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From The Old To The New World: The Transformation Of Kongo Minkisi In African American Art, Mary Mccurnin

Theses and Dissertations

Minkisi (sing. nkisi) were sacred objects that housed ancestral spirits and were used for divination, healing and social justice by the Kongo people of Central Africa. When the Kongo were brought as slaves to the New World, they contributed significantly to the development of African American artistic and spiritual culture. In the Caribbean, aspects of minkisi have been retained in the creolized spiritual beliefs of Haitian Vodou, Cuban Palo Monte Mayombe and Brazilian Candomble. In North America, evidence of Kongo influence is apparent in examples of folk art and culture, including quilts, mojo hands, Afro-Carolinian face vessels, memory jugs and …

Anxiety De La Historia: Understanding The Roots Of Spanglish In The Texts Of Junot Díaz, Kelsey A. Shanesy

English Honors Projects

In exploring Junot Díaz’s use of Spanglish, I propose that Díaz is driven by the anxiety of history—a phenomenon similar to the anxiety of influence, as articulated by Harold Bloom, but which focuses on the role of the Latino minority in this postmodern moment. I compare Díaz’s texts to Piri Thomas’s autobiography Down These Mean Streets, one of the original texts to utilize Spanglish, and Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed, a satirical novel about minority culture. Díaz’s vision of a future, Spanglish-speaking America is revealed to be the ultimate outcome of the anxiety of history’s influence on Díaz.

Gpsa Council Meeting, 4/17/2010, Graduate And Professional Student Association

GPSA Meeting Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.

Seventeenth Annual Csbs Student Research Conference Program, April 17, 2010, University Of Northern Iowa

INSPIRE Student Research & Engagement Conference Programs

A program for the INSPIRE conference where undergraduate and graduate students present their research, internship, volunteer and study abroad experiences, club activities and creative performances.

Risk Society On The Last Frontier: Indigenous Knowledge And The Politics Of Risk In Oil Resource Management At Alaska's North Slope, Berill Blair

Arctic and Northern Studies

This thesis assesses the role of modern environmental risks and their institutionalized management in the subpolitics of North Slope stakeholder groups. It draws primarily on the concepts developed by Ulrich Beck and the literature that has grown out of his Risk Society thesis. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the current designs for knowledge production and management inside Alaska's oil management regime are inclusive of the indigenous knowledge (IK) of North Slope residents during the mediation of environmental risks, and whether the extent of inclusion is in proportion with the risk exposures of these communities. The premise …

Authentic Assessment In Action: The Challenges, Success, And Discoveries Made In A 5th Grade Classroom, Kristen I. Hendrickson

Linguistics

This research study focuses on the success, challenges, and the discoveries I made implementing authentic assessment in my 5th grade classroom of Alaska Native, English Language Learners (ELLS). The primary goals of this study are to provide students, parents, and education professionals with a more accurate picture of students' academic and language knowledge and skills; and to share my own experience implementing authentic assessments into my classroom. Standardized assessment scores, authentic assessment results, interviews, observations, and my research journal provided the bulk of the data that was analyzed. Two learner profiles were constructed for each participant. The first profile was …

Using Multicultural Literature To Promote Cultural Awareness And Deepen Understanding Of Your Own: A Yup'ik Teacher-Researcher's Journey, Nuraraq Joanne Sundown

Linguistics

The purpose of this research is to see if using multicultural literature potentially enhances a student's own respect of his/her culture and language. Through the use of a multicultural thematic unit and multicultural literature, students potentially gain awareness and respect for diverse populations. This research hopes to see this diverse awareness and respect reflected on the students' own culture and language. The research conducted was a qualitative research using participants enrolled in the Scammon Bay School for the school year 2008-2009. The participants were nine second grade students. The research methods outlined several techniques such as interviews, observations, and student …

The Influence Of Positive Mother-Child Verbal Interactions On Adolescent Mothers' Literacy, Heather-Lee M. Baron

Education

The purpose of this six-month qualitative microethnographic case study was to determine what influence a family literacy program based on positive mother-child verbal interactions would have on the participating adolescent mothers' literacy skills. The design of the program was founded on the Hart and Risley study (1995) and their findings regarding the five categories of significant family experiences that enhance children's vocabulary: language diversity, feedback tone, symbolic emphasis, guidance style, and responsiveness. These experiences stress the importance of affirmative interactions between children and their parents. The three adolescent mothers who participated in the study were single, white, of low socioeconomic …

Landscape Structure And Terrain-Based Hunting Range Models: Exploring Late Prehistoric Land Use In The Nutzotin Mountains, Southcentral Alaska, Jody J. Patterson

Anthropology

Striving for better delineation of site function, land use, and settlement patterns, the data and analyses presented in this dissertation aim to explore more robust and objective avenues of inquiry for addressing the variability and distribution of surface lithic scatters using terrain-based hunting range models. Using large mammal distributions, Athabascan hunting ranges, and topography, landscape metrics, and an exploratory data analysis (EDA) framework, landscape structure is quantified and compared across much of the Alaskan Interior to identify reoccurring patterns related to hunting land use and the range characteristics of caribou, moose, and sheep. Key components of the landscape structure are …

Dew Line Passage: Tracing The Legacies Of Arctic Militarization, Stacey A. Fritz

Anthropology

Grounded within the context of modern American militarization, this dissertation is a descriptive, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic study focusing on the impacts and legacies of the development, implementation, and decommissioning of the western sector of the Distant Early Warning radar line (DEW Line) in northern Alaska and Canada's western Arctic. Understanding the localized social and environmental impacts of global militarization is a critical task for anthropology and one that coincides in the North with the need to gather histories from Inuit perspectives. This study's purposes are to elucidate how the global phenomenon of modern militarization penetrates and brings about change in …

An Etymology For Galiyao, Gary Holton

Alaska Native Language Center Faculty

No abstract provided.

Authentic Assessment For Yuuyaraq Middle School Students Based On The Yuuyaraq Curriculum, Rachel Cikigaq Nicholai

Linguistics

This study examines how the Yuuyaraq curriculum is being applied in the context of a middle school classroom in a small Yup'ik village in Alaska, specifically focusing on how to better assess the outcomes of the curriculum. In the early 1980s, the Yuuyaraq curriculum (YC) was revised to include the seasonal activities of the region, but lacked alignment with the assessments. By using the Participatory Action Research methodology, the researcher identified a problem, observed the situation, analyzed and interpreted the data, and developed an action plan. Data revealed that authentic assessments used in the Yuuyaraq curriculum can be assess Indigenous …

Agroborealis, Vol. 41, Number 1 (2010), School Of Natural Resources And Agricultural Sciences

Agroborealis

[Geography] -- AMSA: the future of arctic marine shipping: With more shipping traffic in the north and greater marine access due to the retreat of Arctic sea ice, the Arctic states needed to develop a strategy to protect the maritime Arctic, its people, and the environment -- [Forest Sciences] -- Changing the forest and the trees - Is it climate?: Sunspots, sun cycles, El Ninos, La Ninas, atmospheric oscillations, greenhouse gases: climate change has begun to affect the boreal more than any other forest region. / Glenn Patrick Juday -- One Tree in the Tanana Valley: Take one entire tree, …

Investigating The Retention Of Bright And Dark Ejecta From Small Rayed Craters On Mars, Fred J. Calef

Geosciences

Impact cratering is one of the principal geologic processes operating throughout the solar system. On Mars, small rayed impact craters (SRC) form continuously and randomly on the surface. Ejecta retention, the timespan and ability of excavated ejecta to remain in place around a crater rim, records a lineage of recent surface processes. However, the timescales under which small rayed craters are produced and their origin, whether terrestrial or cosmic, plays an important role in further investigating surface processes and possible recent climate variations. By examining thousands of randomly chosen panchromatic images from the Mars Orbiter Camera Narrow Angle (MOCNA) camera, …

Afghanistan And Oman Personal Reflections On A Profound Contrast, Ken Foster

Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal

No abstract provided.

Phylogeography, Ecogeographic Variation, And Evolutionary History Of The Collared Pika (Ochotona Collaris), Hayley Christine Lanier

Biological Sciences

In this dissertation I address the evolutionary history, ecogeographic variation, and phylogeography (single species and comparative) of collared pikas (Ochotona collaris). Pikas are small (ca. 150 g) lagomorphs (order Lagomorpha: rabbits, hares, and pikas) found in alpine habitats throughout much of the Holarctic. Only two of the 30 extant pika species occur in the New World. The northern of the two species, O. collaris is separated 800 km north of the American pika (O. princeps). In the first chapter, I employ recently developed molecular analytical techniques to examine when the two North American species diverged. This chapter sets the evolutionary …

April 16, 2010, Ohio University Board Of Trustees Meeting Minutes, Ohio University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes document the activities of Ohio University's Board of Trustees.

Re-Tooling An American Metropolis, Robert Shawn Hott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Re-tool:

v.tr. re-tooled, re-tooling, re-tools

1. To fit out (a factory, for example) with a new set of machinery and tools for making a different product.

2. To revise and reorganize, especially for the purpose of updating or improving.

The American ideals inherent in the suburbs are the promise of space, affordability, convenience, and traditional family life; conversely the public realms of the suburban typology become disconnected from each other as well as the larger city. The Generic City condition in which the periphery is no longer captivated by the center from which it was created is pervasive in the …

Founding Fathers: An Ethnic And Gender Study Of The Iliadic Aeneid, Rob Brannon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a 2005 work, Yasmin Syed concluded that the Aeneid created for ancient readers an idea of Romanness that was inclusive for all and not founded along strict genetic lines. Under this hypothesis, the Aeneid offers a sort of blueprint for becoming Roman, one in which biological descent from Aeneas is unnecessary. Syed reached this conclusion by analyzing themes of ethnicity and gender, in particular the ethnic other represented by the epic's female characters. This was accomplished in the manner so often chosen by Vergil scholars-by limiting analysis to the first half of the epic. The work concludes with an …

Trends In Climate Change Education In Nevada's System Of Higher Education, Amy Northrup

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

This poster presents research into how climate change is taught in Nevada's colleges and universities. A completed inventory of the types of courses in different disciplines and at different institutions that relay information about climate change to students is discussed.

Environmental Impact On The Functionality Of Landmines: Does Aging Matter?, Martin Jebens

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Mines buried in Skallingen, Denmark, during World War II have since shown varying reactions to their environments in beach, dune and marsh areas. This article explains the results of several tests that may assist in the development of a more efficient, cost-effective demining plan in these areas. It also posits that a similar analysis of mines and soils in other old minefields could result in more flexibility with clearance, leading to greater efficiency.

Ahp Model For The Container Port Choice In The Multiple-Ports Region, Chien-Chang Chou

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

In this paper, a theoretical analysis of the effect of surface roughness on the lubrication characteristics of inclined stepped composite bearings with micropolar fluid is examined. A generalized form of surface roughness is mathematically modeled by a stochastic random variable with non-zero mean, variance and skewness. The generalized average Reynolds type equation is derived for the rough inclined stepped composite bearings with micropolar fluid. The closed form expressions are obtained for the fluid film pressure, load carrying capacity, frictional force. These expressions can be utilized to obtain the performance characteristics of four different types of bearing system viz; rough plane …

April 15, 2010, Council On Academic Affairs

Minutes

No abstract provided.

The Alestle - Vol. 62 No. 30 - 04/15/2010, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

The Alestle

Vol. 62 No. 30

An Analysis Of The Conservation Importance Of Amazon Borderlands Using Geographic Information Systems, Ben Weinstein, David S. Salisbury, Kimberly Britt Klinker

Geography and the Environment Poster Presentations

At 6,000,000 km2, the Amazon basin is a critical hotspot of global biodiversity. The Amazon lowland is often incorrectly portrayed as a single homogenous unit, a vast and unpopulated region (Eva & Huber 2005). In actuality, nine countries comprise the Amazon, creating a mosaic of ecological, cultural and political boundaries (Manne 2003, Maffi 2005). Our aim is to test whether these Amazonian borderlands have greater conservation significance than the Amazonian interior. The political geography has profound effects on conservation as each country designates and maintains area differently (Eva & Huber 2005). Depending on management type, protected areas shelter ecosystems from …

Bobcats Increasing In N.H.; Unh Researchers Probe Why, Beth Potier

Media Relations

No abstract provided.

With Liberty And Justice For All?: An Examination Of Racial Differences In Perceptions Of The Criminal Justice System, Rhea Ashley Evans

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Rhea Ashley Evans on April 14, 2010.

Your Attention Please: Increasing Ambient Noise Levels Elicits A Change In Communication Behaviour In Humpback Whales (Megaptera Novaeangliae), Rebecca A. Dunlop, Douglas H. Cato, Michael J. Noad

Bioacoustics Collection

High background noise is an important obstacle in successful signal detection and perception of an intended acoustic signal. To overcome this problem, many animals modify their acoustic signal by increasing the repetition rate, duration, amplitude or frequency range of the signal. An alternative method to ensure successful signal reception, yet to be tested in animals, involves the use of two different types of signal, where one signal type may enhance the other in periods of high background noise. Humpback whale communication signals comprise two different types: vocal signals, and surface-generated signals such as ‘breaching’ or ‘pectoral slapping’. We found that …

Apr. 14, 2010, Ifc, Annex B_Mark Up Of Draft Policy, Ifc

IFC E&S Performance Standards

No abstract provided.

15/14-Apr-10, Council On Academic Affairs

Minutes

No abstract provided.