Digital Commons Network^™

Visual Representations Of Prester John And His Kingdom, Michael E. Brooks

Quidditas

The mythical figure of the priest-king known to late medieval and early modern Europeans as Prester John fascinated literate Europeans for many centuries. Historians have weighed in on textual depictions of the legendary figure, but visual interpretations by European artists of the physical appearance of this eastern potentate have not been examined in any significant depth. These portrayals primarily took the form of map and book illustrations, and this essay examines the evolving visual representations that European artists developed of Prester John. In general, there was a gradual evolution over time in European artistic depictions of the legendary Prester John, …

Front Matter

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Revolutionary Poets Of Place, Debbie Adams

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Criterion: A Journal For Literary Criticism (2014), Criterion: A Journal For Literary Criticism

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Index

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

No abstract provided.

The 6th Mode Of Transportation, Robert O. Walton

Publications

The five modes of freight transportation are normally characterized as motor carriers, railroads, airlines, water carriers, and pipelines. This paper will attempt to position the Internet as the sixth mode of transportation. This paper compares the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional five modes of transportation against the proposed 6th mode of the Internet. Without including the Internet as a mode of transportation, and tracking the economic value that it adds to the economy, the economic impact of the Internet as a mode is not considered. The recommendation of this study is that the Internet should be added to the …

Dīpaṅkara Buddha And The Patan Samyak Mahādāna In Nepal: Performing The Sacred In Newar Buddhist Art, Kerry Lucinda Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Every four years, in the middle of a cold winter night, devotees bearing images of 126 Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and other important deities assemble in the Nepalese city of Patan for an elaborate gift giving festival known as Samyak Mahādāna (“The Perfect Great Gift”). Celebrated by Nepal’s Newar Buddhist community, Samyak honors one of the Buddhas of the historical past called Dīpaṅkara. Dīpaṅkara’s importance in Buddhism is rooted in ancient textual and visual narratives that promote the cultivation of generosity through religious acts of giving (Skt. dāna). During Samyak, large images of Dīpaṅkara Buddha ceremoniously walk in procession to the …

The Geography Of Racial Stereotyping: Evidence And Implications For Vra ‘Preclearance’ After Shelby County, Christopher S. Elmendorf, Douglas M. Spencer

Publications

The Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) effectively enjoined the preclearance regime of the Voting Rights Act. The Court deemed the coverage formula, which determines the jurisdictions subject to preclearance, insufficiently grounded in current conditions. This Article proposes a new, legally defensible approach to coverage based on between-state differences in the proportion of voting age citizens who subscribe to negative stereotypes about racial minorities and who vote accordingly. The new coverage formula could also account for racially polarized voting and minority population size, but, for constitutional reasons, subjective discrimination by voters is the essential criterion. We demonstrate that …

Public Utility And The Low-Carbon Future, William Boyd

Publications

Substantial reductions in global power sector emissions will be needed by midcentury to avoid significant disruption of the climate system. Achieving these reductions will require greatly increased levels of financing, technological innovation, and policy reform. In the United States, the scale and complexity of the overall challenge have raised important questions regarding prevailing regulatory and business models, with much scrutiny directed at the traditional practice of public utility regulation. Recognizing the many valid criticisms leveled against public utility regulation and the important questions raised about the viability of traditional utility business models, particularly in the face of substantial growth in …

Patterns Of Maximum Body Size Evolution In Cenozoic Land Mammals: Eco-Evolutionary Processes And Abiotic Forcing, Juha J. Saarinen, Alison G. Boyer, James H. Brown, Daniel P. Costa, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Alistair R. Evans, Mikael Fortelius, John L. Gittleman, Marcus J. Hamilton, Larisa E, Harding, Kari Lintulaakso, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jordan G. Okie, Richard M. Sibly, Patrick R. Stephens, Jessica Theodor, Mark D. Uhen, Felisa A. Smith

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

There is accumulating evidence that macroevolutionary patterns of mammal evolution during the Cenozoic follow similar trajectories on different continents. This would suggest that such patterns are strongly determined by global abiotic factors, such as climate, or by basic eco-evolutionary processes such as filling of niches by specialization. The similarity of pattern would be expected to extend to the history of individual clades. Here, we investigate the temporal distribution of maximum size observed within individual orders globally and on separate continents. While the maximum size of individual orders of large land mammals show differences and comprise several families, the times at …

Temperature-Dependent Tunable Photoluminescence Properties Of Carbon Nanodots Derived From Polyethylene Glycol, Sin Hea Yeom

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Fluorescent carbon dots (C-dots) are well known for their low cell-cytotoxicity, biocompatibility, low preparation cost, excitation dependent photoluminescence, and excellent photostability. Typically, raw C-dots have low quantum efficiency and thus researchers have been utilizing biocompatible polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a passivation agent in order to increase fluorescence signal. In this work, we report fluorescent self-passivated carbon nanodots (CNDs) synthesized from PEG by using it as a carbon source as well as a passivating agent. Importantly, the addition of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) during the synthesis of self-passivated CNDs can tune photoluminescence property. The results of bioimaging and …

A (Re)Conception Of The City : Commercialization, Domestication, And Resistance In New York City From Melville To Mckay, James Baltrum

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation characterizes the historical changes that shaped nineteenth and twentieth century New York City by examining how Herman Melville, Stephen Crane, Edith Wharton, John Dos Passos, and Claude McKay expressed these changes in their literary works. I employ the ideological principles of scholars such as Henri Lefebvre, who viewed physical spaces including the modern city as socially constructed products, and the methodology of writers such as Michel Foucault, whose genealogical approach prompts an open-ended and multi-faceted analysis. Consequently, my argument shows how various economic, social, cultural, political, and technological developments worked with and against each other to shape (and …

The Importance Of Pre- And Postnatal Thermal Conditions In Determining Growth Trajectories In Three Viviparous Grassland Snakes, Tanya K. O'Brien

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In many reptile species, the onset of reproductive maturity is determined by size rather than age. Rapid growth during the first year may therefore promote population growth by shortening generation time and increasing the probability of survival to reproduction. Patterns of neonatal growth were observed over five years in three sympatric grassland snakes at Potawatomi Woods in Northern Illinois. Growth of Dekay's Brownsnakes (Storeria dekayi), Red-bellied Snakes (S. occipitomaculata) and Common Gartersnakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) varied in parallel among years such that neonates achieved 20-44% greater snout-vent length (SVL) in warmer years (mean April 1 thru September 30 temperature) than in …

The Power Of Place In The Fiction Of E.M. Forster, Ashley Diedrich

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

By taking a close look at each of E.M. Forster's novels, readers can learn that he, like other authors, appears to be telling the same story over and over again. It is the story of the human desire to connect, even if it means having to adjust that desire to social reality. In each of his novels, he creates characters who struggle through a series of events and complications to reconcile their unique identities with the norms of society, the purpose being to attain significant relationship. But in addition to exploring this theme of authentic connection in the face of …

Magmatic Water Content Of Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala, Determined From A Thermodynamic Model For The Plagioclase-Liquid Hygrometer, Christine A. Knudson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Pacaya Volcano is an active composite volcano located in southern Guatemala, about 30 km from the nation's capital, Guatemala City. This volcano has variable eruptive styles ranging from non-explosive to moderately explosive. Volcanic rocks from Pacaya are mostly basaltic to basaltic andesite and tend to be porphyritic, containing approximately 25-35% crystals, dominantly plagioclase. Previous data from olivine-hosted melt inclusions in Pacaya's tephras suggest relatively low magmatic water contents for a subduction zone volcano, particularly compared to neighboring composite volcanoes along the Central American Volcanic Arc.||The goal of this research was to use plagioclase phenocrysts in basaltic andesite lavas from Pacaya …

Outside University Walls : Alexandra David-Neel's Influence In Developing The Field Of Buddhist Studies, Mary Michele

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969) was a Frenchwoman who is known primarily as an adventurer, explorer, and travel writer because she walked across the Himalayan Mountains into the city of Lhasa in 1924 when foreigners were prohibited from entering Tibet. She returned to Europe to write about her experiences in two famous books: My Journey to Lhasa (1993) and Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1971).||David-Neel wrote twenty more books about mystical, philosophical, sociological, political, and historical themes (published on five continents) that reflect discourses that changed over time within different cultures. The discourses about Orientalism and colonialism along with feminist and gender …

The Granite, 2014, University Of New Hampshire

The Granite – Yearbook

The yearbook of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, 1909-1922, the University of New Hampshire, 1923-

Geog 140: Human Geography—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Katherine Nashleanas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Large lecture classes, often of 100 students or more, present unique challenges to both teaching and learning. The common method of “delivery” by instructors is lecture, often augmented by a set of Power Point slides while the research literature shows that this more traditional way of teaching does not reach students in the way we hope and often assume. At the same time, most of the current students populating these classes are born of the Digital Age and have different expectations for learning, requiring new approaches in the classroom. Faculty are exhorted to incorporate more critical thinking in their classes …

Busted Pipes: A Review Of Tarrant Regional Water District V. Herrmann And The Lack Of Direction For Oklahoma And Texas Moving Forward In A Dry Environment, Jordan Lepage

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Global Patterns Of Freshwater Species Diversity, Threat And Cross-Taxon Congruence, Ben Collen Phd, Felix Whitton Phd, Ellie E. Dyer, Jonathan E.M. Baillie Phd, Neil Cumberlidge, William Darwall, Caroline Pollack, Nadia Richman Phd, Anne-Marie Soulsby, Monica Bohm Phd

Journal Articles

Aim Global-scale studies are required to identify broad-scale patterns in the distributions of species, to evaluate the processes that determine diversity and to determine how similar or different these patterns and processes are among different groups of freshwater species. Broad-scale patterns of spatial variation in species distribution are central to many fundamental questions in macroecology and conservation biology. We aimed to evaluate how congruent three commonly used metrics of diversity were among taxa for six groups of freshwater species.

Location Global.

Methods We compiled geographical range data on 7083 freshwater species of mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, crabs and crayfish to …

Blackness, Colorism, And Epidermalization Of Inferiority In Zora Neale Hurston’S Color Struck: A Fanonian Reading Of The Play, Mahshid Mirmasoomi, Farshid Nowrouzi Roshnavand

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Ever since the first encounter between Columbus and Native Americans, the West has embarked on a subtle process of “Otherizing” non-whites as a means to maintain its hegemonic power over the subalternized groups. This strategy was also employed by the dominant whites in the United States, where a stereotypical representation of black slaves served as a justification for the institution of slavery. Through depicting blacks as irrational, lascivious, and eternally damned with a deviant pigmentation, the racis t representational strategy turned into a useful instrument to subjugate African slaves. Under such circumstances, blacks, merely due to their different skin color, …

Linking Local Weather To Climate Change: One Year Of Twitter In The Us, Tatiana Molodtsova

Theses and Dissertations

There is a high level of scientific consensus on climate change. Nevertheless for climate change research to have any practical value, to develop public support for climate policies, the climate research results must find the way to general public. That is why it is important to understand how the public perception of climate change forms.

During the last decades there have been a number of studies on the factors affecting the level of public concern on climate change. Two major groups of factors are hypothesized to have the biggest influence on the level of public concern on climate change: extreme …

International Relations Or International Sanitations? Exploring Student Perceptions Of Intro To Ir Course Content, Nick Sundback

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis draws on student testimony, curriculum analysis, and statistical tests to explore 1) the degree to which gender, financial aid status, and race/ethnicity correlate with student perceptions of Intro to IR course content and 2) the degree to which students conceptualize IR as interrelated with social identities, as opposed to an abstracted state-centric discipline.

Leisure And Happiness: Evidence From International Survey Data, Miao Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

We study the statistical link between leisure and happiness. Using survey data from 33 countries in 2007, we find that (1) certain leisure activities, leisure’s role in self-fulfillment and social interaction, and leisure’s relation to work and other spheres of life are significantly linked to individual happiness; (2) the effect of leisure quantity is not as important as other aspects of leisure; and (3) some leisure activities can be negatively associated with happiness. Consistent with findings in previous studies, family income and individual demographic variables such as age and health condition are significantly associated with happiness. National unemployment and political …

Limiting The Mortgage Interest Deduction By Size Of Home: Effects On The User Cost And Price Of Housing Across Metropolitan Areas, Andrew R. Hanson

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, I examine the user cost and home price implications of limiting the federal mortgage interest deduction (MID) based on the square footage of a home. I extend the standard user cost model to include a square footage-based cap on the tax-favored status of mortgage interest. I compare two policy alternatives: one that limits the marginal deduction based on home size, and another that removes the deduction on the home based on home size. There is substantial variation across metropolitan areas in both the number of homes exposed to each type of cap, the user cost increase, and …

Are Houses Too Big Or In The Wrong Place? Tax Benefits To Housing And Inefficiencies In Location And Consumption, David Albouy, Andrew R. Hanson

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Tax benefits to owner-occupied housing provide incentives to consume housing, offsetting weaker disincentives of the property tax. These benefits also help counter the penalty federal taxes impose on households who work in productive high-wage areas, but reinforce incentives to consume local amenities. We simulate the effects of these benefits in a parameterized model, and determine the consequences of various tax reforms. Reductions in housing tax benefits generally increase efficiency in consumption, but reduce efficiency in location decisions, unless they are accompanied by tax rate reductions. The most efficient policy would eliminate most tax benefits to housing and index taxes to …

2014-2015 Undergraduate Catalog, Morehead State University

Morehead State Catalog Archive

2014-2015 undergraduate catalog for Morehead State University.

The Missouri Compromised, Kate Casper Walker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recreation versus navigation. Flood control versus wildlife. Agriculture versus water quality. Arguments over Missouri River management have been spinning for decades, literally trapped by the 1940s ideas and engineering that transformed the river. The Missouri Compromised is a 30-minute documentary that asks its audience to weigh the social and environmental tradeoffs when engineering a tremendously powerful natural system. Once a passage for tradesmen and settlers into the West, as well as a dynamic and rich ecosystem, the Missouri River today bears the marks of humanity’s control. The six main-stem dams on the upper Missouri, and the 750-mile bank-stabilized navigation channel …

Use Of Climatic Water Balance Metrics As Site Productivity Predictors, Matthew Dilsworth Perry

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Estimates of long-term forest site productivity are required to inform multiple forest management objectives including growth and yield assessments, silvicultural planning, and biomass/carbon projections. Estimates traditionally have been quantified in the form of site index by measuring the average height-age relationships of dominant and codominant trees or using regional site index equations. Site index implementation requires that trees are free from suppression and that height growth results from the integration of the biological determinants of growth. While useful in even-aged stands, early age height growth suppression is common in uneven-aged forest structures making existing site indices difficult to assess. Additionally, …

Second-Dialect Acquisition In Southwestern Pennsylvania, Lisa Marie Sprowls

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents an analysis of second-dialect acquisition of Pittsburgh English phonological features. Pittsburgh English is the dialect spoken in southwestern Pennsylvania. There are two phonological features unique to the dialect: (i) the [ɔ] realization of the low-back vowel merger and (ii) monophthongal /aw/ (Johnstone et al. 2002). The current study is based on speech data collected from nine participants, native speakers of other dialects of English who now live in southwestern Pennsylvania. This analysis shows that these two phonological features can be acquired. This is the first study to examine Pittsburgh English as a second-dialect. Participants read a word …