a control for the respective treatment and three of the groups were injected with PBS and acted as control for the level of pathogenicity of infection. The lambs were trickle infected from four months of age with 2,000 T. colubriformis day⁻¹. The results provided no evidence that the antigen treatment induced mucosal tolerance; however it induced immunity indicated by increased antibody production and reductions in FEC. Treatment did not mitigate the costs of immunity on growth. In summary, these studies provided evidence that injection of lambs with a somatic T. colubriformis antigen is associated with a Th2 immune response and that the combination larval antigen was more efficient than individual larval antigens. The intra-rectal route was the most sufficient delivery route for inducing immunity and reducing the establishment of parasites. Extended protection through tolerance was not able to be achieved by administration of larval antigen to neonates.

Solid-state white lighting devices (SSWLDs) commonly use III-nitride near-UV or blue light emitting diodes (LEDs), combined with one or more phosphors, to generate white light. These devices already offer many advantages over traditional incandescent and fluorescent light sources, including long lifetimes, environmentally friendly designs without the need for mercury, and enormous energy savings. Despite unquestionable recent commercial success and the future potential for further development, current SSWLDs suffer from the droop effect limiting the overall efficacy and a thermally-induced shift in the peak emission wavelength of the phosphor. Thus, the overall efficiency of these devices can still be improved. One such example is to control the operating temperature of the device. When operating an LED, the temperature inevitably increases, yet the phosphor particles exhibit a loss in efficiency as the temperature of the device increases. In addition, LEDs suffer from efficiency loss and color instability with increased operating current, making high-power devices not achievable using LEDs as the excitation source. Recently, a new concept for developing SSWLD, based on laser diode (LD) substituting for LED as a pump source for exciting colour-stable phosphors, was proposed. In contrast to LEDs, laser diodes do not exhibit efficiency loss; many exhibit increased efficiency as current increases, and maintain color stability. Thus, there is a need in the art for improved solid-state white lighting devices that rely on laser diodes. In this project we have characterized individual Eu(WO4)2 (red phosphor), BaMg2Al16O27:Eu,Mn (green phosphor) and (Sr,Mn)2SiO4:Eu (blue phosphor) and trichromatic white light phosphors. Characteristics of light produced with each phosphor, variations with incident light power and phosphor temperature, as well as effects from phosphor ageing, are described. Results of comparison between pumping with coherent and incoherent light at the same wavelength are also described.

The purpose of the study was to survey each of the 100% tobacco-free campuses in the nation (N=175) to assess their policies, procedures, and practices, and the extent to which they adhere to American College Health Association (ACHA) guidelines promoting tobacco-free environments in colleges and universities. One key informant from each participating institution completed an online 35-item survey regarding school tobacco policies, practices, and enforcement. A scoring rubric was devised to measure compliance with ACHA guidelines. One hundred sixty-two institutions responded to the online survey, yielding a response rate of 92.6%. Cross-tabulations and Fisher's Exact Tests were used to examine the relationship of geographic region, institution type, enrollment size, and geographic location to compliance with ACHA guidelines. Results demonstrated that tobacco-free schools fall short of total compliance with current ACHA guidelines. Institutional type and enrollment size appear to be the most closely related factors among demographic variables, with public colleges/universities having the highest degree of compliance, and smaller schools (

Due to its many advantageous characteristics, such as a small sequenced genome, ease of vegetative propagation and availability of genomic tools and databases, Populus is widely becoming accepted as the model species among trees. In addition, DOE has chosen hybrid poplar as the model bioenergy feedstock tree. Due to the growing importance of the Populus species, genetic and genomic resources (EST and BLAST databases, genetic maps, etc.) are becoming increasingly available and are leading to a greater understanding of the functionality of the Populus genome. The goal of this study was to use these resources to further characterize the genetic controls of root growth and development so that these mechanisms may eventually be manipulated to improve carbon sequestration ability in belowground sinks. Because auxin is known to play an important role in lateral root growth as well as many other aspects of plant development, a sequenced subtracted cDNA library from poplar was used to study the expression of genes up and down-regulated in response to exogenous auxin treatments. Results from this study indicate that a daily 9-day exogenous auxin treatment may have induced a stress response as indicated by the high percentage of WRKY transcription factors and stress related proteins that were up-regulated in response to the treatment regimen. A second study was also done using whole-genome oligonucleotide microarray technology to further analyze auxin regulated gene expression including Populus homologs of AUX/IAA and ARF genes in Arabidopsis. Results from this study did not appear to correlate well with real-time RT-PCR results indicating that, in the future, more reps need to be used to give the experiment the statistical power necessary to accurately find differentially expressed genes. Results from these gene expression studies can then be used to guide the development of poplar transgenics with increased root growth.

Chemokines and chemokine receptors play an important role in leukocyte trafficking. Many environmental factors can influence the progression of inflammatory processes by modulating chemokine receptor expression on specific cell types. This thesis has investigated the regulation of CC-type chemokine receptors on human neutrophils and endothelial cells. A variety of in vitro methods were used including tissue culture, ribonuclease protection, flow cytometry, ELISA, and microchamber chemotaxis assays, as well as an in vivo murine model of acute inflammation. It was found that stimulated neutrophils and endothelial cells express chemokine receptors that are absent on cells in the unstimulated state, and that these newly expressed receptors mediate novel effects on cellular function. Chapter 2 documents experiments showing that neutrophils stimulated with granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) upregulate the receptor CCR1 and become functionally responsive to CCR1 ligands in vitro. Chapter 3 contains evidence that TNF-alpha stimulation of endothelial cells upregulates CCR3 expression. Furthermore, the CCR3 ligand eotaxin (CXCL11) suppresses TNF-alpha-induced IL-8 (CXCL-8) production, an effect partially mediated by an acceleration of IL-8 mRNA degradation. This effect was specific for IL-8 in that it did not affect production of other chemokines tested, and was mediated by G-protein and phosphatidyl-inositol 3-kinase (PI3K). These findings were quite interesting, since IL-8 is a well-characterized potent neutrophil chemoattractant. We hypothesized that eotaxin might suppress neutrophil recruitment in vivo via downregulation of neutrophil-specific chemokines. In Chapter 4, we present evidence that mice that are deficient in eotaxin, either through genetic deletion of the eotaxin gene or through immunodepletion of eotaxin protein, have increased neutrophil recruitment to peripheral sites during endotoxemia. Furthermore, treatment of eotaxin knockout mice with recombinant murine eotaxin resulted in decreased neutrophil recruitment. These findings were consistent with the hypothesis generated by the data provided in Chapter 3. In summary, this thesis project has shown that cytokine modulation of CC chemokine receptor expression on neutrophils and endothelial cells has important functional consequences on the inflammatory capacity of these cell types. This work contributes substantially to our understanding of the dynamic nature of chemokine networking during inflammation.

Chondritic meteorites largely formed 4.6 billion years ago, and can range from being metamorphosed as a result of processing on their asteroid parent bodies to entirely unaltered since their formation in the protoplanetary disk. The magnetic grains within these meteorites can potentially record and retain the magnetic conditions on the parent body and the conditions in the protoplanetary disk during the formation of our planetary system. However, the complex history of these meteorites can make their magnetic records difficult to interpret, and their age prompts the question of whether a magnetic remanence can be retained for so long. In this thesis, to help identify the origin of the magnetic remanence, a new method for the palaeomagnetic conglomerate test that uses micro-CT scans to accurately mutually orient chondrules from chondrites was developed. When applied to Vigarano (CV3) and Bjurböle (L/LL4), a more in-depth understanding of parent body processing was achieved that provides evidence for magnetic dynamo activity on their parent bodies. To understand the magnetic record of CK chondrites, a palaeomagnetic analysis of Karoonda (CK4) was conducted, and found no evidence of a significant magnetic field recording, supporting the solar radiative heating model for the CV-CK chondrites. To determine whether magnetic remanence can be retained from the early Solar System, the high thermal stability of single and multi-vortex kamacite grains from Bishunpur (LL3.1) was demonstrated by performing in-situ temperature-dependent nanometric magnetic measurements using electron holography and numerical micromagnetic energy barrier calculations. This study found that the majority of kamacite grains in dusty olivines are capable of retaining magnetic field information from the early Solar System, a key finding in our quest to understand the formation of our Solar System.

The majority of Americans view AIDS as the most important health problem faced today. Despite efforts to educate the public, the literature suggests that misperceptions exist concerning HIV transmission. The documented case of a Florida dentist who transmitted the HIV virus to five dental patients focused the public's attention on its perceived vulnerability to contracting HIV during a dental visit. The purpose' of this descriptive study was to identify the dental patient's perceived risk of acquiring the AIDS virus during a dental visit and to then determine whether the perceived risk was related to the patient's level of oral hygiene. A convenience sample of 105 dental patients was assessed for level of oral hygiene and then completed a 25-item close-ended questionnaire. The results indicated that significant relationships existed between the patient's cumulative perceived risk of acquiring HIV during a dental visit and cumulative knowledge about the disease and education level. There was borderline significance in the relationship between perceived risk and level of oral hygiene.