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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 …

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 …

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 …

"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 …

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 …

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 Status Perceptions In The Workplace, Juanita Forrester

Managerial Sciences Dissertations

Status, or a person’s ranking within a hierarchy, is a core organizing principle for social dynamics within the workplace. Those with high status receive a broad range of social, material, and psychological privileges by virtue of their social standing. For example, status is linked to high levels of social attention, including interest and respect from others, material rewards in the form salary and bonuses, and psychological benefits including autonomy, control, and well-being (Anderson & Kilduff, 2009). For these reasons, the question of why and how status is ascribed and the behaviors that follow these arrangements are of critical importance to …

Immigration, Crime, And Punishment: Minorities' Perception Of Immigrants And Attitudes Towards Punitive Policies, Lillie L. Lattimore

Political Science Theses

This project focuses on the perception of immigrants as criminals, but more importantly, how this negative perception of immigrants can influence the population’s support for strict punitive policies. The question I seek to answer: will common negative perceptions of immigrants affect public support for more stringent punitive policies? The literature on what makes people punitive mostly focuses on the role of race and hostile feelings that lead to punitive feelings towards an immigrant. In this project, minorities and their attitudes in contrast to past studies that focus on White Americans will be central to the analysis. Analysis of both the …

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 …

Postsecondary Success Outcomes For Veteran And Nonveteran Students At A Public University In Georgia, Jonathan Boyd

Public Management and Policy Dissertations

Every year, the federal government distributes $11 billion in education benefits to nearly one million veterans (GAO, 2013). Despite the substantial price tag and reach of these benefits, we understand very little about how veteran students fare in postsecondary programs and why outcomes may be different for veteran students. Theory and related evidence predict that veteran students should be less successful than their nonveteran peers, yet the limited past research suggests that they are actually as successful as, if not more successful than, nonveterans. This is the student veteran paradox. I posit seven potential explanations to resolve this paradox: bias …

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 …

Selective Humanity: The Social And Economic Origins Of State Responses To Asylum Crises, Gulcan Saglam

Political Science Dissertations

Even though electoral democracies that are party to the refugee protection regime have adopted broadly similar refugee norms, there is still significant variation within and across countries in their responses to asylum crises. To address what explains this variation in national asylum regimes, I develop an interdisciplinary model for asylum policy-making undergirded by classical theories of forced migration, political economy and identity politics. I focus on the dyadic relationship between a destination country and a particular asylum-seeking group, and contend that the labor absorption capacity and social willingness in destination countries will shape their asylum policy responses. The labor absorption …

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 …

Pentecostalism, Populism, And The Historic Development Of The Church Of God In Christ (Cogic), Ovell Hamilton

History Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to create a comprehensive historical work on the Church of God in Christ, while highlighting the formation, development, and transition of the only Black mainstream church body in America that was, solely founded, organized, and fully controlled by African-Americans. I annotated the early influences upon the formation of the Church of God in Christ from the 1860s to 1907: 1) The Black Baptist Church; 2) The Holiness Movement; and,

3) The Pentecostal Movement. The influences upon the COGIC denomination were separated into three eras that were dominated by the persona of Bishop Charles …

Machine Learning Methods For Finding Textual Features Of Depression From Publications, Zhibo Wang

Computer Science Dissertations

Depression is a common but serious mood disorder. In 2015, WHO reports about 322 million people were living with some form of depression, which is the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide. In USA, there are approximately 14.8 million American adults (about 6.7% percent of the US population) affected by major depressive disorder. Most individuals with depression are not receiving adequate care because the symptoms are easily neglected and most people are not even aware of their mental health problems. Therefore, a depression prescreen system is greatly beneficial for people to understand their current mental health status at …

Alcohol Outlet Density, Heavy Episodic Drinking, And Sexual Violence Perpetration: A Multilevel Mediation Model, Alexandra L. Bellis

Psychology Dissertations

Current campus sexual violence prevention strategies have focused almost exclusively on person-level change by targeting individuals’ attitudes and behaviors. However, few of these programs have demonstrated effectiveness and few studies have investigated alternative prevention strategies that could be implemented across multiple levels of analysis. One potential promising community-level prevention strategy is alcohol availability. Alcohol is a significant predictor of sexual violence perpetration and alcohol outlet density is a significant positive predictor of violence and crime in campus and community samples. However, no study to date has assessed the effect of alcohol availability on campus sexual violence. The current study examined …

Heme Iron Catalysis: Contrast To Non-Heme Iron Enzymes, Kednerlin Dornevil

Chemistry Dissertations

Metalloenzymes catalyze a wide range of chemical transformations. Their remarkable versatility is imparted to them by their metal centers that are redox active or function as Lewis acids. They utilize transition metals such as iron that has accessibility to a variety of redox states, allowing them to efficiently activate and insert molecular oxygen into a wide range of unactivated organic substrates. The work described in this dissertation is the structural and mechanistic characterization of both heme and non-heme iron-dependent metalloenzymes. Precisely, the focus is placed on three enzymes, a cytochrome P450, CYP121, a tyrosine hydroxylase, LmbB2, and an extradiol dioxygenase, …

Newsworthiness Guidelines For A Socially Responsible Press: Aligning Definitions At The Intersection Of Journalism, Ethics, And The Law, Megan Hodgkiss

Communication Dissertations

Journalism, ethics, and the law all function in tandem. While media scholars have previously focused on traditional news values, ethical issues, and on the development of communication law, there exists a gap in academic literature concerning these three fields and their shared relationship to “newsworthiness.” This dissertation, using textual analysis and social responsibility of the press theory, examines how journalism textbooks, journalism ethics textbooks, journalism professional codes of ethics, and U.S. Supreme Court cases define and describe newsworthiness and story selection. The goal of the project is to draw from these sources to develop theoretically-informed newsworthiness criteria and make recommendations …

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 …

Deserts In The City: White Land And Regime Survival In The Gulf, Mamdouh Shouman

Political Science Dissertations

The problem of ‘White Land’ (undeveloped urban land that is temporarily withheld from the market to increase land prices) emerged in Saudi Arabia as an unintended consequence of a survival strategy of land distribution to elites. Unfortunately, such a situation has become a daunting problem that kept the citizens of the kingdom remain unable to address their housing needs given ever-rising prices. To the contrary, despite its political, social and economic similarities, we do not witness citizens of the neighboring country of Oman suffering from the unaffordability of the housing market in their country. What does explain the variation in …

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, …

“Ðæt Is Wrætlic Deor”: Fantastic Creatures’ Alternate Natures As Metalwork, Architectural Works, And Other Highly-Wrought Objects In Old English Writings, James Crowder

English Dissertations

The conflation of fantastic beasts and monsters with highly-wrought objects constitutes a heretofore-critically-unacknowledged yet prevalent mode of representation in Old English literature. The Anglo-Saxon writers and poets utilizing this mode notably mobilize a number of strategies to blur the line between the bodies of such creatures and the associated manmade items, including figurative relationships, parallelism linking two accounts within the larger narrative, the conceptual pairing or collocation of seemingly-unrelated entities within a particular account, the description of a creature’s body with an adjective that normally applies to highly-wrought objects, and the destruction of a creature’s body in the precise manner …

Ultrafast Processes In 2d Materials, Seyyedeh Azar Oliaei Motlagh

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

In this dissertation, we study theoretically ultrafast processes accessible via the interaction of the ultrafast and intense laser pulses with 2D materials. The ultrafast and strong laser pulse has a duration of a few femtoseconds, and the amplitude of the electric field is about several V/˚A. We investigate the ultrafast electron dynamics in graphene, on a surface of a 3D topological insulator, and on a surface of a 3D crystalline topological insulator. Due to the gapless structure of graphene, surface states of the 3D topological insulator, and a 3D crystalline topological insulator, the electron dynamics is highly irreversible. The irreversibility …

Nearby M Dwarf Stars And The Wide Main Sequence, Tiffany D. Clements

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the underlying causes for the observed widening of the main sequence for low mass stars and presents the results of three different studies using two different astrophysical observing methods to assess the properties of a sample of nearby, M dwarf stars and how these properties affect a star's position on an H-R diagram.

The first study is the assessment of the activity of the internal magnetic fields of 76 southern nearby, M dwarf stars through measurements of the relative changes in their V magnitudes over time periods of years. This long-term variability is then analyzed with respect …

The Role Of Screening, Brief Intervention, And Referral To Treatment In Reducing Criminal Behavior: A Person-Centered And Ecological Approach, Gerry Gilmore

Psychology Dissertations

Substance abuse treatment programs are a promising approach to reducing criminal behavior. However, these programs are not equally e↵ective for all participants. Research shows that individuals at high risk for criminal recidivism usually benefit from high-intensity treatment programs, while those at lower risk benefit more from low-intensity, community-based approaches. In addition, there is evidence that individuals at moderate risk for criminal recidivism can actually be harmed by high-intensity treatment programs, leading to higher than expected rates of recidivism. In addition to overall risk for recidivism, other factors such as drug of choice, substance abuse severity, and psychological problems are known …

New Chemical Strategies For Prodrug Preparations: From Sulfide To Doxorubicin, Yueqin Zheng

Chemistry Dissertations

Prodrug is an often-used approach to facilitate the delivery of an active drug to an appropriate site with targeted release whenever possible. Proper prodrug design often relies on a few essential requirements: prodrug stability, triggered release, and selectivity. In the last few decades, there have been impressive progress in prodrug development. However, the delivery of gasotransmitters and ensuring linker stability while allowing drug release at the desired site of action are among remaining challenges. The dissertation work focuses on developing new chemical strategies to address these two issues using hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) as a model for gasotransmitters and …

Using Different Analytical Techniques And Synthetically Tailored Silica Nanoparticles In Drug Separations And Hydrophobicity-Based Detection Applications, Walid Abdelwahab

Chemistry Dissertations

The development and validation of accurate and reliable analytical methods using techniques such as capillary electrophoresis, liquid chromatography, UV-spectrophotometry, spectrofluorimetry and mass spectrometry for separation and determination of some selected drugs in different matrices are presented in the first three chapters. The developed methods were applied to the determination of these compounds in their dosage forms and/or in biological fluids such as human plasma. The stability indicating characteristics including the analysis and separation of certain drugs from their alkaline, acidic, oxidative, thermal or photolytic degradation products along with the study of the degradation kinetics were also investigated. The first chapter …

Characterization Of Nucleic Acids And Nucleic Acid Binding Proteins Using Nmr, Marina Evich

Chemistry Dissertations

Biological systems are governed by molecular interactions. At the core of all biological systems is the processing of nucleic acids, and preserving the fidelity of the genome is crucial to those systems. This manuscript follows different biological systems interrogated by nuclear magnetic resonance: the structural impact of single ribonucleotide damage in DNA, the formation of oligomeric protein-DNA complexes of an ETS family transcription factor, how methylation affects the charge state of the amino acid arginine and how the base pair opening rates of an oligonucleotide is affected by inosine.

Understanding Function Of Carbohydrates By Synthesis Of Structurally-Defined Glycopeptides/Glycoproteins And Glycans, Zhigang Wu

Chemistry Dissertations

Carbohydrates are crucial biomacromolecules found in organisms across all domains of life and play pivotal roles in biological processes. To better understand the biological function of glycans, structurally-defined glycopeptides/glycoproteins and glycans are highly demanded. In this dissertation, the study has been focusing on acquiring homogenous glycopeptides/glycoproteins and glycans which are good candidates for decoding their function.

Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction of function of glycosylation for proteins, significance of glycosylation for therapeutic protein and artificial glycosylation approaches; glycan synthetic approaches and glycan microarray and an overview of synthesis of oligosaccharides in large scale in vitro and in vivo.

Chapter …