Digital Commons Network^™

The Becoming Of Age: How Discourses Of Aging And Old Age In Contemporary, Popular Film Both Reinforce And Reimagine The Narrative Of Aging As Decline, Pamela H. Gravagne

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation examines how to think critically about the ways in which aging and old age are understood, represented, and problematized in American popular film. Rather than subscribe to the narrative of decline that views growing older as a linear process of chronological and biological deterioration with no possibility of gain, this dissertation reveals the shared meanings, discourses, narratives, and philosophical positions that underlie constructions such as the narrative of decline, and that populate the screen in contemporary film, to be both historical and open to revision. Chapter 2, therefore, explores the ways in which film simultaneously relies on stereotypical …

Effect Of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation On The Attention Network Task (Ant), Michael Trumbo

Psychology ETDs

This investigation studied the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the Attention Network Task (ANT) - a combination speeded response/flanker task, which elucidates activity of three attentional networks - alerting, orienting, and executive functioning. Anodal tDCS was applied over the right inferior frontal cortex at 0.1 mA or 2.0 mA for 30 minutes. Participants were tested prior to stimulation, roughly 30 minutes following cessation of stimulation, 70 minutes following cessation of stimulation, and 115 minutes following cessation of stimulation. Due to the areas being stimulated (RIFC), and results from previous studies that link the alerting network to frontal …

Selective Salt Recovery From Reverse Osmosis Concentrate Using Inter-Stage Ion Exchange, Joshua E. Goldman

Civil Engineering ETDs

A treatment process for reverse osmosis concentrate was developed to recover selected salts and increase fresh water recovery. The process utilizes cation and anion exchange to exchange all ions in the concentrate stream for sodium and chloride. The sodium chloride stream, with reduced scaling potential, can be treated further by a second reverse osmosis stage or another volume reduction technique to recover additional fresh water. The resulting concentrated sodium chloride stream can be used as ion exchange regeneration solution. Regeneration solutions from the cation and anion exchange columns are mixed to precipitate specific salts. In order to demonstrate the concepts …

Seasonal Influent Characterization, Model Calibration, Srt And Energy Usage For Nitrogen Removal At A Full Scale Wastewater Plant, Roozbeh Raoufi

Civil Engineering ETDs

This study focused on factors affecting biological denitrification in wastewater treatment. Denitrification is a process in which heterotrophic bacteria use nitrate as an electron acceptor (in the absence of oxygen) and organic carbon as an electron donor (commonly measured as chemical oxygen demand, or COD). The availability of sufficient COD is commonly the limiting factor for denitrification at many wastewater plants, with some plants having to purchase external carbon sources (such as acetic acid) to meet stringent nitrogen limits. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of different primary effluent characteristics (COD components), solid retention times (SRTs), …

Coolant Distribution Control In Satellite Structural Panels Using Electrohydrodynamic Conduction Pumping, Samuel Sinnamon

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) conduction pumping is well suited for pumping coolants in space-borne thermal control systems. Advantages of EHD pumps include light-weight, simple designs, no moving parts, fast response times, and low power consumption. The EHD conduction pumping phenomenon is a result of electrical conduction in highly resistive liquids, in which charge carriers are ions created by a reversible dissociation-recombination reaction. EHD pumps show promise as a means to actively control the distribution of coolants within a flow network and may be applied to a novel biologically-inspired thermal control system. This experiment characterizes the performance of an EHD pump operating under …

How We Fight: Strategies At Emergence Among Animal Rights And Lgbtq Rights Organizations, Ryan J. Goodman

Sociology ETDs

The common approach to the study of strategy among social movement organizations focuses on it as a causal variable related to various movement outcomes. This research examines strategy as an outcome to understand factors related to the determination of strategy by US social movement organizations. The analysis focuses on organizations operating within the Animal Rights / Protection and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ) Rights movements, using Multinomial Logistic Regression models. These models explore and find some significance to the relationship between finances and strategy. Qualitative analyses of four organizations — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), …

A River Of Voices: Confluences And Cross-Currents In The Discourse Of The Colorado River, Paul Formisano

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation argues that the Colorado River and its watershed face a crisis of representation as privileged nineteenth-century myths portraying the American West as a frontier, garden, and wilderness have limited an understanding of what and whom the river is for. It examines the contribution of tributary voices' or the lesser known perspectives from the region to reveal new lines of thinking about this river and its surroundings as they engage the traditional views of the river shaped by these myths. The voices examined at length in this study include contemporary nature writer Craig Childs, recent female boating narratives by …

Neural Network Field Programmable Gate Array (Fpga) Controllers For Reconfigurable Antennas, Eyad Al Zuraiqi

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Advantages of reconfigurable antennas are numerous, but limited by the method of controlling their configuration. This dissertation proposes to utilize the advantages of both Neural Networks (NN) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to overcome this dilemma. In this work, the methodology of modeling of reconfigurable antennas using neural network embedded on an FPGA board is presented. This work shows a new approach of modeling reconfigurable antennas using neural networks in Matlab, a code is written to generate a NN for any antenna (or any reconfigurable system in general) by providing input/output data of the antenna. An HDL code is …

The Geochemistry Of Water-Filled Sinkholes At Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Roswell, Nm : Implications For Hydrochemical Evolution And Trophic Support, Elizabeth Premo

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

This study provides a hydrochemical baseline survey of water-filled sinkholes at Bitter Lake Nation Wildlife Refuge (Roswell, NM). Water samples from 10 representative sinkholes taken at 1.0m increments were analyzed for major ions, stable isotopes [δ18O, δD], and dissolved gases. Sinkholes are surface features at a constant head boundary found at the discharge region for the Roswell Artesian Basin, recharged by upwardly flowing artesian springs. Constant head is confirmed by a lack of measured change in depth during two sampling sessions (October 2008, May 2009), low relief (<10m change across study area), and deployment of autonomous sensors (sondes). Sinkhole waters – regardless of depth or season – fall along a common isotopic evaporation trajectory (δD = 3.387*δ18O – 19.38), and adopt a Na-Cl chemical endmember facies. Driven primarily by physical sinkhole geometry (e.g., depth and surface area), sinkhole water follows a predictable evolutionary progression from a spring-like well-mixed ("young"), to moderately saline well-mixed ("transitional"), to saline and stratified ("old" or "evolved"), based on the relative volume of water that has entered and subsequently been evaporated from the system. The modality of water column structure may be predicted by measuring the density, TDS or conductivity at sinkhole surface, as these parameters can be used as a proxy for evolutionary "age." Simple geochemical models reveal calcium- and sulfate-bearing minerals (calcite, gypsum) precipitate early in the reaction while halite and magnesium-containing minerals precipitate late, yielding increased Cl- and Mg+ concentrations in fluids subjected to prolonged evaporation. More complicated models are needed to fully consider precipitation of additional mineral species and water budget. Both PO4 and NH4 were present in biologically-significant concentrations in sinkholes with chemically controlled water columns, and photosynthetic bacteria were found to organize at the bottom of the photic zone. High NH4 and CO2 accompanying low O2 dissolved gas values confirm the increased biological control in stratified sinkholes. Resident fish populations are affected by water chemistry which reduces reproductive success or exceed the survivable range of habitable conditions. Results of this study may be used to aid with biological resource management and to predict stratified conditions using measurable proxies.

Planar Shock Wave Interaction With A Multiphase Cylinder, Joseph Conroy

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

We present an experimental study that visualizes the effects of a planar shock front passing through air (or SF6) randomly seeded with glycol droplets or smoke particles. It was observed, using a high-speed multiple-CCD (charge coupled device) camera, that an instability occurs as the shock wave bypasses the slow-moving column of gas. This produced evident perturbation at the interface. The flow morphology of the gas column consists of a pair of counter-rotating vortices that develops downstream from the initial conditions as well as some secondary instabilities (in certain cases). Some images also show a trailing tail due to larger particles …

Analytical Interpretation Of The Patient Centered Medical Home: A Meta-Review Of The Literature, Bethaney Fehrenkamp

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Medical care in the United States is plagued by extremely high costs, inconsistent quality and fragmented delivery at best. In response to these issues new concepts of integrated health care delivery systems have been developed. The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an increasingly popular health care delivery model that emphasizes continuous coordinated patient care. In theory, the PCMH takes a preventative approach to medicine that addresses the individual not the disease, and takes a holistic approach to health care. The PCMH model has been shown to lower health care costs while improving health care outcomes. Despite PCMH being a new …

Data Access And Visualization Benefits From Implementation Of A Hydrologic Information System, Stephen Brown

Civil Engineering ETDs

In 2010, the National Science Foundation (NSF) implemented new guidelines for all scientists applying for grants. A Data Management Plan (DMP) is now required for all proposals in which data are created or gathered while working under the grant. Several organizations have produced templates and applications to assist with the construction of DMPs. The data plans provide a good overview of data processing and storage but do not provide any guidance for managing data during the research process. Large temporal hydrologic data sets can provide a rich insight to complex hydrologic and ecological systems. Complications arise when attempting to query …

Summer 2012 Utton Center Newsletter, Utton Center, University Of New Mexico - School Of Law

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Genetic Ancestry And Sociocultural Factors On Pulmonary Tuberculosis Susceptibility In Northeastern Mexico, Bonnie Nadyne Young

Anthropology ETDs

Genetic and environmental factors contribute to variation in tuberculosis (TB) disease risk among individuals in the Americas, although the relative contribution of each of these factors remains unclear. Genetic ancestry may serve as a proxy for underlying genetic differences in TB risk between the European, Native American, and African groups that formed many populations in the Americas, but this has never been tested. Such tests are complicated by the fact that genetic ancestry and important potential social predictors of TB are usually confounded. The urban center of Nuevo León, the Monterrey Metropolitan Area (MMA), presents a unique setting to tease …

Historical And Topographic Drivers Of Tropical Insular Diversity: Comparative Phylogeography Of Eleutherodactylus Antillensis And E. Portoricensis, Two Ecologically Distinctive Frogs Of The Puerto Rican Bank, Brittany Suzanne Barker

Biology ETDs

Topographically complex islands present opportunities for in situ (within-island) allopatric speciation because of increased chances for isolation in separate mountain ranges, as well as greater opportunity for fragmentation by high sea levels and climate-driven changes in habitat distribution. Climatic oscillations of the Quaternary (Pleistocene - Holocene; ~2.5 million years ago to the present) may have influenced the severity of vicariant barriers among and within islands, yet how these events influenced evolution of tropical insular biota is not well understood. This dissertation explores the role of topographic complexity and climate-driven range shifts resulting from sea-level changes and habitat suitability in shaping …

The Role Of Geological History, Topography, And Environmental Heterogeneity In The Diversification Of An Endemic Andean Radiation: The Metallura Hummingbirds, Phred M. Benham

Biology ETDs

A dynamic geological history, complex topography, and high species richness characterize the tropical Andes. Endemic radiations comprise a major component of this high diversity and evaluating the spatial and temporal context in which these radiations diversified provides an informative framework to understand the processes facilitating speciation in the Andes. Metallura hummingbirds are a diverse genus endemic to the Andes that are widely distributed geographically and ecologically making them well suited to investigating Andean speciation. In the first chapter I apply phylogenetic methods to address the relative roles of geological history, physical barriers, and environmental heterogeneity in the Metallura radiation. I …

Pattern And Process In Metabolic Ecology: From Biotic Interactions To Cultural Diversity Gradients, William R. Burnside

Biology ETDs

Many ecological patterns and processes are functions of metabolism (Brown 2004), meaning the acquisition, transformation, and allocation of energy, materials, and information within the bodies of individuals and among members of human and other animal societies. Individual metabolic rate should influence behavior by determining the energy available for action as well as the rate at which the body requires fuel. First, I test a key prediction of the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE), that biotic interaction rates are characteristic functions of temperature. Findings support this prediction and suggest that herbivory, predation, parasitism, parasitoidy, and competition increase exponentially with temperature and …

Diversification In Andean Tit-Tyrants (Aves, Tyrannidae), Shane G. Dubay

Biology ETDs

In my thesis I investigate evolution and diversification of montane birds that inhabit dramatic environmental and latitudinal gradients, specifically within the genus Anairetes (Aves, Tyrannidae). I use phylogenetic, population genetic, and physiological methods to examine patterns of diversification across environmental gradients. In the first chapter, I infer the phylogeny of Anairetes tit-tyrants to provide an essential phylogenetic framework to ask subsequent questions of biogeography and diversification within the group. In the second chapter, I investigated the role of differential adaptation to altitude in promoting diversification and maintaining species limits between A. reguloides and A. nigrocristatus. The phylogeny of the flycatcher …

The Contribution Of Young-Of-Year Fishes To Aquatic Food Web Dynamics In An Arid-Land River System (Rio Grande, New Mexico), Corey Anne Krabbenhoft

Biology ETDs

1. Larval fishes have a rich history in ichthyological research. However, relatively little attention has been given to the role of young-of-year (YOY) fishes in ecosystem processes. Despite difficulties of sampling and identifying these small fishes, YOY may serve an important role in the dynamics of some aquatic communities. The specific role of YOY fishes in aquatic, desert food webs remains largely uncharacterized.

2. We hypothesize that YOY fishes may control abundance and community composition of lower trophic levels (i.e., aquatic invertebrates) because they are numerically dominant predators during the growing season. The goal of this study is to determine …

Effects Of Global Change On Savanna Grassland Ecosystems, Sally Elizabeth Koerner

Biology ETDs

Humans are altering the environment locally and globally through climate and land use change. Global temperature is increasing, precipitation patterns are becoming more variable, disturbance regimes are being altered, and ecosystems are being simplified as multi-species communities are replaced by monocultures of crops or livestock. Grasslands, which cover approximately a third of the terrestrial lands, are ecologically and economically significant, thus their responses to environmental change will have dramatic consequences for global patterns of productivity, biodiversity, and food production. This dissertation research investigates how the three main drivers of mesic grassland ecosystems — precipitation, grazing, and fire - interact to …

Reproductive Phenology Of Fishes Of The Rio Grande, New Mexico: A Genes-To-Community Approach, Trevor James Krabbenhoft

Biology ETDs

Reproductive phenology is a key life history attribute of long lived organisms that can strongly affect reproductive success and, ultimately, drive community composition. Understanding the ecological causes and consequences and genetic mechanisms shaping reproductive timing is key to predicting the outcome of environmental change (e.g., climate change). The three chapters that comprised this dissertation were focused on elucidating the ecological and genetic underpinnings of reproductive timing in the fish community of an arid-land river, the Rio Grande, New Mexico. In Chapter 1, we assessed reproductive phenology in the Rio Grande fish community with four years of young-of-year sampling data and …

Identification Of The Wings Apart Transcriptional Unit In Drosophila Melanogaster, Ginny R. Morriss

Biology ETDs

Muscle development is an evolutionarily conserved process. Mechanisms that govern the development of specific muscles in invertebrates can inform our understanding of how vertebrate muscles form. Understanding these processes allows us to translate developmental mechanisms to disease pathogenesis, as similar genes and developmental processes are affected by these diseases. In this dissertation, CG14614 is identified as the gene responsible for the wings apart phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster. This mutation leads to a loss of the adult jump muscle (TDT) in most cases and a greater than 60% reduction in muscle fibers in its least severe form. wap mutants fail to …

Linking Environment To Ecology In Arid Land Consumers: Two Case Studies, Ian White Murray

Biology ETDs

The physical environment has a profound influence over many aspects of animal ecology, such as governing the pace and timing of phenology and the patterns of activity across space and time. In extreme habitats such as deserts, the most important components of the physical environment are precipitation and temperature. Not only do these vary temporally and spatially, but this variation may influence the life history and ecology of species. My research examines how variance in temperature and precipitation influences the ecology of two species of desert dwelling consumers (desert woodrats and desert tortoises) over differing temporal scales. In Chapter 1, …

Spectral Densities And Coherence Of Nm Hydrology; Nm Decomposition Analysis; Quantifying Science Education, Jennifer L. Tichy

Biology ETDs

Chapter 1: River discharge and montane snowpack play a central role in controlling processes at all levels of ecological organization, so the identification of dominant hydrological periods is an important issue in relating the physical system to the biological system. To quantitatively study the Rio Grande discharge along with the closely related snowpack, we determine the spectral densities as a function of frequency in addition to coherence estimates. This is quality-controlled through a signal to noise ratio, which also allows us to create a transfer function to model the relationship between river discharge and snowpack. By using frequency domain techniques, …

Effects Of Translocation And Climatic Events On The Population Genetic Structure Of Black Bears In New Mexico, Frederic S. Winslow

Biology ETDs

Population structure of the American black bear (Ursus americanus) in New Mexico has been shaped by anthropogenic and natural forces. Black bears occur in habitat islands throughout New Mexico with natural movement among islands influenced by periodic drought, resource limitations and dispersal. Both natural movement and human mediated translocations primarily involve male black bears because of their tendency to move farther distances and more frequent conflict with human dominated landscapes than females. Using DNA microsatellite analysis to investigate the degree of differentiation between different population segments (Fst =0.025 across genetic loci, range = 0.018-0.032) we determined that black bear populations …

Anaerobic Digestion Technology: How Agricultural Producers And The Environment Might Profit From Nuisance Lawsuits, Catherine M. H. Keske

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

A Policy Analysis Of The Collaborative Upper Colorado River Basin Endangered Fish Recovery Program: Cost Savings Or Cost Shifting, John Loomis, Jeffery Ballweber

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Health Parameters Across The Lifespan Among The Ache Of Paraguay, John D. Wagner

Anthropology ETDs

This work provides an integrative approach for assessing population health among a group of indigenous South American forager-farmers, the northern Aché of eastern Paraguay. The Aché were full-time hunting and gathering nomads up until the time of first peaceful contact in the early 1970s when they experienced a devastating virgin-soil population epidemic that killed approximately 40% of the population, where all age and sex groups were affected more or less equally with the exception of a higher survival rate among reproductive-aged women. The Aché are now settled on several reservations and have fully recovered their population numbers. The Aché have …

New Paleoclimate Reconstruction Techniques In Archaeology: Applications In Greece, New Mexico, And Portugal, Brandon Lee Drake

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation develops new techniques of analysis that make existing archaeological data more useful for understanding past climate change. These techniques are introduced through three key case studies in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, the Lower Alentejo of Portugal, and the Eastern Mediterranean. A 12,000 year record of pollen collected from packrat middens across Chaco Canyon were analyzed using a new normalization procedure to produce a Holocene record of piñon and ponderosa pine abundance. The normalization procedure, species occurrence, enabled statistical analysis of the data. Simple linear models indicated that piñon and ponderosa pollen were strongly correlated with …

The Roles Of Carma1 And Pkcθ In T Cell Function And Immunity, Katy Korzekwa

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

T cells are critical players in adaptive immunity. They migrate throughout the body scanning the lymph nodes for antigen, then migrate to an infection site to help clear pathogen. Migrating T cells use multiple receptors and adhesion proteins to migrate to and enter different tissues. While the cell surface molecules involved in T cell motility are well understood, less is known about intracellular signaling pathways involved in T cell migration. PKCθ and CARMA1 signal downstream of TCR activation to induce NF-κB activation. However, the roles of PKCθ and CARMA1 in other T cell functions are unknown. In this study we …