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Towards A Posthumanist Reenchantment: Poetry, Science And New Technologies, Marta Del Pozo Ortea

Open Access Dissertations

This interdisciplinary study analyzes the work of two contemporary writers in Peninsular Spanish literature, Agustín Fernández Mallo and Javier Moreno, using the the posthumanist stance that considers the epistemological and ontological continuum and inseparability of contemporary cultural practices. This thesis delves into the interrelationship of their respective work with three main aspects of the 21st century reality: the omnipresent world of images in our culture, the scientific paradigm and the use of new technologies. The study of their work has led me to propose the birth of a new literature that 1. articulates the “pictorial turn” by recognizing how the …

Quantum Corrections To The Gravitational Interaction Of Massless Particles, Thomas J. Blackburn Jr.

Open Access Dissertations

Donoghue's effective field theory of quantum gravity is extended to include the interaction of massless particles. The collinear divergences which accompany massless particles are examined first in the context of QED and then in quantum gravity. A result of Weinberg is extended to show how these divergences vanish in the case of gravity. The scattering cross section for hypothetical massless scalar particles is computed first, because it is simpler, and the results are then extended to photons. Some terms in the cross section are shown to correspond to the Aichelburg-Sexl metric surrounding a massless particle and to quantum corrections to …

The Silent Majority: An Examination Of Nonresponse In College Student Surveys, Ethan A. Kolek

Open Access Dissertations

Nonresponse is a growing problem in surveys of college students and the general population. At present, we have a limited understanding of survey nonresponse in college student populations and therefore the extent to which survey results may be biased. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore three facets of nonresponse in surveys of college students in order to strengthen our empirical and conceptual understanding of this phenomenon. This dissertation seeks to contribute to our understanding of who participates in surveys and who does not, how students experience the process of being asked to complete surveys, and whether or not …

Macroscopic Patterning Via Dynamic Self-Assembly And Wrinkling Instability, Hyun Suk Kim

Open Access Dissertations

My PhD work focuses on developing new methods to create the macroscopic patterns in a simple, robust, and versatile way. For macroscopic pattern formation, we first use flow coating as an assembly technique, uniquely balancing two driving forces: (i) evaporative deposition of nonvolatile solutes at a three-phase contact line and (ii) precision movement of a confined meniscus layer. This balance leads to the formation of line-based patterns that range in height and width from nanometers to microns, with lengths greater than centimeters. Moreover, we couple this deposition methodology with functional ligand chemistry on the nanoparticle surface, which allows us to …

Organic Farming And Rural Transformations In The European Union: A Political Economy Approach, Charalampos Konstantinidis

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the impact of organic farming for achieving the environmental and social objectives of sustainability in Europe over the past 20 years. Organic farming is considered the poster child of rural development in Europe, often seen as a model of the integration of small-scale production with environmental considerations. Since this model runs counter to the logic of developing capitalist structures in agriculture, I revisit the Marxian predictions regarding the "agrarian question". Furthermore, I trace the discursive changes in support of small-scale production in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and assess whether small farms have improved their situation …

Rebranding Diversity: Colorblind Racism Inside The U.S. Advertising Industry, Christopher Boulton

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines race inequality inside the United States advertising industry. Based on qualitative fieldwork conducted at three large agencies in New York City during the summer of 2010 (including ethnographic observations, affinity-based focus groups, in-depth interviews, and open-ended surveys), I argue that the industry's good faith effort to diversify through internship-based affirmative action programs is overwhelmed by the more widespread material practices of closed network hiring--a system that advantages affluent Whites through referral hires, subjective notions of "chemistry" or "fit," and outright nepotism through "must-hires." Furthermore, the discriminatory nature of White affirmative action is hidden from view, masked by …

Porous Metal Oxide Materials Through Novel Fabrication Procedures, Nicholas Hendricks

Open Access Dissertations

Porous metal oxide materials, particularly those comprised of silica or titania, find use in many applications such as low-k dielectric materials for microelectronics as well as chemical sensors, micro/nanofluidic devices, and catalyst substrates. For this dissertation, the focus will be on the processing of porous metal oxide materials covering two subjects: hierarchical porosity exhibited over two discrete length scales and incorporation of functional nanomaterials. To generate the porous silica materials, the technique of supercritical carbon dioxide infusion (scCO2) processing was heavily relied upon. Briefly, the scCO2 infusion processing utilizes phase selective chemistries within a pre-organized amphiphilic block copolymer template using …

Organizing Markets: The Structuring Of Neoliberalism In The U.S. Airline Industry, Dustin Robert Avent-Holt

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the emergence of neoliberalism through an historical analysis of the evolution of the U.S airline industry. In 1938 the basic economic activities of U.S. airlines were placed under the regulatory oversight and control of the Civil Aeronautics Board. This institution of "regulated competition" persisted largely unquestioned until the economic crisis of the 1970s. Out of this crisis the Airline Deregulation Act was passed in 1978, eliminating most of these economic controls. Based on analysis of Congressional hearings, a key industry trade press (Air Transport World), the general business press, and financial and labor market data on the …

Technologies Of Racial Formation: Asian-American Online Identities, Linh Dich

Open Access Dissertations

My dissertation is an ethnographic study of Asian-American users on the social network site, Xanga. Based on my analysis of online texts, responses to texts, and participants' discussions of their writing motivations, my research strongly suggests that examining digital writing through participants' complex and overlapping constructions of their community and public(s) can help the field reconsider digital writing as a site of Asian-American rhetoric and as a process of constructing and transforming racial identities and relations. In particular, I examine how community and public, as interconnected and shifting writing imaginaries on Xanga, afford Asian-American users on this site the opportunity …

Modeling Material Transformations In Biorefinement, Vishal Agarwal

Open Access Dissertations

Lignocellulosic biomass is a significant pool of energy resource, which can be harnessed to supplement or replace the dwindling fossil fuel reserves. This requires development of economically viable means to efficiently convert biomass to biofuels. A major requirement in biofuel industry is to develop highly active, selective and stable catalysts. Zeolites are an important class of micro-porous crystalline solids, and have proven to be effective and stable acid catalysts for a variety of petrochemical and fine-chemical processes. Nitrided zeolites -- i.e., those with Si-O-Si and Si-OH-Al groups substituted by Si-NH-Si and Si-NH₂-Al -- have shown promise as shape-selective …

The Sources Of Financial Profit: A Theoretical And Empirical Investigation Of The Transformation Of Banking In The Us, Iren G. Levina

Open Access Dissertations

The last thirty years in the US have been characterized by rising financial profits as a share of total profits and the growth of banking activities yielding non-interest income. These developments pose two questions. First, what are the social relations enabling and sustaining financial profits and what are their macroeconomic sources? Second, what do these trends imply for the nature of banking and what kind of theory of banking can capture them? This study addresses these questions and makes four contributions. First, a Marxist theory of banking is developed to capture the transformation of banking drawing on two characteristics: first, …

Breaking The Barriers Of All-Polymer Solar Cells: Solving Electron Transporter And Morphology Problems, Nagarjuna Gavvalapalli

Open Access Dissertations

All-polymer solar cells (APSC) are a class of organic solar cells in which hole and electron transporting phases are made of conjugated polymers. Unlike polymer/fullerene solar cell, photoactive material of APSC can be designed to have hole and electron transporting polymers with complementary absorption range and proper frontier energy level offset. However, the highest reported PCE of APSC is 5 times less than that of polymer/fullerene solar cell. The low PCE of APSC is mainly due to: i) low charge separation efficiency; and ii) lack of optimal morphology to facilitate charge transfer and transport; and iii) lack of control over …

Roots Of Modality, Aynat Rubinstein

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores the interplay of grammar and context in the interpretation of modal words like ought, necessary, and need. The empirical foci of the discussion are patterns in the use of strong and weak necessity modals in conversation, and the interpretation of syntactically and semantically versatile modals like need in the various grammatical configurations they appear in across languages.

It is argued that a sensitivity to collective commitments in a conversation is necessary for understanding certain aspects of modal strength, in particular the traditional distinction between strong and weak necessity modals (exhibited by must and ought …

New Bilinear Estimates For Quadratic-Derivative Nonlinear Wave Equations In 2+1 Dimensions, Allison J. Tanguay

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis is concerned with the Cauchy problem for the quadratic derivative nonlinear wave equation in two spatial dimensions. Using standard techniques, we reduce local well-posedness in Fourier Lebesgue spaces to bilinear estimates in associated wave Fourier Lebesgue spaces, for which we prove new product estimates. These estimates then allow us to establish local well-posedness in a parameter range that gives improvement over previously known results on the Sobolev scale.

Interactions And Morphology Of Triblock Copolymer - Ionic Liquid Mixtures And Applications For Gel Polymer Electrolytes, Daniel F. Miranda

Open Access Dissertations

Room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) are a unique class of solvents which are characterized by non-volatility, non-flammability, electrochemical stability and high ionic conductivity. These properties are highly desirable for ion-conducting electrolytes, and much work has focused on realizing their application in practical devices. In addition, hydrophilic and ionophilic polymers are generally miscible with ILs. The miscibility of ILs with ion-coordinating polymers makes ILs effective plasticizers for gel polymer electrolytes. Due to their unique properties, ILs present a means to realize the next generation of energy storage technology. In this dissertation, the fundamental interactions between poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and a variety …

Understanding Internalized Oppression: A Theoretical Conceptualization Of Internalized Subordination, Teeomm K. Williams

Open Access Dissertations

Internalized oppression is one of the conceptual foundations of social justice education. Though the literature on internalized oppression is rich with descriptive data, little theory has been developed in this area. To date, the field of Social Justice Education has been limited by this oversight. Drawing upon the work of theorists who have examined this topic across a variety of social identities, this study presents a generalizable framework for understanding and analyzing internalized oppression. More specifically, this research focuses on the internalized oppression of subordinant groups, also known as internalized subordination. The framework presented within this study identifies internalized oppression …

The Valuation Impact Of Sec Enforcement Actions On Non-Target Foreign Firms, Roger Nelson Silvers

Open Access Dissertations

This study provides a test of the market valuation impact of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement actions for foreign firms. I examine the SEC enforcement policy towards foreign firms under its jurisdiction. In contrast to Siegel (2005) who examines earlier years, I find that the SEC's current (post-2002) enforcement intensity is considerable and has increased dramatically by comparison. I construct a novel test using the burgeoning series SEC enforcement events as changes to the legal environment that circumvents the issues associated with firm-level exchange-listing events (e.g. self-selection and simultaneous changes to firm traits). The tests focus on stock returns …

Allosteric Regulation Of Caspase-6 Proteolytic Activity, Elih M. Velazquez-Delgado

Open Access Dissertations

Caspases are cysteine proteases best known for their controlling roles in apoptosis and inflammation. Caspase-6 has recently been shown to play a key role in the cleavage of neurodegenerative substrates that causes Huntington and Alzheimer's Disease, heightening interest in caspase-6 and making it a drug target. All thirteen human caspases have related specificities for binding and cleaving substrate, so achieving caspase-specific regulation at the active site has been extremely challenging if not impossible. We have determined the structures of four unliganded forms of caspase-6, which attain a novel helical structure not observed in any other caspases. In this conformation, rotation …

Postures For Precision: An Ecological Approach To Marksmanship And The Issue Of Warfighter Load., Christopher Jay Palmer

Open Access Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation was to understand the issue of load in a more operationally realistic way, while examining underlying segmental relations and postural regulation related to functional capability. The ecological approach provides a foundation for this work, as its approach seeks understanding across nested relations and at the level of the Organism-Environment system. First, a landing task was used to examine transitions from movement to upright stance, evaluating the effects of load on changes relevant to prospective control of action. Greater negative head angles, reductions in the field of regard, and reduced variability in orienting coordination (trunk-head relations) …

Information Retrieval With Query Hypergraphs, Michael Bendersky

Open Access Dissertations

Current information retrieval models are optimized for retrieval with short keyword queries. In contrast, in this dissertation we focus on longer, verbose queries with more complex structure that are becoming more common in both mobile and web search. To this end, we propose an expressive query representation formalism based on query hypergraphs. Unlike the existing query representations, query hypergraphs model the dependencies between arbitrary concepts in the query, rather than dependencies between single query terms. Query hypergraphs are parameterized by importance weights, which are assigned to concepts and concept dependencies in the query hypergraph, based on their contribution to the …

Swelling And Folding As Mechanisms Of 3d Shape Formation In Thin Elastic Sheets, Marcelo A. Dias

Open Access Dissertations

We work with two different mechanisms to generate geometric frustration on thin elastic sheets; isotropic differential growth and folding. We describe how controlled growth and prescribing folding patterns are useful tools for designing three-dimensional objects from information printed in two dimensions. The first mechanism is inspired by the possibility to control shapes by swelling polymer films, where we propose a solution for the problem of shape formation by asking the question, ``what 2D metric should be prescribed to achieve a given 3D shape?'', namely the reverse problem. We choose two different types of initial configurations of sheets, disk-like with one …

Identification And Functional Characterization Of The Zebrafish Gene Quetschkommode (Que), Timo Friedrich

Open Access Dissertations

Locomotion in vertebrates depends on proper formation and maintenance of neuronal networks in the hind-brain and spinal cord. Malformation or loss of factors required for proper maintenance of these networks can lead to severe neurodegenerative diseases limiting or preventing locomotion. A powerful tool to investigate the genetic and cellular requirements for development and/or maintenance of these networks is a collection of zebrafish mutants with defects in motility. The zebrafish mutant quetschkommode (que) harbors a previously unknown gene defect leading to abnormal locomotor behavior. Here I show that the que mutants display a seizure-like behavior starting around four days post fertilization …

Risk Quantification Of Maple Trees Subjected To Wind Loading, Cihan Ciftci

Open Access Dissertations

Because of property damage and people injuries in, almost, every year in different locations of the earth, unfortunately the topic of understanding trees and their risk assessments under wind forces has not lost its importance since approximately a half of the last century. In contrast to loss its importance, the number of researchers or studies increases with time thanks to inter-disciplinary studies on that topic. In this Thesis, tree dynamics and their risk assessments subjected to wind forces were addressed by two different disciplines (civil engineering and environmental conservation).

To mention includes of this inter-disciplinary study, first, a finite element …

The Evolutionary Genetics Of Seed Shattering And Flowering Time, Two Weed Adaptive Traits In Us Weedy Rice, Carrie S. Thurber

Open Access Dissertations

Weedy rice is a persistent weed of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa) fields worldwide, which competes with the crop and drastically reduces yields. Within the US, two main populations of genetically differentiated weedy rice exist, the straw-hulled (SH) group and the black-hulled awned (BHA) group. Current research suggests that both groups are derived from Asian cultivated rice. However, the weeds differ from the cultivated groups in various morphological traits. My research focus is on the genetic basis of two such traits: seed shattering ability and differences in flowering time. The persistence of weedy rice has been partly attributed to its ability …

The Relationship Between Mass Incarceration And Crime In The Neoliberal Period In The United States, Geert Leo Dhondt

Open Access Dissertations

The United States prison population has grown seven-fold over the past 35 years. This dissertation looks at the impact this growth in incarceration has on crime rates and seeks to understand why this drastic change in public policy happened.

Simultaneity between prison populations and crime rates makes it difficult to isolate the causal effect of changes in prison populations on crime. This dissertation uses marijuana and cocaine mandatory minimum sentencing to break that simultaneity. Using panel data for 50 states over 40 years, this dissertation finds that the marginal addition of a prisoner results in a higher, not lower, crime …

Verbalizing In The Second Language Classroom: The Development Of The Grammatical Concept Of Aspect, Prospero N. Garcia

Open Access Dissertations

Framed within a Sociocultural Theory of Mind (SCT) in the field of Second Language Acquisition (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006), this dissertation explores the role of verbalizing in the internalization of grammatical categories through the use of Concept-based Instruction (henceforth CBI) in the second language (L2) classroom.

Using Vygotsky's (1986) distinction between scientific and spontaneous or everyday concepts applied to L2 development (Negueruela, 2008), this study focuses on the teaching and potential development of the grammatical concept of aspect in the Spanish L2 classroom, and the role of verbalizing in its internalization. It is proposed that verbalizing mediates between the learners' …

Supporting Public High School Teachers In A Context Of Multiple Mandates: A Social Justice Approach To Professional Learning Communities, Philip J. Harak

Open Access Dissertations

Although public school teaching by its inherent nature presents numerous classroom challenges, the public high school teacher today is faced in addition with multiple external mandates from several outside stakeholders. Given the established track record of professional learning communities (PLCs) to provide teacher support and development, I created a PLC that would serve as an intervention designed to support teachers in their classroom work and with their multiple mandates as well. This enhanced PLC was informed by interviews with administrators, researched best practices of traditional PLCs, and uniquely, by what teachers told me they needed in an optimal PLC experience. …

Mechanics And Energetics Of Footfall Patterns In Running, Allison H. Gruber

Open Access Dissertations

The forefoot (FF) running pattern has been recently advocated to improve running economy and prevent overuse injuries compared to the rearfoot (RF) pattern. However, these claims have not been supported by empirical evidence. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the potential advantages of RF and FF patterns to improve running economy and reduce injury risk in 20 natural RF and 20 natural FF runners.

The first study found that the RF group was more economical when performing the RF pattern at a slow, medium, and fast speed vs. FF running. Only running at the fast speed resulted in …

Studies In The Atomic Spectrometric Determination Of Selenium, Mercury, And Rare Earth Elements, Lindsay Rhae Harris

Open Access Dissertations

The field of analytical chemistry is very important to today's society as more and more regulations and legislations emerge regarding trace elements in food, consumer products, medicines, and the environment. Like many areas of science, the current goals of trace elemental measurements and speciation are to increase knowledge on the subject and to improve upon current techniques by enhancing the figures of merit, such as accuracy and reproducibility, meanwhile balancing with the cost and time of analysis.

The topics covered in this work were investigated primarily through the use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma …

Modeling The Relaxation Dynamics Of Fluids In Nanoporous Materials, John R. Edison

Open Access Dissertations

Mesoporous materials are being widely used in the chemical industry in various environmentally friendly separation processes and as catalysts. Our research can be broadly described as an effort to understand the behavior of fluids confined in such materials. More specifically we try to understand the influence of state variables like temperature and pore variables like size, shape, connectivity and structural heterogeneity on both the dynamic and equilibrium behavior of confined fluids. The dynamic processes associated with the approach to equilibrium are largely unexplored. It is important to look into the dynamic behavior for two reasons. First, confined fluids experience enhanced …