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The Essentialism Of Music In Human Life And Its Roots In Nature, Katricia D. F. Stewart

Senior Theses

The connections between our emotions, music, and the natural world have only been examined in dualities, rather than as an interwoven triangle of elements that are innate and stem from our evolutionary history as a species. Our emotions are profoundly tied to musical sounds, while we also have a deeply rooted emotional connection with nature. The music of the natural world provided the foundation for crucial aspects of our human evolution, making our connections with both music and nature innate. Composers, musicians, poets, and storytellers have recognized this for centuries, exploiting these inherent connections in order to convey emotion and …

The Valley-Of-Death: Reciprocal Sign Epistasis Constrains Adaptive Trajectories In A Constant, Nutrient Limiting Environment, Kami E. Chiotti, Daniel J. Kvitek, Karen H. Schmidt, Gregory Koniges, Katja Schwartz, Elizabeth A. Donckels, Frank Rosenzweig, Gavin Sherlock

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The fitness landscape is a powerful metaphor for describing the relationship between genotype and phenotype for a population under selection. However, empirical data as to the topography of fitness landscapes are limited, owing to difficulties in measuring fitness for large numbers of genotypes under any condition. We previously reported a case of reciprocal sign epistasis (RSE), where two mutations individually increased yeast fitness in a glucose-limited environment, but reduced fitness when combined, suggesting the existence of two peaks on the fitness landscape. We sought to determine whether a ridge connected these peaks so that populations founded by one mutant could …

The (Not So) New Normal: A Queer Critique Of Lgbt Characters And Themes In Primetime Network Television Situational Comedies, Robert Dallas Byrd Jr.

Dissertations

This analysis of primetime situational comedies feature LGBTQ characters argues that through heteronormative and homonormative constructions of sexuality, race, gender, and class, many LGBTQ people are rendered invisible in the mainstream. Through discourse analysis, the study describes how these programs work to normalize gay and lesbian identity, which then resembles the dominant heterosexuality, aiding in the advancement of white, middle class gays, who privatize sexuality and mimic dominant conventions of gender, race, sexuality, and class in the public sphere. This research is important in understanding the American public’s most recent shifts in public opinion on issues of marriage equality and …

Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal And Relationship Quality: Same-Sex Friendships And Opposite-Sex Romantic Relationships, Tabitha L. Ingram

Selected Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the connection between relational-interdependent self-construal and relationship quality, with the cognitive mindset mediating the demonstration of autonomous efforts to maintain a relationship. For this study, I used a 22-question survey for relationship quality, measured separately for friendships and romantic relationships (using the Friendship Quality Scale and the Romance Quality Scale), and the 11-question Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal Scale for the measurement of self-construal. The surveys were distributed by means of an online survey accessible to the student population at a religiously affiliated private university in the South-Atlantic region of the United States. For both …

Il Bel Paese As Seen From Malaysia: Language Learners’ Stereotypical Representations Of Italy, L. Nikitina, Z. Mohd Don, S.C. Loh

Research Publications (2011 to 2015)

No abstract provided.

A Cultural Trade? Canadian Magazine Illustrators At Home And In The United States, 1880-1960, Shannon Jaleen Grove

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation analyzes nationalisms in the work of Canadian magazine illustrators in Toronto and New York, 1880 to 1960. Using a continentalist approach--rather than the nationalist lens often employed by historians of Canadian art--I show the existence of an integrated, joint North American visual culture. Drawing from primary sources and biography, I document the social, political, corporate, and communication networks that illustrators traded in. I focus on two common visual tropes of the day--that of the pretty girl and that of wilderness imagery. Through visual and verbal rhetoric, and through institutional controls to exclude particular kinds of illustration from counting …

Sierra On-Line And The Archaeology Of Video Game History, Erica Alaine Nooney

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation is a critique of contemporary video game historiography, executed through a cultural history of the home entertainment microcomputer software company Sierra On-Line (1980-1998) and its husband-and-wife co-founders, Ken and Roberta Williams. Sierra On-Line developed from a cottage industry business managed from the Williams' kitchen table to an international top-five entertainment software publisher, yet the past fifteen years of historical writing on video games have left the company in relative obscurity. This project advances theoretical methods from media archaeology and critical materialism to construct a history of Sierra On-Line that runs against the grain of broader narratives in video …

Producciã³N Cultural E Ideologã­A. Formaciones Ideolã³Gicas, Gramã¡Ticas Polã­Ticas Y Movimientos De Lo Social En La Espaã±A Contemporã¡Nea (2000-2011) | Producción Cultural E Ideología. Formaciones Ideológicas, Gramáticas Políticas Y Movimientos De Lo Social En La España Contemporánea (2000-2011), Vicente Rubio-Pueyo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation explores a series of transformations in the articulations between politics and cultural production in Spain between 2000 and 2011. The four chapters seek to document and theorize the nature and effects of these changes across three primary spheres of action. Thus the first chapter analyzes State policies and institutional arrangements in relation to cultural production during the last decades of the Spanish democratic regime. Chapters Two and Three consist of close readings of two relevant texts from recent Spanish literary production that offer divergent literary representations of the political. The analysis of Javier Cercas' Anatomia de un instante …

The Blues Continuum: New York Calls - Naples Responds, Alessandro Buffa

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

My dissertation traces a form of call and response between New York City and Naples in the 1970s and 1980s. It foregrounds the importance of the `blues' in the traffic of sound, images and oppositional ideas between these two cities located on the same geographical parallel. The blues here is understood as a musical style and feeling, as well as an affect of trauma, loss, memory and an intimate relationship that artists and activists established with their city spaces in the age of the so called " urban crisis." It proposes a " blutopia," based on utopian/dystopian tensions that promote …

Listening To Silence: A Rhetorical Examination Of Silence In The Tale Type The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers, Crystal Stephens

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Fairy tales are an integral part of our culture and have been for hundreds of years. Most of us grew up hearing certain stories, reading the Grimm brothers, watching Disney adaptations of classic tales, and passing these things on to the next generation. But even though we sometimes dismiss fairy tales as we get older as “stories for children,” that does not mean that fairy tales do not play an important role in our lives and cultures. Studying and understanding fairy tales can provide insight into our history, our cultures, and ourselves. As stated by Dan Ben-Amos, “The folktale has …

Post-Transcriptional Regulation Of The Type Iia Sodium-Phosphate Cotransporter By Parathyroid Hormone., Rebecca Dale Murray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The type IIa sodium-phosphate cotransporter (Npt2a) is expressed in the apical membrane of the renal proximal tubule and is responsible for the reabsorption of the majority of the filtered load of phosphate. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is secreted by the parathyroid gland in response to a decrease in serum calcium or an increase in serum phosphorus, and acutely induces phosphaturia through the rapid stimulation of endocytosis of Npt2a and its subsequent lysosomal degradation. Chronic PTH stimulation leads to sustained phosphaturia, but the mechanisms for the chronic regulation of Npt2a by PTH remain unclear. We hypothesize that PTH decreases Npt2a mRNA levels …

Pedagogy : Reconsiderations And Reorientations., John Vance

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a critical intervention into the question of student agency. An interdisciplinary project that draws upon philosophy and linguistics, it reviews four major tendencies that have animated composition pedagogy over the last several decades— process theory, social-constructivism, procedural rhetoric, and trans-lingual pedagogies— and identifies some of the key tensions that both motivate and problematize these approaches. First, it examines the debate between Peter Elbow and David Bartholomae, and the interplay between teachers’ authority and student agency. Second, it explores the imbrications between representation and materiality in social constructivism. Third, it uses Alain Badiou’s Being and Event to analyze …

"The Falling Man" As Viewed In The Lens Of The "Public Sphere", Laura Reinacher

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Proposal For A Media Effects Study: What Preschoolers And Kindergartners Retain From Animated Children's Films With Intricate Storylines, Samantha Lynne Tanner

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Ceramides In Mediating Endotoxin-Induced Mitochondrial Disruption, Melissa Ellen Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

Ceramides are sphingolipids that serve as important second messengers in an increasing number of stress-induced pathways. Ceramide has long been known to affect the mitochondria, altering both morphology and physiology. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a prevalent circulating inflammatory agent in obesity, potentially mediating some of the pathologies associated with weight gain. Given previous findings of TLR4-mediated ceramide accrual and ceramide-mediated mitochondrial disruption, we questioned whether ceramide is necessary for LPS-induced mitochondrial disruption. We found that LPS treatment increased gene transcript levels of ceramide synthesis enzymes and mitochondrial fission proteins and increased ceramide content in cultured myotubes and in mouse tissue. Mitochondrial …

Black Effugium: Meditations On Traveling, On Understanding, And On Connecting In The Tradition Of Black Writers, Calvin Walds

Theses - ALL

This thesis project is a series of meditations, thoughts, reflections, lingering and fleeting, that move between three geopolitical locations: Bijlmermeer, Amsterdam; Kasoa, Ghana; and Detroit, Michigan. These locations are principally connected by virtue of my travels and work in all three in the summer of 2013. On a deeper level, one that this thesis elucidates, these three locations represent three different, yet connected, modalities of Black movement and existence. A modality is a mode, a single aspect or condition of a larger phenomenon. I begin in the mid-20th century, in Europe, with James Baldwin, Vincent Carter, and Richard Wright with …

Seeing The World Through Deaf Eyes: Chile Study-Abroad Experiences Of Deaf Students, Joan Marie Naturale

Education Doctoral

Research has indicated that a global education, including study-abroad programs, is increasingly crucial in today’s world and offers intercultural, personal, academic, and career-related benefits to participants. However, there has been a paucity of academic research on best-class and study-abroad program designs for the deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The research to date has not included the experiences and perceptions of deaf students who participated in study-abroad programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived supports and barriers to study-abroad experiences of deaf students. Information gathered from the unique perspective of deaf study participants was used to assist in …

Annual Report On Research Activities 2013/14, Lingnan University (Hong Kong, China)

Annual Report on Research Activities to Research Grants Council

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of Varying Theoretical Frameworks In Argentine Music Therapy., Talia Girton

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

One of the most shocking cultural phenomena that American visitors to Argentina experience is the prevalence of psychoanalytic theory, thought, and practice. It is so embedded into the Argentine way of life that its terminology is sprinkled throughout their daily speech and the cost of regular therapy sessions is factored into the monthly budget along with food, rent, and clothing. The widespread use of psychoanalysis is especially confounding to those of us in the mental health care field in the United States, as the enthusiasm for psychoanalysis and Freudian theory has receded among the intellectual community largely because it is …

Facilitating Holistic Spiritual Formation At The Northside Church Of Christ In Laredo, Texas, Kirk R. Cowell

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a project to facilitate holistic spiritual formation at the Northside Church of Christ in Laredo, Texas. A program consisting of seven weekly sessions of intergenerational religious experiences was enacted at the church in hopes of catalyzing growth in the cognitive, relational, affective, and behavioral domains. These sessions were constructed on a foundation consisting of the experiences of the non-class Churches of Christ—a group of congregations that has historically rejected the Bible class model—and informed by the intergenerational formation literature. Evaluation of this project showed relational and affective growth greater than what the congregation had experienced with the …

Fungal Contribution To Carbon And Nutrient Cycling In A Subtropical Freshwater Marsh, Rong Su

Dissertations

Despite the well-known occurrence of emergent standing litter in freshwater marshes, very little quantitative data is available concerning the functional role and contribution of fungal decomposers to litter decomposition or their impact on ecosystem scale carbon and nutrient cycling. In the present study, microbial respiration and seasonal biomass and production rates of fungal decomposers associated with standing plant litter were examined to assess the quantitative contribution of fungi to both fine scale litter decay processes and large-scale ecosystem carbon flow pathways in a subtropical Typha domingensis and mixed Cladium jamaicense/Juncus roemarianus freshwater marsh, respectively. In addition, the growth …

Madama Butterfly: The Mythology; Or How Imperialism And The Patriarchy Crushed Butterfly's Wings, Adriana Nieves

HIM 1990-2015

As a popular historic work with constant and worldwide performances, the sexist and racist narratives disseminated by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly causes harmful social and political ramifications. Many scholars point to this opera specifically when discussing the fetishization of Asian females, and mention the title character as the quintessential example of damaging stereotypes. Thus, I conduct a postcolonial and feminist reading of Madama Butterfly, through analysis of the opera's libretto, the libretto sources, and the opera's score. I unravel the Orientalist assumptions that make up the foundation of the Butterfly narrative, and trace them as they make their way …

Legacy - December 2014, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

SCIAA Magazine - Legacy & PastWatch

Contents:

Search for the 1853 Wreck of US Revenue Cutter Alexander Hamilton.....p. 1
Director's Note.....p. 2
Hobcaw Barony Waterfront Cultural Continuum Project - Results from the Field.....p. 4
Fieldwork on the Charleston Harbor Stone Fleets.....p. 6
Ashley Deming Accepts New Opportunity.....p. 9
Transects in the Past: Archaeology and Heritage at Hobcaw Barony.....p. 10
2014 Research at Fort Motte.....p. 12
Across the Coastal Plain: Examining the Prehistoric Archaeology of the Inter-Riverine Zone Through Private Collections.....p. 15
Results of Preliminary Immunological Analysis of Paleoamerican and Archaic Stone Tools form the Central Savannah River Area.....p. 18
Update on Paleolithic Research in Northern …

Place-Based Education: An Impetus For Teacher Efficacy, Tamara Chase Coleman

Dissertations

This research investigated professional development in place-based (PB) methodology on the efficacy of science teachers. While teachers are expected to use best practices they do not always implement them due to a lack of efficacy in implementation. A professional development program (PD) was designed to increase confidence among teachers planning to incorporate PB methods. Place-based education (PBE) is recognized as a best-practice among professional educators. PBE includes the selection, design and engagement with science using the geographic place as the content. The literature reports that student learning and teacher efficacy will improve when teachers are prepared effectively in PB practices. …

Politics Of Writing: Latin American Testimonio, Brazil's Literatura Marginal And The Question Of Neoliberalism, Ana Maria Todescan Young

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the light of Latin American testimonio theoretical approach, which includes questions such as the cultural production under the intensification of neoliberal policies and the inquiry of the complicity between literary practices and the state as formulated by Rama in The Lettered City, this study examines the novel Capão Pecado, representative work of the writer and cultural activist Ferréz, and the potential relation to the formal elements of the former criticism. By thinking alongside John Beverley's case study on I, Rigoberta Menchú's testimonial narrative and Ferréz, prominent author of the contemporary production of literatura marginal and representative of the expression …

Lady Gaga: Performer, Persona, And Political Advocate, Cassidy Burns

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

A Ghost Tour In Rouge = 遊魂《胭脂扣》, Ho Yin Fong

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

This paper discusses how Fleur's association to some of the worldwide ghost tours insinuates the haunting quality of the past, time, and the cityscape; in other words, it discusses how the tragic love story between Fleur and Twelfth Master can also be allegorically read as a tragic cultural story of Hong Kong. This discussion allegorically reads Fleur, Twelfth Master and Yuen as figures hauled by modernity.

Singing With A Sanxian: A Study Of The Principal Instrument In Bai Musical Tradition , Christian Stanbrook

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Bai people, a minority group in the People’s Republic of China numbering at least 1.8 million, are heavily concentrated in Yunnan Province’s Dali Autonomous Prefecture. Music has historically been a significant part of Bai culture, as Bai musicians across the region enjoy performing Baizu diao, or popular Bai folk tunes, in the form of singing or on various instruments. These diao, or melodies, often describe the lifestyle of Bai people and the region in which they live in and are commonly performed on a threestringed member of the lute family called a sanxian. This study uncovers both the history …

A Survey Of The Phases Of Indian Ecocriticism, Rayson K. Alex

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "A Survey of the Phases of Indian Ecocriticism" Rayson K. Alex places Indian ecocriticism in its historical context distinguishing it from the Western ecocritical canon by identifying and contextualizing three phases of ecocriticism in India. Looking at the present Indian ecocritical scenario, Alex compares and contrasts it with Western ecocritical studies. He offers a brief analysis of the themes of papers presented in conferences on ecocriticism in India and of the syllabi and teaching strategies adopted in various institutions of higher learning which have introduced ecocriticism as optional/mandatory courses to show the growth of ecocriticism in India. …

The Interplay Of Gender Role Orientation And Type-D Personality As Predictors Of Body Dissatisfaction In Undergraduate Women, Andrew Robbins

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The importance of body image and its effects on psychological functioning and health behaviours has received much interest in recent decades; however its precursors are still unclear. The purpose of the present research was to focus attention on the associations between gender role orientation (agency-communion), Type-D personality and body image. Undergraduate women aged between 18 and 47 from Plymouth University School of Psychology (N = 120, n = 64 for non Type-D group, n = 56 for Type-D group) completed measures of gender role orientation (PAQ), Type-D personality classification (DS-14) and attitudes towards body image (MBRSQ). Results indicate that Type-D …