This study explores economic conditions among Iraqi refugee women living in urban areas of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan through open-ended interviews. The research aims to address coping mechanisms Iraqi refugee women use to adapt to their financial situation. The goal is to review the proactive efforts women make to turn family units from traditional consumers (buying goods) to producers (making goods) in order to find financial stability. The study incorporates three overarching themes: First, it establishes Iraqi refugee women’s financial status by surveying economic security and employment opportunities. Second, the study investigates how living in urban areas of Jordan affects Iraqi women’s economic status. Thirdly, the study explores how Iraqi refugee women approach their financial situation. How have Iraqi women taken steps to exercise control over their financial lives and improve their economic situation as refugees? The objective of this project is to promote women’s empowerment by creating an open dialogue about Iraqi women’s struggles and to highlight the steps that women take to improve their situation. The study suggests steps that can be taken to aid Iraqi refugees. / text

Climate models forecast lower and less frequent precipitation in the next 50 years. This is especially pronounced in the central United States, where Texas is expected to lose a week’s worth of rain every summer. Water availability is a primary driver of carbon flux in terrestrial ecosystems – controlling photosynthesis and organic matter decomposition. Thus, under proposed rainfall shifts, understanding the potential ecosystem response is key to predicting the future of terrestrial productivity. Terrestrial nutrient cycling is also driven by microbial saprotrophs, which are the chief decomposers of organic matter. Understanding the microbial response to rain shifts is key in predicting the ecosystem response. Research supports both microbial community specialization to local environment, and that the microbial communities may have the ability to rapidly acclimate to environmental change. To address this question of microbial response, we used a steep natural rainfall gradient along the Edwards Plateau in central Texas. The Edwards Plateau is an ideal field site in which to test these ideas because nearly identical grassland habitat and soils are found across its entirety, while mean annual precipitation ranges from 45 cm to 91 cm. To understand how soil microbial communities varied as a result of historical rainfall differences, we divided the gradient into four isoclines based on precipitation (46-56 cm, 56-66 cm, 66-76 cm, and 76-86 cm), and examined soil and soil microbial community characteristics at three sites in each isocline. We further used soils from the same sites for a reciprocal soil moisture experiment, where we asked how soil microbial communities responded to altered moisture conditions. Using a full factorial design, soils from each site in each isocline were exposed to one of four soil moisture treatments: soil moisture from the ‘home’ isocline and the three other ‘away’ isoclines. The moisture treatments were maintained for one year. Microbial respiration was measured at regular intervals throughout the experiment; fungal hyphal abundance and inorganic nitrogen were measured at the final harvest. The soils collected from the gradient decreased in both soil moisture and hyphal abundance from the wet to the dry end of the gradient, but there was no trend in inorganic nitrogen. In the reciprocal moisture experiment, microbial CO2 respiration was affected by both home isocline and soil moisture treatment. Drier sites had a narrower response to wetter treatments and did not achieve the same activity as wetter sites regardless of soil moisture treatment. In contrast, soils from the wettest isocline experienced severe reductions in activity with drying, with activity at the driest moisture treatment below that found in soils that were from the driest isocline. These patterns are consistent with some degree of local specialization, which may constrain the ability of microbial communities to rapidly acclimate to altered precipitation regimes. This experiment did not include immigration, however, and shifts in community composition in the presence of dispersal may be able to counteract local specialization. Given expected future increases in drought intensity microbial decomposition activity is likely to decrease and local specialization may create a lag in acclimation to the new condition. Thus, local specialization of microbial communities should be considered when predicting ecosystem responses to future climate change and their potential feedbacks to ecosystem productivity and carbon storage. / text

With the increasing popularity of phone application development, a number of features have surfaced that enable users to utilize extended functionalities with their phone. With a single device, a user is now able to have access to the latest trends. As a result, functionalities from various products such as personal computers or GPS devices can now be accessible in one place. While this technology is evolving at a fast rate, it is the embedded technology and hardware that drive it which facilitate the innovative designs and solutions. At the other end of the spectrum of embedded systems, companies continue to maintain legacy products that use embedded chips programmed through their flash memory. With this perceived commitment to stay loyal to their older product designs, it has become rather cumbersome for such companies to stay current with the latest hardware and software trends. The result is higher costs to the customers for their high-end products. While the average user invests in newer and faster Google phones or iPhones, it is unlikely that the same can be said for commercial products such as a refrigerator or a ball machine. What if a development framework existed that allowed customers to have access to better user interfaces and functionalities over the lifetime of their product? In this Masters report, an innovative approach is discussed which demonstrates the latest mobile phone technology combined with an existing embedded device being applied to the conversion of a low-end tennis ball machine into an affordable high-end one. / text

An oral history of television comedy from the early 1950s through the mid 1970s as told by the writers Sydney Zelinka, Larry Rhine, Milt Josefsberg, and the team of Seaman Jacobs and Fred S. Fox. The shows they wrote for included "The Honeymooners," "The Phil Silvers Show," "The Red Skelton Hour," Bob Hope specials, "Here's Lucy," "All in the Family," and "Maude." These five writers were working in the earliest days of the medium and spent years writing for the personalities--from performers to producers--who pioneered and defined it. Most of them also wrote scripts during one of broadcast television's greatest periods of transformation, when comedy took a decidedly topical turn that continued to have a significant impact on television comedy in the decades that followed. / text

In this dissertation, I explore the impact of idiosyncratic risk on asset returns. The first essay examines how idiosyncratic risk affects the cross-section of stock returns. I use an exponential GARCH model to forecast expected idiosyncratic volatility and employ a combination of the size effect, value premium, return momentum and short-term reversal to measure relative mispricing. I find that stock returns monotonically increase in idiosyncratic risk for relatively undervalued stocks and monotonically decrease in idiosyncratic risk for relatively overvalued stocks. This phenomenon is robust to various subsamples and industries, and cannot be explained by risk factors or firm characteristics. Further, transaction costs, short-sale constraints and information uncertainty cannot account for the role of idiosyncratic risk. Overall, these findings are consistent with the limits of arbitrage arguments and demonstrate the importance of idiosyncratic risk as an arbitrage cost. The second essay studies the cross-sectional determinants of delta-hedged stock option returns with an emphasis on the pricing of volatility risk. We find that the average delta-hedged option returns are significantly negative for most stocks, and they decrease monotonically with both total and idiosyncratic volatility of the underlying stock. Our results are robust and cannot be explained by the Fama-French factors, market volatility risk, jump risk, or the effect of past stock return and volatility-related option mispricing. Our results strongly support a negative market price of volatility risk specification that is proportional to the volatility level. Reflecting this volatility risk premium, writing covered calls on high volatility stocks on average earns about 2% more per month than selling covered calls on low volatility stocks. This spread is higher when it is more difficult to arbitrage between stock and option. / text

Understanding microscale biological processes as cells develop into tissues is one of the most important, yet most difficult, problems in modern biology. Cells encounter a dynamic chemical and physical environment and delineating the myriad of variables proves daunting with even the most sophisticated experiments. This dissertation focuses on the development and application of unique enabling technologies designed to sample and control biological microenvironments. By developing two approaches – one aimed at intracellular biochemistry and another for extracellular targets – based on photochemistry and optical force generation, research presented here will allow new areas of subcellular dynamics to be addressed. On the intracellular side, enzyme-immobilized polymeric microspheres or enzyme microstructures are placed into the cell cytosol via optical tweezers for sustained and localized chemical modification of the intracellular environment. This approach is complemented by the use of extracellular guidance barriers formed from photo-induced crosslinking of proteins. Through the use of minimally toxic photosensitizers and femtosecond (fs) near infrared (NIR) light, it is possible to fabricate three-dimensional protein structures in a living cell’s environment. Moreover, this work explores the ability to form protein structures with enzymatic activity as well as with high aspect-ratio features at micron resolution. Finally, the photochemical transformation of serotonin into a highly fluorescent visible photoproduct is investigated as a means to overcome problems associated with sample size in neurotransmitter detection during synaptic chemical signaling. Optimization of this multiphoton process entails understanding the mechanism by which the photoproduct is created and experiments towards this goal are presented here. Ultimately, the precision and flexibility of these technologies will allow access to new areas of the biosciences. / text

Disulfide bond formation is an essential process for the folding and biological activity of most extracellular proteins; however, it may become the limiting step when the production of these proteins is attempted in heterologous hosts such as Escherichia coli. The rearrangement of incorrect disulfide bonds between cysteines that do not normally interact in the native structure of a protein is carried out by disulfide isomerase enzymes. The disulfide isomerase present in the bacterial secretory compartment (the periplasmic space) is the homodimeric enzyme DsbC. The objective of this dissertation was to understand the key features of how DsbC catalyzes disulfide bond isomerization. Chimeric disulfide isomerases comprising of protein domains that share a similar function, or are homologous to domains of DsbC were constructed in an effort to understand the effect of the domain orientation in the dimeric protein, and the need for a substrate binding region in disulfide isomerases. We successfully created a series of fusion enzymes, FkpA-DsbAs, which catalyze in vivo disulfide isomerization with comparable efficiency to DsbC. These enzymes comprise of the peptide binding region of the periplasmic chaperone FkpA, which is functionally and structurally similar to the binding domain of DsbC but share no amino acid homology with it, fused to the bacterial oxidase DsbA. In addition, these chimeric enzymes were shown to assist in the initial formation of disulfide bonds, a function that is normally exhibited only by DsbA. Directed evolution of the FkpA-DsbA proteins conferred improved resistance to CuCl₂, a phenotype dependent on disulfide bond isomerization and highlighted the importance of an optimal catalytic site. The bacterial disulfide isomerase DsbC is a homodimeric V-shaped enzyme that consists of a dimerization domain, two α-helical linkers and two opposing catalytic domains. The functional significance of the existence of two catalytic domains of DsbC is not well understood yet. The fact that identical subunits naturally dimerize to generate DsbC has so far limited the study of the individual catalytic sites in the homodimer. In chapter 3 we discuss the engineering, in vivo function, and biochemical characterization chapter 3 we discuss the engineering, in vivo function, and biochemical characterization of DsbC variants covalently linked via (Gly3Ser) flexible linkers. We have either inactivated one of the catalytic sites (CGYC), or entirely removed one of the catalytic domains while maintaining the putative binding area intact. Our results support the hypotheses that dual catalytic domains in DsbC are not necessary for disulfide bond isomerization, but are important in terms of increasing the effective concentration of catalytic equivalents, and that the availability of a substrate binding region is a determining feature in isomerization. Finally, we have carried out initial studies to map the residues and sequence motifs that are recognized in substrate proteins that interact with DsbC. Although the main putative binding region of DsbC has been localized within the limits of the hydrophobic cleft that emerges from the interaction of the N-terminal domains of this enzyme, and, a few native substrates have already been identified, no information on the features of substrate proteins that are recognized by the enzyme has been reported. To address this problem, we have screened two different, 15 amino-acid random peptide libraries for binding to DsbC. We have successfully isolated several peptides with high affinity for the enzyme. Possible consensus binding motifs were identified and their significance in substrate recognition will be examined in future studies. / text

Tectonic signatures such as growth strata, clastic progradation, detrital composition, thickness trends, paleoflow shifts, lithofacies distribution, and vertical stratigraphic stacking patterns provide the basis for a range of tectonic/structural interpretations. Complete understanding of the application and limitations of tectonic signatures is important to maintain consistency and reduce uncertainty of interpretations that use them. This study provides insight into the external controls on two frequently used tectonic signatures in foreland basins: (1) growth strata, and (2) clastic wedge progradation. First, two syntectonic unconformity types are recognized in non-marine, Cenomanian growth strata adjacent to the Sevier thrust-belt in southeastern Nevada, USA. Unconformities with larger angular discordance (>10°, “Traditional Type”) developed when uplift outpaced sediment accumulation. More subtle unconformities with less discordance (2-10°, “Subtle Type”) developed when sediment accumulation nearly kept pace with uplift. Increasing sediment supply with positive net accommodation, allows syntectonic deposits to aggrade above a growing structure, with no change in uplift rate. Hence, sediment supply and regional accommodation impart an important control over growth strata geometries that are often interpreted on the basis of tectonics alone. Identification of unconformity types in growth strata can therefore document additional phases of uplift, particularly for intervals where sediments aggraded above an active structure due to higher sediment supply during regional subsidence, or sea level rise. Second, an anomalous, Campanian clastic wedge is identified in Cordilleran Foreland basin fill, Utah and Colorado. The complex internal architecture, tide-dominated facies and characteristic flat-to-falling shoreline stacking patterns of the wedge reflect rapid progradation of wide (60-80 km), embayed, tide-influenced shorelines; these characteristics distinguish the anomalous wedge from the underlying and overlying clastic wedges in the basin. A high-resolution regional correlation and isopach maps for the anomalous wedge provide evidence that extensive clastic progradation was coeval with both Sevier- and Laramide-style deformation. Stratigraphic relations suggest that development of the anomalous character of Wedge B was due to uplift of a Laramide structure within the foredeep, and possibly enhanced by reduced dynamic subsidence. / text

Despite consistent evidence that adolescent girls are at greater risk for developing depression than adolescent boys (Ge, Lorenz, Conger, & Elder, 1994; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987, 1990; Weissman, Leaf, Holzer, Myers, & Tischler, 1984), and that women continue to predominate among depressed adults throughout the lifespan (Kessler, McGonagle, Swartz, Blazer & Nelson, 1993), few studies have examined the etiologic risk factors that predict depression for adolescent girls using a prospective design or examined differential processes of risk in a sample of adolescent girls and boys. Furthermore, although a number of variables have been implicated as risk factors for depressive symptoms or onset of depression among adolescents, some methodological limitations exist. The objective of this research was to examine a set of risk factors suspected to predict depression in adolescents, and to test whether gender moderates these relations. Secondly, this study examined a set of risk factors proposed by the gender additive model of depression (Stice et al., 2000; Stice & Bearman, 2001) that attempts to partially explain the increased prevalence of depressive symptoms in adolescent girls compared to boys. Finally, exploratory classification tree analyses tested for interactions between risk factors that might signal differential pathways to depression. This research provides insight into the etiology of adolescent depression as well as the disparate rate of depression among adolescent girls versus boys, and also provides direction for identifying high-risk individuals and developing effective prevention programs. / text

Some persons with aphasia exhibit a selective verb deficit, which results in a reduced ability to produce verbs in most contexts. A functional level (Bock & Levelt, 1994) impairment may result in impaired sentence production because the verb serves as the semantic-syntactic interface of a sentence. This interface is related to a verb’s relationship with its arguments/thematics. Arguments fill the syntactic slots of subject and object, and those same words serve as thematic roles by referring to who does what to whom. The current study investigates the effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) on sentence production using a single subject experimental design across subjects in 4 participants, 2 with nonfluent aphasia and 2 with fluent aphasia. Participants received semantic treatment aimed at re-strengthening the connections between a verb (e.g., measure) and related thematic pairs that refer to the doer and receiver of the action (e.g., carpenter/lumber, chef/sugar). The ability to produce thematic role pairs for trained verbs was tested during treatment while generalization to the ability to produce sentences containing a subject, verb, and object in a picture description task with trained verbs (e.g., The carpenter is measuring the stairs.) and semantically related untrained verbs (e.g., The nurse is weighing the baby.) was monitored. In addition, pre- and post-treatment single word retrieval of verbs (The Northwestern Verb Production Battery (NVPB) (Thompson, 2002)) and nouns (The Boston Naming Test (Goodglass & Kaplan, 1983)) was examined as well as sentence production abilities in unrelated picture description (NVPB) and constrained connected speech tasks. All participants met treatment criteria and exhibited generalization to sentence production with sentences containing trained and semantically related untrained verbs. Participants 1, 2, and 3 exhibited improvements on all pre- and post-treatment measures, including connected speech. Participant 4 exhibited gains on multiple measures but did not show improvement in connected speech. These findings indicate that treatment aimed at strengthening the verb network results in improved word retrieval in naming and sentence production across multiple tasks. Theoretical and clinical implications regarding the impact of using VNeST on rehabilitation of sentence production deficits in aphasia are discussed. / text