Digital Commons Network^™

Off The Hip: A Thermodynamics Of The Cool, Rebecca Kanost

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation asserts that the cool’s significance in 20th-century American culture exceeds that assigned to it by current critiques. It assays a rhetorical model which describes coolness as stillness in behavior that surprises witnesses, given the assumptions they make about the still person and context for his or her behavior. Such stillness agitates witnesses’ normative assumptions about all those in the rhetorical situation, including assumptions about affect, gender, race, class and sexuality. Agitation may also lead to conjecture about what mindset could produce cool behavior. To test this model I investigate representations of coolness in James Baldwin’s short story, “Going …

An Investigation Of The Fisheries Ecosystem Dynamics In Rhode Island's Nearshore Waters, Anna Malek

Open Access Dissertations

This research was developed in response to recent interest in offshore wind energy development and the ongoing need for ecosystem-based spatial management planning in Rhode Island’s nearshore waters. Despite heavy use and close proximity to a number of marine science institutions, Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds have been neglected in terms of scientific research, resulting in a poor understanding of the fisheries ecosystem in this area. This research aimed to address this knowledge gap by assessing the biogeography, trophic dynamics and habitat associations of the fish and invertebrate communities in this region. Specifically, the goals of this research were …

Goal Representation Adaptive Dynamic Programming For Machine Intelligence, Zhen Ni

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is focused on a general purpose new framework for machine intelligence based on adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) design. This research is significantly important for developing self-adaptive intelligent system that is highly robust and fault-tolerant to uncertain and unstructured environments. Generally, there are two key components toward building truly self-adaptive systems: fundamental understanding of brain intelligence and complex engineering designs. This dissertation will focus on general purpose computational intelligence methodologies from a biological inspired perspective, and develop a new self-learning machine intelligent system online over time. Furthermore, this new approach will also be explored on wide critical engineering applications. …

Climate And Weather Risk In Natural Resource Models, Nathaniel Henry Merrill

Open Access Dissertations

This work, consisting of three manuscripts, addresses natural resource management under risk due to variation in climate and weather. In three distinct but theoretically related applications, I quantify the role of natural resources in stabilizing economic outcomes. Manuscript 1 examines policies for controlling the risk of outbreaks of cyanobacteria, algae blooms, stimulated by excess nutrient loading transported by uncertain and possibly changing rainfall patterns for a drinking water watershed in Rhode Island. The manuscript is based on a paper co-authored with Jim Opaluch. Manuscript 2 addresses welfare outcomes of optimal, as well as open access, extraction of a groundwater resource …

Role Of Nuclear Factor E2 Related Factor 2 (Nrf2) In Environmental Chemical Induced Steatosis And Adipogenesis, Prajakta Shimpi

Open Access Dissertations

Prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and obesity both in the young and adult population is increasing at an alarming rate globally. Along with traditional risk factors, such as diet and sedentary life style, exposure of environmental chemicals is suspected to be a risk factor for metabolic disruption. Moreover, the ‘fetal basis of adult disease’ hypothesis implicates that early life exposure to environmental chemicals is more impactful in causing lipid homeostasis disturbances than exposure in maturity. Nuclear factor E2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a cytoprotective transcription factor known to combat oxidative stress. The contribution of Nrf2 to other …

Prescription Stimulant Misuse And Adhd Symptomatology Among College Students In Iceland, Bergljot Gyda Gudmundsdottir

Open Access Dissertations

As growing numbers of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) pursue postsecondary education, the availability of psychostimulant medications on college campuses has steadily increased. Although a large body of research has documented that misuse of prescription stimulant medication is a prevalent problem on American college campuses, few studies have been conducted beyond the United States. Iceland, closely followed by the United States, has the highest stimulant medication prescription rates in the world; however, no systematic efforts have been made to investigate to what extent these medications are being misused within the Icelandic college student population. Therefore, the purpose of …

Name-Giving Variations In Kurdistan Province Of Iran: An Ethnic Identity Marker Categorized, Abbas Eslami-Rasekh, Mohammad Ahmadvand

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Name-giving, in addition to being an act of designation or official registration, implies the cultural identity of name-givers. One obvious aspect is showing the social values and practices in an area. This study aims to explore the social factors which motivate name- giving among Kurdish ethnicity of Iran. The corpus of data for the analysis included the National Organization for Civil Registration of Iran, Kurdish websites, interviews, and questionnaires given to Kurdish citizens of Kurdistan. The important classifying variable is the socio-cultural preferences which were compared through using the frequency of different categories of names. The results of the study …

How Improving Decision-Making And Mindfulness Can Improve Legal Ethics And Professionalism, Peter H. Huang

Publications

Lawyers who behave unethically and unprofessionally do so for various reasons, ranging from intention to carelessness. Lawyer misconduct can also result from decision-making flaws. Psychologist Chip Heath and his brother Dan Heath, in their best-selling book, Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work, suggest a process to improve people’s decision-making. They introduce the acronym WRAP as the mnemonic for these decision-making heuristics: (1) Widen your options, (2) Reality-test your assumptions, (3) Attain distance before deciding, and (4) Prepare to be wrong. The WRAP process mitigates these cognitive biases: (1) narrow framing of a decision problem, (2) …

Los Impactos De Los Seres Vivos En El Medioambiente (The Impact Of Human Beings In The Environment) [2nd Grade], Graceanne S. Brim

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is designed for a bilingual classroom, with instruction in Spanish, but much of the information is also translated into English. In this unit, students will learn about the positive and negative impacts humans have on their environments. The goal of this unit is to help students understand the importance of making positive changes to help our natural environments grow. Through class discussion, hands on experimentation, reading, and researching, the students will be able to develop an understanding of negative changes happening in our world. At the end of the unit, students will be expected to develop a short …

They Had Nothing, Charles Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Auditory Similes In The Homeric Iliad, Austen Hall

The Expositor: A Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Humanities

No abstract provided.

Revoking Rights, Craig J. Konnoth

Publications

In important areas of law, such as the vested rights doctrine, and in several important cases--including those involving the continued validity of same-sex marriages and the Affordable Care Act--courts have scrutinized the revocation of rights once granted more closely than the failure to provide the rights in the first place. This project claims that in so doing, courts seek to preserve important constitutional interests. On the one hand, based on our understanding of rights possession, rights revocation implicates autonomy interests of the rights holder to a greater degree than a failure to afford rights at the outset. On the other …

Report Of The Special Rapporteur On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples On The Situation Of Indigenous Peoples In The Republic Of The Congo, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Law's Clock, Frederic Bloom

Publications

Time is everywhere in law. It shapes doctrines as disparate as ripeness and retroactivity, and it impacts litigants of every status and type--the eager plaintiff who brings her case too early, the death-row inmate who seeks his stay too late. Yet legal time is still scarcely studied, and it remains poorly understood. This Article makes new and better sense of that time. It begins with an original account of time as a tool of institutional power, tracking the relocation of that power from the first western cathedrals to the earliest Supreme Court. It then links time's revealing past to our …

Structuralist Legal Histories, Justin Deystone

Publications

This is a contribution to a symposium titled "Theorizing Contemporary Legal Thought." The central theme of the piece is the relation between legal structuralism and legal historiography.

Bank Regulation And Securitization: How The Law Improved Transmission Lines Between Real Estate And Banking Crises, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

This essay examines how securitization served as a new coupling rod joining cycles in real estate and banking markets and created a new pathway for financial contagion in the “subprime” financial crisis. Legal changes promoted the growth of securitization and improved this crisis transmission line. The essay examines the history of legislative and regulatory changes that facilitated bank participation in the markets for mortgage-backed securities. The essay then explains how securitization failed to mitigate the credit, liquidity, and interest rate risk associated with real estate when losses in residential markets became correlated nationwide. It then discusses how regulation contributed to …

The Risks We Are Willing To Eat: Food Imports And Safety, Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

Recent efforts to regulate the safety of U.S. food imports have not kept up with the complexity of global trade and the risks that accompany globalization. Congress drafted the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 ("FSMA") in response to heightened food safety risks, surging imports, and an outdated food import safety system. While the FSMA provides the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") additional authority to regulate food facilities, establish standards for safe produce, recall contaminated foods, and oversee imported foods, vulnerabilities still exist.

This article exposes problems with the old system of food import rules and significant challenges facing the …

"Greatest Good Of The Greatest Number In The Long Run": Tr, Pinchot, And The Origins Of Sustainability In America, Charles Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Rationalizing Cost Allocation In Civil Discovery, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

A movement is afoot to revise the longstanding presumption that in civil litigation the producing party bears the cost of production in response to discovery requests. An amendment to Rule 26( c )-which took effect in December 2015-makes explicit courts' authority to issue protective orders that shift discovery costs away from producing parties. But this authority is not new; what is new is what may be coming next-an undoing of the producer-pays presumption itself. Thus far, the sentiment to move in this direction has been slightly below the radar, advocated by probusiness interest groups and advocates before the Advisory Committee …

Effects Of Academic And Activity Class Participation On Cognition In Young Adults, Emily N. Simpson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Engendering The Past: An Archaeological Examination Of The Precontact Lifeways Of Women At Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Cathy J. Beecher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines three lines of evidence within the precontact archaeological record around Yellowstone Lake, focusing on elucidating female-specific lifeways. This work is undertaken as a means to explore concepts of gender within precontact archaeological contexts. This aim is accomplished using statistical analysis of lithic tool distribution patterns, ethnohistoric information on plants found through archaeobotanical assays and the microspatial examination of cultural fire features.

Variation in the use of obsidian and chert for unifacial tool manufacture indicates potential restrictions on the manufacture of gender specific tools as these stone resources become less available. In addition, a frame-of-reference is built by …

The Thermodynamic Dissection And Design Of High-Affinity Antibodies, Sriram Jakkaraju

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Antibody fragments are attractive alternatives to conventional antibodies for both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. One example, single-domain VHH antibodies, which are derived from camelid heavy chain-only antibodies, display comparable binding affinity to conventional antibodies despite the significantly reduced binding interface. Here, an anti-RNase A VHH single-domain antibody and its antigen, RNase A, are used as a model antibody-antigen system for the three studies described in this dissertation.

The Use Of Discussion At The Kindergarten Level To Advance Cognitive Abilities, Gayle J. Sears

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the use of discussion with preschool students for the development of language and cognitive abilities. The study focused on students who participated in 30 one-hour discussion lessons that were presented in an inner-city preschool classroom. The qualitative portion of the study involved an ethnographic examination of the discussion lessons, which were attended by a total of 22 students over a six-week period. Qualitative data were studied to determine how students responded to discussion and how student responses changed over time. The facilitation of discussion was analyzed, and the participation of individual …

Delayed Neonatal Feeding And Growth In The Lake Erie Watersnake, Nerodia Sipedon Insularum, Elizabeth Whitney Mack

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Growth early in life can have lasting consequences on survival and reproduction in many animal species. For snakes, larger, faster growing neonates are more likely to survive their first hibernation, have higher foraging success, and may reach sexual maturity sooner (therefore increasing lifetime fecundity) than their smaller littermates. However, studies of the youngest age classes are rare for New World Natricine snakes (gartersnakes, watersnakes, and allied taxa). The purpose of this thesis is to better understand the life history characteristics of neonatal Lake Erie Watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon insularum), a New World Natricine snake with a long history of evolutionary and …

Social Bonds, Cardiovascular Function, And Serotonin : Insights From An Animal Model, Neal Daniel Mcneal

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Social relationships positively influence psychological and biological function in humans and other mammals. The disruption of an individual's social environment through separation or death often results in social isolation, which can adversely impact mental and cardiovascular health (Frasure-Smith, Lesperance, & Talajic, 1993; Gore, 1978). The general purpose of this experiment is to further investigate neurobiological mechanisms mediating the adverse effects of social stress and focused on the role of serotonin in that relationship. An animal model was used to simulate social stress in humans. Specifically, the goal of this study is to explore the effects of sertraline hydrochloride (Zoloft) on …

Proteomics And Phosphoproteomics Of Brain: (1) Analyses Of The Pink1 Knockout Model Of Parkinson Disease; (2) Insights Into The Progression Of Alzheimer Disease; And (3) The Naked Mole-Rat Model Of Salubrious Aging, Judy C. Triplett

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Proteomics is the field of science in which proteins produced by an organism (the proteome) are identified. The level of a particular protein can vary with time and the influence of cellular stressors. The study of phosphoproteomics is vital because tyrosine, serine and threonine phosphorylation modulate protein structure and function and is a crucial regulator of cellular signaling pathways. Dysregulation of protein and phosphorylation levels has been reported in multiple neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson disease (PD) and Alzheimer disease (AD).

PINK1 is a mitochondrial serine/threonine kinase that polices mitochondrial integrity. Mutations in this protein are associated with familial early-onset PD. …

Thermal Degradation Of Amines For Co2 Capture, Quanzhen Huang

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

In the selection of candidates for CO₂ absorption, solvent thermal degradation has become a general concern due to the significant impact on operational cost and the intention to use thermal compression from high temperature stripping to minimize the overall process energy. In this research, the impact of flue gas contaminants on Monoethanolamine (MEA) thermal degradation was investigated at elevated temperatures consistent with those in the CO₂ stripper. Nitrite, fly ash, sulfate and thiosulfate were each added to 5.0 M MEA and the contaminant-containing MEA solutions were degraded at 125 °C, 135 °C and 145 °C. MEA degrades significantly …

Information (2015), Virginia Coastal Policy Center, William & Mary Law School

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Writing Against The Ethos Of Individualism : A Study In Contemporary Multiethnic American Fiction, Manahari Adhikari

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Drawing from existential philosophy, neuroscience, and social psychology, in Writing Against the Ethos of Individualism: A Study in Contemporary Multiethnic American Fiction, I investigate the representation of the self in fictions by Bharati Mukherjee, Leslie Marmon Silko, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sandra Cisneros, and Toni Morrison. I argue that these writers imagine the lives of their fictional characters in terms of the phenomenology of existence and reveal how subjective experiences and personal relationships influence who these characters are and who they become. In imagining a self's authentic ontology in relation to others, multiethnic writers not only write against the dominant narratives …

Nanoindentation Of A Zinc Metal Soap Mixture For Use In A Laser Printer, George A. Nimick

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

At the start of this project, the possible choices of metal soaps had already been narrowed to include some of the zinc soaps used in this project. These zinc soaps are mixtures of zinc stearate and zinc palmitate of varying ratios purchased from a supplier. Zinc soap was chosen as result of its common use in various industries as a lubricant and mold release, which implied potential benefits in an electrophotographic printing system. These potential benefits include, but are not limited to, a more efficient transfer from a photoconductive drum and protection of the drum from mechanical and chemical degradation. …