Executions and executioners--Press coverage; Mass media and public opinion; Capital punishment in popular culture; Death row inmates--Press coverage
The public's exposure to state sanctioned killings is limited to the mass media representations such as editorials, news reports, feature films, and books. Therefore it is important to examine the process of execution and its relation to the media...
Funeral rites and ceremonies--United States; Undertakers and undertaking--Social aspects
Within a cultural context of postmodernism and individualization, funerals in America have taken on a new appearance amidst increased freedom of expression and diminished adherence to tradition. This thesis examines how the funeral industry has...
Photography--Psychological aspects; Mourning customs in art; Mourning customs in literature; Phenomenology and art
The creation of liminal spaces has been used for centuries cross-culturally to create sacred or taboo meanings in rituals, people, places, or objects. Liminality is constructed by the overlapping of cultural categories and "ruptures" an...
Nuclear Factor of Activated T-cells (NFAT) is a calcium-responsive transcription factor that orchestrates immune response and cardiovascular development. NFAT is also present in neurons and glia from the Central Nervous System (CNS) where it...
Capital punishment--Public opinion; Murder victims' families--Attitudes; Murder victims' families--Psychology
Two common assumptions are that the family members of murder victims will achieve closure and perceive a sense of justice following the execution of their loved one's murderer. These assumptions, however, may be unfounded. Using family member...
Plague--History--Europe; Black Death--Social aspects--Europe; Erotica--Europe--History; Idols and images--Europe--History; Superstition--Europe--History
This thesis examines a large corpus of enigmatic pilgrimage badges dating from
roughly 1350-1500 CE. The badges were brought to light during archaeological
excavations of water sites throughout the Schelde Estuary in the Netherlands, the
riverbanks...
Hypoxia is characterized by an inadequate oxygen supply to the tissues in
proportion to their metabolic needs, and is a primary factor in traumatic CNS
injury, strokes, cardiopulmonary diseases, and obstructive sleep apnea. The
cAMP-dependent...
Oxidative stress-induced immunosuppression could be due to a decrease in CD4 + T lymphocyte activation or proliferation. 4-Hydroxynonenal (HNE), an end product of lipid peroxidation, and its protein adducts act as markers of oxidative stress. In...
Bcl-2 proteins are major regulators of cellular responses to various apoptotic stimuli. Among them, overexpression of the anti-apoptotic BcI-2 protein BcI-xL modulates organelle-specific apoptotic pathways. To understand the mechanisms by which...
The chaperone heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) regulates physiologically and
pathological cellular processes, by binding and stabilizing kinases involved in basal
cellular functions and in cellular responses to stress, respectively. I hypothesize...
Spinal cord injury (SCI) can be divided into two distinct stages, an initial mechanical impact and a later "secondary injury" resulting from a cascade of cytokines triggering a spreading demyelination and apoptosis of neurons and glia...
This dissertation is a hypothesis-driven research oriented study to determine the role of the pituitary-tumor transforming gene (PTTG) in ovarian cancer, specifically if it is involved in neoplastic transformation leading to tumorigenesis through...
Mogul Empire--Social life and customs; Drinking of alcoholic beverages--India--History; Drug abuse--India
Intoxicant use in Mughal India was not only widespread, it also represented an important part of the empire's history and culture. The influence of intoxicants - specifically opium and alcohol - has often been overlooked in secondary literature,...
Persecution--England--History--16th century; Martyrdom--Christianity--England; Great Britain--History--Elizabeth, 1558-1603; Great Britain--History--Mary, 1553-1558
This thesis is a historical examination of the Marian and Elizabethan persecutions. Through the analysis of primary sources dating from the persecutions, the process of persecution in Reformation England is examined. This thesis uncovers the...
Recent studies indicate post-translational deacetylation by members of the superfamily of histone deacetylase complexes (HDACs) is necessary for oligodendrocyte precursor cell (OPC) differentiation into mature oligodendrocytes (OLs). However, it...
Pancreatic beta cells are extremely vulnerable to destruction by Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). In type 1 diabetes and islet transplantation ROS are thought to be involved in the loss of beta cells. To test the role of antioxidant in islet...
The current study investigated the nature of anticipatory grief in a sample of dementia caregivers, and examined the relationship between anticipatory grief and caregiver burden. Anticipatory grief can be described as one's reaction to the...
O -linked β-N-acetylglucosamine ( O -GlcNAc) is an inducible, dynamically cycling, and reversible post-translational modification of serine/threonine amino acid residues of nucleocytoplasmic and mitochondrial proteins. O -GlcNAc transferase (OGT)...
Star Wars films--History and criticism; Myth in motion pictures; Lucas, George, 1944-
The Star Wars franchise is one of the most successful film series of all time. The original three
movies, along with the more recent three prequels, serve as the foundation to a vast empire of
Star Wars television shows, action figures, comic...
The conversion of Scandinavia, Iceland and Finland occurred over many years and resulted in the formation of Scandinavian monarchies, a strong Icelandic parliament, and an loosely organized Finnish nation. The conversion of Northern Europe was...