Digital Commons Network^™

Postmodernism & Paradise Lost: Reconsidering Knowledge, Politics And Literature, Mary Smith

Senior Honors Projects

“Postmodernism & Paradise Lost: Reconsidering Knowledge, Politics and Literature” is an interdisciplinary approach to interpreting John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, one that magnetizes literary, historical, and philosophical discourse as a means ultimately to redefine the concept of radicalism. Christopher Hill’s historical text, Milton and the English Revolution draws parallels between Milton’s poem and the radical ideas that flecked England’s political landscape in the 17th century. These parallels provide a sound basis to argue in the poetic realm that Milton’s poem is primarily a political text, more specifically a radical one. Such a claim poses a metaphysical question: what is …

Protozoan Vaccine Candidate Homologues In Tetrahymena Thermophila, Justin Schumacher

Senior Honors Projects

Tetrahymena thermophila is a member of the phylum Ciliophora (the ciliated protozoa) and is currently of great interest due to its unique qualities that make it useful as a model for research directed towards understanding how eukaryotic cells function. Recently, the T. thermophila genome was sequenced, and made available online. Since Tetrahymena is a member of the Alveolata, the major eukaryotic clade that also contains the apicomplexan parasites that cause a number of serious human and animal diseases, we sought to determine whether the genes coding for apicomplexan vaccine candidates were represented in the genome of Tetrahymena. In addition, we …

Exploring The Scientist-Practitioner Model In Clinical Psychology, Jami Halpern

Senior Honors Projects

The Scientist-Practitioner Model is a system of education used by many graduate programs in applied fields of psychology. The goal of this educational model is to help clinicians and other practitioners to learn to use empirical research as a basis for the applied work that they do and also for them to learn to use the experience of applied clinical practice to guide research questions and to advance scientific thinking in the discipline of Psychology. As a student who plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, I felt that it would be beneficial for me to experience the Scientist-Practitioner …

Categorizing Humans, Animals, And Machines In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein, Martha Bellows

Senior Honors Projects

From Plato to Descartes and Kant and now to modern day, there is a general idea that pervades Western society. This idea is about the uniqueness and superiority of the human being. We are rational and conscious beings that apparently stand alone in the world, separated intellectually from animals and biologically from machines. The relationship between humans, animals, and machines is a tumultuous one and it is not easily definable. For many classical philosophers, this relationship has always been a hierarchy. Humans are on the top and animals and machines fall somewhere below. These beliefs have created a distinct category …

A Feminist Revolution On The Popular Front : Muriel Rukeyser's 1930s Poetry, Janis Hubschman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Modern American poet, Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980) launched her half- century career in the thirties, a decade marked by an economic crisis in the United States, the rising threat of fascism abroad, and, consequently, by a politically-charged literary culture. Although Rukeyser’s deep engagement with social issues identified her from the start as a poet of the left, she maintained her political and artistic autonomy throughout the decade to shape a highly individualistic radical feminist aesthetic. My analysis of Rukeyser’s three collections from the 1930s: Theory of Flight (1935), U.S. 1 (1938), and A Turning Wind (1939) considers how the poet embraces, …

Literacy Instruction And The Learning Disabled High School Student : Ideas And Applications For A Mindful Classroom, Suzanne E. Kos

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis suggests that the emergent field of mindfulness and contemplative pedagogy can be a uniquely effective tool for use in the English classroom for learning disabled (LD) high school students. By first exploring definitions of difference and initiating a conversation about how we, as a society, conceptualize difference and how we provide literacy instruction for students who learn differently, this thesis advocates for a more complex and meaningful understanding of the difficult issues surrounding teaching literature and writing to LD high school students. The discussion then introduces some of the central tenets of mindfulness and contemplative practice and explores, …

A Sedimentary Investigation Of Lineation Patterns Found In The Pinelands Of New Jersey, Jennifer Lynn Lapoma

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Late Pleistocene (-15,000 years ago) geomorphic processes in the Pinelands of southern New Jersey were investigated after odd lineations were found on an Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) survey during the construction of a runway expansion at Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station. These lineations roughly matched up with alternating high and low albedo lineations identified on a 1931 aerial photomosaic approximately 17 kilometer (km) south of Lakehurst Navy Base in Davensport Branch, New Jersey. These lineations were initially hypothesized to be relicts from strong katabic winds flowing off the Laurentide Ice Sheet that would have been capable of winnowing magnetic sands from …

Binding Of Icer To Its Own Promoter As A Mode Of Cooperative Regulation, Craig Stephen Queenan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Inducible cAMP Early Repressor (ICER) is a regulator of cAMP signaling in the cell. ICER can be found in normal cells, but it is not present in tumor cells. The growth of these tumor cells is hampered when ICER protein is artificially reintroduced in these cells. Therefore, it is hypothesized that ICER manipulation could potentially be used as a new therapy for the treatment of cancer. Although much is known about the physiological role of ICER, little is known about the regulation of the gene. In this study, the negative autoregulation of ICER by binding to its own regulatory sequences, …

Down Regulation Patterns Of The Mutated Ret Receptor Tyrosine Kinase, Mai A. Soliman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

REarranged during Transfection (RET) is a mammalian tyrosine kinase receptor involved in the signal transduction pathways during early embryonic kidney and enteric nervous system development. Activation of RET is mediated by one of the membrane associated co-receptors GFRal-4 and one of the four GFL family ligands. Following ligand binding, RET undergoes autophosphorylation followed by downstream activation of additional cell signaling proteins. However, less is understood about the down- regulation patterns of RET and of naturally occurring RET mutants and laboratory modified forms of RET. In this study, the role of the cytoplasmic domain in receptor processing and protein degradation was …

Adaptive Piano Pedagogy For The Student With Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Nava Zeevi

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Music therapy is a well known means of creating emotional, academic and social advances in the life of children with autism. However, private instrumental instructions, a form of music therapy for this population, are not easily accessible. Not many piano teachers have the experience, background or understanding needed to teach students with varying degrees of challenges in sensory integration, information processing, aural and visual discrimination, motor problems and low muscle tone.

The literature review in this thesis includes an overview of autistic spectrum disorder, the special learning needs of the child with autism, and general piano pedagogy theories, strategies and …

Adapting The End: Responding To Standards Of Learning In Theatre For Children, Jamie Lish

Theses and Dissertations

Theatre is the passport to the creation of a balanced educational system in the United States (US), while standardized testing is the downfall of the ideology behind ‘No Child Left Behind’ (NCLB). As an educator, I was greatly influenced by Howard Gardner, theorist of Multiple Intelligences and Neil Fleming theorist of learning modalities. This work has carried over into my work in theatre as a director. Theatre does not have to didactically serve formal education, which emphasizes mathematics and reading/writing, nor does it have to be merely a spectacle. Theatre can be experimental, artistic, cathartic, foster social and intrapersonal skills …

“A Woman’S Story At A Winter’S Fire”: Gender Performativity And The Intrinsic Power Of The Feminine In Shakespeare’S Macbeth, Whitney Sperrazza

English

No abstract provided.

Are Holding Patterns Predictive Of Infant Attachment Classification In 12 To 18 Month Old Infants?, Lauren Beam

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Research investigating infant attachment has demonstrated the benefits of infants' secure attachment to their mothers. While Ainsworth (1973) has determined four maternal behaviors, tender holding, stimulation, contingent responding and maternal sensitivity to infant signals, that promote a secure attachment in infants, are there other behaviors a mother could perform to promote a secure attachment in her infant? Whether infant attachment classification could be predicted from maternal holding patterns was investigated in the current study. Infant attachment classification was determined by infant behavior in Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure. Maternal holding patterns were comprised of eight holding behaviors. Results revealed that mothers …

Ecological Constraints And Life History Tradeoffs Among Human Foragers And Their Prey, Oskar Burger

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation attempts to identify ecological relationships useful for understanding large-scale patterns in human-environment interaction that can be applied to archaeological studies. It uses three established bodies of theory to understand ecological constraints and life history tradeoffs, applying the same basic framework to human adaptations and the demographic trends of other mammals. First, a model from optimal foraging theory (the marginal value theorem), which posits a tradeoff between resource availability and resource processing, is applied to zooarchaeology to understand human butchery patterns. Humans tend to butcher prey according to the predictions of the model in both ethnographic and archaeological settings: …

The Biological Evidence Of The San-Pau-Chu People And Their Affinities, Hsiu-Man Lin

Anthropology ETDs

Austronesian is one of the major language groups spoken. It is believed that Taiwan, Indonesian (east of Wallace line), or Bismarck Archipelago is the starting point for Austronesian migrations. It is also suggested that prehistoric cultures of Taiwan were established by the ancestors of the modern Taiwanese indigenous populations, who are also Austronesian speakers. The goals of this project are to estimate biological relationships of the San-Pau-Chu (SPC) to other Asian populations (especially Polynesians) and to evaluate if Taiwan indeed plays a major role in the history of Austronesian migrations by using both dental morphological data (metric and nonmetric dental …

Environmental Regulation Of Dormancy Loss In Lomatium Dissectum (Apiaceae) Seeds, Melissa Scholten, Jacklyn Donahue, Nancy L. Shaw, Marcelo Serpe

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background and aims Lomatium dissectum (Apiaceae) is a perennial, herbaceous plant of wide distribution in Western North America. At the time of dispersal, L. dissectum seeds are dormant and have underdeveloped embryos. The aims of this work were to determine the requirements for dormancy break and germination, to characterize the type of seed dormancy, and to determine the effect of dehydration after embryo growth on seed viability and secondary dormancy.

Methods The temperature requirements for embryo growth and germination were investigated under growth chamber and field conditions. The effect of GA3 on embryo growth was also analyzed to determine the …

Nebline, May 2009

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Bed Bugs Come Back with a Vengeance: Controlling Them Quickly is Key to Slowing Their Spread
Bird Watching: A Little Backyard Therapy
May is Time to Control Leafy Spurge
Recognize/Control Phragmites
Getting the Most Out of CRP
Gluten-Free Sorghum Recipes
Eat a Variety of Vegetables
Family & Community Education (FCE) Clubs: Presidents’ View—Bonnie’s Bits
FCE News & Events
Household Hints: Removing Pollen Stains
May is Clean Air Month: Important Asthma Triggers
Encourage Communication Within the Family
Hand Picking Bagworms an Effective Control
ReTree Nebraska: Important to Diversify When Replanting
Managing Aquatic Plant Life
Using Animal Manure in the Garden
Control …

Follower Is The New Leader, Or Leading From Anywhere, Jean Amaral

Publications and Research

This invited lecture calls on librarians and others to explore and embrace servant leadership and leading from anywhere in the organization as a model for contributing to the success of communities. "I am a follower, therefore I must lead. It’s up to all of us to make our libraries and communities better places, just places . . . ."

Mourning Dove Banding Needs Assessment, Dave Otis

United States Fish and Wildlife Service: Publications

Introduction

The primary justification for an operational national mourning dove banding program is to provide data necessary for a long‐term informed harvest management strategy as envisioned in the National Mourning Dove Strategic Harvest Management Plan (Anonymous 2005). This strategy requires development of demographic population models which in turn depend on estimates of population survival and recruitment rates as well as harvest rates. These estimates are derived wholly or in part from banding data.

Ideally, a formal banding needs assessment would be developed given an explicitly defined harvest strategy framework. At the current time such a strategy has not yet been …

Legume Cover Crops Are More Beneficial Than Natural Fallows In Minimally Tilled Ugandan Soils, Drake N. Mubiru, Mark S. Coyne

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

It is important to establish the various effects of legume cover crops on soil physicochemical properties because they have been considered for use as improved fallows (with shorter rest periods) to enhance development and maintenance of soil productivity. Our objectives were to assess: (i) aboveground dry matter yields of legume cover crops; and (ii) cover crop effects on weed infestation and soil physicochemical properties in a minimum tillage management system. Trials were conducted for 2 yr at Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute and on farmers’ fields in Mbale and Pallisa districts, eastern Uganda. Th e experiment layout was a Randomized Complete …

Health Consequences Of Rural Women’S Productive Role In Agriculture In The Philippines And Other Developing Countries, Ma. Elena Chiong-Javier

Journal of International Women's Studies

Agriculture is central to developing countries like the Philippines and rural women contribute a substantial share of the labor that goes into this sector as food producers or agricultural workers. In the wake of numerous studies conducted worldwide about women since the United Nations’ Decade for Women (1976-1984), data appear sparse on the relationship between women’s work and women’s health in the agricultural setting to enable policy makers and program implementors to adequately address their health needs. Thus this study aimed to determine the nature of available information in the gender literature to enable us to understand the link between …

Potential For Introduced-Range Expansion Of Chinese Tallow Tree (Triadica Sebifera) In The Southeastern United States, Isaac Park

All Theses

The potential for populations of invasive plants to differ in their response to stressful environmental conditions or in their invasiveness is an underexplored issue in determining introduced species' range limits. Introduced genotypes might differ in their response to freezing temperatures, soil type, or differing biotic factors within their introduced range. We examined the potential of Chinese tallow tree seeds (Triadica sebifera (L.) Small) collected from two genetically distinct areas of its introduced range in the United States (North Carolina and South Carolina) as well as from the northern and southern portions of its native range in China to germinate and …

Imaging Of Rnase Mitochondrial Rna Processing Localization Using Fluorescent Microscopy, Bryan Marascalchi

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper presents a method for imaging RNase mitochondrial RNA processing localization using fluorescent microscopy. RNase mitochondrial RNA Processing, MRP, is an essential ribonucleoprotein endoribonuclease that functions in the degradation of specific mRNAs that control the cell cycle. A mutation of the RNA component of RNase MRP leads to a genetic disorder called Cartilage-Hair Hypoplasia. This disorder results from the decreased rate of cell growth because the mutant cell no longer has the ability to assemble rRNA, and cyclin-dependent cell-cycle regulation no longer functions correctly. My Capstone Project will study the localization and regulation of RNase MRP so that we …

High-Rate Channel Catfish Fingerling Production In The Partitioned Aquaculture System, Tim Wells

All Theses

The objective of this 4-year research project was to evaluate the performance of channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) fingerling production in the Partitioned Aquaculture System (PAS). The goal was to demonstrate production of 80-gram minimum sized fingerlings in a single growing season, allowing for 100% market-size fish production after one additional season in the grow-out PAS.
A series of 2-inch airlift pumps fed by a single 3-hp low-head blower was found to be capable of supplying sufficient water flow-rate (in 2005, 2006, and 2007) of gpm per container to 9 cohorts. A series of 0.75-hp axial flow pumps (in 2005, 2006, …

Antibody Architecture: Responding To Bioterrorism, Heather Voorhaar

All Theses

Bioterrorism, the use of biological and chemical agents for terrorist purposes, is one of the most potentially significant health and security threats currently facing the United States. Healthcare facilities as isolated entities are alone unable to provide sufficient, adaptable emergency response options during a bioterrorist attack--an unpredictable, low probability, high consequence event. Bioterrorism response must be systemic, distributed, flexible, and responsive for a wide range of event incidents, scenarios and contexts. A significant problem yet to be adequately addressed is the mitigation of the walking well--those who are not sick or injured but have the potential to inundate any designated …

A Condition Assessment Of The Old Island At Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina, Sarah Kollar

All Theses

Cemeteries face a number of condition problems, both naturally and through human destruction. Without protection, historic cemeteries will eventually be diminished or lost. Magnolia Cemetery of Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the many cemeteries facing various preservation problems. In an attempt to assist the cemetery, the failing conditions assessment of the Old Island section of Magnolia highlights the major problems of the area.
The Old Island is a section of Magnolia Cemetery located in the rear of the cemetery that has clearly defined boundaries with marsh and a small lake surrounding it. Plus, many of the people buried in …

Student Honors And Awards Program 2009, University Relations

UMM Honors and Awards Ceremony

In recognition of students who demonstrate academic excellence and enrich campus life.

Green | Instruction, Christine C. Ritson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

If society shows the need for a re-engagement with its surrounding nature in order to develop conscious environmental decisions, then a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade school, with the careful design and testing of materials, courtyards, and circulation strategy, will be the vehicle through which everyday decisions are taught at the earliest age.

Problem | Statistics | 20 percent of Americans go to school every day, equating to 55 million students and nearly 5 million teachers and staff. More than 25 percent of those students and teachers are going to school in inadequate facilities where their health is at risk.[1] …

The Lovely Invader: A Documentary On Lonicera Research, Danielle S. Houghton

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For over a year a half, I followed Steve Maheux, a Biology major, throughout his journey to conduct a research study on honeysuckle, an invasive plant. He posed a question regarding the possibility of predicting the occurrence of an invasive plant based on certain environmental factors: soil depth, soil pH, neighboring plants and other aspects that would make up an ideal environment for this menacing plant. The focus of my documentary was to show what true research looks like in all of its tedious glory. Research isn’t fancy. It often doesn’t make for “sexy film,” but it is vital for …

Kaidan: Fashion And Photographs Inspired By Japanese Ghost Stories, Gabrielle Hennessey

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The objective is to visually represent Japanese ghost stories, known as kaidan, not only as a supplement to the senior fashion design thesis but also as a way to explore the more general human themes of love, loss, and betrayal.

As a fashion design major, it is required to complete in full a six-piece womenswear collection to be shown at a university-wide fashion show in April of senior year. Each individual designer decides on an appropriate theme for his or her collection; this theme is finalised during the fall of senior year, with garment construction beginning immediately afterward. Additionally, …