Digital Commons Network^™

Millennial Libertarians: The Rebirth Of A Movement And The Transformation Of U.S. Political Culture, Kaja Tretjak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the contemporary resurgence of libertarianism in the U.S., exploring a rapidly expanding, transnational network of hundreds of thousands liberty movement participants connected through student groups, community organizations, and established institutions, as well as through social media and a vast array of online forums. Grounded in 32 months of ethnographic fieldwork and over 200 interviews, it documents the rise of a profound disenchantment, particularly among millennials, with state-based solutions to pressing contemporary problems and, more broadly, with the nation-state project itself. Drawing on first-hand accounts ranging from elite boardrooms and think tank conference rooms, to political demonstrations and …

Cited2-Mediated Mechanotransduction And Its Use For Chondroprotection, Daniel J. Leong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Novel prevention and therapeutic treatment for cartilage degradation is urgently called for, as cartilage degradation is a hallmark for arthritic diseases including osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and there is a high incidence of arthritis-related disability and high medical costs. While both underuse (e.g. physically inactive lifestyle) and overuse (e.g. high impact or intense repetitive joint use as seen in certain sports) are risk factors for cartilage degradation, recent studies highlight that dynamic moderate loading is associated with reduced incidence of developing OA. Exercise is prescribed in most cases at moderate levels for both OA and RA patients, and …

Changing Identities In A Changing Land: The Romanization Of The British Landscape, Thomas Ryan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis will examine the changes in the landscape of Britain resulting from the Roman invasion in 43 CE and their effect on the identities of the native Britons. Romanization, as the process is commonly called, and evidence of these altered identities as seen in material culture have been well studied. However, the manifestations of this process in the landscape have been less well examined. Applying current theories in landscape archaeology, the Selsey peninsula oppidum of the Atrebates and two hillforts of the Durotriges, sites that have been well excavated and examined, will be the focus of this thesis. The …

Secrets Of A Toy-Box: A Study Of Claude Debussy's La Boîte À Joujoux, Mirna Lekic

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The influence of Claude Debussy's inventive musical language can be traced through to the most modern classical repertoire. Yet of the composer's three ballets, which provided the counterweight to the Russian dominance of Parisian ballet culture in the early 1900s, only Jeux has received substantial scholarly attention. The following document is a monograph on La Boîte à joujoux (1913), Debussy's innovative ballet for children or marionettes. It offers an exploration of the work's broader significance and contextualizes it both within Debussy's oeuvre and in a broader historical realm. Included is a survey of the ballet's performance history, as well as …

Can All Religions Live In Peace?, Antony Das S. Devadhasan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Can All Religions Live In Peace?

Religion is identified as one of the main factors that divide humanity. Pluralists like, John Hick identify the conflicting truth claims or the doctrines of different religions as the basis for religious exclusivism. Hick accuses the exclusivists of being epistemically arrogant and morally oppressive. His remedy for eradicating exclusivism is that every religion with conflicting truth claims should reinterpret these claims so as to share an outlook with other religions. Alvin Plantinga, a critic of Hick, contradicts Hick on behalf of a believer or an exclusivist.He argues that for a believer his beliefs are …

Utopias Misplaced: The Cost Of Outsourcing Dystopian Poetics To North Korea, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

This is a slightly revised version of the text of a talk that I (Seo-Young Chu) gave as part of the Fall 2014 Franke Lectures in the Humanities at Yale University. I'm sharing the text here to make the lecture more accessible. Topics include: North Korea/the DPRK, the "uncanny body politic," the uncanny valley, "dystopian poetics," what it means to outsource dystopian poetics, the intersection of aesthetics and politics. Authors/artists mentioned include: Thomas Hobbes, Mary Shelley, David Mitchell, Marjane Satrapi, Song Byeok, Sun Mu, Masahiro Mori, Andy Warhol. The talk also discusses the James Bond film Die Another Day.

In What Senses Are Free Spirits Free?, Christa Davis Acampora

Publications and Research

My broadest claim in this article is, unsurprisingly, that there are multiple senses of freedom associated with the freedom of the free spirit. These include both positive and negative senses – that is, when describing how free spirits are free, Nietzsche sometimes characterizes this as freedom to do something, and sometimes as freedom from certain kinds of constraints. In this article, I do not aim to provide an exhaustive catalogue of the different senses invoked in Nietzsche’s ‘free spirit’ texts. Instead, I wish to highlight some particular senses, including some that are less frequently discussed in the scholarly literature and …

Age-Related Aspects Of Mirror-Use By Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Rachel A. Morrison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bottlenose dolphins are neuroanatomically different and evolutionarily divergent from primates yet they exhibit mirror self-recognition (MSR), a rare cognitive ability in non-human animals. This research investigated the developmental and age-related aspects of MSR in this species. During a longitudinal study, a social group of bottlenose dolphins at the National Aquarium, Baltimore, MD were exposed to a mirror and their behavioral responses were recorded to: 1) further confirm the presence of MSR in this species, 2) determine the age of emergence of MSR and 3) draw comparisons with data documenting the emergence of this ability in humans and great ape species. …

The Second Generation's Homeland Trips: A Parental Expectation For The U.S.-Born Children Of Mexican Immigrants In The South Bronx, Alexia Raynal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

New deportation policies in the United States are making it harder for undocumented immigrants to return home periodically (Dreby 2013a). This has a direct impact on their children. Because parents can't travel, thousands of foreign-born minors have recently been forced to travel alone in hopes of reunification. Their U.S.-born counterparts face a similar challenge: immigrants' lack of mobility places a new expectation on them to visit relatives that were left behind. Unlike their parents, these children can move freely across borders and maintain family ties. This project explores the second generation's homeland trips as experienced by a small group of …

Systematics And Evolution Of Leandra S.Str. (Melastomataceae, Miconieae), Marcelo Reginato

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Phylogenetic studies in the Melastomataceae have demonstrated the need of taxonomic rearrangements in the current classification. Melastomes are among the most diverse groups of plants and several cases of known artificial taxa are observed and awaiting further resolution. One example is the Leandra s.str. clade, which includes the majority of the taxa traditionally treated in the genus Leandra. Some attempts have been made to infer the relationships of Leandra s.str., but the sampling in these earlier studies was sparse and the resolution low inside the clade. The main objective here is to propose a comprehensive phylogenetic framework for this group …

Civilization Of The Living Dead: Canonical Monstrosity, The Romero Zombie, And The Political Subject, Nicholas Walter Robbins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the canonical monsters of Western political theory, including Plato's wolf-man, Hobbes's Leviathan and Tocqueville's mechanical mass. It argues that monster theorists - including horror film director George A. Romero, creator of the zombie and its apocalyptic narrative - utilize the horror genre in order to reveal the hidden dysfunctions and unrealized potentials of self and society. The canon features several prison-like heuristics - including Plato's cave, Hobbes's sate of nature, Tocqueville's prison, and Romero's zombie apocalypse - that bring to light the mass enslavement, intellectual dysfunction, appetitive tyranny, and cannibalism of the political subject. Theorists consistently depict …

Tv Audience Fragmentation: Measurement, Causes, And Economic Consequences, Jaroslaw Marek Schellner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Modern video distribution has increased the quantity and variety of programming available to viewers. Multichannel broadcasters using high-bandwidth distribution mechanisms such as satellite and cable television are able to deliver hundreds of channels to each home. Video on demand (VOD) allows users to select and watch video content at will. Digital video recorders (DVRs) have made it possible to watch any program at any time using an electronic program guide and recording shows onto a hard disk. Yet attention remains limited, as audience members are able to watch only a limited number of programs offered by different networks. As a …

Conflict And Playmaking: The Impact Of A Recess Enhancement Program On Elementary School Playgrounds In New York City, Elizabeth Lake

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As time demands for schooling increase and children's freedom to play is under threat, the question of how play during school recess can best be designed to serve children has grown in importance. This research examines whether a peer-training program can influence children's activity choices and social behaviors and reduce conflict on elementary school playgrounds during recess and what aspects of such a peer-training program are important to this goal. Three general recess issues are considered: conflict, activity level and choice, and gender inclusion. The data was collected as part of a Recess Enhancement Program in a select group of …

Moral Inscriptions: Politics And The Rhetoric Of Responsibility, Steven Pludwin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation advances two interrelated claims. First, I examine the concept of responsibility and show how it operates as a rhetorical form that mediates a large segment of political life. Framing responsibility as a distinctly political problem, I argue that it functions to produce, discipline and govern subjects as well as legislate forms of identity, difference and community. Second, I argue that the definitional space of responsibility is not sacred, but contested. It is within this contested space that political battles regarding how we ought to understand the world and what it means to live in common with others plays …

"My People Is A People On Its Knees": Mexican Labor Migration From The Montana Region And The Formation Of A Working Class In New York City, Rodolfo Hernandez-Corchado

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the contemporary proletarianization via migration of the indigenous and mestizo people from the Montaña region, in the Mexican southern state of Guerrero, to New York City. The dissertation demonstrates how the region was transformed since the 1980s into a migrant labor supplier and how its inhabitants became proletarians, and a major pool of labor supplying the North American transnational migrant labor market.

Far from being homogenous, the people of the Montaña region are ethnically and class diverse. Based on the oral narratives of an indigenous Mixteco, and a mestizo teenager dweller of the city of Tlapa, the …

The Influence Of An Appetitive Conditioned Stimulus On Interval Timing Behavior, Joseph Daniel Jacobs

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Pavlovian incentive motivation provides a theoretical framework on the basis of which experiments can be designed to examine the effects of motivational variables on timing behavior. The Pavlovian-Instrumental transfer (PIT) paradigm is a prototype for studying Pavlovian incentive motivation. The current study examined the effect of a Pavlovian appetitive conditioned stimulus (CS) on timing performance, based on the PIT paradigm. Nine pigeons were exposed to pairings of a 120-s conditioned stimulus (flashing or steady houselight) and unconditioned stimulus (food). The pigeons were then trained on the peak procedure (FI 30 s). In a subsequent testing phase, the effect of the …

The Function Of The Phospholipid Flippase Atp8a1 In Neurotransmission, Brain Development And Autistic Behavior, Daniel Joseph Kerr

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The function of the phospholipid flippase Atp8a1 in neurotransmission, brain development, and autistic behavior

By

Daniel J. Kerr

The plasma membrane consists of lipids and proteins. Among the integral membrane proteins are P-type ATPases, widely expressed in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, which use ATP to translocate ions across a plasma membrane. Type IV enzymes are putative aminophospholipid translocases (APLTs) and catalyze phosphatidylserine (PS) transfer into the cytosolic leaflet of a lipid bilayer. Previously, our group showed pronounced PS externalization in Atp8a1 (-/-) mice but not wild type (WT). Subsequent behavioral testing demonstrated that these Atp8a1 (-/-) mice display significant deficiency …

A Role Of Yeast Adhesin Amyloids In Force-Dependent Adhesion And Biofilm Formation, Cho Xiao Juan Chan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Candida albicans adhesins have amyloid-forming sequences (Ramsook et al. 2010, Otoo et al. 2008). Similarly, Tango and Waltz predicted that amyloid-forming sequences are also present in Saccharomyces cerevisiae flocculins, Flo1p and Flo11p. The cell surface of Flo1p- and Flo11p-expressing cells have ordered domains that are thioflavin T fluorescent and Congo red birefringent, two hallmarks of amyloids. Flo1p and Flo11p amyloids were important for activities of the flocculins including cell-to-cell adhesion, cell-to-substrate adhesion, and agar invasion. In addition, amyloid-perturbing dyes thioflavin S and Congo red inhibited aggregation, biofilm formation and agar invasion.

Force-induced formation and propagation of adhesion nanodomains in Als5p-expressing …

Ethnomedical, Ecological And Phytochemical Studies Of The Palauan Flora, Christopher Kitalong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There has been a serious deterioration of Palauan culture, language and traditional practices over the last century. To promote health and avoid this deterioration of tradition, ecological, ethnobotanical and phytochemical studies have been carried out on the plant Phaleria nisidai Kaneh. (Thymelaeaceae), "Delal a Kar", Palauan for "Mother of Medicine". This study is the first study that sets the foundations for the development of natural Palauan therapeutics, through validation of ethnomedically significant plants. Validations of these plants is done through documenting Palauan plant ethnomedical data; mapping the distribution of Palauan plants on limestone Rock Islands; and analyzing ethnopharmacological and phytochemical …

The Effects Of Environmental Enrichment On Abstinence And Relapse Using An Animal Conflict Model, Joshua Alan Peck

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Heroin addiction is a significant health and societal problem for which there is no effective and well-accepted long-term behavioral or pharmacological treatment. Therefore, strategies that prolong heroin abstinence should be the primary focus of heroin treatment research. There is promising evidence that environmental enrichment may indeed support drug abstinence in animals using the reinstatement model of abstinence and relapse. The current studies used an animal conflict model that captures the aversive consequences of drug seeking (as are typical in humans, e.g., arrest, incarceration, job loss, and strained social relationships) to test the effects of environmental enrichment on heroin abstinence, prolonged …

Occupy Wall Street's Challenge To An American Public Transcript, Christopher Neville Leary

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the rhetoric and discourses of the anti-corporate movement Occupy Wall Street, using frameworks from political ethnography and critical discourse analysis to offer a thick, triangulated description of a single event, Occupy Wall Street's occupation of Zuccotti Park. The study shows how Occupy achieved a disturbing positionality relative to the forces which routinely dominate public discourse and proposes that Occupy's encampment was politically intolerable to the status quo because the movement held the potential to consolidate critical thought and action. Because the "soft" means of re-capturing public consent were weak in 2011 because of the 2008 economic collapse, …

The Development And Function Of The Nasopharynx And Its Role In The Evolution Of Primate Respiratory Abilities, Anthony Santino Pagano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The nasopharynx is a centrally located region of the upper respiratory tract (URT) integral to several physiological functions. However, few have focused on this area within the context of human evolution. This study investigated osseous morphology, soft tissue histology, development, and evolutionary change of the nasopharynx. Multimodal analyses were performed:

Analysis 1: This study tested hypotheses on the morphological relationships of the osseous nasopharyngeal boundaries with the splanchnocranium and basicranium among dry crania representing humans and non-human primates using 3D geometric morphometrics (3D-GM). Results showed that humans, the most orthognathic group, exhibited the widest nasopharynges. Over human development, the nasopharynx …

A Feminist Inheritance? Questions Of Subjectivity And Ambivalence In Paul Mccarthy, Mike Kelley And Robert Gober, Marisa White-Hartman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Feminist art of the 1970s was groundbreaking in many regards and importantly impacted specific projects by three male artists: Paul McCarthy's performance Sailor's Meat (1975), Mike Kelley's installation Half a Man (1989) and Robert Gober's 1989 installation at the Paula Cooper Gallery. Despite the general absence of feminist artists as possible influences in the critical literature on these artists, feminist sources have been hidden in plain sight in regards to these works. These artists all take up the problematic of identity formation within the domestic sphere, which was made a legitimate area of inquiry in art by numerous feminist artists …

Attention Shapes Our Expectations And Perceptions: The Neural Mechanisms Of Top-Down Attention During Adulthood And Development, Snigdha Banerjee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Top-down attention is the focusing of attention at one's will through knowledge regarding a current task. There is evidence that top-down attention involves the modulation of sensory cortices by higher order regions. However, the mechanisms of top-down attention across sensory modalities, its influence on early sensory inputs, as well as interactions with motivational systems remain unclear. We performed the following set of electrophysiological experiments in typically developed adults and adolescents to examine these areas. 1) The supramodal attentional theory holds that parietally-based attentional mechanisms are shared across sensory modalities. We tested the supramodal theory by examining if lateralized parieto-occipital alpha-band …

Works In Progress: Child Characters In Victorian And Postcolonial Fiction, 1814 - 2006, Kiran Mascarenhas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation I analyze the relationship between national and individual development in Victorian and postcolonial novels set in India. My central argument is that the investment in the idea of progress that characterizes colonial narratives of childhood gives way in postcolonial fiction to a suspicion of dominant understandings of progress, and that this difference is manifest in the identity formation of the child character as well as in the form of the novel.

In the Victorian colonial narratives discussed in this study, the bildung of the child involves the overcoming of the child's conflicted cultural identity. The children of …

The Interaction Between Arsenic And Struvite During Coprecipitation And Adsorption Processes, Ning Ma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The formation of struvite, MgNH4PO4*6H2O (MAP), from wastes is one of the methods that can be used to recover P from wastes efficiently. However, since there are usually toxic components in the wastes, like arsenic (As), the possibility of having toxic contaminants in MAP is a big concern. So, the interaction between As and MAP during coprecipitation (CPT) and adsorption (ADS) processes were studied at pH 8-11. MAP precipitated without As at pH 8-11 was also characterized.

During CPT process, the MAP was precipitated from a MgCl2-(NH4)2HPO4-NaCl-H2O system spiked with As at an initial pH (pHi) of 8-11. The batch …

Executive Dysfunction And Reward Dysregulation: Interactions In Drug Addiction, Kristen Paula Morie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cocaine addiction is a serious public health hazard, and contributes to disastrous outcomes for individuals who suffer from it. Addiction is accompanied by an inability to control one's own behavior, and a preoccupation with cocaine at the expense of other rewarding pursuits. Previous research has suggested that difficulties with executive function and reward processing may underlie these problems, but the extent to which each contributes to addiction severity, or how these two factors may interact, remains to be elucidated. By using event related potential (ERP) measures in combination with information about self-reported anhedonia over three experiments, we set out to …

Dynamics And Divisions At The Salons Of The Rose-Croix: Statistics, Aesthetic Theories, Practices, And Subjects, Mary Slavkin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A variety of alternative Salons arose in France following the demise of the official Salon. Within this phrenetic climate for alternative exhibition venue creation, Joséphin Péladan founded the Salons of the Rose + Croix (1892-1897). He framed the Salons as ideologically unified exhibitions at which idealized works focusing on spirituality, tradition, and beauty would engender social reform by encouraging a decadent society to focus on timeless poetic and mystical ideas. Nevertheless, in practice the Rose + Croix functioned mainly as an exhibition venue for artists whose work only loosely responded to the established platform. The exhibited works reveal some overlap …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Sol-Gel Based Nanoparticles For Drug Delivery, Reeta Yadav

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nanogels are cross linked polymeric sol-gel based nanoparticles that offer an interior network for incorporation and protection of biomolecules, exhibiting unique advantages for polymer based delivery systems. We have successfully synthesized stable sol-gel nanoparticles by means of [a] silicification reactions using cationic peptides like polylysine as gelating agents, and [b] lyophilization of sol-gels. Macromolecules such as Hemoglobin and Glucose Oxidase and small molecules such as Sodium Nitroprusside (SNP) and antibiotics were encapsulated within the nanogels. We have used transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, zeta potential analysis, and spectroscopy to perform a physicochemical characterization of the nanogels resulting from the …

Essays On Savings Behavior Of Low-Income Households In Colombia, Luz M. Salas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I designed and implemented a Randomized Controlled Trial to study whether relatively simple modifications to how a commitment savings product was framed and labeled could affect savings accumulations and other outcomes of low-income individuals in newly formed Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Colombia. Motivated by hypotheses from behavioral economics, the experiment tests hypotheses that behavioral responses should vary depending on whether subjects are led to label and create `mental savings accounts' in private or public ways. Individuals in the private-labeling treatment groups were led to label their savings as earmarked for a particular purpose and to state savings …