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Study Of The Insulin Mimetic Sodium Orthovanadate In Glucosamine Induced Insulin Resistnace In Primary Rat Hepatocytes, Kalan Mcpherson

Masters Theses

Insulin resistance and type II diabetes is a disease state characterized by a lack of sensitivity of insulin to provoke a proper response in insulin sensitive tissues. Currently, we utilize glucosamine to increase flux through the Hexosamine Biosynthetic Pathway (HBP) to induce an insulin resistance like state in primary rat hepatocytes. We tested the effectiveness of the insulin mimetic sodium orthovanadate to determine if it could elicit an insulin-like response under these conditions. Mixed results were obtained on the effectiveness of vanadate as an insulin mimetic in this insulin resistant model.

Broncoblade: An Open Source Wind Turbine Blade Analysis Tool, Alex R. Quinlan

Masters Theses

This thesis reports the development and validation of BroncoBlade, a horizontal axis wind turbine analysis tool. BroncoBlade prepares finite element models and integrates them with an aeroelastic simulator. Analysis results for the SNL100-00 baseline blade are evaluated against reference results published by Sandia National Laboratories. Variations on the SNL100-00 blade incorporating carbon fiber are compared to the baseline blade.

Analysis Of Depositional Facies And Geological Controls On Reservoir Quality In Lower-Middle Devonian Sylvania Sandstone, Midland County, Michigan, Katherine A. Pollard

Masters Theses

The early-Middle Devonian Sylvania “Sandstone” is considered a target for potential CO₂ geosequestration. In order to develop geostatic models for CO₂ injection simulations, controls on reservoir properties must be addressed. The three objectives of this study involve: 1) develop an overview of depositional lithofacies and their vertical stacking relationships, 2) determine fluid sources and controls of diagenesis (dolomitization and silicification), and 3) examine geological controls on the distribution and character of reservoir facies.

The grossly transgressive Sylvania-Bois Blanc interval is a complex lithologic assemblage. Sylvania “Sandstone” strata transition from high energy, subtidal to lower-intertidal mixed carbonate-siliciclastic facies to …

Cyber-Adaptive Physical Systems For Automated Construction Progress Monitoring And Asset Tracking, Syed Hammad Rasheed

Masters Theses

Despite the benefits of building information models as a means of communication, collaboration and integration in construction projects, their use is often limited to the design and tendering/bidding stage. Potential of building information models lies in its implementation during construction, operations and maintenance phases of a facility’s lifecycle. Tight Integration of building information model and physical facility by means of computational resources is required to achieve this potential such that changes in one environment are automatically reflected in the other. This is termed a cyber-adaptive physical systems approach. This research investigates the applicability of a cyber-adaptive physical systems approach in …

Liminal Losers: Breakdowns And Breakthroughs In Reality Television's Biggest Hit, Caitlin Rickert

Masters Theses

This study explores how The Biggest Loser, a popular television reality program that features a weight-loss competition, reflects and magnifies established stereotypes about obese individuals. The show, which encourages contestants to lose weight at a rapid pace, constructs a broken/fixed dichotomy that oversimplifies the complex issues of obesity and health.

My research is a semiotic analysis of the eleventh season of the program (2011), focusing on three pairs of contestants (or “couples” teams) that each represent a different level of commitment to the program’s values. Specifically, I focus on dramatic “breakdown” moments in which these contestants are disciplined by …

Development Of Cfd Models For The Purposes Of Exploring Free Surface Wave Phenomena, Leonard P. Stoehr

Masters Theses

With the push for finding alternative, green energy sources, the harnessing of energy from ocean and lake waves is becoming a more researched field. To fully understand the behavior of wave interactions and optimize designs to extract this energy, it is necessary to develop computer models that can accurately replicate this behavior. A case is presented in which previous work done using the wave tank found in the Western Michigan University fluids lab is examined. The case involves harnessing the energy generated by ocean waves through the usage of plates of different shapes resting horizontally on the water’s surface. The …

Economic Autonomy Of The Miskitu Women Of The North Atlantic Autonomous Region, Nicaragua: Do Current Development Polices Apply To Matrifocal Societies?, Ariana M. Toth

Masters Theses

This thesis provides an ethnographic investigation into the economic autonomy of Miskitu women in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. The purpose of this study is to determine whether dominant development models created by patriarchal Western powers are suited to alleviating gendered poverty disparity among the matrifocal Miskitu Indians. Surveys of Miskitu women obtained during field research, with support from relevant literature, comprise the main source of information considered. It is concluded that while dominant development models are not best suited to alleviating gendered poverty in this region, it is the overarching indigenous nature of Miskitu culture and not …

Climbing Into The Ivory Tower: A Look At Administrative Perspectives On Sexual Assault On The College Campus, Tasha Nichole Turner

Masters Theses

This study examines the attitudes of administrators about sexual violence on campus, as well as their knowledge of disciplinary policies and procedures to prevent and redress rape and sexual assault on campuses. This study begins the discussion about how administrators understand their current policies as well as the attitudes that may affect their understandings. I use Thematic Analysis to analyze responses to a series of open-ended questions surveying participants on their attitudes towards their universities policy and procedures for handling sexual assault. Findings suggest that the participants have overwhelming confidence in the established policies, the extent of their knowledge of …

Creating Sustainable Economic And Ecological Growth In The Congo Basin: Bushmeat Consumption And Biodiversity Protection, Richelle Lynn Warnock

Masters Theses

This research examines the economic and ecological sustainability of bushmeat hunting in the Congo Basin, specifically the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. Although bushmeat hunting has provided short term gain for individuals in the region, long term solutions focusing on micro and macro level interventions may provide community wide benefits, while protecting Congo Basin wildlife. Research shows that a focus on the development of key economic sectors such as agriculture, mineral resources and hydroelectricity, as well as the growth of infrastructure may provide viable economic gain for the Congo Basin. Ecotourism and improvements to forest management …

Integrating Depositional Facies And Sequence Stratigraphy In Characterizing Unconventional Reservoirs: Eagle Ford Shale, South Texas, Seth Jordan Workman

Masters Theses

The Mid-to-Late Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas is a mixed siliciclastic/carbonate, unconventional resource play with considerable oil and natural gas. Characterization of Eagle Ford reservoir quality and potential is made difficult by complex, small-scale heterogeneities.

The limited availability of subsurface data constrains previous subsurface Eagle Ford investigations. As a result, the internal variability of depositional facies and reservoir attributes remain poorly understood for these Eagle Ford rocks.

This investigation incorporates a representative group of four Eagle Ford cores, and core data, from within the current play area in order to: 1) determine facies successions, 2) establish a hierarchal …

Understanding High-Achieving African American Students: A Quantitative Study At Grand Valley State University, John A. Gipson Jr.

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of high-achieving African American students attending Grand Valley State University (GVSU).

A target population of 353 undergraduate students identifying as African American were invited to voluntarily participate in this study. These students possessed sophomore or higher status and maintained a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or greater at the time of survey distribution. 101 students completed the survey resulting in a response rate of 28.6%.

Due to the nature of the survey, descriptive statistics were utilized to report a majority of the results. However, a Chi Square Test of Independence …

The African American/Black Male Experience At Grand Valley State University: Implications For The Future, Reba Loret Oguntokun

Masters Theses

Researchers note that African American male students are disadvantaged by several social, psychosocial, and institutional factors. These factors affect their enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. This study, guided by Critical Race Theory in education, explores the lived experiences of African American male students at Grand Valley State University through in-depth interviews and the utilization of qualitative data analysis. Findings reveal that social, psychosocial, and institutional factors had the ability to positively or negatively affect the academic success of the participants. The issues most frequently mentioned by participants were public school education, minority status stressors (MSS), stereotype threat, environmental incongruency, differential …

Future Foreign Language Teachers’ Intercultural Competence, Andrew Baalerud

Masters Theses

There is a lack of research regarding the implications for foreign language study and intercultural competence. Scholars suggest that foreign language proficiency plays a role in cultivating intercultural competence, but agree that there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting this notion. Research also shows that foreign language teachers are ethnocentric. Many educators and foreign language programs use a framework developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) to promote language learning. This framework also possesses key elements in promoting intercultural competence. This study addressed whether a pre-service, ACTFL-guided teaching component of the curriculum had an …

Perceptions Of Creativity Among Faculty In Higher Education, Ellie Melissa Potter

Masters Theses

Higher education instructors do not sufficiently incorporate creativity in the teaching and learning environments within which they operate. While there is a great deal of research available regarding creativity and primary or secondary education, there is little research available regarding creativity and higher education. This study contributes to that gap of knowledge by surveying faculty members in one institution of higher education in order to understand their perspectives regarding creativity, both as it relates to being a creative individual and to teaching others to be creative themselves. There were 358 faculty members who participated in the online survey designed specifically …

The Experience Of Being A Foster Parent In Non-Kinship Placements: Emotional And Psychological Impacts, Lindsay Michelle Tryc

Masters Theses

With a significant number of children in the foster care system in need of safe and stable homes, caregivers who are willing to provide such a home are vital. In 2010, almost fifty percent of foster homes were non-kinship placements with caregivers who had no biological relation to the child (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2011). As these caregivers voluntarily open their homes, they are also likely to encounter challenges with foster children due to previous traumas. The specific challenges addressed in this research study included the integration into the family, the management of behaviors, and the ability to make/break attachments. …

A Nation In Its Prime: A Pentadic Study Of Walt Disney World's Main Street, U.S.A., Casey Guise

Masters Theses

The purpose of this paper is to consider the entrance to Walt Disney World, Main Street, U.S.A., as a rhetorical text and apply Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad. Background is provided on rhetorical theory and The Disney Company. Meanings are derived from messages interpreted using semiotics and symbolic interaction within the location. The significance of Main Street, U.S.A., as a replica of historic architecture and an illustration of revival architecture in creating emotive messages is discussed. Further discussion includes the implications of this study on corporations and the field of rhetorical studies in addition to suggestions for further research.

"It's Just That For The First Time, I Feel... Wicked": A Rhetorical Analysis Of Wicked's Elphaba Using Kenneth Burke's Guilt-Purification-Redemption Cycle, Patricia Foreman

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the Broadway production, Wicked, and more specifically, the character of Elphaba, or the Wicked Witch of the West. The study utilized Kenneth Burke's theory of the guilt-purification-redemption cycle, and considered Elphaba's journey between the three steps of Burke's cycle. In order to understand this journey better, the researcher considered various facets of the show, including the script, lyrics, costuming, including attire and make-up, and interactions with other characters in the production. Elphaba's causes of guilt, including her mother's death, her relationship with Glinda, her cause in working with Animals, and failed magic …

Unleashing The Power Of Social Media Marketing Within Non-Profits, Through The Lens Of Social Cognitive Theory, Kerah Kemmerer

Masters Theses

While many organizations still struggle to effectively incorporate the present-day promotional framework of social media marketing, research reveals that non-profit organizations are lagging even further behind when it comes to the implementation of effective social media and interactive marketing strategies. The interactive marketing strategy model incorporates technology and media-based tactics designed to enhance marketing strategies within any industry. In this project, the primary researcher explored why non-profits are struggling to incorporate these specific strategies, and considered it through the lens of social cognitive theory. The purpose of this project was to focus on a specific non-profit organization and apply the …

The Rhetorical Canon Of Memory And The Assistive Use Of Mnemonics, Jonathan Bobby

Masters Theses

People often imagine at some point in their existence what it would be like to have a photographic memory. However, this mental aptitude is a misnomer, and extremely rare in humankind. What we possess from our Creator is a photographic mind. Our memory recall is based on the recognition of visual pictures that appear in our mind. The early communication theorists illustrated this recognition and described it in the fourth canon of rhetoric. Because of the advancements in information technology, memory no longer holds the significance it once did. Numerous academic texts refer to memory as the lost art of …

They Came Up Out Of The Water: Evangelicalism And Ethiopian Baptists In The Southern Lowcountry And Jamaica, 1737-1806, Samantha Futrell

Masters Theses

The Ethiopian Baptists in the eighteenth century Atlantic were not actually Ethiopians at all, but people of West African descent, traded as slaves to the southern lowcountry and Jamaica. Their identification with Ethiopia did not come from their geographic ancestry, but from a Christian heritage that they became a part of when they accepted the salvation of Jesus Christ. The evolution of this evangelical Afro-Baptist movement occurred in three stages. First, white evangelicals, like George Whitefield, carried Christianity to African American populations in South Carolina during the Great Awakening. Second, African American leaders, such as George Liele, rose up as …

Demographic And Reproductive Status Of Lake Sturgeon In The Muskegon River System, Michigan, Alex C. Wieten

Masters Theses

My study focused on a threatened population of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) in the Muskegon River system, Michigan. I assessed the condition, growth and population dynamics of lake sturgeon and compared them to nearby populations using a lengthweight relationship and the von Bertalanffy growth model. I also estimated the abundance of adult lake sturgeon in the Muskegon River system during the spawning run using closed-population models, analyzed movements of adult lake sturgeon during their spawning migrations using ultrasonic telemetry in 2011, and verified reproductive success by capturing larvae with drift nets in 2010 and 2011. The capture of …

School Adult And Student Perceptions Of Bullying In Middle School: A Mixed Methods Case Study, Michelle L. Barrows

Masters Theses

This mixed-methods case study examined the perceptions of students and school adults regarding bullying at one urban middle school (grades 6-8) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Participants completed a two-part survey. Part one contained open-ended questions regarding the respondent’s experiences at the school and part two used a questionnaire from Maunder, Harrop and Tattersall, (2010) containing a set of twelve scenarios with questions asking participants to indicate whether or not it is bullying, the frequency seen in the school, and the severity if it happened to a girl or a boy. This study showed that awareness of the school district’s anti-bullying …

Information Technology Effects On Tunisian College Students; Tunisian English Majors As A Case Study, Ahmed Lachheb

Masters Theses

Tunisia has been recently in the worldwide news since December 2010. A country where the “Arab Spring” started that lead to a major political, economic and social shift in the Middle East and North Africa’s region. Change in all the country’s systems and dynamics is occurring on a daily basis during the current post-revolutionary period. However, Tunisia’s profile in academic journals and research is absent due to the lack of research work. In a country peopled with about 10 million, almost half a million students are attending 239 public and private higher educational institutions¹. Seeking higher education is …

A New Method For Failure Modes And Effects Analysis And Its Application In A Hydrokinetic Turbine System, Liang Xie

Masters Theses

"The traditional failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is a conceptual design methodology for dealing with potential failures. FMEA uses the risk priority number (RPN), which is the product of three ranked factors to prioritize risks of different failure modes. The three factors are occurrence, severity, and detection. However, the RPN may not be able to provide consistent evaluation of risks for the following reasons: the RPN has a high degree of subjectivity, it is difficult to compare different RPNs, and possible failures may be overlooked in the traditional FMEA method. The objective of this research is to develop a …

Assessment Of An Enterprise Employee Portal Using Dashboard Monitoring System: A Case Study, Aditi Mishra

Masters Theses

"A portal is a browser-based application that provides a web platform for users to improve inter-department collaboration and customer service. Portals are classified either as internal facing portals or external public facing portals. This study addresses the problems facing an internal portal related to its contents, functions and usability and provides a list of essential contents and functions that it should include through integrating theories and industry best practices. The theory framework is based on literature review and the industry best practices are based on the analysis of a number of internal portals of companies used as case studies. These …

The Effect Of Accurate Categorical Activity Selection On The Prediction Of Percent Body Fat When Using The Omron Hbf-306 Bioelectric Impedance Analyzer, Abby Moulton

Masters Theses

Accurate methods for assessing body composition are important in evaluating health risk and fitness levels in individuals. Bioelectric Impedance Analysis has become a popular field method for assessing body composition because it is inexpensive, noninvasive, and easy to administer. The purpose of this study was to compare the activity level settings (Normal vs. Athlete) on the Omron HBF-306 bioelectrical impedance device to the criterion method, air displacement plethysmography, to evaluate the accuracy of the settings for college age females. It was hypothesized that the "Normal" setting would be more accurate for individuals described as normal by FIT index scores and …

The Inmate Code: The Stories Lived And The Stories Told Of Men Behind Bars, Pauline Matthey

Masters Theses

Using Coordinated Management of Meaning, this study links socialization and identification with the intricate levels of the inmate code that male prisoners live by, or live with anyway, while being incarcerated. In doing so, the research showed that the more highly identified to the inmate code a prisoner is, the less likely he is to have a desire to coordinate the meaning of his stories lived with the stories told of others. Furthermore, this project uncovered a characteristic of metamorphosis, the TRAP, or Temporary Relapse Alluding to the Past. TRAP takes place when prisoners who have developed the ability to …

Qualitative Exploration Of The Influential Factors That Impact Black Students Access To College, Kortney Jones

Masters Theses

The study examined the educational, psychological, and social factors both favorable and unfavorable that impact Black students access to college. Participants consisted of a combination of undergraduate and graduate students from either a mid-size or large Midwestern institution of higher education. A qualitative approach was taken through focus groups to collect data. The findings reported students have feelings of preparedness and underpreparedness for college regarding educational factors; feelings of discrimination/racism, feelings of White counterparts being better prepared, feelings of competitive motivation to excel, and feelings of unpreparedness for ACT regarding psychological factors; and lastly regarding social factors participants reported feelings …

The Art Of Jazz Guitar, Steve Kaiser

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Phenomenological Approach To Understanding The S.T.R.O.N.G. Mentoring Program: An African-American Male Retention Program At A Midsize Predominantly White Institution, Glenn L. Herring

Masters Theses

Using phenomenological inquiry, the purpose of this present research was to explore the phenomena of the African-American undergraduate male experience in a retention program at a Midsize Midwestern predominantly White institution. Through data analysis the principle researcher examined the perceptions of the participants to understand the impact of the program. The participants accounted for their shared experiences as being a part of the S.T.R.O.N.G. MENtoring program during the 2011-2012 academic school year. Collectively the participants articulated a greater sense of awareness to their self-perception due their socialization at the site location. The participants also warranted feelings of confirmation biases, an …