Thesis (PH.D.)--Michigan State University. Criminal Justice, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Aug. 11, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 284-301). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1964. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: l. 57-59.

Thesis (M.A. Rel.)--Anderson School of Theology, 1987. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75).

In our thesis we deal with the development of writing skills of left-handed children and with dificulties which are caused by uncorrect methodological help. Our thesis is divided into two parts. In the theoretic one we outline problems of the occurrance of the left-handness with regard to the brain asymmetry and changes of the laterality during person{\crq}s development. We focus on the way how to recognize wether the child is the left-hander or the right-hander and on the correct methodological help with writing of left-handed children. The other part of our thesis is practical part. In this part we make the concept of the copy-book for left-handed children, it means the copy-book with the neutral slope of letters. This neutral slope is more natural for left-handers. The thesis is documented with supplementory material.

Human congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common cause of non-infectious neonatal death affecting 1-2% of live births (Hoffman and Kaplan, 2002). Treatment of CHD requires major surgery and quality of life is often significantly reduced despite treatment. With the discovery of single gene mutations that cause CHD in model animals (Lyons et al., 1995), the role of genetics in CHD has become appreciated. The genetic basis of CHD is poorly understood, with different members of the same family presenting with different types of CHD (Schott et al., 1998), suggesting the causes of CHD are multifactorial. Cardiogenesis is intimately associated with the establishment of the left-right (L-R) body axis, with the two processes sharing several important transcription factors. Heart looping, in which the heart turns dextrally, is the earliest physical manifestation of L-R asymmetry. L-R patterning disorders are associated with an increased risk of CHD; heterotaxy (in which L-R asymmetry is neither normal nor mirror image) accounts for about 3% of all CHD (Zhu et al., 2006).Investigating cardiogenesis and the causes of CHD necessitates the use of animal models, typically mice, chicks, zebrafish and Xenopus. Recently a strain of mouse with a mutation in a gene essential for cardiac development was isolated from an ENU mutagenesis screen (Kile et al., 2003) using mice carrying a balancer chromosome. It has been subsequently found that the most likely candidate gene codes for the protein Prpf8, an integral component of the spliceosome. The mutation is homozygous lethal, with homozygous mice having a grossly deformed heart, developmental delay and a high incidence of heart looping reversal, indicative of a L-R patterning disorder. In depth characterisation of homozygous mutant embryos revealed defects in the morphology of the embryonic node, nodal cilia and the expression pattern of L-R axis genes. We also investigated the expression of Prpf8 during embryogenesis, and the effect that the point mutation we found in our homozygous embryos has on splicing kinetics.

This study sought to discover the relationship of torque to the academic performance and other variables of children from five to eight years old. Torque was defined as the production of clockwise circles during a writing task. The phenomenon was first reported by Theodore Blau (1977) who proposed that children who torqued past a certain age were predisposed to problems both academic and behavioural. To measure the torquing propensities of children, Blau developed a Torque Test which had children produce six circles around X's (⊗), three with the preferred hand and three with the non-preferred hand. The present study used the preferred writing hand only and two torque tests, the Circling Directionality Test developed by the researcher using an embedded task to detect torquing and a modified form of Blau's Torque Test. Variables of academic achievement, age, sex, point of circle commencement, laterality, neuromuscular motor, control , test comparisons, and circling directionality were analysed. The population for the study consisted of 300 regular classroom children ages five to eight. Seventy-five children per grade were randomly selected by age from grade levels K-3. Significant relationships between torquing and low academic achievement were only found for the eight year old group who also had a higher incidence of left-handedness and crossed hand/foot laterality. Significantly more boys torqued than girls. As well, those who torqued in most instances commenced their circles at the bottom. Predictably significant relationships were found for hand and foot, but only left-handedness was significantly related to torque. No significant relationships could be found for measures of eyedness. Both tests used to measure torque were equally effective. The rapidity of circle construction did not alter the pattern of torquing in the children. There was a significant relationship between age and torquing with over 50% of the five year olds torquing with the preferred hand; by age eight this incidence had been reduced to 8% of the population. Torquing was then seen as a developmental trait found in a large percentage of five and six year olds but by age eight it was indicative of academic school difficulties. Recommendations for further study of the torquing phenomenon were made. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Master of Science

This dissertation broadens the scope of our understanding of the gay liberation movement in the United States by situating it in the wider intellectual, cultural, and political currents of the three decades following the Second World War. By examining the personal papers of key gay and lesbian activists in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as the print media that disseminated their ideas to a nationwide public, it demonstrates the profound influence of the social thought of the 1940s and 1950s on the movement, and traces that reception by way of social movements: in particular, the new left, radical feminism, and the youth counterculture. It shows that midcentury theorists in a range of disciplines offered a distinct way of understanding the relationship between society and the self that inverted established hierarchies, thus enabling gay liberation activists and writers to anchor their vision of social transformation in the reconstruction of sexuality, gender, and the psyche. This dissertation focuses not only on the content, but also the context, of the gay liberation print culture, and in so doing reveals the scale and depth of the movement’s public sphere, thus contributing to scholarly knowledge of the nascent networks and solidarities that the underground press made possible, including among gays, lesbians, and transgendered people in prisons, rural areas, and in the military. It shows that as the cultural values and social upheavals that nurtured gay liberation receded in the course of the early 1970s, the utopian aspirations with which the movement began gave way to an interest-group pluralism and a depoliticized preoccupation with private life. This dissertation therefore clarifies the extent to which gay liberation was both a brief and exceptional moment in the longer trajectory of gay and lesbian politics in the United States and an expression of longings and anxieties that were widely shared by many Americans in the postwar era.

Background: Adrenomedullin has been demonstrated to cause systemic vasodilation, and increased plasma adrenomedullin levels have been observed in cardiovascular disease states such as heart failure. While adrenomedullin receptors have been localized to the myocardium, the effects of adrenomedullin on human myocyte contractility remained unknown. Methods and Results: Left ventricular myocytes were isolated from myocardial biopsies of patients (n = 16) undergoing elective coronary artery bypass surgery with normal left ventricular ejection fractions (51 ± 1%). A total of 233 left ventricular myocytes were studied by videomicroscopy. Myocyte shortening velocity (μm/s) was measured at baseline and following the addition of either 3 nM, 30 nM, or 60 nM of adrenomedullin. The change in myocyte shortening velocity with increasing concentrations of adrenomedullin was computed. At all concentrations, adrenomedullin reduced myocyte shortening velocity from baseline values (P < 0.05). Next, the potential interaction of adrenomedullin with the β-adrenergic receptor system was examined using 25 nM isoproterenol. The β-adrenergic receptor-mediated increase in the myocyte shortening velocity was blunted with adrenomedullin (29 ± 7 vs 63 ± 13 μm/s, P < 0.05). Conclusions: These unique findings demonstrate that adrenomedullin reduced contractility in isolated human left ventricular myocytes and exhibited a negative interaction with the β-adrenergic receptor system. Past studies have shown that adrenomedullin induces nitric oxide synthesis and that nitric oxide can uncouple myocyte metabolism. Thus, while adrenomedullin causes systemic vasodilation, this peptide can also exert a negative contractile effect in human left ventricular myocytes.

This study evaluates the impact of pedestrian flow through vehicular delays in a proposed DLT intersection located in an urban area with a high vehicular and pedestrian traffic volume. In addition, it evaluates the pedestrian–vehicle conflict points, the effect on the other accesses after the implementation of the displaced left turns, and the consequences of reorganizing pedestrian flow. Three scenarios are evaluated through microsimulation; the existing one, which is a conventional cross-shaped intersection; a proposed DLT intersection with two displaced left turns on adjacent accesses; and a third one, similar to the last one, but with the inclusion of a pedestrian underpass. Results indicate that a proposed conventional DLT increases the vehicle delays of the intersection by 6.0% compared to the existing condition, mainly due to the high volume of pedestrians and the conflicts it generates. However, with the inclusion of a pedestrian underpass, vehicle delays are reduced significantly by up to 34.0%.