Sialidosis is caused by the accumulation of the ganglioside GM3 and other sialoglycoproteins within the cells of the liver, kidney and brain. Currently there is no treatment for sialidosis, while other lysosomal storage disorders are being treated through enzyme replacement therapy or bone marrow transplantation. The helper-dependent, or "gutless" adenovirus system (HD) has recently been improved upon with reportedly less immunogenicity than its first-generation (FG) predecessor and lifelong transgene expression produced in its hosts. To this end, the complete mouse lysosomal sialidase gene was cloned into a HD-vector (AdmsialHD) and a FG-vector (AdmsialFG) in an attempt to rescue the sialidase deficiency and associated phenotype in B6.SM fibroblasts and in the SM/J mouse. Lysosomal sialidase levels were increased to normal levels in vitro following both AdmsialHD and AdmsialFG infections while SM/J mouse infections at doses of 5 x 10^9 particles/mouse did not yield any increase in lysosomal sialidase activity or correct the associated phenotype. Interestingly, AdmsialHD only up-regulated sialidase to high levels in sialidase-null cells whereas AdmsialFG up-regulated sialidase significantly in all cell lines tested. Together, these data suggest that the therapeutic dose for both AdmsialFG and AdmsialHD should be elevated at least 10-fold in order to achieve phenotypic rescue and that FG-vectors possess some viral property, perhaps the E4 gene products, enabling them to attain greater transgene expression relative to HD-vectors. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Much scholarship on first-generation students has focused on their academic and social integration in college (Collier & Morgan, 2008; Lowery-Hart & Pacheco, 2011; Stuber, 2011). Little is known about the experiences of first-generation students in schools of social work. In this research I've expanded the focus beyond students' experiences of academic integration to explore how first-generation students in a school of social work describe their relational worlds and the implications for professional socialization. Informed by Standpoint Feminism and Postmodern/Post structural Feminism, I conducted focus groups with 19 students in two undergraduate programs and one graduate program in a school of social work and analyzed these conversations using Voice-centered Relational Data Analysis (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). This research highlighted how students bridge the cultures of home and school through 1) Experiences of support from home cultures while 2) pursuing school largely on their own and experiencing 3) the potential for distance from cultures of home, as they 4) work to stay integrated in home cultures while simultaneously 5) working to become integrated in school. I've also written about students' experiences of becoming caught "in-between" the cultures of home and school (Anzaldúa, 1987/2012), a less common but nevertheless important experience for educators to attend to. Here I've argued for broadening the focus beyond academic integration (Tinto, 1975, 1993) and underscored the relational nature of first-generation status, as well as drawing attention to potential for relational injury embedded in our narratives about educational attainment and class mobility. Implications for social work education, practice, and research are discussed.

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This mixed methods study investigated the influence of a career development program attended by low income, first generation, college bound students. Phase I took place in 2006 and 2007 when the students participated in the Upward Bound summer Bridge program. During Phase II in 2009, follow up interviews were conducted. Phase III was completed in 2014 and also included follow-up interviews. Career Identity (CI) scores from My Vocational Situation and Holland codes from the Self Directed Search were obtained during each phase. Changes in measured career identity scores and codes were interpreted by taking into account the students’ experiences. Interviews examined common themes demonstrating the career development of the participants.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which academically successful first-generation college students, compared to academically successful non-first-generation college students, used academic support programs provided by UNT and to measure their perception of the benefits of these programs. Differences were examined using information gathered from a Graduate Student Survey administered to students graduating in fall 2006 from the University of North Texas. Analysis of the data from the survey indicated that there was no statistical significance between the use and perception of benefit of academic support programs between the two groups. Overall, students that used academic support programs provided by the university believed they benefited from the programs they utilized. Both groups indicated that they believed the Math Lab provided the most benefit. The Graduating Student Survey also examined input, environment and output factors of academically successful first-generation and academically successful non-first-generation students. Again, both groups indicated similar responses to the questions asked. First-generation college students in this study were successful in graduating from the University of North Texas and utilized some of the resources provided by the university to do so.

This qualitative research project focused on the interviews of 27 low socio-economic students at a research university in the southwestern United States. The students had already withdrawn from the university or were in the process of withdrawing. The study seeks to provide increased understanding of how students negotiate the decision-making process to withdraw from the first university they attended after high school. The theoretical lenses of student departure theories (Astin, 1993; Bean, 1983; Tierney, 1992; and Tinto, 1993) and decision-making theories (Becker, 1976; Frank, 1987; Kahneman, 2003; March, 1994; Scott, 2000) were combined. The Decision-Making Process Model of Student Departure is offered as a new theoretical framework that combines decision-making theories and student retention theories. This conceptualization is unlike other student departure models because it includes the proposition that forces push at the student from within the institution and forces pull them from outside the institution. In addition, it is different from other student departure models because it includes the discussion about how students think about their process to withdraw - it is not meant to describe their behaviors. Financial, academic and psychological stresses (from both within and outside the institution) influenced how the students negotiated the decision-making process to leave the institution. The students did not seek out institutional agents (advisors or faculty members) for advice when they were struggling academically. They developed their own strategies or went to their family members for advice, many of whom had never been to college.

This thesis is a socio-cultural study of the development of female stand-up comedy in the first decade of the twenty-first century within a multi-racial and multi-cultural Britain. It also engages with the theory and practice of performance and asks the question: ‘In what ways can it be said that female stand-up comics perform the comic side of bodily abjection?’ This question is applied to three groups of female case-studies which include: those who came into stand-up comedy in the 1980s; second-generation transnationals who became established at the end of the twentieth century; and twenty-first century newcomers to stand-up comedy. This third group also includes the author of this thesis who uses her own embodied experience as research, and Lynne Parker whose Funny Women organization was set up in 2002 to facilitate female entry into stand-up comedy. Alongside these three groups the subject of females as audience of female stand-up comedy is also explored. The issue of bodily abjection is explored in relation to seminal works on abjection by Julia Kristeva (1982) and Mary Douglas (1966) and regarding theories of the grotesque as posited by Mikhail Bakhtin (1984) and Mary Russo (1995). These texts are used in this thesis to argue that abjection is a significant aspect of both the context and content of contemporary female stand-up comedy and that the orifices, surfaces and processes of the body are still pertinent to twenty-first century female stand-up comedy.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide an analysis of the principal factors that affect first-generation students while traversing through the higher education pipeline. Specifically, this thesis will discuss the factors that affect the chances of first-generation students gaining admission to postsecondary institutions and later persisting to graduation in those institutions. In addition, this thesis will discuss the possibility of prescriptive policies in ameliorating the very real deficits that these students face in succeeding in college.

This study is a predictive model to ascertain whether various factors such as income, educational attainment, and ethnic background could predict the on students participating in TRIO programs at the University of New Orleans. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration identified low-income and first-generation students as the most under-served population needing attention as well as those most “at-risk.” Educational Talent Search programs were founded in 1965 as outreach programs to provide services and activities to the “at-risk” population to promote high school retention and graduation rates. The University of New Orleans has three Educational Talent Search programs serving Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Tammany Parishes. The demographic data from 1770 participants were collected and a study conducted to determine whether there would be a correlation among the following factors: (1.) ethnic background, (2.) income, (3.) educational attainment, and (4.) geography.

This study examines the ways in which the education of children of undocumented immigrants is impacted by their parents’ undocumented status as well as their personal documentation status. In this thesis, I shed light on the experiences of fifteen college students and alumni who are variously-documented, including: undocumented students, DACA students, and documented students with undocumented family members. Drawing on these experiences, I argue that students’ education is impacted by legal and social exclusion, family stress and psychosocial impacts, personal legal status, and a lack of services for undocumented students and children of undocumented immigrants in educational institutions. I also argue that mothers and other family members lessen these challenges by providing students with the support and encouragement to complete a higher education. I conclude this study by making specific recommendations for what K- higher education institutions can do to better serve undocumented and documented students within mixed-status families.