2014 MU theses - Freely available online
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Item The effect of various levels of yellow grease in pre-starter rations on performance of turkey poults(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2016) Johnson, Corey Alan; Firman, Jeffre D.Nutritional intervention in the early growing poult can be a valuable strategy to decrease the stress experienced during the transition from endogenous yolk sac lipid reserves to an exogenous feed source. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the performance effects of a high addition rate of yellow grease (YG) in pre-starter rations fed to tom turkeys. The 140-day long experiment was a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement, where poults were fed treatment diets consisting of a control (least cost addition of YG), 6% YG or 8% YG to 10 or 14 DOA. Each treatment consisted of 8 replicates containing 12 birds per pen in a randomized complete block design with location as the blocking factor. Diets were composed of a commercial type corn-soy-DDGS-meat meal base and were adjusted to maintain a consistent ME:AA ratio, as the three dietary treatments were not isocaloric. Birds were weighed and diets were changed at 10 or 14 days, and at 21 days; thereafter, these processes were repeated every 21 days until market age. At completion, birds were processed and carcass composition was evaluated. The resulting performance data, which included livability, BW, FI, feed to gain and adjusted feed to gain, yielded no significant treatment effects. Carcass composition showed a significant increase in fat pad weight in dietary treatments, where 8% YG was higher than both 6% YG and control (P=0.01). Fat pad weight also significantly increased in toms fed for 14 days compared to 10 days (P=0.028). No significant treatment interactions were observed in fat pad weight.Item A case of documents in the cloud : what changes DocumentCloud brings to the practices of daily reporting(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2014) Kolgushev, Roman; Vos, Tim P.This study explored the roles that journalists play in newsrooms in correlation with their use of the DocumentCloud platform. The results of this study indicate that DocumentCloud influences journalists’ routines and their roles and that the level of such influence varies from case to case: study participants indicated that DocumentCloud makes reporting easier, faster, helps them foster the credibility of their reporting, brings more structure and order to their routines. The study found that often decision journalists made of using or not using DocumentCloud was closely related to how they perceived themselves and their roles in the newsroom. Study participants indicated that through DocumentCloud they were able to tell more to their readers and reach a wider audience. Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews were used in this study, data was analyzed using constant comparative approach. The population for the study was reporters and editors from U.S. newsrooms that used DocumentCloud on regular basis. The study sample consisted of 12 participants.Item A temporal analysis system for early detection of health changes(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2014) Shao, Jingyi; Keller, James M.To make it possible for elders to live independently at home and yet get help from health care providers when small changes in health conditions take place, smart home technologies are developed to enhance safety and monitor health conditions via noninvasive sensors and other devices. To better analyze the wealth of the activity information from various kinds of sensors to locate trends that correspond states of wellbeing, this thesis proposes a new system to build adaptive models for detecting health changes based on temporal analysis, including outlier detection, customization and adaption to new changes. Our hope is that by using more sophisticated temporal analysis method we can capture more predictive alerts and more customized alerts that can help us detect more meaningful health changes before they become big problems. Since we cannot have full access to all the embedded sensor data from TigerPlace at the moment, the system is tested using synthetic datasets which simulate gradual changes, sudden changes, changes of baseline health condition and system noise that might happen in the real-world data. Based on the experiments on the synthetic datasets, the system is proved to have the ability to adapt to gradual changes, find anomalies and spawn a new component for the GMM when there is an emerging new normal pattern. The system achieves our goals when tested on the synthetic datasets over extended period of time. We hope that by using the system in Tiger Place, it will help by detecting health changes before real health issue happens.Item Challenges and successes of African American males in the health professions(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2014) Stavropoulos, Kathy R.; Whitney, Stephen D.The present literature review examines the factors that contribute to the underrepresentation of African American men in the field of medicine in an attempt to underscore the need to increase their numbers in the health professions workforce. The review explores literature pertaining to historical perspectives in medicine for African Americans at the turn of the 20th century and early in the 21st, touching on events such as the Flexner Report and its negative impact on medical education for African Americans. The review further investigates disparities between African Americans and Whites in healthcare service delivery as evidenced by disease prognoses and outcomes for African Americans, and the fact that African American physicians choose to practice in underserved areas where they are mostly trusted by patients of similar race and ethnicity. Moreover, the review examines the benefits associated with increasing the number of African American men in medical schools and the physician workforce, and the impact for society at large. Literature on efforts to increase participation of African American men in an increasing number of pipeline programs is also considered. Research on challenges and barriers to African American men succeeding in pre-higher education, college and graduate school is reviewed, followed by accounts of how those who are managing to matriculate to medical school had previously succeeded in high school and college despite educational disparities, financial obstacles, and racial microaggressions. Finally, the review emphasizes the importance of exposing Black boys to the medical field early on, preferably during high school, the role of mentorship in the education process, and the need to have medical student voices on strategies they employed for success in matriculating to medical school represented in the literature, to effect positive change for others to follow.Item Transcriptome profiling of rattus norvegicus embryonic stem cells by RNA-sequencing(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2014) Johnson, Nathan Tyler; Bryda, Elizabeth C.Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs) are a critical tool for producing targeted knockout animals and understanding development. ESCs were successfully isolated from rats in 2008 and have been used in producing several targeted knockout animal models. To date, little characterization of rat ESCs (rESCs) has been done. In order to establish a rESC transcriptome, RNA-Seq was done on mRNA from the rESC cell line DAc8, the first male germline competent rat ESC line to be described and the first to be used to generate a knockout rat model. RNA-Seq was chosen as it is currently the most sensitive transcriptome analysis method. In the studies described here, the genes expressed in rat ESCs were identified, and a subset of the undescribed isoforms and unannotated rat genes revealed by this analysis were confirmed by RT-PCR analysis. Importantly, the rESC data allowed comparison with previously reported data for mouse and human ESCs to begin to understand the similarities and differences of the transcriptomes of ESCs from different mammalian species.