Digital Commons Network^™

A Foraminiferal Perspective On Holocene Environments Of The Eastern Tropical Pacific, Maria Angelica Zamora-Duran

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is the primary threat facing coral reef ecosystems. How marginal reef systems responded to past climatic variability provides clues to their prospects for persisting through contemporary climate change. Reefs along the Pacific coast of Panamá are dominated by branching corals of the genus Pocillopora. These reefs experience a natural gradient of nutrients, pH, and temperature because of stronger seasonal upwelling in the Gulf of Panamá (GoP) than in the Gulf of Chiriquí (GoC). The shallow reefs within both of the gulfs of Panamá They are also strongly affected by climatic variability due to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). …

Is This A Line? Visual Literacy, Visual Inquiry, And Visual Communication In The Elementary School Years, Connie J. Broadbent

Theses and Dissertations

As a mother and public elementary school art teacher, I recognize the impact images have in the lives of children. Our culture is image rich and often image saturated. I believe I can do more to prepare my students to become discerning consumers and creators of images. Art teachers are uniquely qualified to teach visual literacy and visual inquiry. If grade school children can be taught to think more deeply and critically about their visual world, they will be better prepared for responding to it in a healthy, empowering way. This research describes an elementary school curriculum based on teaching …

S-Equol: A Novel Therapeutic For Hiv-1 Induced Gut Dysbiosis, Mason T. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

HIV-1 infection affects approximately 38 million people around the world. The advent of cART has greatly improved the quality of life of infected individuals; however, roughly 50% of these individuals will still experience HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Additionally, the gut microbiome has been reported to be dysbiotic in HIV-1 infected individuals, regardless of adherence to cART. Current research has pointed to the gut-brain-microbiota axis as a potential target to treat both cognitive deficits and microbial changes. The present study investigated S-equol (SE) as a potential therapeutic for HAND by modulating the gut microbiome. The study included 21 HIV-1 Tg …

Creating Discursive Spaces To Promote Productive Discourse And Dissuading Sectarianism In Online Political Enclaves On Tiktok, Kenneth Root

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last ten years social media has emerged as a major space for political discussion and the dissemination of information. On open platforms such Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram, algorithms personalize each user’s experience and tailor the posts they see to their specific interests and tastes. What this eventually leads to are echo chambers or discursive enclaves centered around anything from history to mental illness to extreme political ideologies. Within these enclaves, users almost exclusively see and interact with content that aligns with their group’s interest, and in the case of political enclaves this can and does lead to further …

Race And Technology In Southern Literature, Civil War To Civil Rights, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers the intersection of technology and race in the literature of the American South from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Though narratives about technology in American literature often promise democracy, equality, improvement, and progress, the role of technology in southern literature is more complex and ambivalent. Literature from and about the South from the Civil War to the civil rights era, by Black and white southern authors like Charles Chesnutt, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty reveals technology’s ability to uphold and naturalize southern white supremacy, but also to subvert it. Southern literature traces a pattern …

Narrative Archetypes And Paratextuality: Analysis Of Three Films By Christopher Nolan, Alycia Burnett

Theses and Dissertations

Nonlinear films display unconventional narratives that leave ambiguous endings that create rewatchability, making audiences want to rewatch and review the films. These films also create conversation on social media outlets and infiltrate discussion on popular culture. This rhetorical analysis examines narrative structure, narrative archetypes, and paratextuality of three nonlinear Christopher Nolan films: Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet. By examining how these different forms of narrative display the moral messaging and structure within each film, this analysis provides context in how nonlinear narratives promote rewatchability and create continuous paratexts. Through Nolan's films, nonlinear film styles create more than rewatchability as Nolan specifically …

Evaluating Nutrition Knowledge In Parents And Its Relation To Childhood Obesity, Rachael Shangraw

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to evaluate the relationship between parental nutrition knowledge and their child’s body mass index (BMI) to identify variables that are associated with increased obesity in American children. A cross-sectional study design was employed with a convenience sample of 464 parents of children between the ages of 2 and 12. Parents completed a GNKQ-R (General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire – Revised) survey to measure nutrition knowledge. Parents reported their child’s height and weight which was later calculated and categorized according to the Center for Disease Control’s BMI-for-age growth chart. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for Normality was conducted to examine the …

Disability Representation: Sites Of Grassroots Activism On Grief And Insidious Trauma, Shawna Marie Sheperd

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how disability communities are transforming disability representation in the mainstream by using social media and other intermedial platforms to push against stereotypes that portray the disability experience as pitiful or monstrous. People with disabilities, such as Alex Darcy and Shelby Lynch, are creating realistic, nuanced representation on Instagram and Tik Tok that does not shy away from discussing their grief or insidious trauma. Darcy and Lynch are grassroots activists who change how disabilities are perceived in the mainstream and create representative models that navigate disability, trauma, and grief in anti-ableist ways. This thesis also looks at how …

The Urgency For A Transnational Feminist Methodology: An Inclusive Analytical Framework For Neocolonialism And Globalization, Sanam Shahmiri

Theses and Dissertations

I propose a methodology of literary study to be used in a wide range of disciplines and genres. While there have been numerous applications of postcolonial theory to the analysis of texts produced before, during, and after colonization, this transnational feminist methodology (TFM) is updated or reinvented to include discussions of the psychological and material ramifications of neocolonialism and neo-imperialism, especially about the immigrant experience—in particular, the perspective of children of immigrants living in diasporic communities. The work’s focus on postcolonial feminism is complicated by looking at gender, race, trans-nationality, and other identity factors that shape the work of writers …

Unesco, Heritage Preservation, And Photography: Balthazar Korab’S “North Yemen: Land And Buildings” And Mario Cresci’S Matera: Immagini E Documenti, Sarah M. Wolberg

Theses and Dissertations

I explore two architectural photo-essays that engage with (reflecting, rebutting, questioning) the concepts of cultural heritage, particularly with regard to preserving vernacular architecture in cities with UNESCO World Heritage status—Balthazar Korab’s photo-essay “North Yemen: Land and Buildings” (1978–81) and Mario Cresci’s 1975 Italian photobook Matera: Immagini e documenti.

Afropolitan Manifestations In Contemporary African Art: Mobilizing Achille Mbembe, Petra Frank-Witt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Afropolitanism's conceptual-philosophical grounds and how its principles are mirrored in the arts. Achille Mbembe’s conceptualization is presented as a form of cultural cosmopolitanism, as shared by the artists presented, further distilled as a dynamic, forward-looking, emancipatory ideology that favors Africanness as open-ended signifier rather than overdetermined sign.

Small Molecule Gankyrin Inhibition As A Therapeutic Strategy For Breast And Lung Cancer, Dipti Kanabar

Theses and Dissertations

Gankyrin is an oncoprotein responsible for the development of numerous cancer types. It regulates the expression levels of multiple tumor suppressor proteins (TSPs) in liver cancer, however, gankyrin’s regulation of TSPs in breast and lung cancer has not been thoroughly investigated. Additionally, no small molecule gankyrin inhibitor has been developed which demonstrates potent antiproliferative activity against gankyrin overexpressing breast and lung cancers. Therefore, two different scaffolds were utilized to develop potent gankyrin binding small molecules. First, derivatives of the cjoc42 scaffold were developed with improved metabolic stability, gankyrin binding, and anti proliferative activity against A549 and MDA-MB-231 cells, while also …

Students' Perceptions And Experiences With Podcasts As A Supplementary Text In A Critical Media Literacy Framework, Anne Gill

Theses and Dissertations

As the need for critical media literacy practices in classrooms increases, it is important to investigate students’ experiences with a variety of media texts, specifically when analyzed from a critical media literacy stance. Critical media literacy creates spaces for students to question, challenge, and analyze the role of media texts in promoting or rejecting dominant ideologies and narratives. This qualitative action research study, framed in both critical literacy and critical media literacy practices, studied the experiences of students who engaged with podcasts as a supplementary course text. The study took place over the course of ten weeks with secondary level …

The History Of Queer Resistance And Student Activism At The University Of North Dakota, Jeff Maliskey

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the queer history of the University of North Dakota from 1980 to present day and demonstrates how LGBTQ+ student activism lead to the development of LGBTQ+ programs and services at the University. Situated in a socially and politically conservative state, the University of North Dakota provides an understanding of how LGBTQ+ students organized in the 1980s out of necessity to combat social opposition and discriminatory state legislation. LGBTQ+ students were burdened with the responsibility to create their own support services and resources as there is no historical evidence of the university administration taking steps to improve the …

The Role Of Human Dopamine Transporter Threonine 261 And Serine 262 In Amphetamine Regulation Of Transporter Function And Surface Expression, Sina Abdollahi

Theses and Dissertations

Amphetamine (AMPH) has been used clinically and recreationally around the world for years. A 2021 study reports a 67.5% rise in AMPH use from 2010-2017 across all fifty states. Study also shows that 30% of patients with AMPH-induced psychosis end up with primary psychosis over time. AMPH works by inhibiting monoamine (Norepinephrine (NE), Serotonin (5-HT), and Dopamine (DA) reuptake followed by triggering transporter mediated monoamine release and consequently increases monoamine concentrations in extracellular synaptic space. AMPH also works as a substrate for monoamine transporters, enters the neuron, and once its inside the neuron, it will prevent the storage of monoamines …

It Takes A Muscle: Wholes, Holes, And Other Voids, Saar Shemesh

Theses and Dissertations

IT TAKES A MUSCLE¹

In the BELLY of the BEAST, the HUMAN

in the deep end of a SWIMMING POOL

in a GRAVE, looking up/out from within

at the base of a CRATER, ABYSS, PIT

the room as a CRADLE, INCUBATOR

architecture as MOTHER MOULD.²

____________________________

¹ Title is borrowed and abbreviated: Spectral Display, “It Takes A Muscle To Fall In Love,” 1982.

² For what American-English delineates as ‘mold,’ British-English uses ‘mould’ and is more specific in its technicality. The former doesn’t distinguish in spelling between mold (fungus) and mold (mould). I’m not particularly a fan of …

Race, Weight, Gender And The Embodied (Odied, Odied) Consciousness Of Big-Bodied Black Women Educators: A Phenomenological Study, Kendra D. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Big-Bodied Black women in the United States have perpetually navigated the veritable dichotomy of being hyper-visible and invisible (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2003; Fleetwood, 2001; Strings, 2019). Fat Black female bodies have borne the burden of exaggerated tropes and exploitation throughout history, stripping them of their femininity and humanity and resulting in a unique form of objectification (Strings, 2019). Inconsistent messages about BBWs, their bodies, and their value in society have endured for generations. They have been essential in constructing the controlling images of Black womanhood in the U.S. (Collins, 2000). The controlling images all evoked thoughts about the suitability of Black women …

Putting The "Video" Back In Video Games: Opportunities And Challenges For Visual Studies Approaches To Video Game Analysis, Francis A. Longaker

Theses and Dissertations

I argue for the application of visual studies in video game analysis. This approach presents opportunities for the intersectional analysis of video game visuals as games are brought into dialogue with other visual media like film and painting. This approach also presents challenges due to ontological distinctions between different media as well as due to academic divisions regarding the study of different art and media objects. Despite the challenges presented, a visual studies approach is particularly useful as a critical window into contemporary visual culture at large.

I outline the fields of game studies and visual studies, marking their distinctions …

Examining The Safety Climate Of A General Aviation Maintenance, Repair, And Overhaul (Mro) Organization: A Replication Study And Application Of Bandura’S Reciprocal Causation Model, Russell Vincent Tokarski

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the safety climate of a general aviation original equipment manufacturer maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility relative to Fogarty’s (2005) and Uhuegho’s (2017) respective empirically-derived safety climate path models, and Bandura’s (1977) theoretical reciprocal causation model. The study used an explanatory correlational design, and the primary data collection instrument was Uhuegho’s Aviation Maintenance Safety Climate Survey, which consisted of Fogarty’s 48-item Maintenance Environment Survey and Goldberg and Williams’ (1988) 12-item General Health Questionnaire. The target population was all aviation maintenance technicians employed at the targeted MRO’s U.S. facilities, which complete scheduled/unscheduled …

Say Her Name: The Narrative Afterlives Of Breonna Taylor, Tyler S. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Within the growing literature and media coverage of police misconduct and brutality, Black women and girls are functionally invisible. Since the Black Lives Matter movement began the names of only two women have stood out among the Black male victims we know by name: Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. Here, I will explore through a Black feminist analytic framework, how the intersectionalities of gender and race contributed to a delay in awareness and accountability for the death of Breonna Taylor. This content analysis looked at the media coverage of Breonna Taylor for the one-year period (3/13/20-3/13/21) to uncover the reasons, …

Misunderstood: A Phenomenological Study On Intersectionality And The Lived Experiences Of Black Millennial Student Affairs Professionals At Pwis, Emily P. Dixon

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to further understand the lived experiences of Black millennial student affairs professionals navigating and advancing through a predominately white institution in the southern United States. This phenomenological study, framed by critical race theory and intersectionality, sought to ultimately use these lived experiences to advocate for change. A review of the literature highlighted the needs, values, and experiences of Black Millennials based on both identities, the experiences of working in student affairs/higher education with these experiences, and the need for intentional diversity efforts by higher educational institutions.

The researcher interviewed nine participants to learn more about …

The Beneficial Effects Of The Gut-Derived Metabolite Trimethylamine N-Oxide On Functional Β-Cell Mass, Emily Suzanne Krueger

Theses and Dissertations

Elevated serum levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) were first associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) 10 years ago. Research has since defined that serum TMAO accumulation is controlled by the diet-microbiome-liver-kidney axis. Choline related nutrients are consumed in excess during over-nutrition from a Western diet. The resultant elevated serum TMAO is investigated across various chronic metabolic diseases and many tissue types. While TMAO is most clearly linked to CVD mechanisms in vascular tissue, its molecular effects on metabolic tissues are unclear. Here we report the current standing of TMAO research in metabolic disease context across relevant metabolic tissues …

Disability In Lee Han's Social Integration Films, Dasom Han

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis examines four films by Lee Han—Wandeugi (2011), Thread of Lies (2013), A Melody to Remember (2016) and Innocent Witness (2019)—that highlight disability problems in contemporary South Korea. While exposing the prejudice against and misunderstanding of people with disabilities embedded in society, these motion pictures promote social integration through development of trusted relationships and effective communication within familial structures. The representations of disability indicate that the cinematic images of exclusion can reinforce disabled characters' marginalized identity and promote inclusive efforts among the viewer at the same time. Through textual, cultural, theoretical analysis, it is argued that the films progressively …

Embroidering Mexico: Feminine Spaces, Dechados And The National Space, Regina Perez Kamel

Theses and Dissertations

Mexican dechados consisted of pieces of cloth were women and girls would practice and record needlework. It was a practice rooted in western tradition where they were known as samplers. Given that dechados were objects that were made within feminine spaces they illuminate how gender is constructed through space, and how those gendered spaces generate different ways of knowing.

As the majority of Mexican dechados correspond to the nineteenth century, a period of national construction, this study questions the role that the domestic space played in the establishment of the Mexican nation. It proposes that although displaced and subservient to …

Phenomenal Women And Their Sexualization In Media, Tyvon Devontae Lesure

Theses and Dissertations

This documentary thesis deconstructs the representation of women in media and culture. Women’s sexuality is explored, presenting a deeper understanding of contemporary discourse regarding hyper-sexualization. The film maintains a feminist approach by offering primacy to various women and their unique experiences. A more complex understanding of different perspectives provides a greater outlook on the entire concept of sexualization. Furthermore, this documentary interacts with culture and media as means to understanding the hyper sexualization of womanhood. The documentary certifies that womanhood is not a monolithic experience. Finally, it is argued that women should be in control of the various narratives pertaining …

Can Employees Motivate Themselves? The Link Between Peer Motivating Language And Employee Outcomes, Doreen Hanke

Theses and Dissertations

This study builds upon the leadership, leadership communication, and organizational behavior literature to examine the effects of peer motivating language on employee outcomes. Despite the increasing interest in examining the relationships between leader motivating language and employee attitudes and behaviors, the effects of peer motivating language on such remain unexplored. Researchers Mayfield and Mayfield (2017) are calling for moving beyond ML as a dyadic, leader communication model to research on peer-to-peer motivating language. Moreover, leadership studies started placing greater emphasis on followers to avoid a possible unproductive overemphasis on the leader in an organization. In line with this move is …

The Pen Is The Sword: Fighting By Writing For Our Future, Clinton Alexander Soper

Theses and Dissertations

76 pages

Suffering from a personal crisis of passivity in his teaching of writing and personal composition in the public sphere, Soper looks for inspiration and guidance through a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary inquiry into the disciplines of composition, teaching high school English Language Arts, and practicing Kendo, the Japanese Way of the Sword. Soper reflects not only on his personal crisis borne of the socio-political landscape of the current moment but calls for and promotes a redemption of our public discourse in the interest of battling our shared exigencies: the dual-crises of trust in our democratic institutions and our global …

The Bmslss: Measurement Invariance And Latent Mean Differences Across Black And White Early Adolescents, Kimberly Gibson Sitter

Theses and Dissertations

The Brief Measure of Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS; Seligson, Huebner, & Valois, 2003) is a widely used brief self-report measure of child and adolescent Life Satisfaction (LS). Although acceptable reliability and validity have been demonstrated for the BMSLSS across various youth samples, few cross-cultural comparisons have been performed. Specifically, no studies to date have examined measurement invariance of the BMSLSS across diverse samples of racial groups in the US. The current study explored measurement invariance across Black and White middle school students (N = 1484) from four schools in a southeastern U.S. state through use of multi-group confirmatory factor …

Postcolonial Narrative And The Dialogic ImaginatioN: An Analysis Of Early Francophone West African Fiction And Cinema, Seydina Mouhamed Diouf

Theses and Dissertations

Francophone West Africa, in the aftermath of colonization, found itself at a crossroads between the necessity to address the problems of neo-colonialism while affirming its cultural identity and the need to embrace a universal message. That dilemma is not shared by literary critics who regard the work of early generation writers merely as an “empire writing back.” In the many classifications of West African literature, the emphasis is oftentimes put either on the importance of a counter-discourse that also rejects Western aesthetics or on the effects of post-independence disillusionment. This study argues that early francophone West African literary productions took …

Minor Literature And Chicano Liberation In Heriberto G. Terán’S Espejo De Alma Y Corazón, Enrique Alberto Ibarra

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers the power of Chicano poetics and its influence on liberatory rhetoric in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s-1970s. The late, Laredoan, activist Heriberto Gutiérrez Terán’s Espejo de Alma y Corazón presents a tradition of Chicano minor literature identifiable in the work of the many writers and rhetoricians who emerged during this politically tense time. This thesis marks the first time Terán’s literary work is subject to a literary analysis, positioning him among other known Chicano writers and figures from the 1960s and early 1970s, such as Alurista, José Angel Gutiérrez, José Rendón, Enrique Rodríquez, and Roberto Enrique …