Digital Commons Network^™

For All Time: An Examination Of Romantic Love Through Curse Tablets, Alicia Deadrick

Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the Greco-Roman amatory defixiones, or curse tablets, and binding spells from the fourth century BCE to the fourth century CE in order to investigate the existence of romantic love in the Mediterranean Basin. Binding spells provide a unique opportunity for cultural analysis, for they were popular with all levels of society, both genders and all sexualities. Three categories of amatory spells prevalent in ancient society (agoge, separation, and philia) undergo examination to establish romantic love as a sentiment separate from eros and philia and in opposition of the currently prevailing relationship theory of …

Differences In Eubacterial And Archaeal Soil Communities Along A Precipitation Transect In The Mojave Desert, Elaine Pressly Bryant

Master's Theses

Deserts occupy one third of the total land mass of Earth, yet little is known about microbial soil communities under conditions of low precipitation and humidity. The Mojave Desert of the Southwestern United States provides an opportunity to observe microbial communities along a precipitation transect. The diversity of these communities can elucidate which specific groups of Eubacteria and Archaea are best adapted to limited liquid water.

Two methods were utilized to determine patterns and trends of the microbial soil communities under varying precipitation levels. Viable plate counts allowed comparison of culturable microorganisms over a four-year period. Molecular techniques distinguished unculturable …

Dangerous Decor: Consumer Knowledge Of Health Risks Within Interior Spaces, Kaitlin Keith

Master's Theses

Interior décor is an ever-present part of people's daily lives. The furnishings and finishes with which people surround themselves are part of their personal expression, but these components in people's homes and work spaces can negatively affect their health. Products such as furniture and paints can contain harmful chemicals, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) so toxic they are pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With the rise in the "green" movement, healthy and environmentally safe alternatives such as low or zero-VOC paints are becoming more available. This study assessed how aware consumers and design professionals are of environmentally …

Reducing Disturbances To Marine Mammals By Kayakers In The Monterey Bay, Megan Maye Gunvalson

Master's Theses

Team OCEAN is a kayaker-outreach program located in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary under the direction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose goal is to reduce disturbances to marine mammals by kayakers. This study documented the interactions between kayakers and resting harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) at Team OCEAN's two outreach sites, Cannery Row and Elkhorn Slough, to determine if outreach was effective in reducing disturbances to harbor seals and sea otters.

No difference was observed in the percentage of kayaks causing disturbances to resting harbor seals when comparing days Team OCEAN …

Post-Fire Analysis Of Sequoia Sempervirens Forests On The Central Coast Of California, Rachel Anne Lazzeri-Aerts

Master's Theses

The public perception of wildfire is that it destroys forests and that all fires should be quickly extinguished. However, fire plays a central role in determining structure, composition, and recruitment in many forest types. In coast redwood forests, the role of fire is not well understood, particularly in the southern part of the range. Observational data suggest that redwoods are relatively unaffected by fire. The sites of three 2008 and 2009 fires were sampled for this study: the Martin Fire in Bonny Doon, California, the Whitehurst Fire near Gilroy, California, and the Lockheed Fire near Swanton, California. Randomly selected ten-meter …

Evaluating Trademark Design, Katherine L. Spencer

Master's Theses

Trademarks serve as visual representations of a company's name, product, or values. This research sought to determine the effect of the application of human factors principles and graphic design principles on trademark design. A computerized questionnaire was employed to investigate the emotional impact, comprehension, and recall of trademarks based on their type (typographic elements or graphic elements), their subject-content compatibility, and their adherence to human factors and graphic design principles. Trademark type had a significant effect on comprehension of trademarks but no significant effect on emotional impact or recall. Trademarks with high subject-content compatibility and trademarks that use visual metaphor …

African American Community College Student Perceptions Of Mathematics Instructor Immediacy Behaviors And Perceived Cognitive Learning, Georgia Lynne Toland

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine what instructor immediacy behaviors are perceived to most positively affect the perceived cognitive learning of African American community college mathematics students. Data were provided via voluntary student surveys collected in various mathematics classrooms at two community colleges. The survey instrument was modeled from the works of Gorham (1988) and Sanders and Wiseman (1990) and included an experimental survey method of direct questioning. The perceptions of African American community college students regarding the behaviors of their mathematics instructors, along with their stated preferred instructor behaviors, produced a subset of effective strategies similar to …

An American Word For War, David Wirth

Master's Theses

Jesse is in his early twenties and stuck in Salinas, California. He works at Lenscrafters, making glasses, making decent money and he is comfortable. The novel opens when Jesse’s high school friend, Ben, is visiting from Los Angeles, where he is a screenwriter. The two go to a party for another old acquaintance, Ian, who has just returned from a tour in Iraq. Their encounter with Ian sets the rest of the novel in motion. They are exposed to something big in the world (the machinery of a war that up to that point had been nothing more than words …

Can't Sing, Can't Dance, Can't Draw: How Leisure Constraints And Negotiations Impact Midlife Women's Participation In The Creative Arts, Debra Ann Ullmann

Master's Theses

This qualitative, exploratory study involving semi-structured interviews of 12 midlife women, ages 45 to 65, sought insight into how intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints, constraint negotiations, and motivations facilitate or impede midlife women's active participation in the creative arts. The data were analyzed within a socio-cultural context using grounded theory. Findings indicate that dynamic interactions involving social comparison result in judgment by others, of others, and of self. This spiraling effect is often initiated in childhood or adolescence. Once a woman internalizes the notion that she "can't sing, can't dance, can"t draw," there is seldom any attempt to negotiate constraints …

Visual Articulation Of Modernism: Self-Portraiture In Colonial Korea, 1915-1932, Julie Chun

Master's Theses

From about 1914, Korean artists began painting on canvas using the Western medium of oil. This seemingly benign shift from ink on paper and silk to oil on canvas was pivotal in engendering Korean painting into the assured phase of artistic modernism. Prescribed conventions that had governed ink painting for over nine hundred years came to be supplanted within a few short years by a divergent artistic paradigm that centralized subjective identity and visually described the ambiguities of contemporary conditions.

The training and production of these early works of art took place not in Korea but in Japan where most …

Tools Of Engagement: The Potential Of Theatre Web Sites For Fostering Active Audience Participation, Elizabeth Lynn Mcclelland

Master's Theses

This thesis explores whether theatre Web sites contain tools that have the potential to deepen audience engagement in live performance. By synthesizing data from a variety of scholarly sources, it presents a thorough and specific definition of engagement (active participation through educated interpretation, conversation and critique, social connection to a theatre company's community, or creative expression) and makes a detailed case that online tools can increase audience engagement. Because it addresses the significance of engagement and Internet technologies to audience participation in the theatrical event, this study is relevant not only to theatre and arts participation scholars but also to …

Diet Of The Gopher Rockfish (Sebastes Carnatus) Inside And Outside Of Marine Protected Areas In Central California, Erin Kimberly Loury

Master's Theses

Marine protected areas (MPAs) can potentially impact food web dynamics by increasing the density of predatory fishes within their borders. Such increases in density can cause shifts in the prey use of generalist predators. This study investigated the effects of increased conspecific density on the diet of Gopher Rockfish (Sebastes carnatus) at a 35-year-old MPA at Point Lobos and four newly established central California MPAs at Año Nuevo, Point Lobos, Piedras Blancas, and Point Buchon. Analysis of 710 stomachs collected in 2007-2009 indicated the most important overall prey were crabs, especially of the family Pisidae and the genus Cancer, as …

Can The Fear Of Death Inspire Creativity?, Michelle Murphy

Master's Theses

The current study examined whether participant's creative performance changed after they became aware of their mortality. The main hypotheses predicted that (1) participants who have highly creative personalities would show an increase in creative performance following mortality salience, (2) participants with less creative personalities would show a decrease in creative performance following mortality salience. Highly creative individuals were distinguished from less creative individuals based on their personality composition. The Consequences Test (Guilford, 1970) was used to measure creative performance. To examine whether creative performance changed after mortality salience, participants completed Form 1A of the Consequences Test, a mortality salience manipulation, …

The Production And Planning Process Of The Book Of Kells, Roxanne V. Jones

Master's Theses

In describing manuscripts such as the Book of Kells, it is often noted that they were copied from pre-existing documents, suggesting that the task of making such manuscripts was easy. While the scribes did use pre-existing manuscripts as an exemplar, the layout of the manuscript had to be carefully planned before ink or pigment could be placed on the page because the nature of the materials they used--the ink, pigments, and vellum--were often scarce and expensive. Scribes did not have the luxury of having an endless supply of materials at their disposal. Preparation of the material took time. Once the …

Exploring The Relationship Between Organizational Citizenship Behavior And Organizational Climates For Creativity, Michael Joseph Cilla

Master's Theses

Technology is growing exponentially, and there is no time to waste for organizations in designing and implementing a creative climate strategy. This study was conducted to explore the relationship between organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and organizational climates that promote creativity. By collecting data from working undergraduate and MBA students (N=201), multiple significant positive relationships were found between several of the dimensions making up both of these constructs. The results of this study show that employee perceptions of creative climates are moderately related to pro-social behaviors. For employees, working in organizations that promote a creative climate relates to having supportive social-exchange …

Patterns Of Genetic And Morphological Variation In Deer Mice (Peromyscus Maniculatus) In The Warner Mountains, Allison Linnea Wade

Master's Theses

A previously recognized north-south mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) break in populations of deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, was investigated in Western North America. A 383-bp fragment of the mtDNA control region was analyzed from 107 tissue samples in the unstudied Warner Mountains of northeastern California. To determine if this north-south mtDNA break was also reflected in morphology, six cranial and mandibular measurements were taken from 72 deer mice. Using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), it was determined that cranial characters did not vary significantly between the two mtDNA haplogroups, and discriminant function analysis (DFA) was unable to discriminate between the two haplogroups. …

Happily Ever After: Construction Of Family In Disney Princess Collection Films, Jennifer Hecht

Master's Theses

This thesis examined the role and characterization of family members in Disney princess films. The purpose of this study was to fill gaps in previous research on the Disney princess films by analyzing the themes and collection as a whole, including the newest film in the collection, The Princess and the Frog. Using content analysis, this study identified three variables that were present in every Disney princess film in the collection - nuclear family, love, and appearance. The researcher found little family diversity in terms of types of households, parenting roles, and characterization of family members. Siblings were especially underrepresented. …

Getting By At The Benjamin Mays Black Branch: Library Access For African Americans In Jim Crow South Carolina, 1940-1971, Jamie Irene Cutter

Master's Theses

This thesis examines a chapter of South Carolina history that has been neglected in the historical record, namely segregated libraries of the twentieth century. Previous works have covered the history of black libraries in the entire South, but details of South Carolina's segregated libraries are incomplete. This study looks first at the broader context of segregated libraries in the American South and then reviews the history of African American libraries in South Carolina. Finally, this study provides a case study of the Benjamin Mays Library, a segregated, African American library in Greenwood, South Carolina. The case study uses primary source …

Halogenation Enzymes In Bacteria Associated With The Red-Banded Acorn Worm, Ptychodera Jamaicensis, Milena May Lilles

Master's Theses

Organohalogens have diverse biological functions in the environment. Marine acorn worms produce brominated products that may act as antifoulants, chemical deterrents, and substrates in bioluminescence reactions. Haloperoxidases purified from the homogenates of acorn worms synthesize bromophenols. Commensal or mutualistic bacteria living on the worms may produce halogenation enzymes that brominate organics.

The genomic DNA of 48 bacterial isolates from the surface of the red-banded acorn worm, Ptychodera jamaicensis, was extracted and screened for bromoperoxidase and FADH2-dependent halogenase genes. A 16S rDNA phylogenetic tree showed that the isolates were gram-positive bacteria and included 36 Firmicutes and 12 Actinobacteria. Nineteen isolates had …

The Effects Of Self-Referencing On Mood And Information Processing, Michael Mehler

Master's Theses

Research in the area of attitude change has demonstrated that people can process a persuasive message in a systematic or heuristic manner. It has been shown that positive mood increases heuristic processing, whereas negative mood increases systematic processing. In the current study, we were interested in examining one factor that may increase happy people's ability or desire to systematically process a persuasive message, self-referencing. Self-referencing occurs when information is processed by relating it to oneself or one's personal experience. After a happy, neutral, or sad mood was induced, participants were exposed to a message with either self-referencing or no self-referencing …

A Survey Of Female Characters As Flâneuses And Their Interactions With Modernity In Early Modern British Literature, Thao Thi Nguyen

Master's Theses

This thesis argues that the flâneuse is present in literature well before the late nineteenth century. Similar to Charles Baudelaire's flâneur figure, the flâneuse herself is an observer of modernity. Through her interactions with the crowd, the flâneuse is able to read the urban landscape. Chapter One focuses on defining the historical context of when the term flâneur appears in critical discourse. Chapter Two introduces the first example of a flâneuse: the narrator of Isabella Whitney's poem "Will and Testament." It focuses on how the narrator offers a reading of London in flux, its attractions as well as its growing …

Land Use Interpretation In Flood Damage Estimation, Sharon Michelle Metzler

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the role of geographic land use interpretation in flood damage estimation. Sample flood data were drawn from the 1998 flood event along San Francisquito Creek in northern Santa Clara County, California. Spatial flood data for the event were collected from the Santa Clara Valley Water District (the District); depth-damage factors and the flood damage equations were both collected from US Army Corps of Engineers' (the Corps) publications; and spatial parcel data were collected from the Santa Clara County Tax Assessor's office (the Assessor).

This study computes flood damages per parcel using the Corps' recommended equations. Within that …

A Mathematical Approach For Predicting Harbor Seal Haul-Out, Jonathan Daniel Cowles

Master's Theses

Harbor seals haul out in response to various environmental factors such as tide, current, time of day, wind, and surf. Mathematical modeling techniques can be used to determine which of these variables are important and to predict the number of seals that will haul-out in a given set of environmental circumstances. Haul-out counts were recorded every hour for 16 hrs per day over two 14-d tidal cycles at a site in Washington State. Deterministic environmental variables (tide height, current velocity, solar elevation, and time of day) were used to create 37 alternative models, which were then compared to the haul-out …

Detection Of The Sire1 Env-Like Protein, A Potential Retroviral Protein In Soybean, Garen Gaston

Master's Theses

Long terminal repeat (LTR) retroelements are mobile DNAs that are ubiquitous in eukaryotic genomes and include retroviruses, endogenous retroviruses and retrotransposons. Though retrotransposons, which are noninfectious, can make up as much as 80% of plant genomes, no traces of retroviral elements have been confirmed in plants. However, the 2000-copy soybean retrotransposon SIRE1 has an extra open reading frame, that has been described as env-like, because its conceptual translation product is predicted to have features of retroviral envelope proteins, which sponsor infectivity. Demonstrating that this region encodes an envelope protein would extend the range of endogenous retroviruses to plants. Demonstrating also …

Benchmarks For Transition: Do St. Louis High Schools Promote Graduates That Can Make The Transition To Higher Education?, Kevin Harrman

Master's Theses

Are St. Louis area high schools designed to create graduates that are prepared to enter schools of higher education, or are their graduation requirements structured such that graduates even qualify for entrance to higher education institutions? This study is geared towards answering this question and will do so by comparing two lines of inquiry. First this study will analyze four sets of three randomly picked area high schools (three sets designated by per capita income and one set of private catholic schools). Information will be gathered concerning graduation requirements and how many Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate courses are available. …

Analysis Of Three Types Of Sources To Determine The Existence Of Native Bees In Historical San Francisco, East Bay Area, Sharon Lee Ordeman

Master's Theses

The arrival of the missionaries in the late eighteenth century began the transformation of the San Francisco East Bay area from wetlands to orchards, grain fields, and grazing lands. This research considers the possibility that European and American newcomers enlarged native bee ranges in the East Bay cities of San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Hayward when imported pollen and nectar-producing flora were planted. Three types of sources are analyzed: journals and diaries of explorers, missionaries, and botanists; native bee and plant specimens collected before the Gold Rush in 1848; and ethnographies of Ohlone Native Americans. Conclusive evidence for the presence …

Constructing A "Good" Colonial Society: Representations Of Philippine Colonial Education At The 1887 Philippine Exposition In Madrid And The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, Erin Hardacker

Master's Theses

World's fairs and expositions were major social, political, economic, and cultural events in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These events were places where colonial states could display their achievements in their colonies, as well as produce knowledge and organize people as part of / in aid of the colonial project. It is a generally agreed fact among historians that the colonial exhibits at world's fairs and expositions were often idealized representations, or even deliberate misrepresentations, of colonies and colonial projects. Examining world's fairs and expositions should shed light on how colonial states developed and displayed their colonial education …

Contributory Factors Of Extraneous New Bone Growth On The Endocranial Surfaces Of Human Infant And Sub-Adult Skeletal Remains, Mark Andrew Zahareas

Master's Theses

This study investigates the factors that may contribute to endocranial bone changes in human sub-adult skeletal remains in an effort to differentiate bone changes, or lesions, caused by pathological processes and those caused by growth and development. The contributory factors investigated included the presence of endocranial bone lesions, the age-at-death of the individual, the precise location of the bone change, the dynamic nature of the locations, and the presence (or absence) of postcranial and/or ectocranial indicators of pathology within the individual. The sample population used for this research was comprised of 129 individuals from 15 different Native American groups over …

The River Continuum Redux: Aquatic Insect Diets Reveal The Importance Of Autochthonous Resources In The Salmon River, Idaho, Kathryn Vallis

Master's Theses

Along a river network, changes in the physical characteristics of a stream - changes articulated by the River Continuum Concept (RCC) - have been predicted to influence stream food webs, particularly the resources supporting aquatic macroinvertebrates. Although diets of macroinvertebrates can track resource availability along the longitudinal gradient of streams, insect diets were not assessed in the original RCC study; rather, insects were grouped into functional feeding groups (FFGs). In addition, global climate change is increasing the frequency and spatial extent of wildfire and beetle outbreaks throughout the western United States and could affect riparian vegetation and the amount of …

Resistance And Accommodation To Racism Among Early Seventh-Day Adventist Missionaries In The American South: A Case Study On Relating To Oppressive Cultural Practices In Missions, Kessia Reyne Bennett

Master's Theses

Topic and Method. A basic task of the missionary is to negotiate the complex social codes of the foreign territory; for early Seventh-day Adventist missionaries in the American South this meant negotiating a culture of racism which oppressed the Black population. The present study investigated how early Adventist missionaries to the South related to the racism they encountered. Using data drawn from books, periodical literature, personal letters, and denominational minutes, the expressions and recorded actions of the missionaries were analyzed to determine how the missionaries’ attitudes and behaviors were related to the cultural racism. Three categories of relationship were utilized …