Relationships Between Generalized Bernoulli Numbers and Polynomials and Generalized Euler Numbers and Polynomials

In this paper, concepts of the generalized Bernoulli and Euler numbers and polynomials are introduced, and some relationships between them are established

Building a media agenda on health disparities : how issue perceptions and news values work to influence effectiveness

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 7, 2007)Vita.Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2006.Building on prior literature conceptualizing the role of public relations in influencing the media agenda, this study proposes a model of agenda building that explores the determinants of the agenda building process and centers around the dynamics among public relations practitioners, journalists and media content. Placed in a context of racial disparities in health care, the model was tested through in-depth interviews with health care journalists and public relations practitioners on this perceptions about health disparities, and how they covered or generated coverage of the issue. Also the actual media coverage of health disparities was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results showed initial support for the model of agenda building: the effectiveness of agenda building is positively associated with how much public relations practitioners agree with journalists on interpreting a certain issue and news values. As such, this study contributes to the theory building on agenda building by probing into the agenda building process and dynamics, and will help public relations practitioners and journalists with their efforts to build an effective media agenda beneficial to the goal of eliminating health disparities.Includes bibliographical reference

Dynamic Studies of Scaffold-dependent Mating Pathway in Yeast

The mating pathway in \emph{Saccharomyces cerevisiae} is one of the best understood signal transduction pathways in eukaryotes. It transmits the mating signal from plasma membrane into the nucleus through the G-protein coupled receptor and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. According to the current understandings of the mating pathway, we construct a system of ordinary differential equations to describe the process. Our model is consistent with a wide range of experiments, indicating that it captures some main characteristics of the signal transduction along the pathway. Investigation with the model reveals that the shuttling of the scaffold protein and the dephosphorylation of kinases involved in the MAPK cascade cooperate to regulate the response upon pheromone induction and to help preserving the fidelity of the mating signaling. We explored factors affecting the dose-response curves of this pathway and found that both negative feedback and concentrations of the proteins involved in the MAPK cascade play crucial role. Contrary to some other MAPK systems where signaling sensitivity is being amplified successively along the cascade, here the mating signal is transmitted through the cascade in an almost linear fashion.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figure