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Responding to student writers and their work is a staple of composition instruction, and there are numerous guides that offer educators advice on response strategies. However, such guides are often based on untested theories or assumptions about the effectiveness of those strategies, with little data-driven evidence of whether they work as hoped or intended. Furthermore, much research of response and/or revision is conducted in language-learning contexts or focus only on response provided by teachers and/or in-class peers. This project therefore presents a mixed-methods analysis of teachers' and writing consultants' response strategies and college writers' revision activity in composition-learning contexts at Saint Louis University to discover what and/or whose comments result in revision attempts. Surveys, rough drafts (with responder comments), and final drafts were collected and analyzed. Findings revealed that responders fell into three categories: instructors (classroom composition pedagogy/experience only), consultants (writing center pedagogy/experience only), or cross-trained (both forms of pedagogy/experience). These differences in training correspond with differences in response strategies. Additionally, writers acted on comments at different rates, with instructors' comments resulting in the lowest rates of attempt (42% on average) with consultants and cross-trained responders' comments resulting in much higher rates (63% and 61% respectively). These and other findings indicate that writing center pedagogy has considerable influence on writers' revision activity. Most importantly, though, student writers are still developing response and revision literacy, and current response and pedagogical practices are not always explicitly directed at improving those literacies. Teachers, consultants, and writing program/writing center administrators can improve student writers' understanding of response and revision through targeted interventions, especially ones that exercise metaresponse: engaging writers in thinking about and responding to response. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study described a program designed to increase student reading comprehension in order to improve academic achievement. The targeted population consisted of third and eighth grade students in two schools located in Northern Illinois. Evidence for the existence of the problem included scores from the Stanford Test, low academic performance on teacher made tests, teacher observations, and surveys. Analysis of the probable cause data revealed that reading comprehension could be broken down into six areas of concern. Students were not spending much time reading in or out of school. Early reading programs had little or improper instruction in phonics. Teachers lacked the proper training in reading instruction. There was a limited amount of resources provided by the district. There was a large range of ability within the classroom, which had impacted the ability of teachers to address each student's reading needs. Finally, teachers were also dealing with a high mobility rate throughout the district, which affected learning. A review of the solution strategies suggested by the professional literature, combined with an analysis of the settings of the problem, resulted in the development of an after school program combining cross-age tutoring by pairs, phonics instruction and reciprocal teaching. Post intervention data indicated an increase in students' ability to decode words, and an increase in comprehension. Appendixes contain the teacher survey and two sample worksheets.(Contains 44 references, 2 figures, and 11 tables.) (Author/RS)

For people experiencing psychosis, namely schizophrenia, contact with family members may provide valuable support throughout the course of illness. Some family environments, specifically those displaying high levels of expressed emotion, may have a detrimental effect on the recovery of an individual with schizophrenia. Evidence for the effectiveness of working with these families is mixed and the nature of how expressed emotion develops and is maintained is complex. In the present paper, recent clinical and theoretical research in this area is reviewed and the main themes and ambiguities discussed.

Over the past decades technological developments have both changed and increased human in influence on the marine environment. We now have greater potential than ever before to introduce disturbance and deplete marine resources. Two of the issues currently under public scrutiny are the exploitation of fish stocks worldwide and levels of anthropogenic noise in the marine environment. The aim of this thesis is to investigate and develop novel analyses and simulations to provide additional insight into some of the challenges facing the marine ecosystem today. These methodologies will improve the management of these risks to marine ecosystems. This thesis first addresses the issue of competition between humans and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) for marine resources, providing compelling evidence that a substantial proportion of the sandeels consumed by grey seals in the North Sea are in fact H. lanceolatus, which is not commercially exploited, rather than the commercially important A. marinus. In addition, we present quantitative results regarding sources of bias when estimating the total biomass of sandeels consumed by grey seals. Secondly, we investigate spatially adaptive 2-dimensional smoothing to improve the prediction of both the presence and density of marine species, information that is often key in the management of marine ecosystems. Particularly, we demonstrate the benefits of such methods in the prediction of sandeel occurrence. Lastly this thesis provides a quantitative assessment of the protocols for real-time monitoring of marine mammal presence, which require that acoustic operations cease when an animal is detected within a certain distance (i.e. the "monitoring zone") of the sound source. We assess monitoring zones of different sizes with regards to their effectiveness in reducing the risks of temporary and permanent damage to the animals' hearing, and demonstrate that a monitoring zone of 2 km is generally recommendable.

The bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei causes the disease melioidosis, a significant public health threat in endemic regions and is a potential biowarfare agent. Treatment of melioidosis is intensive and prolonged and there is no licensed vaccine to protect against it. The aim of this study was to characterise novel targets for antimicrobials to improve treatment of melioidosis. A holistic down selection process was undertaken in order to identify a range of possible novel and exploitable antimicrobial targets in Burkholderia pseudomallei. Four targets: FtsA, FtsZ, MraW and TonB were selected for characterisation by mutagenesis study. FtsA and FtsZ are early effectors of cell division and are considered potential antimicrobial drug targets in other pathogenic bacteria. Genes for both were shown likely to be essential for viability in Burkholderia pseudomallei, following attempted deletion of the genes, thus confirming their potential for drug targeting for treatment of melioidosis. MraW, a highly conserved methyltransferase, and TonB, the energiser for high affinity iron uptake in Gram negative bacteria, were also selected for characterisation as antimicrobial targets. In-frame deletions of the genes encoding these targets were constructed in B. pseudomallei K96243. In order to determine the roles played by MraW and TonB during infection, these mutants were characterised in several models of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection. Deletion of mraW rendered the bacteria non-motile and led to attenuation during infection of Balb/C mice. A small growth defect was seen early during infection of macrophages by this mutant, whilst no attenuation was seen on deletion of mraW in Galleria mellonella. Burkholderia pseudomallei ΔtonB required free iron supplementation for growth. This mutant had an improved ability to invade murine macrophages, though the mutant was attenuated in both Galleria mellonella and Balb/C mice. Attenuation of both mutants in a mammalian model of infection, support the strategy to target either of these proteins as novel targets for inhibition with small molecules during Burkholderia pseudomallei infection. However, an improved ability to infect macrophages by Burkholderia pseudomallei ΔtonB and non-complementation of this mutant by iron supplementation to Galleria mellonella suggests additional roles to iron uptake alone for TonB in Burkholderia pseudomallei, such as bacterial iron sensing and signalling.

The base-catalysed reaction of 4H-pyran-4-one with a range of nucleophiles, namely diethyl malonate, ethyl acetoacetate, nitromethane, acetylacetone and ethyl cyanoacetate, was developed as a reliable, high yielding method for the preparation of para-substituted phenols. The methodology was extended to include the use of the substituted pyranones, maltol, 2,6-dimethyl-4H-pyran-4-one and diethyl chelidonate. Reactions were studied using conventional heating methods and microwave irradiation. Microwave irradiation had definite beneficial effects, with improved yields, reduced reaction times and cleaner reaction profiles. The potential of this methodology was examined for the regioselective placement of ¹³C-atoms into benzene rings using ¹³C-labelled nucleophiles or ¹³C-labelled 4H-pyran-4-ones. [3,5-13C₂]4H-Pyran-4-one and [2,6-13C₂]4H-pyran-4-one were prepared from various ¹³C-labelled versions of triethyl orthoformate and acetone. This methodology was applied to the synthesis of [1,3,5-¹³C₃]gallic acid, via the base-catalysed reaction of [3,5-¹³C₂]4H-pyran-4-one with diethyl [2-¹³C]malonate, followed by subsequent transformations to yield [1,3,5-¹³C₃]gallic acid. The preparation of [2-¹³C]phloroglucinol was carried out via [2-¹³C]resorcinol, with regioselective placement of a single ¹³C-atom into the aromatic ring. This was accomplished from non-aromatic precursors, with the source of the ¹³C-atom being [¹³C]methyl iodide. The key step in this synthesis was the introduction of the third hydroxyl group, which was achieved using a modified iridium-catalysed C-H activation/borylation/oxidation procedure. The scope of an existing C-H activation/borylation reaction was modified and expanded to include a range of protected resorcinol derivatives. A catalyst system was developed which allowed high conversion to the intermediate arylboronic acids, followed by oxidation using aqueous Oxone® to yield the corresponding phenols. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of these new methods for application in the synthesis of isotopically labelled natural products and polyphenols, the syntheses of ¹³C-labelled anthocyanins were studied. A route was developed that could be applied to the synthesis of either cyanidin-3-glucoside or delphinidin-3-glucoside. Only the final coupling/cyclisation step to yield the desired anthocyanin targets remains to be carried out.