2011 MU dissertations - Freely available online
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Item Structural and kinetic studies of bifunctional and monofunctional proline catabolic enzymes(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011) Srivastava, Dhiraj; Tanner, John J., 1961-PutAs, Proline dehydrogenase and P5C dehydrogenase are involved in the oxidation of proline to glutamate. Mutations in proline dehydrogenase and P5C dehydrogenase cause a disease condition known as hyperprolinemia. In this work I have solved the crystal structure of bifunctional PutA and P5C dehydrogenase. The structure of P5C dehydrogenase sheds light on the structural basis of hyperprolinemia. I have also used kinetic and thermodynamic methods to understand the molecular mechanism of hyperprolinemia.Item Indigenous culture as an asset for student academic success : a formative mixed method case study to examine school leaders' roles in policy development, adoption and application in schools serving American Indian students(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011) Ratchford, Mary E.; Ratchford, Mary E.This study explored one public school on a tribal reservation to construct understanding of leadership effect on policy supporting academic achievement. Primary data were collected between June 2011 and August 2011 providing sequential opportunities to collect School Culture Survey (SCS) (Gruenert, 1998) data and follow-up interviews with stakeholder groups. The SCS and interviews gathered data about cultural values and beliefs, patterns of behavior and relationships from multiple stakeholder groups. Secondary data included school report cards, websites, Board of Education meeting minutes, school forms, and professional development in-service training documents. The data described strengths including unity of purpose, transformational leadership, faculty collaboration, professional development, equality development, culture departmental support, the new school building, tangible assets of lands and enterprises, and intangible assets that are the people and their unique culture. Areas of concern were expectation of failure, equity measures, parent involvement, discipline, health services, a culture clash, attendance, and community infrastructure. This study brought together American scholarly expertise and indigenous scholarly expertise from the United States, New Zealand and Canada. The findings suggest a formative comprehensive systemic school improvement plan process can be developed as recommended practice for replication in other schools serving American Indian children across North America.Item Understanding teacher knowledge of the use of assessment for learning in the context of homework(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011) Harris, Daren; Harris, DarenThe researcher conducted a qualitative study to develop a deeper understanding of teacher perceptions use, and understanding of homework as a formative assessment tool. The work of Black et al. (2004), Moss and Brookhart (2009), Stiggins et al. (2006) provided a lens to improve understanding of formative assessment. Cooper (2007), Kohn (2006), and Vatterott (2009) provided a lens to improve understanding of homework. Participants were teachers from three Midwestern high schools in one Midwestern state. Data were collected from focus group interviews, an online open-ended survey, and document analysis. All segments of the participants identified three categories as related to perception, use, and understanding homework as a formative assessment tool: teacher perception of the purpose of homework, the uses of homework as part of classroom assessment practice, and teacher understanding of homework as a formative assessment tool. The findings of this study have implications for teachers and administrators. One of the findings of this study was teachers formulate their perception of homework on assumptions embedded in educational culture. The other important finding was the lack of understanding of formative assessment and homework as formative assessment. Implications for future practice include recommendations for school leaders to take the lead in providing organizational learning, utilize the principles of transformational leadership, and be a provider of professional development in the areas of assessment. Implications for future research include recommendations for gaining an understanding of teacher attitudes before and after professional development in assessment, how effective change is achieved in the area of assessment, and student attitudes toward education in classroom which employ formative assessment versus those who do not.Item Dosimetric properties and radiation hardness of the storage phosphor europium doped potassium chloride for radiation therapy dosimetry(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011) Driewer, Joseph P.; Driewer, Joseph P.Multidimensional reusable dosimeters are extremely important for characterizing the complex dose distributions associated with modern radiation therapy techniques, such as intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). In particular, reusability provides medical physicists a degree of confidence in dosimetric measurements through the acquisition of benchmarking datasets and through long-term, repeated use and performance monitoring. Yet a dosimeter that has all of the properties desired for radiation therapy use, such as reusability, high spatial resolution, and water-equivalence, is not currently available. The results of this dissertation demonstrate that the reusable storage phosphor europium doped potassium chloride, KCl:Eu2+, has the potential to significantly advance the state-of-the-art in radiation therapy dosimetry. Prototype chip and panel dosimeters were fabricated according to well-developed materials science processes. Dosimetric properties were studied by reading photostimulated luminescence (PSL) after irradiation with a laboratory optical system. Sensitivity was independent of dose rate and beam energy for commonly used therapy beams. Over-response to low-energy scattered photons was comparable to conventional radiographic film and reduced with lead foils. No significant changes in the PSL process were detected up to 5000 Gy dose history, indicating that the material could be reused up to 2500 times at 2 Gy per use, as in, for example, patient-specific IMRT quality assurance. Investigations of KCl:Eu2+ panel dosimeters show that sub-millimeter spatial resolution is achievable and that micron-scale dosimeters have a water-equivalent dose response with sufficient sensitivity over clinically relevant dose ranges. In conclusion, KCl:Eu2+ is demonstrated to have many desirable properties for radiation therapy dosimetry. This study provides a practical and theoretical knowledge base that advances and supports future KCl:Eu2+ dosimetry research.Item Maximizing information for evaluation of incident management systems with an emphasis on secondary accidents(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2011) Chilukuri, Venkata; Chilukuri, VenkataIncident management is the process of mitigating the effects of traffic incidents via quick and effective response, thus reducing the congestion and the potential for secondary accidents. The evaluation of incident management system (IMS) is challenging and data intensive since incident occurrence and location cannot be predicted. But secondary accidents which occur due to the primary incident offer a window into how effective the incident management system is working. Lower the number of secondary incidents indicates an effective IMS. This research shows by maximizing the incident information i.e. traffic volumes, travel times, roadway capacity, incident progression curves; one can accurately understand the impact of incidents and the number of secondary incidents. This research will help government agencies in fine tuning their IMS policies and components by their returned value.