M. A.

Reproductive organs from 73 male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were collected in November and in December in South Carolina. Organ weights and spermatozoan reserves were analyzed by age class and for variation between months. Testes weights (g) in November were 15.12 ± 8.03, 61.53 ± 17.16, and 75.69 ± 13.71 for 0.5, 1.5, and older deer, and 14.81 ± 5.34, 46.66 ± 8.91, and 61.62 ± 12.91 in December, respectively. Epididymides weights (g) were 3.31 ± 0.78, 9.61±1.99, and 12.53 ± 2.30 in November and 3.36 ± 1.02, 8.92 ± 1.31, and 10.50 ± 2.07 in December for 0.5, 1.5, and older deer, respectively. Spermatozoan numbers (xl0⁹) in the testes were 0.182 ± 2.23, 6.59 ±. 2.96, and 8.46 ± 3.10 for 0.5, 1.5, and older deer in November and 0.108 ± 0.213, 5.05 ± 1.05, and 4.86 ± 2.23, respectively, in December. Epididymal spermatozoan numbers (xl0⁹) in November were 0.087 ± .174, 9.43 ± 2.85, .and 11.89 ± 4.15 in 0.5, 1.5, and older deer, respectively, and 0.094 ± 0.173, 8.73 ± 2.44, and 9.01±4.18, respectively, in December. The 1.5 year old deer had significant (P<0.05) lighter testes weights than 2.5 years old and older deer in November and December. There was a significant (P<0.05) reduction in testes weights and testicular spermatozoan numbers between November and December in adult deer. Fawn testes and epididymides weights, and testes and epididymides spermatozoan reserves were significantly (P<0.05) lower than older deer in November and in December. Nineteen male and 21 female fawns collected from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant were examined to ascertain attainment of puberty. One female was pregnant and three males had evidence of spermatogenesis. / Master of Science

M.A.

“Being with oneself in the other” is Hegel's famous definition of freedom, and, I argue, it is also the key topic of his entire Science of Logic. Hegel's Logic is an ontological analysis of the underlying relational structure of everything: the structure of thinking as much as the structure of the world. Hegel proposes at the beginning of the Logic that this structure must display the form of “being with oneself in the other”, i.e. consist in a relation of identity and difference between a totality and its elements. After presenting the different forms of “being with oneself in the other” developed in the Logic, I will offer a new interpretation of the Philosophy of Right and the Philosophy of History in the light of my interpretation of the Logic. This serves to show how exactly Philosophy of Right is the exposition of the existence of freedom and how it is grounded in the Logic. While the connection between Hegel's Logic and social philosophy has often been taken to have authoritarian and anti-individualist implications, I will show that this is not the case and that this connection instead highlights the republican aspects in Hegel's theory.

Potassium ion channels play a key role in the generation and propagation of action potentials. The S4-S5 linker peptide (L45) is believed to be responsible for the anesthetic/alcohol response of voltage-gated K+ channels. We investigated this region to define the structural basis of 1-alkanol binding site in dShaw2 K+ channel. L45 peptides derived from dShaw2 and hKv3.4 K+ channel, which, if part of the complete channel, demonstrate different sensitivity to 1-alcohols. Specifically, dShaw2 is alcohol sensitive and hKv3.4 is alcohol resistant. Structural analysis of L45 with NMR and CD suggested a direct correlation between alpha-helicity and the inhibition of dShaw2 channel by 1-butanol. We used CD and NMR to determine the structure of L45 peptides in micelles and vesicles. We measured spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) and determined the location and surface accessibility of L45 in micelles. These experiments confirm that L45 of dShaw2 adopts an α-helical conformation, partially buried in the membrane and parallel to the surface. The binding and accumulation of rev proteins to an internal loop of RRE (rev responsive element) of unspliced mRNA precursors is a key step of propagation of human immunodeficiency (HIV) virus. Molecules that interfere with this process can be expected to show anti-HIV activity. Our work is based on an assumption that zinc fingers could compete with rev proteins, therefore impeding the life cycle of HIV and stopping its infection. We studied the influence of different cations, anions, and the concentration of salts and osmolytes on the binding affinity with Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (PAGE) and Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC). We conclude that the types of anions and/or cations and their concentrations affect the enthalpy and entropy of the binding interacitons. Using a gel assay, we confirm that there are three products in RNA-Protein reaction, and both EDTA and salts (and their concentrations) in the gel or samples interfere with RNA-protein complex mobility.

Potassium ion channels play a key role in the generation and propagation of action potentials. The S4-S5 linker peptide (L45) is believed to be responsible for the anesthetic/alcohol response of voltage-gated K+ channels. We investigated this region to define the structural basis of 1-alkanol binding site in dShaw2 K+ channel. L45 peptides derived from dShaw2 and hKv3.4 K+ channel, which, if part of the complete channel, demonstrate different sensitivity to 1-alcohols. Specifically, dShaw2 is alcohol sensitive and hKv3.4 is alcohol resistant. Structural analysis of L45 with NMR and CD suggested a direct correlation between alpha-helicity and the inhibition of dShaw2 channel by 1-butanol. We used CD and NMR to determine the structure of L45 peptides in micelles and vesicles. We measured spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) and determined the location and surface accessibility of L45 in micelles. These experiments confirm that L45 of dShaw2 adopts an α-helical conformation, partially buried in the membrane and parallel to the surface. The binding and accumulation of rev proteins to an internal loop of RRE (rev responsive element) of unspliced mRNA precursors is a key step of propagation of human immunodeficiency (HIV) virus. Molecules that interfere with this process can be expected to show anti-HIV activity. Our work is based on an assumption that zinc fingers could compete with rev proteins, therefore impeding the life cycle of HIV and stopping its infection. We studied the influence of different cations, anions, and the concentration of salts and osmolytes on the binding affinity with Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (PAGE) and Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC). We conclude that the types of anions and/or cations and their concentrations affect the enthalpy and entropy of the binding interacitons. Using a gel assay, we confirm that there are three products in RNA-Protein reaction, and both EDTA and salts (and their concentrations) in the gel or samples interfere with RNA-protein complex mobility.

Housing is one of the most fundamental subjects of architecture, not just for the basic purpose of shelter, but for the place where vitality can be transcended to the people living in them. 'Housing' rather than 'house' marks the intersection between architecture and urban design and the simultaneous existence of the individual and collective. Housing is also a form of material culture. As such, it cannot be understood without studying the cultural and economic conditions of its production. - Rem Koolhaas, 'Conversations with students' With the gradual change in family structure, housing accommodations would be smaller as the family size reduces, however, common open space and active recreation of all types would be enlarged. This would be a greater opportunity to integrate urban with suburban environments - the town's cultural and employment opportunities would be within easy access to the countryside and to nature. "Architecture is an art filled with contradictions. The more we learned about these contradictions in architecture, the more they translate these contradictions into an antitheses; between discipline and freedom, between technology and environment, between modernity and tradition. But....discipline sets limits to freedom, yet it is also its container, the thing that gives it form. These two elements coexist and interact." - Herman Hertzberger, 'Lessons for students in Architecture' The meaning of space can be clarified as dualities; between public and private, light and shadow, positive and negative, horizontal and vertical, man-made and nature, and denotative and connotative. Space is transformed into characteristic place through these changes, layers and sequences of movement. It would undoubtedly guide urban growth toward a more humane living environment which can recover community space set against stereotypical architecture. / Master of Architecture

The central Florida, North Carolina, and central Tennessee phosphorite deposits account for 90% of the marketable phosphate produced in the United States. Scanning electrons and reflected light microscopy reveals that the iron-bearing minerals associated with these sedimentary phosphorites are related to the geologic setting and degree of weathering of the deposit. Pyrite and marcasite (FeS₂) are the principal iron mineral inclusions in unweathered phosphorites of Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and occur as discrete, randomly disseminated microcrysts, irregularly shaped microcryst aggregates, cubes, dendrites, framboids, or bioturbation and interstitial pore space fillings. Pyrite and marcasite also fill the void spaces in skeletal phosphorites such as nerve canals in shark teeth of Florida and North Carolina and in bryozoan zooecium of Tennessee. The oxidizing conditions accompanying weathering in the terrigenous sand and clay environments of central Florida alter these inclusions to goethite (FeOOH), which occurs as pseudomorphs after the iron sulfides. However, hematite (Fe₂O₃) optically appears to be the iron sulfide pseudomorph in the phosphorites of the weathered carbonate environments in central Tennessee. The first reported occurrences of chalcopyrite (CuFeS₂), chromite (FeCr₂O₄), and an iron-potassium-silicate sheath surrounding some iron sulfide and iron oxides as inclusions in phosphorites, supergene ferrian-millisite [Ca₃(Al,Fe³⁺)₁₂(PO4)₈(OH)₁₈ • 6H₂O)] as coatings on phosphorites in the leached zone under a central Florida gossan, and secondary ferromanganese oxide spherulites as accessory minerals in Tennessee deposits are made in this study / M.S.

This study showed that Extension Services, like any other human service organizations, are having difficulty in serving diverse populations where there are overlapping political jurisdictions. One example of such a situation was the interstate metropolitan region that included Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. This region is one of 38 such regions in the United States. The three extension services in metropolitan Washington appear to be failing to meet the need for nutrition education, consumer education, urban horticulture, street safety, and volunteer civic leadership and other needs because they are not fully utilizing available resources and are unable to capitalize on such earmarked resources as those designated by the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-95 review process which requires areawide consultation and regional planning. An organizational model was developed as part of the study and appears to satisfy such criteriaas maximizing resource utilization and access to new resources while minimizing friction among the land grant universities and related institutions in the region. In clarifying needs and refining issues, over 50 knowledgeable consultants were. involved in the study. In developing the model and testing for feasibility the ten key actors on policy matters that would become involved in accepting and implementing the model were used as a panel of experts. They further defined needs and approaches, critiqued the preliminary models, and eventually agreed upon the proposed model presented in the study. The result of the study is "A Proposed Model for an Interstate Metropolitan Extension Service Authority for Metropolitan Washington." The model has five major elements: a proposed charter, a set of bylaws, a table of organization, a decisionmaking process, and recommendations for implementing the model are included in the study. / Ed. D.

This research deals with a study of the polyhedral structure of three important combinatorial optimization problems, namely, the generalized upper bounding (GUS) constrained knapsack problem, the set partitioning problem, and the quadratic zero-one programming problem, and applies related techniques to solve a practical combinatorial naval defense problem. In Part I of this research effort, we present new results on the polyhedral structure of the foregoing combinatorial optimization problems. First, we characterize a new family of facets for the GUS constrained knapsack polytope. This family of facets is obtained by sequential and simultaneous lifting procedures of minimal GUS cover inequalities. Second, we develop a new family of cutting planes for the set partitioning polytope for deleting any fractional basic feasible solutions to its underlying linear programming relaxation. We also show that all the known classes of valid inequalities belong to this family of cutting planes, and hence, this provides a unifying framework for a broad class of such valid inequalities. Finally, we present a new class of facets for the boolean quadric polytope, obtained by applying a simultaneous lifting procedure. The strong valid inequalities developed in Part I, such as facets and cutting planes, can be implemented for obtaining exact and approximate solutions for various combinatorial optimization problems in the context of a branch-and-cut procedure. In particular, facets and valid cutting planes developed for the GUS constrained knapsack polytope and the set partitioning polytope can be directly used in generating tight linear programming relaxations for a certain scheduling polytope that arises from a combinatorial naval defense problem. Furthermore, these tight formulations are intended not only to develop exact solution algorithms, but also to design powerful heuristics that provide good quality solutions within a reasonable amount of computational effort. Accordingly, in Part ll of this dissertation, we present an application of such polyhedral results in order to construct effective approximate and exact algorithms for solving a naval defense problem. tn this problem, the objective is to schedule a set of illuminators in order to strike a given set of targets using surface-to-air missiles in naval battle-group engagement scenarios. The problem is conceptualized as a production floor shop scheduling problem of minimizing the total weighted flow time subject to time-window job availability and machine-downtime unavailability side constraints. A polynomial-time algorithm is developed for the case when ail the job processing times are equal (and unity without loss of generality) and the data are all integer. For the general case of scheduling jobs with unequal processing times, we develop three alternative formulations and analyze their relative strengths by comparing their respective linear programming relaxations. The special structures inherent in a particular strong zero-one integer programming model of the problem enable us to derive some classes of strong valid inequalities from the facets of the GUB constrained knapsack polytope and the set-packing polytope. Furthermore, these special structures enable us to construct several effective approximate and exact algorithms that provide solutions within specified tolerances of optimality, with an effort that admits real-time processing in the naval battle-group engagement scenario. Computational results are presented using suitable realistic test data. / Ph. D.