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A Joining Of Hands: Form, Function, And Diversity At A Buddhist Monastery In Batesville, Mississippi, Tanna Tan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Buddhism is a religious tradition that spans the globe, and has erupted in popularity in the United States since the 1960s. This is a study of Thã­ch Nhat Hanh's "mindfulness" practice center, Magnolia Grove Monastery, in Batesville, Mississippi. Participant observation and interviews are implemented to understand the local concerns of its practitioners, and how they deal with these concerns. "Mindfulness" practice is made locally relevant to its practitioners through what I term "localization processes." these processes enable members at the site to negotiate different meanings of this tradition amongst themselves. An individual's "localization process" consists of several "boundaries" or elements …

Dual Targeting Ligands Of Sigma Receptors And Dopamine Transporters As Potential Pharmacotherapy For Cocaine Abuse, Shivangi Awasthi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Wanting In Anscombe's Intention, Mallory Dianne Kunz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In intention, G.E.M. Anscombe sets out to examine the standard ways in which we use the word "intention". To this end, she also examines desire and how desires play a role in our intentions. In the process, she divides desire into two distinct categories, those of weak and strong wanting. This distinction is quite different from ancient and modern views of desire, which are briefly discussed as a means of comparing Anscombe's view to her predecessors. After she has made this distinction, Anscombe tries to establish what is required of this new category of strong wanting. These requirements include knowledge …

Quiet Till The Bombs Go Off, Christopher Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collection of stories discusses themes of identity, masculinity, and the movement of time, both conceptually and literally. Yet while these matters are frequently apparent throughout, the collection is at heart less a unified fictive front, and far more a representation of constantly shifting considerations in form, language, and structure. The arrangement of stories, beginning with the most recently written and continuing in reverse from there, allows for the evolution of artistic intent to become visible over the course of the collection in a way a more conventionally organized group of stories would not.

Monitoring Damage Initiation And Growth In Composite Structures By Acoustic Emission Method, Kassahun Mekonnen Asamene

Dissertations

In this dissertation, acoustic emission technique is examined as candidate for monitoring the integrity of polymer matrix structural members. Acoustic emission technique has so far been largely limited to laboratory tests and field applications have been mostly limited to qualification tests of aerospace structures. The lack of quantitative indications of damage in composite structural members associated with the complex nature of damage in these materials has been a limiting factor. Generally, a number of failure modes operate simultaneously at a site of damage, and each of these failure modes generates a different type of acoustic emission signal. In addition, issues …

Against Goals, Eleanor M. Fox

Faculty Articles

This Essay argues that the U.S. debate on the goals of antitrust tends to obscure a much more critical and consequential debate. The Essay begins with a historical description of goals; it proceeds to question the question: What are the goals? It then identifies the real debate.

How To Talk About The Constitution, Sarah Aronchick Solow, Barry Friedman

Faculty Articles

The article discusses the U.S. Constitution and legal interpretation theories such as originalism, as they relate to the book "Living Originalism" by Jack M. Balkin. Legal precedents are mentioned, and analyses of Balkin's opinions on various interpretive methodologies and American legal theories are provided. The U.S. Supreme Court (USSC) case District of Columbia v. Heller, which deals with the Second Amendment to the nation's Constitution, gun ownership rights in America, and USSC Justice Antonin Scalia, is examined.

Exorcising Mcculloch: The Conflict-Ridden History Of American Banking Nationalism And Dodd-Frank Preemption, Roderick M. Hills Jr.

Faculty Articles

Conventional wisdom holds that federal laws conferring banking powers on national banks presumptively preempt state laws seeking to control the exercise of those powers. This conventional wisdom originates with McCulloch v. Maryland, which established that nationally chartered banks are federal instrumentalities entitled to regulate themselves free from state law—even when national law fails to address the risks that state law seeks to regulate. Incorporated into the National Bank Act of 1864 by nineteenth-century precedents but then abandoned by the New Deal Court, McCulloch’s theory of preemption is being revived today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) …

Gideon At Fifty—Golden Anniversary Or Mid-Life Crisis, Kim A. Taylor-Thompson

Faculty Articles

Fifty years ago, Gideon laid an important foundation, but that foundational principle requires new responses to new challenges. There is much work to do to prevent this fiftieth anniversary from collapsing into a mid-life crisis and, instead, enabling this half-century mark to be the golden anniversary it ought to be. Part one of this essay examines the ways in which the states have veered from the path set by Gideon. To breathe life into the Gideon mandate, and to make the sort of course correction that honors the decision’s principles rather than weaken them to caricatures, we, and all who …

Antitrust's Democracy Deficit, Harry First, Spencer Weber Waller

Faculty Articles

Over the past fifty years, many scholars have tried to explain what has caused the dramatic decrease in antitrust’s political salience, but the purpose of this article is more to describe how the shift has affected the way we now do the “antitrust enterprise” and to connect this shift to our concern for the political values that we believe underlie the antitrust laws. We connect free markets with free people, favoring open markets and the opportunity to compete as well as seeing the connection between free markets and democratic values and institutions. We also believe that a balance of institutional …

Problematic Private Property: The Case Of New York Taxicab Medallions, Katrina M. Wyman

Faculty Articles

Yellow taxicabs are an iconic symbol of New York City. Almost as well-known as the City's yellow taxis are the valuable licenses that vehicles must have in order to be used as taxis. Often called medallions, these licenses constitute a form of private property. They are routinely bought and sold, leased, used as collateral for loans, and count as assets in bankruptcy. This Article emphasizes the political character of property rights in the modern state through a case study of why New York taxi medallions continue to exist. Prominent explanations of the evolution of property rights imply that they are …

Some Very Personal Reflections On The Rules, Rulemaking, And Reporters, Arthur R. Miller

Faculty Articles

The author discusses several U.S rules, amendments to the rules and the role of rule makers or reporters in proposing a rule. He informs that an amendment was made to Rule 11 regarding lawyer certification and mandatory sanction provision. He mentions several reporters who proposed original rules to the legislation including Professor James William Moore and Judge Albert Maris of the U.S. Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Panopti-Moms, Melissa Murray

Faculty Articles

The Panopticon’s shadow looms large in Camille Gear Rich’s Innocence Interrupted: Reconstructing Fatherhood in the Shadow of Child Molestation Law. There, Rich identifies the role that criminal child molestation statutes play in shaping the way that men provide intimate care to children. Specifically, Rich argues that child molestation laws are enforced and interpreted in ways that reinstantiate the traditional gender norms that surround caregiving. Focusing on criminal cases involving male caregivers who provide intimate care to a child (bathing, diapering, toileting, etc.), Rich demonstrates the way in which legal decision makers (judges, social workers, law enforcement officials) often rely on …

Time-Activity Budgets Of Stoplight Parrotfish (Scaridae: Sparisoma Viride) In Belize: Cleaning Invitation And Diurnal Patterns, Wesley A. Dent, Gary R. Gaston

Gulf and Caribbean Research

The primary objective of this study was to analyze diurnal behavior of Sparisoma viride in South Water Caye Marine Reserve (SWCMR), Belize. Time-activity budgets were used to characterize behavior (using swimming, feeding, hovering, sheltering, defecating, and cleaning categories) during the diel cycle, and to illustrate differences among the life phases of this species.

Urban Culture, Judith E. Smith

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

Encyclopedia entry on "Urban Culture" submitted for inclusion in the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History, ed. by Joan Shelly Rubin (NY: Oxford University Press, 2013) 516-522.

Activities And Achievements: Progress Report 2011-2013, Center For Governance And Sustainability, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Maria Ivanova, Craig Murphy, James Gustave Speth, Christiana Figueres, Alice Odingo

Center for Governance and Sustainability Publications

We joined the University of Massachusetts Boston in the fall of 2010 to develop a new doctoral program in global governance and human security, the first of its kind in the United States. In the spring of 2011, we launched the Center for Governance and Sustainability in an effort to bring academic rigor to real-world policy challenges in environment, development, and sustainability governance.

The Center is housed at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, which takes pride in offering a world-class interdisciplinary education and engaging in values-driven research, demonstrating a deep commitment to making a …

Cfd Analysis And Design Optimization Of Flapping Wing Flows, Martin Alexander Jones

Dissertations

The main objectives of this research work are to perform the CFD analysis of the 3-D flow around a flapping wing in a gusty environment and to optimize its kinematics and shape to maximize the performance. The effects of frontal, side, and downward wind gusts on the aerodynamic characteristics of a rigid wing undergoing insect-based flapping motion are analyzed numerically. The turbulent, low-Reynolds-number flow near a flapping wing is governed by the 3-D unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. The governing equations are solved using a second-order node-centered finite volume method on a hexahedral mesh that …

Use Of Sweet Potato To Develop A Medium For Cultivation Of Lactic Acid Bacteria, Saeed A. Hayek

Dissertations

This study investigated the use of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) as a basic component to develop a medium for cultivation of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Extract from baked sweet potatoes was used to form a sweet potato medium (SPM). SPM was supplemented with 4 g/L of each nitrogen source (beef extract, yeast extract, and proteose peptone #3). Lactobacilli MRS was used as a control medium. Ten LAB strains were used to determine the suitability of SPM serving the growth of LAB. Our results showed no significant (p < 0.05) differences in the optical density, maximum specific growth rates, and bacterial populations between MRS and SPM. SPM also maintained higher pH values throughout the incubation period compared to that in MRS. The cost of SPM was 47% less than the cost of MRS. Further step was taken to determine the suitability of SPM serving LAB enzymatic activity. LAB strains growing in SPM showed relatively higher β-glucosidases, acid phosphatase, and phytase activities and lower a-glucosidase compared to that in MRS. Strains of L. reuteri showed the …

Infections In Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction, C. Stucken, D.N. Garras, J.L. Shaner, Steven B. Cohen

Rothman Institute Papers

Context: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a safe, common, and effective method of restoring stability to the knee after injury, but evolving techniques of reconstruction carry inherent risk. Infection after ACL reconstruction, while rare, carries a high morbidity potentially resulting in poor clinical outcome.

Evidence Acquisition: Data were obtained from previously published peer-reviewed literature through a search of the entire PubMed database (up to December 2012) as well as from textbook chapters.

Results: Treatment with culture-specific antibiotics and debridement with graft retention is generally more effective than graft removal, but with persistent infection consideration should be given to graft …

Christ And Class: The Protestant Episcopal Church In The South, 1760-1865, Ryan Lee Fletcher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Christ and Class: The Protestant Episcopal Church in the South, 1760-1865 Ryan Lee Fletcher This dissertation examines the emergence, practices, religious culture, expansion, and social role of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the American South from 1760 to 1865. The dissertation employs three major research methodologies by: (1) centralizing the role of social class in the Episcopal Church's history, (2) seriously considering the Episcopal Church's distinctive theology, and (3) quantifying the connections that linked the Episcopal Church to the South's economic structures. Archival research, periodicals, and published records related to the Protestant Episcopal Church provided the primary evidence used in …

Part A: Antimalarial Agents Modified At The C-16 Position Of Artemisinin; Part B: Lead Optimization Of Falcipain-2 And Falcipain-3 Inhibitors, Yunshan Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Part A: Antimalarial Agents modified at the C-16 position of Artemisinin. Malaria is a widespread tropical and subtropical parasitic disease which is caused by malarial parasites and transmitted by the infected anopheles mosquitoe. The natural product artemisinin and its derivatives are currently considered the most effective drugs against drug resistant plasmodium falciparum. However, its undesired physicochemical proprieties have limited its usage. In order to improve its effectiveness, scientists around the world have developed novel methodology to synthesize artemisinin derivatives on different positions of the artemisinin skeleton. Previous work in our group has shown that many analogues modified at the C-16 …

Role Of The Endocannabinoid System In Cardiac Remodeling, Monica Gole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The endocannabinoid system and CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors have been implicated in cardiac remodeling with CB1 inhibition and CB2 activation reported to be beneficial. However, the role of these receptors in cardiac remodeling secondary to hypertension is not known. Moreover, the functions of the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors in cardiac ventricular fibroblasts and their downstream fibrotic pathways has not yet been elucidated. This study was designed to determine the temporal myocardial expression pattern of CB1 and CB2 receptors in cardiac remodeling secondary to pressure overload (PO) induced hypertension at 3, 5, 14 and 28 days. The expression of …

“Just Let Us Teach!”: Living Literacy Policy In And Around Maplewood Elementary School, Cindy Anne Morton-Rose

Theses and Dissertations

Through a sociocultural lens this study explored how four teachers, a reading teacher, and their principal lived literacy policy in practice in and around Maplewood Elementary School. This work grew out of three questions: (a) How do six policy stakeholders at one elementary school--four teachers, one administrator, and one reading teacher--make meaning of literacy policies? (b) How do these stakeholders' understandings shape the appropriation of these policies in their day-to-day literacy practices? and (c) How does the meaning-making of other stakeholders--district, state, and federal policy-makers--intersect with and inform the appropriation of policy by the six focal stakeholders? In asking these …

Exploring The Importance Of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Of Hspa9 In Dna Of Sarcoma Patients, Christine M. Hebert

Honors Theses and Capstones

The aim of this project was to identify genetic variants that may influence the risk and progression of sarcoma through targeted genotyping of HSPA9 gene. It is important to look at genetic variants in DNA samples because if a variant is determined to be more likely than another, a screening for the particular variant can be done to identify a patient’s risk of sarcoma. The study population was sarcoma patients from the International Sarcoma Kindred Study. These patients had no mutations in p53 or MDM2. Genotyping data from the HapMap project (hapmap.org) for HSPA9 was used to identify the polymorphisms …

Icts Research Collaboration Survey Results: Demonstrations Of Stability, Center For Public Health Systems Science, Bobbi Carothers, Douglas Luke, Ryan Bell

Center for Public Health Systems Science

This report provides the results from the Institute of Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) Research Collaboration Survey administered in 2011 and 2013. The ICTS Research Collaboration Survey was developed to better understand the collaborative research partnerships of ICTS members.

Aaron Gillette , Eugenics And The Nature Nurture Debate In The Twentieth Century, Garland E. Allen

Biology Faculty Research

Aaron Gillette, Eugenics and the Nature–Nurture Debate in the Twentieth Century, Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology [2007], digital reprint (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. ix, 239, index, £18.99, paperback, ISBN: 9780230108455. This book treats an important subject – the history of the nature–nurture debate (focused on the US but with references to European players and movements) – and its implications for current theories of evolutionary psychology.

Coping Strategies For Members Of The Zion Seventh-Day Adventist Church Who Experienced Multiple Losses And Complex Grief After A Major Crisis, Jean-Renaud Joseph

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

This dissertation explored the prevalence of trauma exposure, complicated grief, and related symptoms among survivors and members of Zion Seventh-day Adventist Church who had lost family members in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Method

The sample included participants who were members of Zion Seventh-day Adventist Church (n =39) who had either personally witnessed the 2010 Haiti earthquake and/or had lost family members in this traumatic event. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to explore the relations between the scale items of the IES (Impact of Event Scale) as well as between the subscales and other variables of interest. …

Nowhere: Blank Verse Concerning Small-Town Life In California, Daniel Scarpa

Master's Theses

I wanted to explore the process of using place - specifically, small towns in California that I visited - as inspiration for the writing of a book of poetry. This has been done in the past, most notably by poets such as Kenneth Rexroth and Gary Snyder. I was inspired by these poets and several others and my own experience in these often overlooked small towns to create a collection of syllabic blank verse poems that touch on their economies, practical reasons for isolation, and unique micro-cultures. While on the whole, I am pleased with the way the collection turned …

Ecotourism As A Tool For Conservation Of Coast Redwoods In Santa Cruz County, California, Chandana Rao

Master's Theses

According to the World Tourism Organization, ecotourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry, generating $300 billion in annual revenue. Ecotourism aims to control the damaging effects of conventional mass tourism and tries to overcome tourism's environmental and socio-cultural challenges. In an ideal situation, ecotourism can help conserve fragile biodiversity, build ties between parks and communities, and increase awareness of environmental issues; it also includes a profit impetus for businesses.

This research was conducted to evaluate the potential for developing ecotourism as a conservation tool in the four redwoods state parks of Santa Cruz County. The study assessed …

The Actor Within: An Exploration Of Present Moment Awareness In Business Presentations, Billie Shepard

Master's Theses

This thesis explores incorporating the use of acting skills in business presentations using present moment awareness techniques. Present moment awareness is defined in this study as the use of improvisation, intention, voice, and body/sensory awareness and is drawn primarily from the theoretical work of Patsy Rodenburg.

The research project followed nine adult student-participants through a five-week course of study in business presentation methods, which incorporated the present moment awareness acting techniques. Data were collected throughout the five weeks and included a pre and post survey, participant journaling prompts, a researcher journal, peer reviews, and participant interviews. The study concluded that …