Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item The Empire of Mere Survival(2011) Hollar, Glenn Pierre; Weiner, Joshua; Creative Writing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The poems in this collection revolve primarily around two subjects: the twenty-something speaker and his unlikely muse: a crippled Vietnam War veteran named Freddy, who struggles with deep-seated psychological problems. Though traces of formal elements exist as a sort of structural cohesion, the connection between these poems is largely a thematic and narrative one, weaving several threads together to reveal the relationship between these two figures, as well as their relationships with the people and places they choose to surround themselves with. Place is especially important in these poems, not only as a source of pride, but also as a sort of kinship--after all, at the core of this collection is an intersection of two lives in the same place at the same time, both of which seem to have stalled in some way. The tension born out of this aimlessness is what both drives and connects these poems.Item Mutational analysis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus type-1 nucleocapsid protein to evaluate its nucleic acid chaperone activity(2006-09-15) NARAYANAN, NIRUPAMA; DeStefano, Jeffrey J; Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The highly basic 55 amino acid nucleocapsid protein (NC) that coats the HIV-1 genome has two zinc fingers that differ by five amino acids (strain pNL4-3). Previous work showed that NC's first finger (N-terminal) is primarily responsible for unwinding secondary structures (helix destabilizing activity), while the second (C-terminal) plays an accessory role. The amino acid differences between the fingers are (finger one to finger two): phenylalanine to tryptophan (F to W), asparagine to lysine (N to K), isoleucine to glutamine (I to Q), alanine to methionine (A to M), and asparagine to aspartic acid (N to D) at positions 16, 17, 24, 25, and 27 of finger one, respectively. To determine at an amino acid level the reason for the apparent distinction between the fingers, five point mutants were designed with amino acid residues in finger one incrementally replaced by those at corresponding locations in finger two. Each mutant was analyzed in annealing assays with unstructured and structured substrates. Three groupings emerged: (1) those similar to wild type (wt) levels (N17K, A25M), (2) those with diminished activity (I24Q, N27D), and (3) mutant F16W which had substantially greater helix destabilizing activity than wt NC. All mutants retained wt levels of the condensation/aggregation activity of NC. Unlike I24Q and others, N27D was defective in DNA binding. Only I24Q and N27D showed reduced strand transfer in in vitro recombination assays. Double and triple mutants F16W/I24Q, F16W/N27D, and F16W/I24Q/N27D all showed defects in DNA binding, strand transfer, and helix destabilization, suggesting that the I24Q and N27D mutations have a "dominant negative" effect and abolish the positive influence of F16W. Results show that amino acid differences at positions 24 and 27 contribute significantly to finger one's helix destabilizing activity and hence NC's chaperone activity. Preliminary results from in vivo experiments indicated that virus with the N27D mutation is infectious at near wt NC levels. This suggests that aggregation activity may be more important than helix destabilizing for viral viability. Results from two other forms of HIV-1 NC (NCp9 and NCp15) and NC proteins from Simian Immunodeficiency Virus and Murine Leukemia Virus are also reported.Item Modern Vernacular: Arts Link Education Center and Gallery in Asheville, NC(2006-05-26) Neeriemer, Ann Louise; Bechhoefer, William; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores how the poetry of place can be written in architecture by exploring how an urban environment engages its ecology. Asheville, NC, a small city in the heart of the southern Appalachian Mountains, has the opportunity to reclaim a historic industrial zone that is nearly abandoned. The area under study is in poor condition not only because of societal changes, but also because nature, in this case the French Broad River, is frequently in conflict with the human community. Asheville's citizens are sensitive to their environment, ecology, and history. That culture is best and most famously expressed by musicians, painters, sculptors, poets, and novelists who have lived there. The site is a neighborhood rich in history relating to the river, the community, and industries located at its edge. A new arts center located here serves to bring together the greater community with the artists already living here. The structure embodies and reflects upon the ideals and values of the culture while demonstrating sustainable building practices.