Digital Commons Network^™

Romantic Ends: Death And Dying, 1776-1835, Andrew J. Welch

Dissertations

Romantic Ends reinterprets of the origins and legacies of romantic death, the cultural spectacle exemplified by the dramatic deaths of young poets like John Keats. Against the widespread belief that romanticism ushered in a uniquely theatrical vision of death, Romantic Ends traces a long history of death as rhetorical performance, from the early modern ars moriendi ("art of dying") to the neoclassical obsession with the good death. The poetic deaths of the romantic period established a new repertoire of tropes and figures out of these longstanding and disparate deathbed traditions, set within the emerging discursive arena of "poetry." Yet while …

Technology Integration In Context, Joanna Marshall

Dissertations

This study employed an ecological framework to examine how multiple contextual variables from the state biosphere, district biome, school habitat and classroom niche impact how teachers decide to integrate technology. It was an opportunity to observe how a teacher's Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge operates in a classroom in response to the building, district and state contexts. It was conducted in multiple classrooms in one school and with science teachers. It included a self-study component. It provided an opportunity to directly observe the interactions between students and teacher as distinct species in the classroom when technology integration occurred. This allowed me …

Practice And Practitioner Correlates Of Psychotherapists’ Self-Perceived Clinical Wisdom, Shveta Kumaria

Dissertations

Wisdom is seen as quality that makes the navigation of the complex issues of human existence easier. A role that wise individuals often perform is that of problem-solver, advisor, and mentor. Therapist factors have been found to account for a greater role in treatment effectiveness than the choice of treatment modality; therefore, this study attempts to find parallels between the fields of psychotherapy research (therapist factors) and self-perceived wisdom by examining the practice and practitioner correlates of therapists who feel wise with their clients.

This study analyzed data collected over the past two decades by members of the Society for …

Discrete Time Structured Models And Their Dynamics For Interactive Wild And Sterile Mosquitoes And Malaria Transmissions, Yang Li

Dissertations

Mosquito-borne diseases, including malaria, transmitted between human beings by blood-feeding mosquitoes, have been big concerns for the public health. No vaccines are available. An effective way to prevent such diseases is to control the amount of mosquitoes. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is indeed a method of biological control. Mathematical models have proven useful in gaining insights into challenging questions in population dynamics and epidemiology. The objectives in this dissertation is to formulate new models for interactive wild and sterile mosquitoes so that the dynamics are relatively simpler and mathematically more tractable, but the fundamental model features are snatched. Instead …

Site Specific Isotopic Labeling Of Phenylalanine And Tyrosine : Application To Pth1, Bhargavi Ramaraju

Dissertations

Structural insight into biological macromolecules furthers understanding of function and provides a variety of information about cellular processes. Though NMR spectroscopy can be utilized to provide such insight, limitations, including size, are significant barriers. Site specific isotope labeling can be used to provide information on a variety of systems including large, slow tumbling systems and membrane proteins that are not amenable to study by traditional means. In effect, site specific isotope labeling increases the size barrier and thereby number of macromolecular systems able to be studied by NMR spectroscopy. Methyl labeling has been established as a leading method for site …

The Effects Of Wing Flexibility On The Flight Performance And Stability Of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles, James Edward Bluman

Dissertations

Insect wings are flexible. However, the influence of wing flexibility on the flight dynamics of insects and flapping wing micro air vehicles is unknown. Most studies in the literature consider rigid wings and conclude that the hover equilibrium is unstable. This dissertation shows that a flapping wing flyer with flexible wings exhibits stable natural modes of the open loop system in hover, never reported before. The free-flight insect flight dynamics is modeled for both flexible and rigid wings. Wing mass and inertia are included in the nonlinear equations of motion. The flapping wing aerodynamics are modeled using a quasi-steady model, …

Novel Antifungal Properties Of High Mannose Binding Lectins With Particular Emphasis On Scytovirin And Cryptococcus, Tyler Hays Jones

Dissertations

Fungal pathogens represent a growing concern in human health, and the advancement of new therapeutic options is essential. The encapsulated basidiomycotic yeast Cryptococcus causes severe meningoencephalitis and cryptococcosis results in over 600,000 deaths a year. The prevalence of cryptococcal infection is increasing, driving the need for new and improved treatments. Scytovirin is a high mannose binding lectin from the cyanobacterium Scytonema varium. Originally pursued as an antiviral, herein is reported novel antifungal activity with detailed characterization of activity against Cryptococcus. Scytovirin specifically binds Man4, the D3 arm of Man9, a carbohydrate moiety found on cryptococcal glycoproteins. Localization of Scytovirin in …

"Witness" And "Bearing Witness" In The Legal Settings Of The Pentateuch And The Gospel Of John: An Intertextual Study, Franklin A. Marti

Dissertations

This dissertation studies the words “witness” and “to bear witness” in the Pentateuch and in the Gospel of John, and at the same time presents an intertextual connection between these books.

The study begins with an introduction in which I present the background and statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the delimitations and the methodology.

Following the introduction chapter 1 deals with the review of the literature from ANE documents to ancient Jewish interpretation. I conclude that even though the Code of Hammurabi and the Hittite treaties are documents with different purposes, they reflect a similar feature: …

A Study Of The Pokot Cultural Worldview: Missiological Implications For Seventh-Day Adventist Witness Among The Pastoral Nomads Of Kenya, Haron Matwetwe

Dissertations

Seventh-day Adventist witness among the nomadic peoples of the East Africa region is faced with a number of challenges. Although the Church enjoys relative success in reaching most communities, its growth and development appears restricted to locations occupied by the settled communities. Unfamiliarity with nomads’ cultural structures and values is partial explanation for why missionaries have failed to effectively connect with the nomads thereby hampering the establishment of a more vibrant mission work in pastoral nomadic regions.

This qualitative research sought to describe the Pokot cultural worldview as a step toward understanding their socio-cultural context and identify barriers to effective …

Cellular Determinants Of Coronavirus Entry Routes, James Thomas Earnest

Dissertations

Coronaviruses (CoVs) represent some of the greatest modern threats to global health. CoVs are zoonotic viruses that generally cause respiratory or enteric infections. The ability of CoVs to move between species and into human populations ensures that CoVs will remain important and dangerous pathogens. Therefore, understanding how CoVs infect different hosts is vital to human health.

CoVs are enveloped and must undergo fusion of viral and host membranes to initiate infection. Viral glycoproteins, called Spike (S) proteins, are responsible for host cell binding and carrying out the membrane fusion reaction. S proteins store energy in their folded, pre-fusion conformation that …

The Effects Of Alcohol And Traumatic Brain Injury On Neural Stem Cell Responses, Son Trung Ton

Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major source of disability in modern societies. However, there are no good pharmacological strategies for treating long-term TBI complications because we do not fully understand the injury processes that occur afterward. Moreover, a significant percent of patients entering the emergency room with TBI have a blood alcohol level above the legal limit. Alcohol use and intoxication is a widespread issue in our society. Binge drinking is the most common way in which alcohol is consumed, and alarmingly, Americans of all age groups binge drink on a frequent basis. Despite the prevalence of alcohol intoxication …

Exploring The Implications For Educational Leadership: A Case Study Of Cristo Rey St. Martin College Preparatory High School, Julie Lynn Frey

Dissertations

This is a case study of Cristo Rey St. Martin High School, member of the Cristo Rey Network. Cristo Rey St. Martin has been able to make gains in closing the gap with regard to student entrance into college for low-income minority students, making it a unique and appropriate case to study. The purpose of this research was to study the formation of the leadership at Cristo Rey St. Martin College Preparatory High School.

The case study consisted of interviews, observations, shadowing of the principal, and document analysis.

Major finding include mission creation explicit to student achievement, a student centric …

Detection Of Unknown Emerging Contaminants In Natural Water Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Qian Wang

Dissertations

Recently, a great deal of concern has been given to the quality of drinking water. Lake Michigan is the drinking water source of Chicago area. It is very important that the quality of drinking water meets the standard setup by the EPA. However, there is a group of chemicals that are not being monitored regularly or are unknown to researchers and are the so-called emerging contaminants.

So the objective of this study is to using tandem-mass spectrometry to detect and identify emerging contaminants. Water samples were obtained along a few locations along the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. By using …

Exploring Factors Impacting Veterans' Hypertension Control, Jian Hua Liu

Dissertations

Exploring factors impacting veterans’ hypertension (HTN) control is essential in reducing the common cardiovascular disease event of stroke, heart attack, chronic kidney disease and mortality. The purpose of this study was to describe multidimensional factors impacting veterans’ HTN control. Utilizing a descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional, retrospective, convenience sampling research design, 331 electronic medical records in a VA dashboard data set were reviewed for men and women veterans between the age 24 and 98 years (M=62, SD=13) in a Southern California Veterans Affair primary care clinic from October 17, 2014 through October 17, 2016. Data were analyzed by univariate, bivariate and multivariate …

Uncovering The Protological Hermeneutics Of George Mccready Price And Benjamin Warfield, Sergio L. Silva

Dissertations

Problem

The problem this dissertation addresses is the protological hermeneutical impasse between George McCready Price and Benjamin Warfield over whether biblical protology should be interpreted literally or symbolically in response to the evolutionary theory.

Method

To identify, compare, and contrast the protological hermeneutics of George McCready Price and Benjamin Warfield, this dissertation adopts an interdisciplinary methodology that seeks to integrate historical theology, systematic theology, and exegetical-biblical theology.

Conclusions

The protological hermeneutical impasse between George McCready Price and Benjamin Warfield over the interpretation of biblical protology was caused by how they applied their views on epistemology. On the hermeneutical level (where …

Toward A Model Of The Ontology Of The Divine Indwelling Of Humans: A Comparative Study Of John Wesley And John Cobb, Cory Wetterlin

Dissertations

Topic

The topic of this dissertation is moving toward a model of the ontology of the divine indwelling by the means of a comparative study of John Wesley and John Cobb.

Problem

The purpose of this research is to survey and analyze the writings of Wesley and Cobb, in order to present their models of the ontological nature of the divine-human indwelling. In addition, an effort will be made to evaluate their models, based on their interpretations of Romans 6-8 compared with each other and selected current scholarship.

Sources

Sources used in this research include but are not limited to …

Anthropogenic Disturbance Modulates Mammal Community Diversity, Assembly, & Abundance: Emerging Infectious Disease Risk In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Leticia Andrea Gutiérrez Jiménez

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of mammalian biodiversity in maintaining overall ecosystem health in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). The study explores the pathways by which anthropogenic disturbance prevents or promotes the emergence of human infectious diseases. I studied two paramount research questions: Question 1: What are the direct effects of anthropogenic disturbance on rodent community assemblages and the consequent indirect effects on public health? I first surveyed the GYE rodent community and their pathogens by using land use as a measure of anthropogenic disturbance (e.g., human settlements, horseback ranches, pastures, undisturbed). I identified pathogens in rodent blood samples by …

Color-Mediated Foraging By Pollinators: A Comparative Study Of Two Passionflower Butterflies At Lantana Camara, Gyanpriya Maharaj

Dissertations

Colorful floral signaling and resulting insect foraging behaviors have only been extensively examined in hymenopteran pollinators, especially bees, in comparison to flies, beetles, and butterflies regardless of their ecological importance. Therefore, my study provides novel information by focusing on foraging behaviors of adult passionflower butterflies, Heliconius melpomene and Dryas iulia, to the color changing flowers of Lantana camara. My dissertation which is divided into four chapters, aims to explore various aspects of color mediate foraging in passionflower butterflies by combining observations in the wild with controlled field and laboratory experiments. In the first chapter I reviewed flower color development and …

The Writing Development Of Multilingual Youth In A Spanish Immersion School, Angela Billur Layton

Dissertations

Language immersion schools offer students from diverse backgrounds with an opportunity for language enrichment education. Yet few studies attend to students’ perspectives on writing and multilingualism in immersion schools. The purpose of this study was to explore how four students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds were developing writing and multilingual competencies at their Spanish Immersion Elementary School (SIES). This research investigated children’s emerging theories of writing and how school policies afforded and constrained practice. Further, this study examined the developmental trajectory of one trilingual student’s writing over time. This qualitative inquiry drew from two research traditions: ethnographic case study …

Historical Biogeography, Spatial Distribution, And Within-Host Interactions Of Avian Haemosporidian Parasites (Apicomplexa, Haemosporida), Leticia De Souza Soares

Dissertations

This dissertation addresses several aspects of the biogeography and evolution of avian malarial parasites (Haemosporida: Plasmodium and Haemoproteus), and the interactions of these pathogens with their hosts and other avian blood parasites. In Chapter 1, I investigate change in haemosporidian assemblages on the West Indies over millennial time scales, taking advantage of the historical isolation of islands by postglacial rising sea levels. I found that, the prevalence of parasite lineages is highly dynamic over periods from decades to thousands of years. Turnover of lineages requires more time than variation in lineage prevalence, suggesting that competitive exclusion of parasite lineages, likely …

Examining The Combined Effects Of Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature, And Body Size On The Physiological Responses Of A Model Macrobenthic Polychaete Species, Capitella Teleta, Kelsey Burns Gillam

Dissertations

While the scientific community is in consensus that coastal systems are threatened by climate change, few climate change studies test the effects of more than one variable directly related to climate change. The dissolved oxygen (DO) levels of the ocean are currently subject to both global warming and eutrophication; 94% of all hypoxia zones are expected to experience >2°C increase by 2035. This dissertation aims to examine how a model organism responds to simultaneous thermal and DO stress involving four levels of DO (100%, 70%, 50%, and 20%) saturation and three temperatures (15°C, 20°C, and 25°C).

The polychaete, Capitella teleta …

Epidemiology Of White Spot Syndrome Virus In The Daggerblade Grass Shrimp (Palaemonetes Pugio) And The Gulf Sand Fiddler Crab (Uca Panacea), Muhammad

Dissertations

Ever since the first outbreaks of White spot syndrome virus (WSSV), which causes White Spot Disease (WSD), in Asia in the early 1990s, the pathogen has been a major constraint to the profitability of the shrimp aquaculture industry across the globe. WSSV has a broad host range and is routinely detected in wild decapod crustaceans. In the present study, two common species in the tidal salt marsh along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the daggerblade grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio) and the Gulf sand fiddler crab (Uca panacea), were investigated for their role as …

A Microbiomic Approach To The Characterization Of The Impacts And Influences Of Viral, Bacterial, And Harmful Algal Bloom Toxins On The Bottlenose Dolphin, Corey David Russo

Dissertations

As apex predators that display high site fidelity Tursiops truncatus (bottlenose dolphin) are indicators of marine ecosystem health. Bottlenose dolphins, additionally, display pathogenesis and immune response similar to that of humans. Humans and coastal bottlenose dolphins, in particular, are constantly exposed to the same industrial, agricultural and domestic toxins and pathogens, contaminants and pollutants. Thus, studies on the bottlenose dolphin are also valuable in bridging the gap between ocean and human health. Bottlenose dolphins are susceptible to viral bacterial and toxin infection. Infection in the bottlenose dolphin manifests itself in the form of mass stranding events, unusual mortality events, chronic …

Moving Words/Motion Pictures: Proto-Cinematic Narrative In Nineteenth-Century British Fiction, Kara Marie Manning

Dissertations

In the broadest sense, this project is about nineteenth-century narrative texts and optical toys, or those devices that were originally created to demonstrate scientific knowledge related to vision but that would also become popular for home and public consumption. I argue that nineteenth-century British writers borrowed and adapted the visual effects of such toys, making fiction as participatory as the toys themselves in the development of image culture and the viewing practices that would become necessary for the production and dissemination of cinema in the early twentieth century. Narrative fiction, then, should be considered along with the other precursors of …

Evolution In Light Of Mitonuclear Landscapes: An Examination Of Mitochondrial Replacement In Killifish (Fundulus Spp.), Stephen D. Flanagan

Dissertations

The mitochondria are responsible for the bulk of energy production in eukaryotes. They possess their own genome that works in conjunction with the nuclear genome to accomplish the extraordinarily important task of energy conversion. When species hybridize there will be a mismatch in evolutionary histories between these two genomes. The deleterious interactions of these genomes have been studied in great detail (i.e. hybrid breakdown). However, little work has been conducted to understand the population genetic, and morphological consequences of wide-ranging replacement. The Fundulus notatus complex is comprised of 3 species: F. notatus, F. olivaceus, and F. euryzonus. …

Teacher And Administrator Perceptions Of One-To-One Technology Device Implementation, Stewart F. Pratt

Dissertations

The influence of technology on society shows little sign of diminishing (Puybaraud, 2012). Increased capabilities and the affordability of technology devices have brought a resurgence of one-to-one device implementation in schools (Dawson, 2016). This qualitative study was designed to elicit the perceptions of administrators and teachers on one-to-one device implementation. Marc Prensky’s (2001) premise that students are digital natives embedded in media and digital device-rich environments provided the conceptual framework for this study. Furthermore, Prensky (2001) proposed modern students learn, conceptualize, and respond differently than previous generations. The participants in this study represented six southwest Missouri school districts with student …

A Phenomenological Study Of Practicing Educators’ Personal And Collaborative Experiences Within A Climate Of High Stakes Individual Accountability, Kathy L. Stewart

Dissertations

With the national focus in education turning to increasing student achievement and closing achievement gaps between demographic groups, federal and state policy has extended responsibility and high stakes accountability for student growth and achievement. Overall, student achievement status and elimination of achievement gaps between demographically defined sub-groups of students remain cornerstones of accountability under ESEA and now ESSA. Under the Obama Administration, however, accountability for academic growth was extended to individual classroom teachers and school and district-level administrators through federal policy provisions tying student growth to performance evaluation. As a result, many states, including Michigan, enacted legislation to mandate high …

I Matter, As Does The World: Critical Consciousness In Higher Education, Myra Dutko

Dissertations

This dissertation describes how graduate students in a community organizing class move along the critical consciousness pathway. Critical consciousness in the academic arena is critical to the development of democratic participation and agency in students. Critical consciousness is the ability to see, judge and act on issues of injustice in order to create social change. In addition, this research examines what barriers arise in that process. Research participants from an urban, private university in the Midwest narrate the creation of a learning environment and the process of moving towards critical consciousness awakening through journaling and focus group discussions. The data, …

Habitat Use By Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops Truncatus, In Roanoke Sound, North Carolina, Shauna Marisa Mcbride

Dissertations

Information on the habitat use of a species is important to develop conservation efforts and management strategies for that species. Roanoke Sound, North Carolina is primarily a seasonal habitat for bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, from late spring to early fall, but little information is known about how dolphins use this area. Transect survey data and opportunistic survey data collected by the Outer Banks Center for Dolphin Research from 2009 to 2015 were used to analyze dolphin habitat use. The objectives of this project were to: 1) identify areas that were important to dolphins, 2) determine which behaviors were observed …

Property Rights And International Trade: An Institutional Determinant Of Export Structure, Gregory Alan Bonadies

Dissertations

This work investigates the connection, independent of other factors, between a country’s system of law and property rights and patterns of trade. Stronger property rights institutions are hypothesized to lead to greater diversity in exports and a greater proportion of higher value-added exports. Production and export possibilities depend on capital, labor, and technology. Technology is the way in which capital and labor resources can be organized for productive purposes. Property rights condition expressions of technology and thus production possibilities and export potential. Consequently, if property rights vary between countries, then technological expression, production possibilities, and export potential vary as well. …