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Zeolite Facies And Environmental Change In The Plio-Pleistocene Baringo Basin, Kenya Rift, Karim Minkara

Geosciences Theses

Sediments exposed in the Tugen Hills in the Central Rift of Kenya include an important hominin-bearing succession of volcaniclastic and fluvio-lacustrine deposits. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) retrieved a ~230 m core through a portion of the Chemeron Formation, containing a highly resolved succession of strata spanning events leading to the Plio-Pleistocene boundary (3.4-2.6 Ma). Trends in the character and abundance of zeolites indicate changes in paleoenvironmental conditions with varying stability identified through distinct facies assemblages. These seem to reflect high amplitude changes accompanying peak earth-orbital eccentricity at ~2.7 Ma, and relative stability at low eccentricity at …

Creating Cultural Connections: A Renaissance In Midtown Between 1900 And 1983, Susan Tindall

History Dissertations

This dissertation documents a time between 1960 and 1983 in Midtown when a complex set of social, political, and cultural forces merged to challenge the dominance of elite groups of businessmen and arts patrons who had dominated growth and development there since the early 1920s. I argue that interaction among these disparate groups affected the character of Midtown, making the community a more vibrant, inclusive, and interesting place to live and do business. After experiencing softer and less militant approaches to resistance, members of the Atlanta Arts Alliance adopted fresh approaches to the meaning of “Art,” and ways that creativity …

Gene Regulation Pathways Affect Toxin Gene Expression, Sporulation And Pigment Generation In Bacillus Anthracis And Bacillus Cereus, Hesong Han

Biology Dissertations

B. anthracis alters its virulence gene expression profile in response to a number of environmental signals, including levels of bicarbonate and CO2. Virulence plasmid pXO1 is important to Bacillus anthracis pathogenicity as it carries the genes encoding the anthrax toxin and virulence regulatory factors. Induction of toxin and other virulence genes requires the pXO1-encoded AtxA regulatory protein. The cytochrome c maturation system influences the expression of virulence factors in Bacillus anthracis. B. anthracis carries two copies of the ccdA gene, encoding predicted thiol-disulfide oxidoreductases that contribute to cytochrome c maturation. Loss of both ccdA genes results in a reduction …

The Role Of The "Subject's Power" In Kant's Account Of Desire, Leonard Feldblyum

Philosophy Theses

Understanding Kant’s account of desire is vital to the project of evaluating his views about moral psychology, as well as his account of freedom qua autonomy. In Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, Kant claims that “Desire (appetitio) is the self-determination of a subject's power through the representation of something in the future as an effect of this representation” (7:251). My goal is to clarify which of the subject’s specific capacities Kant means by the “subject's power,” and what role this capacity plays in desire. I argue that the subject's power cannot be her capacity to act. Rather, the …

"Big Black Beasts": Race And Masculinity In Gay Pornography, Desmond Goss

Sociology Dissertations

Although there is a good foundation of feminist research at the intersection of performative labor, pornography, and sexuality, there are few (if any) published studies that examine race in porn content intended for gay men’s consumption. What’s more, existing research samples solely from corporatized porn, which is expressly produced, scripted, and directed. Bound by the conventions of the market, however, corporate pornography must abide by a consumer demand that reflects white machinations of black sexuality rather than the self-proclaimed sexual identity of African American men. Instead, I employ an exploratory content analysis of pornographic videos categorized as “ebony” on a …

A Cost Effectiveness Analysis Of Breastfeeding Promotion Within Georgia's Wic Program, Erica Wherry

Public Health Theses

INTRODUCTION: It is well established that breastfeeding is optimal for infants for the first six months of life. Breastfeeding is a public health concern as current prevalence and initiation rates within the state of Georgia do not reflect public health target rates.

AIM: To examine the cost and health savings of infants who are exclusively breastfed versus the expenditures and health detriment for exclusively formula fed infants in Georgia.

METHODS: A cost effectiveness analysis was conducted on breastfeeding rates for infants in the Georgia’s WIC using data from the USDA.

RESULTS: Breastfeeding programming in GA is costlier than formula use …

Effects Of Exposure To E-Cigarette Advertising On Adolescents: A Systematic Review, Paayal Patel

Public Health Capstone Projects

INTRODUCTION: With the use of e-cigarettes among adolescents rising dramatically in the past few years (Surgeon General, 2016), e-cigarettes have become “a major public health concern” (Surgeon General, 2016). E-cigarettes are now more frequently used among youth than conventional cigarettes (Surgeon General, 2016), with approximately 4 of every 100 middle school students (4.3%) and 11 of every 100 high school students (11.3%) reported past 30-day use in 2016 —a substantial increase from 2011 (CDC, 2017). Although CDC recently reported that for the first-time e-cigarette use rates declined in 2016 (CDC, 2016), more than 2 million U.S. middle and high school …

Understanding Cyber Violence In Intimate Partner Relationships: A Qualitative Study, Fiana O. Thacker

Public Health Theses

INTRODUCTION: Traditional forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) such as physical and psychological violence have been linked to various negative health consequences such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and chronic diseases. Among women, IPV has resulted in significant financial losses in the United States. However, an area of IPV that has not seen much attention in the public health field is cyber violence among intimate partners. The growing prominence of mobile devices, social media, and other communication technology, has opened up new avenues for the perpetration of IPV. No longer are perpetrators’ physical presence necessary. Cyber violence can …

Maternal Preconception Health And Neighborhood Factors In Relation To Preterm Birth In Georgia, 2012-2014, Michelle Sarah Livings

Public Health Theses

BACKGROUND: Relationships between maternal preconception health and preterm birth have been demonstrated in the literature, as have relationships between neighborhood factors and maternal preconception health. Determining how maternal preconception health and neighborhood factors simultaneously contribute to preterm birth will help researchers and clinicians better understand the complex risk factors of preterm birth.

METHODS: Data were collected during 2012-2014 in the Georgia Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. Data were geocoded to American Community Survey 2011-2015 5-year estimates (n=3085). Descriptive statistics were calculated. Effects of maternal preconception health and neighborhood factors on preterm birth were analyzed using hierarchical generalized linear …

Essays On The Economics Of Risky Health Behaviors, Qihua Qiu

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays studying the economics of risky health behaviors. Essay 1 estimates the effects of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) restrictions on weight status among adolescents aged 14 to 17 in the U.S. The findings suggest that a night curfew significantly raises adolescents’ probability of being “overweight or obese” by 1.32 percentage points, corresponding to an increase in “overweight or obesity” rate of 4.8%. A night curfew combined with a passenger restriction increases this rate by 5.8%. Overall, I estimate that nearly 16% of the rise in “overweight or obesity” rate among teenagers aged 14 to 17 …

Multivariate Examination Of Risk Factors Associated With Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection In The United States Using National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey From 2003 To 2014, Vaishnavi Pattabiraman

Public Health Theses

Introduction:

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infection is the most common blood-borne infection in the world with a global prevalence of ~3%. It also represents an underestimated and under-recognized viral infection because it is asymptomatic during the initial period of infection, which tends to span several decades. However, after establishing itself as a chronic state, HCV infection often leads to severe debilitating liver conditions such as cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma to name a few resulting in poor quality of life, increased healthcare costs and mortality. Several earlier studies have examined risk factors associated with HCV. However, a comprehensive study that has simultaneously …

Immigration, Regional Resilience, And Local Economic Development Policy, Xi Huang

Public Management and Policy Dissertations

The rapid growth of immigrants across a wide range of U.S. metropolitan areas has brought increasing attention to immigration and its impacts on regional development. Recent economic recessions have also stimulated a renewed interest in sustainable development among urban planners and scholars. This dissertation examines the role of immigrants in regional economic resilience and the effects of the rising wave of local immigrant integration policies.

Drawing on data from various sources, including the U.S. Decennial Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Building Resilient Regions (BRR) database, this dissertation explores three independent but interconnected …

Exploring The Correlates Of The Financial Health Of Arts Nonprofit Organizations, Jung-In Soh

Public Management and Policy Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on how different resource streams that are extracted from a nonprofit’s environment can impact their financial health. More specifically, I explore the main research question: what are the correlates of arts nonprofits’ financial health? I conduct statistical analyses of original survey data, financial information, and socio-economic data from 2008 to 2013 to test the hypotheses that aligning benefits provided with appropriate revenue sources, supportive socio-economic environments, and collaboration are positively related to financial health, calculated as six measures of long, short, and current-term financial health. Findings indicate that arts nonprofits that matched their benefits with corresponding revenue …

How Large Changes In The Functioning Economy Effect Crime Rates In America: A National Examination Of The Less Cash – Less Crime Paradigm, Donald Hunt

Criminal Justice and Criminology Dissertations

The amount of cash in circulation appears to be decreasing the world over. With advances in payments technology, society is trending toward cashlessness. While the benefits are numerous, one particular advantage is its reducing effect on crime. Scholars on a global level continue to show that cash and crime are linked. Decreasing cash decreases crime and the reverse. However, this concept went untested in the US until recently. Taking advantage of legislation mandating that states replace welfare benefits checks with reloadable debit cards, Wright et al. explored the idea that this change reduced the amount of circulating cash and, subsequently, …

Inmate Misconduct And Victimization: Investigating The Changes Over Time And If The Risk Factors Are Invariant Across Age And Victim-Offender Status, Jane Daquin

Criminal Justice and Criminology Dissertations

Before the 1970, there were approximately 196,000 offenders housed in prisons (Cahalan & Parsons, 1986). Today, more than one million offenders are housed in prison (Carson & Anderson, 2016). The increase in the size of the prison population has been, in part, attributed to the shift towards determinate sentencing. The prison boom fueled research that aimed at how inmates adapt to the depriving nature of prisons. Despite the vast amount of research on misconduct and victimization, there are still some gaps in the literature. Few researchers have examined how these policy shifts may have affected inmate adaptation and behavior while …

Content Is President: The Influence Of Netflix On Taste, Politics And The Future Of Television, Alanna Esack

Communication Theses

The evolving television industry relies heavily on the corresponding shift in the audiences that it addresses. New practice for consumption and production, particularly the “disruptive” force of streaming services like Netflix, have been evidenced not only in the methods of the companies themselves but also in the content they have begun to offer. A milestone in the television industry, Netflix’s first original series House of Cards provides an innovative and meaningful installment to the genre of political melodrama, which has its own cultural significance and heritage of mapping audience relations to the media. Analyzing the text, this paper reveals how …

Integrating Online-Offline Interactions To Explain Societal Challenges, Christine Abdalla Mikhaeil

Computer Information Systems Dissertations

Despite the wide literature on the consequences of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) use, the literature still lacks understanding about the societal consequences, positive or negative, intended or unintended. ICTs can yield the good and the bad. Consequences of technology usages on society are paradoxical. The paradoxical outcomes can be ta threat to the sustainability of society. Because interactions spread beyond the online space and its outcomes are paradoxical, societal challenges are complex problems. But not only complex problem, rather social complex problem. To harvest society, we need a better understanding of social complex problems. To do so, we adopted …

Investigating Time-Varying Effects Of Stakeholder Relations On Firm Performance Through Brand Equity, Insu Park

Marketing Dissertations

From the resource-based view of the firm, good stakeholder relations provide sustainable competitive advantages. To manage their scarce resources effectively, firms should understand how (1) multiple stakeholder relations influence firm performance separately and jointly through brand equity over time and (2) stakeholder relations interact with firms’ strategic emphasis – a relative emphasis by which firms decide to allocate their resources toward value creation or appropriation. Using a sample of 165 North American firms during 2009-2015, the authors apply a hierarchical linear model (HLM) approach to measure the time-varying effects of multiple stakeholder relationships on firm performance. Following the classification of …

Reducing Pregnancy Risk By Motivation Overweigth And Obese Women To Make Preconception Changes To Diet And Physical Activity Behavior: A Pilot Study, Josie Doss

Nursing Dissertations (PhD)

Overweight and obese women who lose weight prior to pregnancy have fewer pregnancy complications than those who do not (Forsum, Brantsaeter, Olafsdottir, Olsen, & Thorsdottir, 2013; Schummers, Hutcheon, Bodnar, Lieverman, & Himes, 2015). Research findings suggest there are missed opportunities to provide diet and physical activity counseling during preventive care visits. Providers cite a lack of time and resources as barriers (Morgan et al., 2006; Yamamoto et al., 2014).

This was a two-group, randomized, pilot-study of 19 overweight or obese women in Central Georgia. Participants completed surveys related to their perception of risk for obesity-related pregnancy complications, readiness to change …

The Tyranny Of Custom: Discovering Innovations In Forensic Rhetoric From Classical Athens To Anglo-Saxon England, Steven Sams

English Dissertations

Scholarship tells the story of the history of rhetoric whereby the study of rhetoric declines first in the “Silver Age of Rome,” then loses any bearings or progress during first the Patristic period of the formation of the early Christian Church in the third through fifth century CE, and undergoes a second decline during the Germanic invasions starting in the fifth century. My task is defining and recovering new sources for rhetoric to spark more creative and in-depth analysis of this period in the history of rhetoric.

Rather than simply move through a bibliographical list chronologically, I narrow in on …

Regulation Of Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae-Induced Inflammation In Upper Respiratory Tract, Ashley Bohn

Biology Dissertations

Otitis media (OM) and chronic lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are leading causes of antibiotic prescriptions across the globe and of serious economic concern regarding rising healthcare costs in the U.S. These conditions affect billions of people globally and cost billions in healthcare dollars annually as well. An in depth understanding of these disease processes will lead to more effective therapies and reduced healthcare costs overall. Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is a major pathogen associated with OM and COPD, which are both characterized by inflammation and mucous production at the site of infection. Mucous is part …

Adenovirus ?Hit-And-Run? Eviction From B-Cells Harboring Leukemic Runx1 Fusion Genes And Adp Controlled Latency In Lymphocytes, Hans T. Wilms

Biology Dissertations

The common species C adenoviruses infect more than 80% of the human population early in life. The virus can establish an asymptomatic persistent infection in mucosal-associated lymphocytes. Adenovirus has long been classified as DNA tumor virus, however it still has no established associations with any specific cancer. This phenomenon may be explained by the model of hit-and-run viral oncogenesis, which proposes that a virus can infect a cell population, causing oncogenic mutations (hit) that in turn inhibit the virus from persisting in the cancerous cell progeny (run). One type of cancer in particular, childhood precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, is …

Development & Expression Of A Novel Synthetic Flagellin Fusion Protein Containing A Shigella Toxoid Subunit As A Potential Vaccine Against Shigellosis & Stec, Carlos Vazquez

Biology Dissertations

Currently, there is no vaccine for Shigellosis. The Shiga-like toxoid 2, by itself, is poorly immunogenic. Flagellin based fusion proteins, serving as toll like receptor agonists, have shown both activation of innate immunity and an increase in adaptive immune responses from normally poorly immunogenic microenvironments. A synthetic flagellin based construct was designed to allow the insertion of detoxified antigen sequences, allowing multivalent expression and antigen presentation. Specifically, subunit B of shiga-like toxin 2, an Escherichia coli O157 verocytotoxin, was chosen for co-expression alongside the construct for antigen specific presentation. The fusion protein, FliC-Stx2B, contains the innate activating synthetic FliC construct …

Analysis Of Dna Interactions And Photocleavage By Phenyl Meso Substituted Cyanine Dyes In The Near-Infrared Range, Christina Fischer

Chemistry Theses

Cyanine dyes are attractive photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy due to their ease of structure modification and intense absorption in the near-infrared range. Photosensitizers that can bind to DNA and absorb at long enough wavelengths of light to deeply penetrate biological tissue are in high demand for treatment of cancer and other diseases. The following study analyzes the DNA interactions of three pentamethine cyanine dyes with very similar structures, all of which absorb light at wavelengths longer than 800 nm. The work described involves an extensive study of the photocleavage abilities and DNA binding characteristics of these dyes. Our lead compound …

Decoding The Sympathetic Nervous System's Regulation Of White Adipose Tissue Hyperplasia, Mary K. Schneider

Biology Dissertations

Adipose tissue (AT) expands via both hypertrophy and hyperplasia during the development of obesity. While AT hypertrophy involves the increase in size of existing adipocytes, hyperplasia is the process of creating new adipocytes from the pool of adipocyte precursor cells (APCs) which includes adipocyte progenitor cells and preadipocytes. Prior studies have implicated a role of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in regulation of hyperplasia in white adipose tissue (WAT). These studies were not specific to APCs, however, and lacked characterization of the signaling intermediaries. Here we aimed to determine the mechanisms underlying SNS regulation of APC proliferation in WAT. Using …

Residual Normality Assumption And The Estimation Of Multiple Membership Random Effects Models, Jieru Chen

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

Data collected in the human and biological sciences often have multilevel structures. While conventional hierarchical linear modeling is applicable to purely hierarchical data, multiple membership random effects modeling is appropriate for non-purely nested data wherein some lower-level units manifest mobility across higher-level units. Fitting a multiple membership random effects model (MMrem) to non-purely nested data may account for lower-level observation interdependencies and the contextual effects of higher-level units on the outcomes of lower-level units. One important assumption in multilevel modeling is normality of the residual distributions. Although a few recent studies have investigated the effect of cluster-level residual non-normality on …

Black Girl Magic? The Influence Of The Strong Black Woman Schema On The Mental Health Of Black Women In The United States, Stephanie Hall

Sociology Dissertations

The Strong Black Woman Schema (SBWS) refers to the collective believes, behaviors, resources and responses Black women are socialized to embody. The SBWS was developed as a positive counterimage to the negative stereotypes of Black women, such as the mammy or the jezebel, and is an important image among Black women. Observations suggest that the SBWS may affect how Black women experience and interpret stress and mental illness. I assert the SBWS may serve as one comprehensive explanation for the mental health outcomes observed for Black women. Qualitative and quantitative studies have identified a set of characteristics (i.e. strength, emotion …

Cunningly Sweated: Creation, Memory, And Time In Faulkner's Mosquitoes, Joseph C. Morecraft Iv

English Dissertations

This study focuses on the early fiction of William Faulkner, particularly Mosquitoes. Understood in critical context, this novel suffers from retrospective bias. That is, I believe that the brilliant work that immediately (and continually) succeeded this novel provided a critical comparison that made it impossible to ascribe the appropriate value that this second novel truly deserves. Mosquitoes was not only a necessary portal and stepping stone to his later/greater fiction, but it also stands on its own as a brilliant experiment allowing Faulkner to free himself from bonds of fragmented mimesis by submerging himself in his own social, literary, …

Faulkner's Stylistic Difficulty: A Formal Analysis Of Absalom, Absalom!, Eric Sandarg

English Dissertations

The complex prose of Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, marked by lengthy sentences and confusing punctuation, resonates on both a rhetorical and an aesthetic level that earlier critics failed to recognize.

Sorption Of 137cs Onto Weathered Micaceous Minerals From Georgia Kaolin Deposits, Dominique Salome Kwong-Moses

Chemistry Honors Theses

This study examined the propensity for a weathered muscovite-rich test material to sorb 137Cs in a dilute NaCl solution (1 mmol/L, pH 5) across a range of added stable Cs and Rb concentrations for 130 days at room temperature. This muscovite test material, slaked from processed kaolin ore, was composed of 76% muscovite, 21% kaolinite and 3% quartz. Sorption experiments in the absence of stable Cs and Rb yielded increasing Kd values (1.49 x 103 mL/g to 1.18 x 104 mL/g) over 130 days for 137Cs sorbed onto muscovite. Sorption experiments with stable Cs and Rb displayed linear decreases in …