American Studies Commons^™

Regulation Of Claudin-1 Expression Via Activation Of Ron Tyrosine Kinase And Transforming Growth Factor-Beta Signaling Pathways In Ovarian Carcinoma, Saya Karim

Honors Thesis and Capstone Projects

Epithelial ovarian carcinoma is the most common cause of death among gynecologic malignancies in the United States. In the U.S., more than 21,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and about 15,000 women will die of the disease this year alone. Although migration and invasion play key roles in tumor progression, the specific molecular events leading to dissemination of ovarian tumor cells have not been well delineated. Tight junctions are an integral component of epithelial junction complexes, which play a vital role in maintaining epithelial integrity and cell polarity. Disruption of tight junctions is a hallmark of epithelial cancer …

An Approach To Mitigating Excess Medical Waste, Ryan M. Kania, Jordan B. Markel

Honors Thesis and Capstone Projects

We present a literature-based review on global health disparities and a health economics perspective on utilizing low cost interventions to improve these disparities. We then introduce the need for a non-for profit organization that specializes in excess medical waste as a low cost intervention to empower targeted communities and improve global health disparities while decreasing the burden of medical waste. Medical waste is defined and a literature-based review is presented on the current body of knowledge concerning medical waste such as how much exists and why it exists. We then present a research study survey that will be executed to …

The Noble Savage And Ecological Indian: Cultural Dissonance And Representations Of Native Americans In Literature, Brooke D. Mcnaughton

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This thesis provides a unique approach to understanding the historical origins and contemporary social ramifications of the use of the concepts of the Noble Savage and the Ecological Indian within literature. I first examine the history of the Noble Savage concept in literature by examining relevant social movements, and then its eventual transition into its modern counterpart, the Ecological Indian. Authors who employ the use of these concepts typically portray Natives in a way which provides an idealized alternative for white cultural woes. Consequently, this idealization creates problems with modern Native identity. In the second half of this project I …

Women As Subject And Audience In World War Ii Venereal Disease Posters, Kyra Whitton

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Internationally, venereal disease first became a major health concern during World War I. Venereal diseases were some of the most common infections and led to more hospitalizations among soldiers than wounds or battle-related illness. The Selective Service discovered that almost fifteen percent of those who were eligible for the draft were already infected with a venereal disease, sparking an intense anti-venereal disease campaign across America. Red-light districts were shut down, and American cities sought new laws that would criminalize prostitution to protect young men from contracting a venereal infection.

Though venereal disease rates were still high during World War II, …

Must Pay Now, David C. Perkins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

These poems attempt to stand amidst the towering shadows of Enlightenment. One of these pillars involves the newfound land from a collective western European vantage and these lands are called the Americas. This space is where these poems are located. They suckle at the monolithic breasts of Enlightened Romance as did Romulus and Remus to the She-Wolf. The poems in their own originality engage with writers such as Jonathan Edwards, Alice Notley, Susan Howe, Frank O’Hara, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, Christina Rossetti, William Blake, and John Cage. If there ever was such a thread in tradition, these people might …

Composite Of Complexity: Manifestations Of Whiteness And Class Among Las Vegas Italian Americans, Danielle Nicole Axt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Conventional terminology and conventional boundaries, in regard to ethnicity, are no longer applicable to the ever shifting population of the United States. In specific, the various degrees of White ethnic identity does not easily transition into convenient all encompassing categories such as Caucasian or more simply, White. Whiteness studies have been at the forefront of this critique, most recently asserting that White ethnic identity is heavily influenced by context. However, although many studies are now recognizing the impact of multiple layers of White ethnic identity (along the lines of gender, locale, socioeconomic level etc.) many still neglect to identify a …

History And Transnational Identities In Junot Díaz’S The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Brian Joseph Flores

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of my thesis is to analyze Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and evaluate the role literature plays within the larger context of the relationship among the different countries and cultures in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the place historical events play within this understanding. In Díaz’s novel, there is an understanding of the presence of multiple cultural identities. This awareness of multiple cultural identities leads to the difficulty the characters encounter when trying understanding themselves as individuals. On a much larger scale, the characters also try to understand their cultural, social, and historical …

Your Presence Is Requested At Suvanto, Maile Chapman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This creative dissertation is a novel set in a fictional private hospital on the southwestern coast of Finland. The main character, Sunny Taylor, is an American nurse whose loneliness and isolation give the novel its distant emotional atmosphere and outsider’s perspective on life in Finland (a densely forested country long perceived as linguistically, culturally, and geographically remote from the rest of Europe). Other main characters include a reserved, chronically ill Finnish woman born before independence from Russia and educated as an architect; an unpleasant expatriate Danish woman who once gave ballroom dance lessons in Finnish cafés; an American obstetrician who …

The Crooked Median, Monica Zarazua

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Words search. There are specific points designated by written language, where one might stand for just a little while until the satisfaction of a pattern is revealed. In this collection of stories, one of the forces that serves as a catalyst for this search is the outside gaze. The gaze exerts itself onto characters. The characters may or may not be conscious of it, may or may not welcome it, but they must grapple with it. The gaze projects its needs and desires onto the characters. It seeks to control them, and it desires to be viewed with admiration, lowered …

Rothfuss, Erik, B. 1987 (Fa 488), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text (click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 488. Information collected by Erik Rothfuss related to folklore genres for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Loveall, Sandra Kaye, B. 1964 (Fa 486), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text (click on "Additional File" below) for Folklife Archives Project 486. Folklore material classified by genre. Information collected by Sandra Kaye Loveall related to folklore genres for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Phillips, Jennifer, B. 1988 (Fa 487), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text (click on "Additional File" below) for Folklife Archives Project 487. Folklore material classified by genre. Information collected by Jennifer Phillips related to folklore genres for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Vladimir Nabokov And The Vulgar Aesthetic, Will Farina

Honors Thesis and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Mccomas, Eric Donald, B. 1983 (Fa 484), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text (click on "Additional File" below) for Folklife Archives Project 484. Folkore material classified by genre. Information collected by Eric Donald McComas related to folklore genres for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

The Monster In The Closet: Misperception Of Mental Illness, Sarah Alexandra Bernstein

Honors Thesis and Capstone Projects

Mental illness affects all major aspects of an individual‟s life. From basic needs such as shelter and employment, to interactions with family, partners, and friends, the diagnosis represents likely difficulties due to stigma and negative attitudes. Efforts to bring forth the recognition and acceptance of mental illness in the United States, as well as around the world, start by confronting misconceptions through examination of causes. Increased access to needed resources and funding for treatment are also needed and may be accomplished through the use of media, education, and rising voices lobbying for the rights of people with mental illness.

Get M.A.D.D.: America's Battle To Overcome Drunk Driving, Elizabeth Martinez

Honors Thesis and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

The Economically Important Nitrogen Pathways Of Southwest Florida, Elon M. Malkin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The global phenomenon of burgeoning coastal population growth has led to coastal watershed landscape transformation and ecosystem degradation, prompting policy-makers to set limits on freshwater withdrawals and labile nutrient loads. Important components of Florida’s economies lie in the state’s expansive coastal zone; the organisms driving the billion-dollar recreational fishing industry are rooted in coastal habitats, while the agriculture and real-estate industries sprawl throughout numerous coastal watersheds. This study aimed to identify the connections between anthropogenic land use and essential juvenile fish nursery habitats within the coastal zone, which is the first critical step for sustaining the ecology and related economies …

Before The Storm: Evacuation Intention And Audience Segmentation, Homer J. Rice

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the predictors of evacuation intention among coastal residents in the State of Florida and to determine if there are meaningful segments of the population who intend to evacuate when told to do so by governmental officials because of a major hurricane. In the America’s and the Caribbean, 75,000 deaths have been attributed to hurricanes in the 20

th century. A well planned evacuation can reduce injury and death, yet many people do not have an evacuation plan and do not intend to evacuate when told to do so. The study used secondary …

Modern Variation In Predation Intensity: Constraints On Assessing Predator-Prey Relationships In Paleoecologic Reconstructions, James Funderburk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The complex interaction between predators and their prey is rarely preserved in the fossil record. However, predation of marine mollusks by drilling gastropods leaves a diagnostic hole in the shell of the prey, possibly allowing for quantitative analysis of this ecological interaction. Drilling frequency, as measured in marine mollusks both in the Modern and fossil record, has been heralded as a potential opportunity to quantify these ecological interactions and use these values in the testing of hypotheses.

This study employed the collection, tallying, and analysis of bulk samples derived from shelly deposits on 45 Modern beaches along the contiguous coast …

Comparative Study Of Intentional Communities, Jessica Merrick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Moving to Florida to retire has become commonplace among American elders, though we have seldom addressed how lesbians and gay men navigate sexual identity in retirement. I undertake ethnography of three suburban, retirement-aged residential communities in Florida in which lesbians and gay men make community in order to understand how identities are produced by and within communities, the significance of suburban gay communities in the post-gay community era, and how residents from each community engage dominant discourse. Sanctuary Cove

1 is a ―gay and lesbian‖ retirement community; Bayside Park is a ―women‘s-only‖ (lesbian) community; and Heritage Estates is a heteronormative …