Digital Commons Network^™

Brain And Hepatic Microsomal Metabolism Of Phorate, Marissa Lucento

Theses and Dissertations

Phorate (O,O-diethyl S-ethylthiomethyl phosphorodithioate) is a toxic organophosphate anticholinesterase insecticide. Organophosphate insecticides can cause respiratory depression and seizures due to acetylcholinesterase inhibition. Inhibited acetylcholinesterase cannot break down the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine; thus, causing an overload of acetylcholine in synapses and neuromuscular junctions. Oxidative desulfuration, from metabolism by cytochrome P450 enzymes, converts the P=S phosphorothionate group on phorate to the P=O oxon group. Electrophilic oxon groups attack the active site on acetylcholinesterase, inducing the toxicity associated with organophosphate insecticides. Possible further bioactivation to phorate-oxon-sulfoxide and phorate-oxon-sulfone near the site of acetylcholinesterase in the brain may increase acetylcholinesterase inhibitory potency. Adult male Sprague-Dawley …

Critical (En)Counters: A Girouxean Exploration Of Contingent Faculties’ Narratives On Laboring For Latinx Students In The Corporate University Using Critical Dialogue, Krystal Amaril Medrano

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the experiences of contingent faculty within the College of Education at a Hispanic Serving Institute on the Texas-Mexico border. This study makes use of a critical Girouxean lens of neoliberalism to explore both the classroom and work experiences of contingent faculty as they navigate the hopelessness of the corporate university. Tethered still to the hope of critical pedagogy and dialogue, I rely on dialogic interviewing and story circle protocol to create dialogic experiences in which our individual and joint narratives, including my own stories, set off an ongoing dialogue that will extend beyond this study to the …

Maumelle Ordnance Works: From Wartime To The New Town, John Hoganson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis covers the history of the Maumelle Ordnance Works from its creation to its eventual shutdown in the 1950’s. It goes into detail on the buildings of the plant along with the materials that the plant manufactured for use in the Second World War. This thesis also covers the early history of the community of Maumelle.

The Deconstruction Of Patriarchal War Narratives In Svetlana Alexievich’S The Unwomanly Face Of War, Liubov Kartashova

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the Soviet construction of womanhood resulted first in females’ active participation in World War II and then in the silencing of women’s war experiences by fabricating a reality in which women’s trauma did not exist. Such a deprivation of women’s agency led to female soldiers’ confusion of identity, experience of shame and consequential self-censorship. In The Unwomanly Face of War (У войны не женское лицо, 1985), Svetlana Alexievich acknowledges these neglected experiences and traumas, and creates a space in which women’s stories have a right to exist. Applying Jean Elshtain’s theory on the lack of attention …

Polyimide/Silicon Dioxide Nanocomposites As Dielectrics For Helium-Cooled High-Temperature Superconducting Cables, Harrison Michael Hones

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, polyimide (PI) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) were combined in the form of a nanocomposite for use as a dielectric on helium-cooled high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables. Further, a cryogenic chamber was designed with the intent of cooling samples to 40 K for dielectric and thermal contraction testing. Composites were created through an in situ process which resulted in nanoparticle formation within the host matrix. Samples were tested for dielectric strength at room temperature (300 K) as well as cryogenic temperature (92 K) using liquid nitrogen as the coolant. Composite samples tested at 300 K averaged a dielectric strength …

An Agent-Based Decision Support Framework For Suas Deployment In Small Infantry Units, Carsten Douglas Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) will become a disruptive force on the modern battlefield. In recent years, sUAS size and cost have decreased while their capability has increased. They have forced a reconsideration of the air superiority paradigm held since the First World War. Perhaps their most attractive, and worrisome, feature is the huge range of combat roles that they might fulfill. The presence of sUAS on future battlefields is certain, but the role they will play and their impact on those battlefields are not. This work presents a decision support framework for sUAS deployment in small infantry units. The …

The Tribe During President Saleh: A Friend Or A Foe, Waleed Derhem

Theses and Dissertations

This research paper offers a different institutional approach to studying state-societal relations in modern Yemen. The re-conceptualization of the terms - tribe and tribalism- paved the path for a deeper investigation of the interaction between the state and the tribe. The rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh (1978-2011) was the timeline dissected in this detailed comparative historical analysis. This study unveiled the prominence of tribalism as an informal institution that governed state-societal relations in Yemen. The outcome derived out of these formal-informal interactions suggests that the tribe in Yemen is neither a friend nor a foe, but locates tribalism as …

An Analysis Of Police Shootings In Dallas, Texas, 2003-2018, Steven Mccain

Theses and Dissertations

Legal establishments authorize police discretion of deadly force if they believe the threat to life or great bodily harm outweighs to threat presented by a criminal. Policing has been reactive when modern weapons of the times are used for criminal purposes. The adaptation process by police has made firearms necessary tools for conflict resolution. The Supreme Court also plays a role in determining what is reasonable use of deadly force, as these situations are rare with little precedent that require judicial review. Research on deadly force examines micro-level characteristics to better understand these situations. This study contributes to existing literature …

Monte Carlo Tree Search Applied To A Modified Pursuit/Evasion Scotland Yard Game With Rendezvous Spaceflight Operation Applications, Joshua A. Daughtery

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis takes the Scotland Yard board game and modifies its rules to mimic important aspects of space in order to facilitate the creation of artificial intelligence for space asset pursuit/evasion scenarios. Space has become a physical warfighting domain. To combat threats, an understanding of the tactics, techniques, and procedures must be captured and studied. Games and simulations are effective tools to capture data lacking historical context. Artificial intelligence and machine learning models can use simulations to develop proper defensive and offensive tactics, techniques, and procedures capable of protecting systems against potential threats. Monte Carlo Tree Search is a bandit-based …

The Nature Of Government And Civic Responsibility In Herman Melville’S Billy Budd, Sailor, Nirvani V. Anoop Ms.

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis examines how Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor raises destabilizing questions about the function of government, its manipulation of the governed through institutions such as the law, education, and religion, as well as its infringement on the rights of the individual in various, often subtle ways. The power relations aboard the British naval warship, Bellipotent, are explored through a Foucauldian lens, utilizing the ideas Michel Foucault elaborates in his lectures titled, “Governmentality.” How do governments ensure their continued existence as well as obedience from their citizens? How is justice in a society determined? How is one’s identity formed in …

Public Punitiveness: The Intersection Of Racial Attitudes And Empathy, Arsala Aneeq Khan

Theses and Dissertations

Public punitiveness has grown in recent decades and two components that help explain this rise are negative racial attitudes and empathy. For this thesis, a survey was passed out to 66 undergraduate criminal justice students at a mid-sized southern university. In order to better understand respondent relationship to punitiveness, a factor analysis was conducted that divided punitiveness into three scales. These scales were subsequently measured using three OLS regression analyses testing punitiveness with negative racial attitudes, empathy and control variables. The results showed no significant relationships between negative racial attitudes, empathy, and punitiveness. However, control variables such as age and …

Beyond The Straightforward Illness Narrative, Menna Taher

Theses and Dissertations

While the initial premise of Medical Humanities was to encourage more writings about the illness as lived experience, and to include literary works in the curriculum of medical schools, a second more critical wave has emerged that delves deeper into issues of race, class and gender. As the illness memoir has become a genre, the act of writing about illness is not a feat anymore, and illness narratives now demand more complex questions. Primarily dealing with questions on form and narrative, the thesis tackles major oft-cited works on illness like Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Virginia Woolf’s On Being …

The Zabaleen Of Egypt: Citizenship Of Exception In Cairo's Urban Sphere, Kathryn Vallis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationships between citizenship, space, and the state, using the Zabaleen community in Cairo as a lens of analysis. The thesis argues that citizenship is both an institution and a practice of exclusion. It explores the social, political, and economic exclusions that the Zabaleen experience due to their position in a state of exception.

Mapping Ecological Futures: Toward A Cartography Of Climate Justice, Timothy C. Lau

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of climate justice importantly reveals the uneven impacts of climate change. However, existing attempts at mapping climate justice are dominated by nation-state-based approaches, which fail to capture the sociospatial complexity of climate injustice. To address that gap, this thesis explores climate justice through the lens of critical cartography.

A Framework Towards Computational Narrative Analysis On Blogs/Social Media, Kiran Kumar Bandeli

Theses and Dissertations

Social media is widely used to express views and share opinions with others. With the availability of inexpensive and ubiquitous mass communication tools like social media, creating narratives, false information and propaganda is both convenient and effective. Social media users leverage this platform to further their views by framing narratives and participating in online discourse. Almost all events, issues, crises are discussed on social media. Blogs are a good source of data for sociologists and political scientists to gain situational awareness by tracking different opinions, political views, and narratives being shaped. Blogs, unlike other social media platforms, are not regulated …

The Romantic Cyclic Sonata As A Hidden Counterculture : Rethinking The Subdominant Through A Structural-Hermeneutic Approach, Marcelo Gabriel Rebuffi

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Exploring The External Barriers Faced By Female Military Spouses In Pursuit Of Higher Education, Richelle Keilholz

Theses and Dissertations

The study discusses the insufficient amount of research concerning the unique barriers faced by female military spouses in the pursuit of higher education. Although the information on military veterans in education has increased exponentially over the last decade, little is known about their female spouses. By adopting a narrative analysis approach to qualitative research, the study explored the perspectives of female military spouses and the barriers they may face in pursuit of higher education. Seven female military spouses were asked to complete 30-minute to 60-minute interviews with the researcher, to consider a more personalized experience. The following three primary research …

Gender Dynamics In Charreria Mexicana, Karen Melissa Flores Tavizon

Theses and Dissertations

This research and analysis about the experiences of women in charrería show the pervasive negotiation of needs that they engage as practicing in an Escaramuza Charra. Inside this study, it is introduced the term Sisterhood Paradox, used to describe the struggle that represents the Escaramuza’s constant collective performance, in comparison to charros, but that paradoxically serves a tool of resistance of charra women inside this patriarchal institution. In this piece of work, it is also argued that women in charrería, in many cases, are not aware of the subordinate position they occupy and in an unconscious way function as agents …

Mexican Politicians And British Investors: A Symbiotic Relationship, Daliarlene Saenz

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this work is to ascertain whether Mexico was a part of Great Britain’s informal empire, which hinges primarily on economic dependence. After independence, Mexico’s image as a resource-rich land attracted British investment, but political instability and its long-held London Debt, repelled British investors. The Porfirian administration prioritized mending its reputation abroad and promoting modernity domestically. Weary of American domination, the Porfirian administration sought British collaboration instead, most significantly of Weetman Pearson. However, post-Revolution governments did not value British business collaboration as its predecessors. Hence, they had no qualms on protecting its domestic priorities over pleasing Whitehall. Through …

A Statistical Representation Of Landing Craft Yaw Response To Surf Zone Conditions, Stanley Keith Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Yaw response of landing craft transiting the surf zone is a significant concern for U.S. military forces engaged in amphibious landing operations. However, this subject is not well understood and few investigations have been dedicated to its study. The present investigation used laboratory conditions to investigate and determine variables important to the yaw response of shallow-hulled landing craft. Using a sloped wave basin outfitted with wave gauges and a motion capture system, a unique dataset was obtained regarding the six degree of freedom motion of the landing craft model under a variety of wave conditions. The dataset was analyzed with …

Design And Characterization Of An Accelerated Aging Humidity Chamber For Aging Nuclear Grade Hepa Filter Media, Taylor Burch

Theses and Dissertations

A unique accelerated aging chamber for experimentally determining the life of nuclear grade high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters was designed, implemented, and characterized. A design document was developed under the Nuclear Quality Assurance program (NQA-1). The aging process is achieved by sustaining an elevated humidity condition inside the chamber for an extended period of time. Elevated humidity conditions expose the media to commonly occurring stressors that mimic the degradation a typical filter in practical applications would experience. The aged media may then be analyzed using autopsy methodology resulting in data that can be used to better understand the useful …

Meat On The Hoof: A Zooarchaeological And Isotopic Investigation Of Herd Management At Khirbet Summeily In The Iron Age, Kara Marie Larson

Theses and Dissertations

Khirbet Summeily is an early Iron Age II site located northwest of Tell el-Hesi in Southern Israel. Excavations sponsored by the Cobb Institute of Archaeology have revealed a large structure with a potential ritual space dated to the Iron Age IIA (ca. 1000-980/850 B.C.E.). Recent interpretations suggest the site was integrated into a regional economic and political system and functioned as a potential administrative outpost based on the material culture and architecture recovered from the Iron Age IIA layers. This thesis presents the carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotopic analyses of intra-tooth samples from ovicaprine and cattle remains to test herd …

An Anachronistic Proposal: An Imagined Production Of Lo Que Querí­A Ver El Marqués De Villena, Morgan Ann Call

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes an anachronistic, imagined production of Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla´s Golden Age play, Lo que quería ver el marqués de Villena. Using the story of a mujer varonil, I intend to address a problematic aspect of Brigham Young University´s (BYU) culture—specifically the pressure that women at the university face to choose between a family life and continuing their education. The imagined production utilizes seventeenth-century-style costumes and set contrasted with a General English dialogue to provide the theoretical audience a better emotional, physical and intellectual understanding of the mujer varonil protagonist whose story reflects an issue that many women …

"Fidelity And Ripeness": The Telos Of Milton's Mature Christian Learners, Steven Mckay Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I argue that Milton envisions a long view of education in which continual encounters with evil allow created beings to prove themselves and gradually approach a state like God’s—a state marked by constant righteous habits and by a dilation of subjective time with increased access to past and future knowledge. I discuss the roles of opposition in Miltonic education, illustrating how non-examples may result in apophatic revelation about the divine. Acts of rebellion in Paradise Lost demonstrate, however, that the timetable for introducing opposition proves complex, since created beings, the devil among them, act on their own …

The Youngest, Trezlen Drake

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of poems that considers life in a southern Black family, memory, nostalgia, dysfunction, race and gender, and generational trauma. These poems are influenced by poetry, fiction, music, popular culture, and scholarship, each providing a different perspective on life and language to talk about that which can sometimes be unspeakable.

A recurring character in this collection is the girlchild, reminiscent of Marge Piercy’s character in “Barbie Doll.” The girlchild here is the figure of the woman or girl who experiences trauma, and what some consider to be unspeakable.

These poems are also an exploration and disruption …

Beowulf : A Translation In Blank Verse, Alexander Jones

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a translation into modern English blank verse of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The bulk of the thesis is the poem itself, which represents not only the academic work of Old English translation, literary interpretation, and the study of early Germanic culture, but also the artistic work of creating poetry and adapting the poem’s content to modern language and contexts. Included with the translation is an introduction placing it in conversation with other prominent modern translations of Beowulf, and analyzing the translation choices made at macro and micro levels. It is shown through this analysis that …

Effect Of Cannabinoid Treatment On Immune Cell Functions During Acute Lung Injury, Amira Kamil Mohammed

Theses and Dissertations

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is a highly potent CDC select agent that can trigger acute lung injury (ALI) via robust T cell proliferation and differentiation, and massive cytokine and chemokine release. Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a psychoactive ingredient found in Cannabis sativa. In the current study, we investigated the effects of treatment with THC on SEB-induced acute lung injury. To this end, acute lung injury was induced by a dual dose of SEB in C3H/HeJ mice, which were then treated with vehicle or THC. THC-treatment led to survival of all the SEB-administered mice when compared to vehicle-treated. This corroborated with THC-induced …

Social Trust And Soft Power: The Role Of Social Trust In Democratic Countries’ Soft Power Use, Judit Trunkos

Theses and Dissertations

We have learned about democracies’ peaceful behaviour but we know relatively little about why some democracies are more peaceful and use more soft power instruments than others. I argue that contrary to competing theories that link soft power use to budget size or institutions, it is the variation in the public’s social trust that drives the variation in peaceful behaviour. Individual’s social trust toward peaceful foreign policies are shaped by their core beliefs about trusting other people, which vary across democracies. I argue that leader’s with more trusting populations will be more likely to use soft power instruments becasue they …

Applying Data Organizational Techniques To Enhance Air Force Learning, Jacob A. Orner

Theses and Dissertations

The USAF and the DoD use traditional schoolhouses to educate and train personnel. The physical aspects of these schoolhouses limit throughput. A method to increase throughput is to shift towards an asynchronous learning environment where students move through content at individually. This research introduces a methodology for transforming a set of unstructured documents into an organized TM students can use to orient themselves in a domain. The research identifies learning paths within the TM to create a directed KSAT. We apply this methodology in four case studies, each an education or training course. Using a graph comparison metric and the …

Developing A Serious Game To Explore Joint All Domain Command And Control, Nathaniel W. Flack

Theses and Dissertations

Changes in the geopolitical landscape and increasing technological complexity have prompted the U.S. Military to coin Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) and Joint All-Domain Command and Control as terms to describe an over-arching strategy that frames the complexity of warfare across both traditional and emerging warfighting domains. Teaching new and advanced concepts associated with these terms requires both innovation as well as distinct education and training tools in order to realize the cultural change advocated by senior military leaders. BSN, a Collectible Card Game, was developed to teach concepts integral to MDO and initiate discussion on military strategy.