Digital Commons Network^™

An Evaluation Of Biopesticide Combinations On Yield Performance And Disease/Arthropod Control Of Strawberries Grown In High Tunnel Plasticulture Production Systems In Arkansas., Karlee B. Pruitt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This two-year study investigated combinations of biopesticides to determine impacts on strawberry fruit marketable fruit yields, and effectiveness in controlling strawberry pests in a high tunnel production system at the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Two strawberry cultivars Fragaria × ananassa (Duch.), Camino Real and Sweet Sensation were grown in a high tunnel from early-October to mid-May for two consecutive growing seasons, (2017-18 and 2018-19) with six treatment combinations of biopesticides including an untreated (water) control, nutrient spray and selected biological based fungicides and insecticides, arranged into a split-plot randomized block design. …

A Putative Cystathionine Beta-Synthase Homolog Of Mycolicibacterium Smegmatis Is Involved In De Novo Cysteine Biosynthesis, Saroj Kumar Mahato

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mycobacteria include serious pathogens of humans and animals. Mycolicibacterium smegmatis is a non-pathogenic model that is widely used to study core mycobacterial metabolism. This thesis explores mycobacterial pathways of cysteine biosynthesis by generating and study of genetic mutants of M. smegmatis. Published in vitro biochemical studies had revealed three independent routes to cysteine synthesis in mycobacteria involving separate homologs of cysteine synthase, namely CysK1, CysK2, and CysM. However, in vivo data were lacking. The M. smegmatis genome encodes only a CysM homolog and lacks orthologs for CysK1 or CysK2. The gene that codes for CysM is a part of an …

Teacher Turnover And Teacher Retirement, Dillon Fuchsman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teachers have an important impact on students in the short- and long-term, but only teachers’ experience consistently predicts high teacher quality. This dissertation, divided into three chapters, investigates two topics that are related to teachers’ experience levels: turnover and retirement.

The first chapter studies the relationship between voluntary beginning teacher turnover and teachers’ levels of conscientiousness. It uses the data from the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study and the effort that teachers put on a survey taken during their first year in the profession as a proxy for teachers’ levels of conscientiousness. The results of this chapter indicate that teachers putting …

Hydroponic And Soilless Culture Systems And Transplant Practices Influence Production Of Basil (Omicum Basilicum L.), Samuel Warren Edward Doty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two controlled-environment greenhouse experiments evaluated (1) plant growth and morphology of basil (Omicum basilicum L.) grown in three different hydroponic and soilless substrate systems and (2) seedling tray cell-count and transplant date into hydroponic culture effects on basil growth and yield at harvest. For the first experiment, four basil cultivars (‘Genovese’, ‘Mrs. Burns Lemon’, ‘Sweet Thai’, and ‘Cinnamon’) were grown in deep flow technique (DFT) hydroponics, nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponics, and a novel shallow aggregate ebb-and-flood (SAEF) soilless substrate system and were harvested after 21 d. Plant yield and morphological characteristics measured at harvest included shoot fresh mass, shoot …

Extreme Ideologies, Situational Factors, And Terrorists’ Target Selection, Evan Mudgett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to examine how ideology and situational factors shape terrorist target selection in the United States. While a growing number of studies have examined target selection by terrorists, the current study is the first to consider how combinations of factors present situated opportunities for terrorists to select particular types of targets as opposed to others. Guided by the situational crime prevention approach, this study relies on data from the American Terrorism Study (ATS) to measure attributes of incidents perpetrated by far-right and Islamic extremists and target selection. The outcomes of interest include government versus …

An Exploration Of The Experiences Of Faculty With Disabilities In A Research University In The South, Gonzalo Camp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While diversity and inclusion has become a benchmark for universities all around the country, faculty with disabilities remain in the margins of higher education discourse and are a neglected population across the spectrum of academia. This thesis aims at exploring the experiences of faculty with disabilities at a specific research 1 university in the South. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five faculty members who self-identify as having a disability. Four themes emerged from this study: able-bodied lens, fear, social isolation, and coping mechanisms. Building on the existing literature, these findings offer new information to expand the knowledge on the challenges …

Lay Latitude: Latter-Day Saint Women's Agency In Northwest Arkansas, Andrew Tompkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The question of women’s agency in gender-traditional religions has been the subject of much scholarly attention over the past four decades, but little research has been done focusing specifically on Latter-day Saint women and their identities and roles within the structure and practice of the Church. In popular media representations, Latter-Day Saint women are often depicted as submissive or surviving, either powerless pawns or resistant warriors. However, many Latter-day Saint women find fulfillment and empowerment within and because of, rather than outside or in spite of, the institutional Church. In this thesis, I explore women’s agency in Northwest Arkansas’ Greendale …

Reactions To Gulf War I And Gulf War Ii In American And Iraqi Cinema And Theatre: The Quest For A Global Utopia, Tajaddin Salahaddin Noori

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many American and Iraqi cultural reactions to Gulf War I and Gulf War II, including the texts selected for this story, expressed the dystopian consequences of these wars. However, this study focuses on exploring the utopian dimensions of the selected texts and investigates how these texts attempt to reconcile both sides of the conflict and produce visions toward a global utopia. Significantly, this study represents the visions toward a global utopia as a series of visions toward oneness. That is, oneness of human beings over otherness, oneness of different nation states under one global community, and oneness of cultural productions’ …

The Recognition Preferences Of Ontario County 4-H Volunteers, Sarah Bagley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The 4-H program relies on volunteers to deliver quality youth programing to the local community. Therefore, volunteer management is an important job of a 4-H educator. The Ontario County 4-H program utilizes 94 volunteers who serve a variety of roles within the program, and the retention of these volunteers is important to the program’s continued success. Older volunteer studies have found that volunteer recognition is an important aspect of volunteer satisfaction and retention. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the characteristics of current Ontario county 4-H volunteers, understand the underlying motivations and recognition preferences of these volunteers, determine if correlations …

A Comparative Taxonomic And Diversity Study Of Litter-Associated Fungi In Northwest Arkansas Forests, Rajaa Abdulrazzaq Abbas Al Aanbagi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fungi are taxonomically the most species-rich group of organisms on the earth, ecologically occupy distinctive niches and interact with diverse other organisms throughout their biogeographic distributions and functionally play key roles through their various lifestyles. Plant litter, in particular, is a keystone component in ecosystems and provides heterogeneous microhabitats for the often overlooked litter-decomposing fungi and other organisms on the floor of temperate deciduous forests. Litter fungi involve indirect interactions with the plant, soil and whole food web network. However, the community structure and functions of litter-associated fungi as well as patterns of species richness distributed across various litter microhabitats …

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Ammonia Volatilization From Soil Amended With Excreta From Ruminants Fed Alternative Forage-Based Diets, Samuel Park

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Forage-based ruminant diets supplemented with condensed tannins or polyphenolic-containing legumes may alter nitrogen (N) metabolism in the animal and reduce gas emissions from soil receiving excreta. The objective of the study was to determine if soil receiving urine or manure from sheep fed forage diets supplemented with condensed tannin or polyphenolic-containing legumes would decrease N gas emissions. Two field trials were conducted: in the first trial, sheep were fed alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) silage diets supplemented with 0, 9, 18, or 27% sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneate [Dumont de Courset] G. Don) (n = 4). In the second trial sheep were …

Ser Americano: The Cost Of Being American, Alejandra Campos

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over a decade ago, the Dreamer movement began, led by young undocumented Latinx youth. These activists became known as "Dreamers" who continue to advocate for a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants. Through media, speeches, and artwork, Dreamers use the cultural narrative of the "American Dream" to create the boundaries of their American identity. Traditionally, American Identity is studied through 4 schools of thought: ethno-culturalism, liberalism, civic republicanism, and incorporationism. I offer an analysis of two concepts of American identity, meritocracy, and hyperdocumentation, that are mostly missing from the American identity literature. Additionally, I propose social citizenship as a theory …

The Stigmatization Of Hunger: The Impact Of Social Stigma On Arkansas Youths’ Food Security, Emily Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Arkansas, 26.3% of children are food insecure, meaning they do not have enough or lack the ability to obtain enough food for adequate nutrition (Miller 2019). In recent years, a new phenomenon has been taking place called lunch shaming where children are sometimes forced to wear signs or handstamps that say the child’s lunch account is overdue. This research analyzes how the media frames food insecurity and how perceived social stigmas affect a student’s willingness to seek out help when struggling with food security.

The Impact Of Social Media On The Social Lives Of People With Visual Impairment (Facebook Groups As A Case Study), Itto Outini

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This present research seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of why people with visual impairment use social media. I investigate this question using uses and gratification (U&G) Theory, which was developed by Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch (1974). The theory explains what people do with media and why. The purpose of this study is twofold: it seeks to document reasons people with visual impairment use Facebook and it endeavors to reveal which variables can influence users’ decisions to use one social media platform instead of another. In particular, I am interested in determining factors motivating users with visual impairment to …

Journalism Vs. Activism: How The Social Impact Of Journalism Has Evolved, Kathryn Serrano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to question the objectivity norm that arose in journalism in the 20th century, and analyze what objectivity means today in the context of investigative journalism. This study examined the mission statements and objectives of the investigative nonprofits The Marshall Project and Injustice Watch, which are two publications with specific mission statements that cover the United States criminal justice system. The examination of these nonprofits helps explore a question of where the line is drawn between journalism and activism. The researcher interviewed 25 journalists from mainstream media outlets, the nonprofits discussed above, and other investigative …

Instagram And Eating Disorders: An Empirical Study Of The Effects Of Instagram On Disordered Eating Habits Among Young Girls, Katherine Wayles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have studied the relationship between body dissatisfaction and social media use, particularly focusing on young women as vulnerable consumers. Many studies concentrate on the amount of media consumed, rather than the specific activities and behaviors associated with feelings of low self-esteem or poor body image. It is important to determine exactly what behaviors and social media engagements contribute to disordered relationships with food, assessing a user’s pre-existing weight/body concerns in relation to the amount and type of media they consume. Instagram in particular is included in this study, as it is an image-based social networking site where users can …

Phylogenetic Diversity Of Arkansas Vineyard And Wine Microbiota, Natacha Cureau

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microorganisms inhabiting the soil, leaves, and grapes in vineyards influence the terroir, a set of environmental factors that impact wine characteristics. Previously, the main method to identify microorganisms was to culture on different media, but a large portion (> 99%) could not be cultured and were consequently unidentified. However, the emergence of new molecular tools has enabled further study and identification of microorganisms such as indigenous vineyard microbiota. The objective of this research was to investigate the phylogenetic diversity of Arkansas vineyard and wine microbiota using high-throughput sequencing. In terms of the Arkansas vineyards, the fungal and bacterial diversity of …

Practitioner Use Of And Attitudes Toward Video-Conferencing For The Delivery Of Evidence-Based Telemental Health Interventions, Kathryn Parisi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Compared to telehealth delivery of interventions for physical health issues, the implementation of evidence-based psychosocial interventions using technology has less support. Video-conference delivery (VCD) has the potential to increase accessibility to effective treatments, although its use remains limited and understudied. This study employed a mixed methods approach in surveying mental health practitioners about their attitudes regarding the use of video-conference methods to deliver evidence-based interventions. One hundred and eleven practitioners were sampled from several national and regional practice organizations and administered quantitative surveys about their use of and attitudes towards VCD of evidence-based interventions. The relationship between clinician-level technology access, …

Sex, Stress, And The Supreme Court: Verbal And Vocalic Analysis Of Brett Kavanaugh’S Senate Confirmation Hearings To The Supreme Court, Alexandra Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the relationship between verbal and nonverbal vocalic communication patterns exhibited by Brett Kavanaugh, now a sitting Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, during his Senate confirmation hearings in 2018. Additionally, the relationship between verbal statement types: attempt to define reality, personal narrative, policy positions, attacks, acclaims, and defenses, and the nonverbal vocalics of sighs, sharp intakes of breath, and sniffs were evaluated together to see which statement types would elicit higher physiological stress responses during both the 16-minute speech given at the end of the Day One hearing and the 45-minute testimony during the sexual assault hearing. …

Dynamic Fraud Detection Via Sequential Modeling, Panpan Zheng

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The impacts of information revolution are omnipresent from life to work. The web services have signicantly changed our living styles in daily life, such as Facebook for communication and Wikipedia for knowledge acquirement. Besides, varieties of information systems, such as data management system and management information system, make us work more eciently. However, it is usually a double-edged sword. With the popularity of web services, relevant security issues are arising, such as fake news on Facebook and vandalism on Wikipedia, which denitely impose severe security threats to OSNs and their legitimate participants. Likewise, oce automation incurs another challenging security issue, …

(In)Equality., Jongin Choi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

(in)Equality. centers around my experiences as a transnational person and those around me who have affected my current concept of equality and cultural histories. My visual methodologies cover digital photography and editing, inkjet printing, and laser engraving: multimedia in a process of new discovery, translation between analog and digital, and rearticulation. The exhibition includes portraits peering down from above, illuminated by projected patterns and manipulated messages from Nike’s “Equality.” (2017). The purpose of this thesis paper is to describe the elements of identity, marginalization, and personal reaction to advertising, as well as the and theories which have shaped this project. …

The Effects Of Seed-Applied Fluopyram On Root Penetration And Development Of Meloidogyne Incognita On Cotton And Soybean, Tracy Hawk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plant-parasitic nematodes are major pests of cotton and soybean in Arkansas, and across the Southern United States. These nematodes cause more than $3 billion worth of crop losses each year, in part due to lack of available control tactics, such as nematicides. Fluopyram has recently been registered as a seed-treatment nematicide in agronomic crops. The toxicity of fluopyram against Meloidogyne incognita infection has been reported, however, information on root protection provided by fluopyram against Meloidogyne incognita is lacking. The first objective of this research was to evaluate the effect seed-applied fluopyram had on nematode development, root galling, and reproduction on …

Use Of Aerial Imagery And Novel Experimental Design To Determine The Distribution Of Foliar Diseases On Soybean And Improve Efficiency Of Product Testing, Mckayla Patterson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Soybeans are grown on approximately 1.3 million ha in Arkansas generating an estimated $1.7 billion annually. Foliar diseases on soybean can result in economic losses. Growers spend significant time and money on disease scouting via crop consultants and often (subsequent) fungicide applications. Fungicide trials are often arranged in small plots designs. In these scenarios, spatial variability of foliar disease is minimized. While it is advantageous to minimize variance outside of treatment differences, another limitation with many small plot trials is ample disease pressure or having only lower severity. Within a commercial production field, soil types and disease severities vary. Logically, …

When They Sing A Song Of Joy With Sorrow, Ziba Rajabi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As an Iranian female artist, my work revolves around my desire to reconcile my relationship with two distinctive places, Tehran (my native land) and Arkansas (where I reside now). In my paintings and installations, I re-create intimate moments culled from my home and neighborhood in Iran. Due to a situation where I am far away from my homeland and not allowed to return without being forced to remain in Iran, I can feel my memories of home fading away. By utilizing memories from my past, I take aspects of images that are no longer recognizable and, therefore, are abstracted into …

Understanding How The Effectors Hopd1 And Hopg1 From The Bacterial Pathogen Pseudomonas Syringae Pv. Tomato Dc3000 Target The Arabidopsis Thaliana Protein Atnhr2b To Cause Disease In Plants, Catalina Maria Rodriguez Puerto

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The pathogenicity of Pseudomonas syringae is associated with the type III secretion system (T3SS), a complex of proteins assembled in the inner and outer bacterial membranes that traverses the plant cell wall to deliver bacterial proteins into the cytoplasm of plant cells. The effector proteins translocated into the plant cells are called Hops (Hypersensitive response and pathogenicity outer proteins). Bacterial effectors target plant immune proteins to suppress defense responses and enhance bacterial parasitism. The Arabidopsis thaliana nonhost resistance 2B (AtNHR2B), a recently identified immune protein, is degraded after inoculation with the adapted pathogen of Arabidopsis, P. syringae pv tomato DC3000 …

Cytotoxicity And Mutagenicity Of Disinfection Byproduct Mixtures Formulated Using Free Chlorine And Monochloramine, Yonas Ghebremedhin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bioassays have been used extensively to assess various toxicity endpoints of drinking water disinfection byproducts (DBPs), but an emphasis on single compounds prevails. In this research, DBP mixtures were assessed using a cytotoxicity test with Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells and an Ames fluctuation test with Salmonella typhimurium TA-98 and TA-100 with and without S9 rat liver homogenate. Seven whole mixture DBP concentrates were formulated using reconstituted natural organic matter (NOM) extracts from the Upper Mississippi River using scaled disinfectant dosing protocols with free chlorine and monochloramine in the presence and absence of added bromide. DBPs were identified by gas …

The Cognition Of Controversy: Examining Policy Elites’ Narrative Cognition And Communication Around Hydraulic Fracturing Practices In The U.S., Rachael M. Moyer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of hydraulic fracturing (HF) technologies to extract oil and gas in the United States has sparked contentious policy debates, producing inconsistent and inefficient policies that have done little to address the impacts of HF in any comprehensive way. Debates are accompanied by competing policy narratives that position HF as either an environmental threat or an economic opportunity, but little is known about how policy narratives around HF are used by individuals. This dissertation systematically examines how individuals cognitively internalize elements of competing HF policy narratives. Organized into three empirical chapters, this dissertation analyzes narrative cognition (Jones, Shanahan, and …

Characterizing Hydrothermal System Groundwater Dynamics Using Conservative And Non-Conservative Tracers: Insights And Implications Drawn From Study At The Taupo Volcanic Zone (New Zealand) And Valles Caldera (Usa), Joshua Michael Blackstock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hydrothermal systems constitute an important component of heat and mass transport within Earth’s crust having direct and indirect impacts to society. Investigating contemporary hydrochemical differences and change are critical to evaluating and deconvolving factors that influence geothermal systems through time. In this dissertation, groundwater mixing approaches were used to study hydrochemical differences in two globally significant hydrothermal areas, which included fabrication of a low-cost dissolved CO2 monitoring for dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). In the Taupo Volcanic Zone (New Zealand), empirical spatial relations were used to derive low-temperature groundwater end-members of Cl and Cl/Br for end-member mixing analysis (EMMA). Using EMMA, …

Species Richness And Ecological Diversity Of Myxomycetes And Myxomycete-Like Organisms In The Tropical Forests Of Brazil, Isadora Lima Coelho

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tropical rain forests cover less than two percent of Earth's surface, yet they sustain the greatest diversity of living organisms on the planet. Tropical rain forests cover nearly 73% of the Brazilian territory and besides harboring some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, this vast area also houses about 83% of the Brazilian population. Approximately 175 million people live in urban and rural areas with fragments of coverage of these biomes which contributes to the loss of biodiversity that rapidly increases over the years. Furthermore, the majority of the taxonomic and ecological efforts to describe and protect the …

The Rise Of Anti-Immigration Populist Radical Right Parties: The Effect Of The Syrian Conflict On Refugee Resettlement And Migration Policies In Germany And Austria, Sara Kouchehbagh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effects of Syrian migration in Europe have revolutionized refugee resettlement globally. Most immigration and refugee problems have historically been settled similarly post WWII, however, Syria is the largest refugee crisis since WWII. It is important to learn how to respond to future conflicts with displacement and resettlement affecting Western countries that are unprepared to respond to a conflict of such magnitude. This thesis will compare previous conflicts and the Syrian conflict, while highlighting the resilient political momentum of reactionary new political groups in European states, particularly Germany and Austria.

The research and results from this study will include data …