Digital Commons Network^™

‘Botched Performances’: Rising To The Challenge Of Teaching Our Underprepared Students, Cheryl Hogue Smith

Publications and Research

This article explores how struggling writers/readers are thinking at higher levels of thought than more prepared students.

Photograph: Poet On Dust Jacket, Richmond, Virginia 1996, Alexander Long

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Thumri, Ghazal, And Modernity In Hindustani Music Culture, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

If historians of Indian classical music have been obliged to rely primarily upon a finite and often enigmatic set of treatises and iconographic sources, historical studies of semi-classical genres like thumri and ghazal confront even more formidable challenges. Such styles and their predecessors were largely ignored by Sanskrit theoreticians, who tended to be more interested in hoary modal and metrical systems than in contemporary vernacular or regional-language genres sung by courtesans. It is thus inevitable that attempts to reconstruct the development of such genres involve considerable amounts of conjecture, and in some senses raise more questions than they answer. Nevertheless, …

The Twenty-Five Maiden Ladies’ Tomb And Predicaments Of The Feminist Movement In Taiwan, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Teaching The Process Of Molecular Phylogeny And Systematics: A Multi-Part Inquiry-Based Exercise, Nathan H. Lents, Oscar E. Cifuentes, Anthony Carpi

Publications and Research

Three approaches to molecular phylogenetics are demonstrated to biology students as they explore molecular data from Homo sapiens and four related primates. By analyzing DNA sequences, protein sequences, and chromosomal maps, students are repeatedly challenged to develop hypotheses regarding the ancestry of the five species. Although these exercises were designed to supplement and enhance classroom instruction on phylogeny, cladistics, and systematics in the context of a postsecondary majors-level introductory biology course, the activities themselves require very little prior student exposure to these topics. Thus, they are well suited for students in a wide range of educational levels, including a biology …

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’S Decolonizing Ritual De Conocimiento, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s work makes up one of the many Chican@ works that contribute another history, a history repressed by the national discourses on both sides of the border. Influenced by antecedents of U.S. Hispanic Literature who superposed “official” history with another history, Chicano activists had already enacted a retrieval of pre-conquest histories to revive their people’s historical consciousness. As Saldívar-Hull states in “Mestiza Consciousness and Politics: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/ La frontera,” the publication of Borderlands/ La Frontera distinguished itself from the Chicano movement’s as it unveiled the curtain that hid the Aztec goddesses and kept aspects of pre-conquest history …

A Multivalent Dna Aptamer Specific For The B-Cell Receptor On Human Lymphoma And Leukemia, Prabodhika R. Mallikaratchy, Alessandro Ruggiero, Jeffrey R. Gardner, Vitaly Kuryavyi, William F. Maguire, Mark L. Heaney, Michael R. Mcdevitt, Dinshaw J. Patel, David A. Scheinberg

Publications and Research

Long-term survival still eludes most patients with leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. No approved therapies target the hallmark of the B cell, its mIgM, also known as the B-cell receptor (BCR). Aptamers are small oligonucleotides that can specifically bind to a wide range of target molecules and offer some advantages over antibodies as therapeutic agents. Here, we report the rational engineering of aptamer TD05 into multimeric forms reactive with the BCR that may be useful in biomedical applications. Systematic truncation of TD05 coupled with modification with locked nucleic acids (LNA) increased conformational stability and nuclease resistance. Trimeric and tetrameric versions with …

Doing Good By Doing Well? The Political Economy Of The Medical Biotechnology Industry In The United States, Volker Lehmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is dedicated to the political economy of the medical biotechnology industry in the United States. The study combines interviews with more than 150 biotechnology actors with a historical analysis and evidence from publicly available data bases. The ascent of this new industry took place in the United States first and foremost, because there, scientific advancements coincided with the rise of supply-side economics, a policy shift that was part of a larger, neoliberal, ideological shift. Despite free-market rhetoric, specific clusters within the United States became the world's leading biotechnology clusters because of a history of targeted interventions to stimulate …

Synesthetic Landscapes In Harold Pinter’S Theatre: A Symbolist Legacy, Graça Corrêa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the light of recent interdisciplinary critical approaches to landscape and space, and adopting phenomenological methods of sensory analysis, this dissertation explores interconnected or synesthetic sensory "scapes" in contemporary British playwright Harold Pinter's theatre. By studying its dramatic landscapes and probing into their multi-sensory manifestations in line with Symbolist theory and aesthetics, I argue that Pinter's theatre articulates an ecocritical stance and a micropolitical critique.

Chapter One explains the dissertation's theoretical framework (landscape theory, Symbolist theory, ecocriticism, phenomenology, and sensory analysis), while arguing for an ecophilosophical reading of Pinter's landscapes that engages not only with spatial patterns but …

The Interaction Of Intensity And Deviance On Auditory Event-Related Potentials: Findings Using Principal Component Analysis (Pca) Of Current Source Densities (Csds), Nathan A. Gates

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mismatch negativity (MMN) studies provide insights into the brain's ability to perceive and/or detect deviations from established sensory patterns. Clinical studies investigating the loudness-dependency of auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) have shown a relationship between the intensity of an auditory stimulus and neuro-physiological or -chemical activity of the primary auditory cortex. Unfortunately, these two bodies of literature remain disjointed. The present study integrates elements of each body of literature to a) investigate the impact of varying levels of intensity deviance on N1/P2 with a standard set of intensities used in LDAEP paradigms, and b) assess the extent to which deviance-related processes …

A Critical And Cultural Poetics Of The End: Self, Space, And Volatility In Los Angeles, Pamela Albanese

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A Critical and Cultural Poetics of the End: Self, Space, and Volatility in Los Angeles delineates the correspondences between Los Angeles spaces--exterior, topographical, architectural, and imaginary--and aspects of the self--interiority, identity, experience, and desire--in fictional and non-fictional depictions of Los Angeles. Through close readings of key Los Angeles novels, essays, and films, this project emphasizes how the narrative "I" traverses urban space, focusing on the dissolution of boundaries between self and place. Los Angeles' sprawling, decentralized layout and rapidly-shifting landscape have a profound influence on narrative identity, generating a volatile and disquieting sense of self; this project also explores how …

Morphological Changes And Immunohistochemical Expression Of Rage And Its Ligands In The Sciatic Nerve Of Hyperglycemic Pig (Sus Scrofa), Judyta K. Juranek, Alexey Aleshin, Eileen M. Rattigan, Lynne Johnson, Wu Qu, Fei Song, Radha Ananthakrishnan, Nosirudeen Quadri, Shi Du Yan, Ravichandran Ramasamy, Ann Marie Schmidt, Matthew S. Geddis

Publications and Research

The aim of our project was to study the effect of streptozotocin (STZ)—induced hyperglycemia on sciatic nerve morphology, blood plasma markers and immunohistochemical expression of RAGE (the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End-products), and its ligands—S100B and Carboxymethyl Lysine (CML)-advanced glycation endproduct (AGE) in the laboratory pig. Six months after STZ—injections, blood plasma measurements, morphometric analysis of sciatic nerve fiber density, immunofluorescent distribution of potential molecular neuropathy contributors, ELISA measurement of plasma AGE level and HPLC analysis of sciatic nerve levels of one of the pre-AGE and the glycolysis intermediate products—methyl-glyoxal (MG) were performed. The results of our study revealed that …

Increasing Student-Teacher Interactions At An Urban Commuter Campus Through Instant Messaging And Online Office Hours, Nathan H. Lents, Oscar E. Cifuentes

Publications and Research

Encouraging first year undergraduate students in large lecture-hall classes to seek out and actively engage their professors is a perennial problem in science education. This problem is especially acute for commuter and minority populations. Thus, because personal relationships between students and professors are well known to promote student learning and academic success, fostering new ways to connect students and faculty is essential for reducing attrition at inner-city colleges. In the current study, we demonstrate that the use of instant messaging (IM) is highly effective in fostering student-teacher interactions in the lecture-hall setting of an introductory major-level biology course at John …

The Pencil, The Pin, The Table, The Bowl And The Wheel, Valerie Allen

Publications and Research

The commodity created under global capitalism originates from everywhere and seems to have been made by everyone. Endlessly fungible, it is also endlessly divisible. Analysis of the commodity reveals the indissoluble link between commodification and technologization. Although the medieval commodity is a very different kind of object, not issuing from an economy dedicated to commodity production, and being produced more regionally, the link between production and technology applies to the Middle Ages as much as it does to now. Medieval technology, in particular road-building, is commonly regarded as a regression in comparison to Roman engineering skills. I argue, however, for …

Railroads And Economies Of Scale And Scope In U.S. Manufacturing Industries: 1850-1880. Chandler Revisited, Michael Kalson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study concerns the measurement and quantification of the relationship between railroadization in the United States in the mid-19^th century and the subsequent evolution of the modern, large-scale, corporate form of industrial business organization marked by significant economies of scale and scope, as described in various writings by Alfred Chandler. Focusing on American industry as it developed from 1850-1880 using data uniquely suited to empirical analysis of economies of scale and scope, its aim is to determine whether the growth of the American railroad network, as Chandler contended, expanded markets and augmented the American financial sector such that the …

Children's Tolerance Of Word-Form Variation, Paul Reeves Breuning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study compared children's (N=96, mean age 4;1, range 2;8-5;3) and adults' (N=96, mean age 21 years) tolerance of word-onset modifications (e.g., wabbit and warabbit) and pseudo affixes (e.g., kocat and catko) in a label extension task. Trials comprised an introductory phase where children saw a picture of an animal and were told its name, and a test phase where they were shown the same picture along with one of a different animal. For `similar-name' trials, participants heard a word-form modification of the previously introduced name (e.g., introduced to a dib, they were asked, `which animal is a wib?'). For …

Mátyás Seiber’S Twelve-Tone Technique, Bettina Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the compositional style of Mátyás Seiber’s twelve-tone music through an analysis of three works composed between 1934 and 1960: String Quartet No. 2, Concert Piece for Violin and Piano, and Sonata for Violin and Piano. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the composer’s life and his compositional style. Chapter 2, on String Quartet No. 2 (1934-5), examines the subdivisions of the twelve-tone series into smaller pitch-class sets and introduces the concept of families. Chapter 3, on Concert Piece for Violin and Piano (1953-4), demonstrates the permutation of and within tetrachords derived from the prime series …

“Two Jews Walk Into A Coffeehouse”: The “Jewish Question,” Utility, And Political Participation In Late Eighteenth-Century Livorno, Francesca Bregoli

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Parallel Lives And Literary Legacies: Crusoe's Elder Brother And Defoe's Cavalier, Andrea Walkden

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Climate Control Of Terrestrial Carbon Exchange Across Biomes And Continents, Chuixiang Yi, Daniel Ricciuto, Runze Li, John Wolbeck, Xiyan Xu, Mats Nilsson, Luis Aires, John D. Albertson, Christof Ammann, M Altaf Arain, Alessandro C. De Araujo, Marc Aubinet, Mika Aurela, Zoltan Barcza, Alan Barr, Paul Berbigier, Jason Beringer, Christian Bernhofer, Andrew T. Black, Paul V. Bolstad, Fred C. Bosveld, Mark S J Broadmeadow, Nina Buchmann, Sean P. Burns, Pierre Cellier, Jingming Chen, Jiquan Chen, Philippe Ciais, Robert Clement, Bruce D. Cook, Peter S. Curtis, D Bryan Dail, Ebba Dellwik, Nicolas Delpierre, Ankur R. Desai, Sabina Dore, Danilo Dragoni, Bert G. Drake, Eric Dufrêne, Allison Dunn, Jan Elbers, Werner Eugster, Matthias Falk, Christian Feigenwinter, Lawrence B. Flanagan, Thomas Foken, John Frank, Juerg Fuhrer, Damiano Gianelle, Allen Goldstein, Mike Goulden, Andre Granier, Thomas Grünwald, Lianhong Gu, Haiqiang Guo, Albin Hammerle, Shijie Han, Niall P. Hanan, László Haszpra, Bernard Heinesch, Carole Helfter, Dimmie Hendriks, Lindsay B. Hutley, Andreas Ibrom, Cor Jacobs, Torbjörn Johansson, Marjan Jongen, Gabriel Katul, Gerard Kiely, Katja Klumpp, Alexander Knohl, Thomas Kolb, Werner L. Kutsch, Peter Lafleur, Tuomas Laurila, Ray Leuning, Anders Lindroth, Heping Liu, Benjamin Loubet, Giovanni Manca, Michal Marek, Hank A. Margolis, Timothy A. Martin, William J. Massman, Roser Matamala, Giorgio Matteucci, Harry Mccaughey, Lutz Merbold, Tilden Meyers, Mirco Migliavacca, Franco Miglietta, Laurent Misson, Meelis Mölder, John Moncrieff, Russell K. Monson, Leonardo Montagnani, Mario Montes-Helu, Eddy Moors, Christine Moureaux, Mukufute M. Mukelabai, J William Munger, May Myklebust, Zoltán Nagy, Asko Noormets, Walter Oechel, Ram Oren, Stephen G. Pallardy, Kyaw Tha Paw U, João S. Pereira, Kim Pilegaard, Krisztina Pintér, Casimiro Pio, Gabriel Pita, Thomas L. Powell, Serge Rambal, James T. Randerson, Celso Von Randow, Corinna Rebmann, Janne Rinne, Federica Rossi, Nigel Roulet, Ronald J. Ryel, Jorgen Sagerfors, Nobuko Saigusa, María José Sanz, Giuseppe-Scarascia Mugnozza, Hans Peter Schmid, Guenther Seufert, Mario Siqueira, Jean-François Soussana, Gregory Starr, Mark A. Sutton, John Tenhunen, Zoltán Tuba, Juha-Pekka Tuovinen, Riccardo Valentini, Christoph S. Vogel, Jingxin Wang, Shaoqiang Wang, Weiguo Wang, Lisa R. Welp, Xuefa Wen, Sonia Wharton, Matthew Wilkinson, Christopher A. Williams, Georg Wohlfahrt, Susumu Yamamoto, Guirui Yu, Roberto Zampedri, Bin Zhao, Xinquan Zhao

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Critical Aesthetics Of Disorder: A Porteña Crisis Of Size, Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo

Publications and Research

In Argentina, contemporary notions of progress originate within the whitening projects of the nineteenth century. In this work I propose that the imprints of these Colonial modernization projects are still visible on the porteña body. For this reason I examine the Porteño fashion industry alongside the pervasive Barbie culture. I believe that Porteñas embody the national crisis of identity. I seek to pose the possibility — instead of arguing the fact — that the fashion industry's power over Porteñas (women who live in Buenos Aires Capital) toughened post the economic crisis of 2001. The reason for this is rooted in …

Monitoring Of North American Snow Cover And Enso Effects, A.B.M Borhan Uddin Pathan

Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to monitor the Snow Cover Area (SCA) and to evaluate the effects of El Nino and La Nina on SCA in North America (Excluding Greenland) since 2000/2001 to 2010. The NASA ((National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)/Terra satellite provided every eight-day (MOD10C2) and monthly (MOD10CM) Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) products were used in this study. These both products were analyzed using MATLAB HDF import tool to measure SCAs and to create Climate Model Grid (CMG) maps. The largest SCA in individual month (21.16 M.Km2) and in individual year (11.39 …

The Impact Of Microclimate On Branch Colonization By Neotropical Cerambycid Beetles, Christina Lee

Dissertations and Theses

"Vertical stratification contributes to the great diversity of insects found in tropical rainforests. Due to differences in both biotic and abiotic factors, different strata of the forest provide different habitats for insects. A previous study in French Guiana revealed that wood-boring cerambycid beetles preferentially colonized branches at ground level in the dry season, but shifted to canopy level in the rainy season. The current beetle-rearing study was conducted to confirm the occurrence of this seasonal shift, explore possible causes, and to determine if similar microclimate conditions occurred at ground level in the dry season and the canopy level in the …

Role Of Drosophila Rap/Fzr (Cdh1) In Retinal Axon Targeting And Its Interactions With Loco, Liprin-A And Ras, Marta Gronska

Dissertations and Theses

The development of the wild type Drosophila compound eye involves stereotypical targeting of photoreceptor axons to the specific layers of the optic ganglion, medulla and lamina, in the third instar larvae. To test the hypothesis that ubiquitin ligases play an important role during retinal axon targeting we have examined the patterns of axon targeting in the developing eye of the retina aberrant in pattern (rap/fzr) mutants. Rap/Fzr is a homolog of mammalian Cdh1, an activator of anaphase promoting complex (APC), an E3 ubiquitin ligase. Previous work has shown that Rap/Fzr is required in cell cycle regulation, glia differentiation and pattern …

Shattuc, Melissa Yearian

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

"From Port-Au-Prince To Hollywood: The Trope Of The Zombi(E) In American Literature", Pitetti M. Connor

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Gothic Flip: Using The Supernatural To Fight For Morality, Kathryn Gelsone

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Midstream, Alena Einstein

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Youth Gap In Understanding Political Violence, Colette Daiute

Publications and Research

"Youth are never taken seriously, and we sometimes have ideas that would be good for all people." ~ Alex, Croatia

"... Some things do depend on us; war, consequences of the war, poverty; the influence of the church interfering with the state affairs, which must not be so. " ~ Ljubicia, Serbia

As we hear in these comments by two teenagers who have grown up in the shadow of political violence, their generation is aware of the past and its legacies. These brief quotes mention many details that young people in easier situations may not notice: "consequences of the war," …

Antidepressant Stimulation Of Cdp-Diacylglycerol Synthesis Does Not Require Monoamine Reuptake Inhibition, Ashiwel S. Undieh, Marwa A. Aboukhatwa

Publications and Research

Background: Recent studies demonstrate that diverse antidepressant agents increase the cellular production of the nucleolipid CDP-diacylglycerol and its synthetic derivative, phosphatidylinositol, in depression-relevant brain regions. Pharmacological blockade of downstream phosphatidylinositide signaling disrupted the behavioral antidepressant effects in rats. However, the nucleolipid responses were resistant to inhibition by serotonin receptor antagonists, even though antidepressant-facilitated inositol phosphate accumulation was blocked. Could the neurochemical effects be additional to the known effects of the drugs on monoamine transmitter transporters? To examine this question, we tested selected agents in serotonin-depleted brain tissues, in PC12 cells devoid of serotonin transporters, and on the enzymatic activity of …