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University of Massachusetts Amherst

2017

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Characterization Of Calcium Homeostasis Parameters In Trpv3 And Cav3.2 Double Null Mice, Aujan Mehregan Dec 2017

Characterization Of Calcium Homeostasis Parameters In Trpv3 And Cav3.2 Double Null Mice, Aujan Mehregan

Masters Theses

In mammals, calcium influx is required for oocyte maturation and egg activation, as it supports the persistent calcium oscillations induced by fertilization. These oscillations are required for the initiation of embryo development. The molecular identities of the plasma membrane calcium-permeant channels that underlie calcium influx are not established. Among these channels, Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid, member 3 (TRPV3) allows divalent cations, namely strontium (Sr2+) and calcium (Ca2+) with high permeability, into cells, and its expression pattern seems to predict an essential role in the initiation of development. Another channel that was identified to be expressed in …

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Hotel Industry Performance In 2016–2017 And The Jhfm Index, Atul Sheel Dec 2017

Hotel Industry Performance In 2016–2017 And The Jhfm Index, Atul Sheel

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

No abstract provided.

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Abstracts Of Presentations At The 2016 Annual Iahfme Research Symposium Dec 2017

Abstracts Of Presentations At The 2016 Annual Iahfme Research Symposium

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

No abstract provided.

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Iahfme Academic Member 2016 Total Annual Earnings, Raymond S. Schmidgall Dec 2017

Iahfme Academic Member 2016 Total Annual Earnings, Raymond S. Schmidgall

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

This study was conducted to determine the 2016 annual earnings of hospitality financial management educators. Forty-three percent of IAHFME’s members affiliated with educational institutions responded. Annual base salaries ranged from $77,000 to $272,000. The lowest paid member is an assistant professor while the highest paid member is a full professor. Many respondents supplement their base salaries by both teaching during summer school and consulting. The total annual earnings of members ranged from $77,000 to $391,000. Hospitality financial management educators appear to be more highly compensated than the average college professor and hospitality financial executives.

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Ceo Attributes And Firm Performance In The Hospitality Industry, Yuan Li, Manisha Singal Dec 2017

Ceo Attributes And Firm Performance In The Hospitality Industry, Yuan Li, Manisha Singal

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

Drawing on upper echelons theory, we explore demographic and other attributes of CEOs in the hospitality industry and their impact on firm performance. Our results, based on a sample of 1,427 CEO firm-years of publicly traded companies over a period of 24 years, show that a typical CEO in the hospitality industry is male, in his mid-50s, with no graduate degree and no prior CEO experience, but has worked in operations and has an average tenure of approximately 9 years. Our analyses show that while there is some relationship between CEO attributes and firm performance, the sign and significance of …

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Is The Hospitality Industry Ready For The New Lease Accounting Standards?, Hyun Kyung Chatfield, Robert E. Chatfield, Percy Poon Dec 2017

Is The Hospitality Industry Ready For The New Lease Accounting Standards?, Hyun Kyung Chatfield, Robert E. Chatfield, Percy Poon

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

The days where companies can use off-balance sheet leases are coming to an end. The new lease accounting standards, ASU 842 and IFRS 16, released in early 2016, will be effective, respectively, on December 15, 2018, and January 1, 2019. Under the new standards, virtually all leases will be recognized on a lessee’s balance sheet. Hence, financial statements and ratios of companies that heavily use off-balance sheet leases will be considerably impacted. Our analysis of the off-balance sheet leases by the hospitality industry indicates that hospitality companies do extensively use these operating leases, which amounted to 51% of their assets …

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Factors Impacting Capital Expenditures In The Quick Service Restaurant Industry, Lan Jiang, Michael Dalbor Dec 2017

Factors Impacting Capital Expenditures In The Quick Service Restaurant Industry, Lan Jiang, Michael Dalbor

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

The purpose of this article is to study the factors that impact capital expenditures in the quickservice restaurant industry. The authors hypothesize that growth opportunities, free cash flow, size, corporate earnings, economic conditions, and franchising status will have impact on the capital expenditures of quick-service restaurants. This study analyzed capital expenditure and other financial data on quick service restaurants for the period 2006–2016. Results suggest that corporate earnings, size, cash flow, economic conditions, and franchising have a significant relationship with capital expenditures, while growth opportunities are not associated with capital expenditures. Specifically, a high degree of corporate earnings, large size, …

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Cash Budgets, Controls, And Management In Clubs, Agnes L. Defranco, Raymond S. Schmidgall Dec 2017

Cash Budgets, Controls, And Management In Clubs, Agnes L. Defranco, Raymond S. Schmidgall

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

Cash is important, because it pays for all expenses and obligations. On an annual basis, designated individuals will compile a cash budget for the coming year, which club management will use as a blueprint to operate their clubs and ascertain the timing of the cash inflows and outflows. This study, therefore, explored the extent to which cash budgeting is used in clubs, the various cash budget practices, and whether such practices differ by the demographic characteristics of the clubs. The results showed that cash management in clubs rested largely in the hands of the chief financial officers and the general …

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Revisiting The Gender Wage Gap In Korea: Focusing On Working Hours By Occupation, Nayeon Lim, Minsik Choi Dec 2017

Revisiting The Gender Wage Gap In Korea: Focusing On Working Hours By Occupation, Nayeon Lim, Minsik Choi

PERI Working Papers

This paper explores the relationship between working hours and the residual gender wage gap in Korea. Because the labor practice of working long hours in Korea favors men, who tend to spend little time on domestic labor, long working hours can influence the residual gender wage gap by discriminating against women. We analyze this discrimination empirically using data from the wage structure parts of the Survey on Labor Conditions by Employment Types from 2009 to 2016, and find the following results. First, the returns from working long hours are not high in most occupations in Korea. Thus, long working hours …

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Does Greater Public Ownership In The Financial System Promote Superior Performance?: A Survey Of The Literature, Devika Dutt Dec 2017

Does Greater Public Ownership In The Financial System Promote Superior Performance?: A Survey Of The Literature, Devika Dutt

PERI Working Papers

This paper examines whether greater prevalence of government-owned banks leads to qualitatively different outcomes. By reviewing the extensive literature on government owned banks, the paper determines whether greater government participation in the financial system leads to greater financial stability, and greater provision of finance for welfare generating activities. The evidence in literature suggests that the effects of government participation in the financial system are complex and context-dependent. This paper finds that while government banks not only provide finance that privately owned banks fail to provide and finance long-term projects that contribute to the capital development of an economy, they are …

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Dissecting Molecular Pathways That Ensure Proper Chromosome Segregation And Cell Division, Anna Ye Nov 2017

Dissecting Molecular Pathways That Ensure Proper Chromosome Segregation And Cell Division, Anna Ye

Doctoral Dissertations

Equal segregation of the genome is a prerequisite for cell survival. During cell division the duplicated DNA is compacted into chromosomes and a multi-protein macrostructure, known as the kinetochore (Kt), is assembled on each copy of compacted DNA. Simultaneously, the mitotic spindle, which is made up of microtubules (MTs), is built to facilitate the equal distribution of the chromosomes between the resulting daughter cells. Kinetochores mediate the interaction between the MTs and the chromosomes, properly positioning them for segregation. To ensure that the DNA is equally divided in every cell division, cells have built a surveillance system to detect any …

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Golfer Exposure To Pesticides, Jeffery Doherty Nov 2017

Golfer Exposure To Pesticides, Jeffery Doherty

Doctoral Dissertations

There is concern among industry regulators, turfgrass managers, and the general public over human exposure to pesticides following their application to turfgrass. The residential aspect of turfgrass applications raises concerns about exposure to infants and children, as well as adults. To accurately determine the exposure of golfers to turfgrass pesticides, it is necessary to understand their transfer and absorption dynamics, as well as the routes of golfer exposure. Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to some turfgrass pesticides is at a level that would concern USEPA risk assessors using the USEPA Hazard Quotient (HQ) criteria (1). This current research used …

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The Rheology And Roll-To-Roll Processing Of Shear-Thickening Particle Dispersions, Sunilkumar Khandavalli Nov 2017

The Rheology And Roll-To-Roll Processing Of Shear-Thickening Particle Dispersions, Sunilkumar Khandavalli

Doctoral Dissertations

Particle dispersions are ubiquitous in our daily lives ranging from food and pharmaceutical products to inks. There has been great interest in the recent years in formulation of functional inks to fabricate myriad flexible electronic devices through high-throughput roll-to-roll technologies. The formulations often contain several functional additives or rheological modifiers that can affect the microstructure, rheology and processing. Understanding the rheology of formulations is important for tuning the formulation for optimal processing. This thesis presents investigations on the rheology of particle dispersions and their impact on roll-to-roll technologies. Shear-thickening behavior is common in particle dispersions, particularly, concentrated particulate inks. We …

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Aliovalent Dopants In Zno Nanocrystals: Synthesis To Electronic Structure, Dongming Zhou Nov 2017

Aliovalent Dopants In Zno Nanocrystals: Synthesis To Electronic Structure, Dongming Zhou

Doctoral Dissertations

Semiconductor nanocrystal doping has stimulated broad interest for many applications including solar energy conversion, nanospintronics, and phosphors or optical labels. The study of the chemistry and physics of doped colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals has been dominated in the literature by isovalent dopants such as Mn2+ and Co2+ ions in II-VI semiconductors, in which the dopant oxidation state is the same as the cation ions. Until recently, aliovalent dopants has received much attention due to the plasmonic properties. Aliovalent is when the oxidation states of the dopant in the lattice differs from the cation ions. In the plasmonic semiconductor nanocrystals, …

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Characterization Of Highly Heterogeneous Heparin-Protein Complexes Using Novel Mass Spectrometry-Based Approaches, Yunlong Zhao Nov 2017

Characterization Of Highly Heterogeneous Heparin-Protein Complexes Using Novel Mass Spectrometry-Based Approaches, Yunlong Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

Heparin-like glycosaminoglycan (GAG) is a family of polysaccharide involved in variety of physiological processes. They have potentials to interact with a broad range of proteins and many of them hold crucial values in regulation of protein functions. My dissertation addresses the significance and challenges in the field of heparin-mediated studies, with a focus on the questions in biological and analytical aspects, which are largely hindered by the structural heterogeneity and function diversity of heparin. My dissertation reports the efforts I made in the past few years with respect to the development of novel analytical strategies based on a combination of …

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Formal Analysis Of Arithmetic Circuits Using Computer Algebra - Verification, Abstraction And Reverse Engineering, Cunxi Yu Nov 2017

Formal Analysis Of Arithmetic Circuits Using Computer Algebra - Verification, Abstraction And Reverse Engineering, Cunxi Yu

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite a considerable progress in verification and abstraction of random and control logic, advances in formal verification of arithmetic designs have been lagging. This can be attributed mostly to the difficulty in an efficient modeling of arithmetic circuits and datapaths without resorting to computationally expensive Boolean methods, such as Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) and Boolean Satisfiability (SAT), that require “bit blasting”, i.e., flattening the design to a bit-level netlist. Approaches that rely on computer algebra and Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) methods are either too abstract to handle the bit-level nature of arithmetic designs or require solving computationally expensive decision or …

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Nanoparticle As Supramolecular Platform For Delivery And Bioorthogonal Catalysis, Gulen Yesilbag Tonga Nov 2017

Nanoparticle As Supramolecular Platform For Delivery And Bioorthogonal Catalysis, Gulen Yesilbag Tonga

Doctoral Dissertations

Nanoparticles (NPs) are being investigated widely for many applications including imaging, drug delivery, therapeutics, materials, and catalysis due to their unique and tunable physical and chemical properties. Among NPs, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have attracted great attention due to ease of synthesis and surface functionalization, inertness of the core, biocompatibility, and functional versatility. Introducing supramolecular chemistry into the nanoparticle-based platforms brings out controllable properties, dynamic self assembly processes, and adjustable performance. My research has focused on the synthesis of AuNPs bearing different surface functionalities and their host-guest interactions with synthetic small molecules or commercially available hydrophobic catalysts for delivery and therapeutic …

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Assembly Of Particles Onto Rigid Cylinders And Flexible Membranes: Probing Effects Of Surface Curvature And Deformation, Derek Wood Nov 2017

Assembly Of Particles Onto Rigid Cylinders And Flexible Membranes: Probing Effects Of Surface Curvature And Deformation, Derek Wood

Doctoral Dissertations

In this thesis we explore two specific topics within the broad field of particle adhesion. First, we examine the effect of substrate shape and geometry on the self assembly of adsorbed particles, by performing molecular dynamics simulations of interacting particles constrained to the surface of cylinders of varying diameters. We find the diameter of the cylinder imposes a constraint on the shape and crystallographic orientation of the self-assembled lattice, essentially determining the optimal arrangement of particles a priori. We propose a simple one-dimensional model to explain the optimal arrangement of particles as a function of the particle interaction potential …

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Mediators And Moderators Of Childhood Family Adversity And Adult Cortisol Response: The Role Of Marital Conflict Behavior, Jeffrey P. Winer Nov 2017

Mediators And Moderators Of Childhood Family Adversity And Adult Cortisol Response: The Role Of Marital Conflict Behavior, Jeffrey P. Winer

Doctoral Dissertations

Childhood family adversity influences behavioral and physiological response processes to acute interpersonal stress. Additionally, conflict behaviors in marriage are primary determinants of stress response and related psychological problems in adulthood. As little research has examined these two important literatures simultaneously, further work is warranted to clarify the role of marital conflict behavior in the relation between childhood family adversity and adult cortisol response to conflict. The current study examined relations between childhood family adversity, observed marital conflict behaviors, and salivary cortisol in response to acute marital conflict among 228 different-sex newlywed couples. We examined intrapersonal “actor” effects as candidate mediators …

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Collective Action As Relationship In Late Modernity: Animal Advocacy In A Repressive Political Climate, Catherine M. Wilson Nov 2017

Collective Action As Relationship In Late Modernity: Animal Advocacy In A Repressive Political Climate, Catherine M. Wilson

Doctoral Dissertations

Since the mid 1990s, in the United States, social regulation and activity with regard to animal care and the nature of acceptable human-animal relationships has changed remarkably rapidly, even as animal rights activism has become less prominent. Utilizing extensive ethnographic, artifactual, and interview data, this dissertation interrogates some of the relational processes that have contributed to these changes. After first sketching a brief history of animal advocacy discourses in the U.S., In Chapter Four, I document a shift from disruptive to productive strategies in animal advocacy. I argue that two important contributing factors to this shift were anti-terrorism legislation that …

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A Categorical Formulation Of Algebraic Geometry, Bradley Willocks Nov 2017

A Categorical Formulation Of Algebraic Geometry, Bradley Willocks

Doctoral Dissertations

We construct a category, $\Omega$, of which the objects are pointed categories and the arrows are pointed correspondences. The notion of a ``spec datum" is introduced, as a certain relation between categories, of which one has been given a Grothendieck topology. A ``geometry" is interpreted as a sub-category of $\Omega$, and a formalism is given by which such a subcategory is to be associated to a spec datum, reflecting the standard construction of the category of schemes from the category of rings by affine charts.

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Understanding Food Literacy And Its Use In A Technology-Driven Nutrition Education Program For Adolescents., Catherine A. Wickham Nov 2017

Understanding Food Literacy And Its Use In A Technology-Driven Nutrition Education Program For Adolescents., Catherine A. Wickham

Doctoral Dissertations

One in three adolescents in the U.S. is overweight or obese. The dietary habits of this population are concerning as few meet current dietary recommendations for consuming fruits and vegetables. Equally troubling among this group is the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and the lack of physical activity. Studies that investigate the link between nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors have shown mixed results and new methods to investigate this relationship are needed. Food literacy is a new term that has risen out of the health and nutrition literacy fields. Food literacy seeks to examine the complex relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and …

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Group Process, Communication, And Relating As A Core Phenomenon In An Older Adult Support And Learning Group On Aging And Health, Lisa Rose White Nov 2017

Group Process, Communication, And Relating As A Core Phenomenon In An Older Adult Support And Learning Group On Aging And Health, Lisa Rose White

Doctoral Dissertations

Supporting older adult clients to improve self-management of health is a focus of care for community-based nurses working with this population. The available literature on small group work indicates participation in a variety of group types has been shown to be beneficial for older adults. However, there is little research specifically on group work with adults over the age of 75 when individuals are at greater risk for actively facing illness and multiple personal losses and may need enhanced social supports to assist achievement of the psychosocial tasks of old age. This research examined a support and learning group on …

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The Role Of Chain Configuration In Governing The Rational Design Of Polymers For Adhesion, Onyenkachi Wamuo Nov 2017

The Role Of Chain Configuration In Governing The Rational Design Of Polymers For Adhesion, Onyenkachi Wamuo

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT THE ROLE OF CHAIN CONFIGURATION IN GOVERNING THE RATIONAL DESIGN OF POLYMERS FOR ADHESION SEPTEMBER 2017 ONYENKACHI C. WAMUO, B.Eng., FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, OWERRI (FUTO), NIGERIA M.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Shaw Ling Hsu The chain configurational control of polymers used in adhesion can be utilized as a means of tuning the cohesive properties of hot melt adhesives (HMAs). The cohesive properties control the solidification, strength, setting speed. Propylene-Ethylene copolymers (PP-co-PE) and thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) were studied. In the first project, the effects of sequence distribution of the two types …

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The Concept Of Intrinsic Goodness: Essays In Moorean Moral Philosophy, Miles Tucker Nov 2017

The Concept Of Intrinsic Goodness: Essays In Moorean Moral Philosophy, Miles Tucker

Doctoral Dissertations

I defend and explicate a Moorean program in value theory. I claim that intrinsic goodness is the fundamental concept of axiology, and argue that the notion should be understood as G.E. Moore suggested in the Principia Ethica. In the first three chapters, I address popular challenges to the Moorean project, including objections raised by Judith Jarvis Thomson, Shelly Kagan, and Christine Korsgaard. After, I turn to explication: I attend to the connection between goodness and other normative notions, and present what I take to be the most attractive version of the Moorean view. Finally, I address a perennial puzzle …

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Influence Of Work Environment Conditions On The Ability Of Critical Care Nurses To Provide Efficacious Nursing Care In Puerto Rico, Yolanda M. Torres Nov 2017

Influence Of Work Environment Conditions On The Ability Of Critical Care Nurses To Provide Efficacious Nursing Care In Puerto Rico, Yolanda M. Torres

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the conditions in the work environment that may contribute to caring efficacy of critical care nurses in Puerto Rico. The study measured nurses’ perceptions of the empowering structures in the work environment, and the relationship to their perceived caring efficacy and explored the correlation between sociodemographic factors of age, education, and experience of work empowerment and/or caring efficacy. The Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire and Caring Efficacy Scale were used to assess the association between the nurses’ work environment conditions and caring efficacy. The instruments were translated to Spanish and adapted to …

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Fantasy Frontier: Old West Theme Parks And Memory In California, Amanda Tewes Nov 2017

Fantasy Frontier: Old West Theme Parks And Memory In California, Amanda Tewes

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines sites of Old West tourism—specifically the three California theme parks of Knott’s Berry Farm, Calico Ghost Town, and Frontier Village—as avenues through which the myth of “the West” gets propagated, even among the people of the American West, and even if these sites do not reflect the actual history of the region. California’s Old West theme parks act as windows into mid-twentieth-century cultural conflicts of politics and identity within the state. But these sites are artifacts of a particular historical moment and their fantasy of the Old West memorializes mid-century renderings of the past rather than nineteenth-century …

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Imidacloprid, A Neonicotinoid Insecticide, Impairs Lipid And Glucose Metabolism, Quancai Sun Nov 2017

Imidacloprid, A Neonicotinoid Insecticide, Impairs Lipid And Glucose Metabolism, Quancai Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

Emerging evidence suggests that environmental pollutants, including insecticides, are linked to excessive weight gain and altered glucose homeostasis. However, there is currently limited knowledge regarding the biochemical mechanisms by which exposure to insecticides contribute to obesity and its associated pathologies. We first studied the influence of fipronil (a phenylpyrazole family insecticide) on 3T3-L1 adipogenesis. Recently imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, was reported to potentiate adipogenesis and insulin resistance in vitro. The current studies also determined the effects of imidacloprid exposure and its interaction with dietary fat in the development of adiposity and insulin resistance using both male and female C57BL/6J …

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Materializing Transfer: Writing Dispositions In A Culture Of Standardized Testing, Lisha Daniels Storey Nov 2017

Materializing Transfer: Writing Dispositions In A Culture Of Standardized Testing, Lisha Daniels Storey

Doctoral Dissertations

This research begins with questions about transition and transfer—about the dimensions of writing happening across and in between contexts. As a writing teacher and writing center worker, I endeavor to help students make their own writing experiences, values, and attitudes a site of inquiry as they move in and out of different educational spaces. Motivated by these interests, and informed by materialist perspectives that situate writing education in material conditions and relations, I conducted an interview study of thirteen college writers to explore their values, attitudes, and beliefs about writing within a culture of standardized testing. In doing so, I …

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Looking Beyond The Rubble Toward Louverturean Statecraft: The Post-Occupation State And The Historical Fault Line Of Responsive Government In Haiti (1791-2016), Moise St Louis Nov 2017

Looking Beyond The Rubble Toward Louverturean Statecraft: The Post-Occupation State And The Historical Fault Line Of Responsive Government In Haiti (1791-2016), Moise St Louis

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation posits that the fragility of the Haitian state emerges from a key disjuncture from the state crafted by Northern Louverturean elites during and after the struggle for independence. Louverturean elites crafted a strong state that incorporated and regulated all national cleavages and interests as the basis for legitimacy and stability. This state secured their interests while regulating their capacity to circumvent the interests of other cleavages. Most importantly, it secured the rights of former slaves on whose exploitation other cleavages depended. The destruction of the Louverturean state by neocolonial elites and imposition of a neocolonial national state estranged …

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