Digital Commons Network^™

Sisters Before The Fall, Heather Lanae Captain

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis comprises the first fourteen chapters of a fiction entitled "Sisters Before the Fall", which brings to the forefront extreme, yet, real abuses faced by women in the Middle East and the northeastern countries of Africa. Those abuses are the result of social, political, and cultural influences, and include general repression of women and girls, female genital mutilation, marriage of prepubescent girls, and the slave trade. A female American volunteer and a female Hispanic doctor meet these women in a humanitarian compound in western Sudan. As they work together to overcome challenges brought on by war, they realize they …

Maximum Entropy Modeling Of Indiana Bat (Myotis Sodalis) Maternity Roost Habitat, Joseph Robert Lemen

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Since 1967, the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) has been on the U.S. Endangered Species list due to disruption of hibernating bats in caves, summer habitat degradation, and more recently, the onset of White-nose Syndrome. The purpose of this study is to evaluate landscape variables associated with Indiana bat maternity roost trees in an attempt to better understand what factors play a role in their distribution in north central Missouri. I tracked reproductive female Indiana bats to 20 different primary and secondary roost trees; these are roosts that had multiple bats visit them on multiple occasions. GPS location data for these …

Nesting Success And Parental Behavior Of The Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria Citrea) In Southwestern Missouri, Kathryn Marie Siverly

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The breeding biology and singing rates of Prothonotary Warblers (Protonotaria citrea) were studied in southwestern Missouri in 2014 and 2015, using wooden nesting boxes. Data were collected on clutch and brood sizes, the numbers of young fledged, parental care and male singing rates. Five pairs were studied over the course of the two summers. Of 28 eggs laid, 14 young fledged. In 2015, significant flooding resulted in the loss of all young and eggs for that year. First clutches were larger than second clutches. Observations suggest females may contribute more to the care of offspring, in terms of foraging and …

Reintroduction Biology Of Head-Started Ornate Box Turtles, Eric R. Sievers

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The ornate box turtle (Terrapene ornata) is a prairie-dwelling species that has experienced population declines, especially near the northern edge of its range. In order to provide supporting research for a reintroduction program at the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge in northwestern Illinois, I compared the relative success of different approaches to reintroduction. Specifically, I tested the null hypothesis that reintroduced turtles exhibited equal reintroduction success when, 1) released at a site that is known to support a viable ornate box turtle population, 2) ‘soft-released' in a fenced enclosure at a site where very few ornate box …

Underreporting Of Wildlife-Vehicle Collisions Does Not Hinder Predictive Models For Large Ungulates, Nathan P. Snow, William F. Porter, David M. Williams

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Conflicts from wildlife–vehicle collisions (WVCs) pose serious challenges for managing and conserving large ungulates throughout the world. However, underreporting of large proportions of WVCs (i.e., two-thirds of WVCs in some cases) creates concern for relying on governmental databases to inform management strategies of WVCs. Our objective was to test the sensitivity of WVC studies to underreporting using 2 species of large ungulates that experience substantial incidences of collisions but exist in different environmental settings: white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in agricultural-dominated central Illinois and moose (Alces alces) in forest-dominated western Maine, USA. We estimated baseline relationships between …

Translinguality, Transmodality, And Difference : Exploring Dispositions And Change In Language And Learning., Bruce Horner, Cynthia Selfe, Tim Lockridge

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This collaborative piece explores the potential synergy arising from the confluence of two growing areas of research, teaching, and practice in composition (broadly defined): multi- (or trans-)modality, and trans- (or multi-) linguality.

Molecular Approaches For Improving Desiccation Tolerance : Insights From The Brine Shrimp Artemia Franciscana., Steven Hand, Michael Menze

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Main conclusion We have evaluated the endogenous expression and molecular properties of selected Group 3 LEA proteins from Artemia franciscana , and the capacity of selected Groups 1 and 3 proteins transfected into various desiccation-sensitive cell lines to improve tolerance to drying. Organisms inhabiting both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems frequently are confronted with the problem of water loss for multiple reasons—exposure to hypersalinity, evaporative water loss, and restriction of intracellular water due to freezing of extracellular fluids. Seasonal desiccation can become severe and lead to the production of tolerant propagules and entry into the state of anhydrobiosis at various stages …

Seasonal Shifts In Diet And Gut Microbiota Of The American Bison (Bison Bison), Gaddy T. Bergmann, Joseph Craine, Michael S. Robeson, Noah Fierer

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

North American bison (Bison bison) are becoming increasingly important to both grassland management and commercial ranching. However, a lack of quantitative data on their diet constrains conservation efforts and the ability to predict bison effects on grasslands. In particular, we know little about the seasonality of the bison diet, the degree to which bison supplement their diet with eudicots, and how changes in diet influence gut microbial communities, all of which play important roles in ungulate performance. To address these knowledge gaps, we quantified seasonal patterns in bison diet and gut microbial community composition for a bison herd in …

Spatiotemporal Dynamics In Identification Of Aircraft–Bird Strikes, Tara J. Conkling, James A. Martin, Jerrold L. Belant, Travis L. Devault

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A primary concern for human–wildlife interactions is the potential impacts resulting from wildlife (primarily birds) collisions with aircraft. The identification of species responsible for collisions with aircraft is necessary so that airport management can develop effective strategies to reduce strikes with those species. Of particular importance in developing such strategies is the identification of regional, seasonal, and temporal patterns in collisions with unidentified bird species that may limit the effectiveness of regional habitat management to reduce bird strikes. The authors analyzed 105,529 U.S. civil aviation strike records from 1990 to 2012 in the FAA’s National Wildlife Strike Database to examine …

Managing Hybridization Of A Recovering Endangered Species: The Red Wolf Canis Rufus As A Case Study, Eric M. Gese, Fred F. Knowlton, Jennifer R. Adams, Karen Beck, Todd K. Fuller, Dennis L. Murray, Todd D. Steury, Michael K. Stoskopf, Will T. Waddell, Lisette P. Waits

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Hybridization presents a unique challenge for conservation biologists and managers. While hybridization is an important evolutionary process, hybridization is also a threat formany native species. The endangered species recovery effort for the red wolf Canis rufus is a classic system for understanding and addressing the challenges of hybridization. From 1987‒1993, 63 red wolves were released from captivity in eastern North Carolina, USA, to establish a free-ranging, non-essential experimental population. By 1999, managers recognized hybridization with invasive coyotes Canis latrans was the single greatest threat to successful recovery, and an adaptive management plan was adopted with innovative approaches for managing the …

Smooth Positive Solutions To An Elliptic Model With C2 Functions, Joon Hyuk Kang

Faculty Publications

Two species of animals are competing or cooperating in the same environment. Under what conditions do they coexist peacefully? Or under what conditions does either one of the two species become extinct, that is, is either one of the two species excluded by the other? We investigate this phenomena in mathematical point of view.

In this paper we concentrate on coexistence solutions of the competition or cooperation model

This system is the general model for the steady state of a competitive or cooperative interacting system depending on growth conditions for and . The techniques used in this paper are elliptic …

Faces And Figures Of Fortune: Astrological Physiognomy In Tamburlaine Part 1., Vanessa I. Corredera

Faculty Publications

When articulating the relationship between man and the world around him (or her), George Peele imagines man as a canvas, a 'picture' of the universe, a microcosm whose makeup carries the 'face' or the viewable surface of the macrocosm. Peele's statement perfectly encapsulates the early modern belief in signatures and correspondences, in which 'Individual objects on earth...contain the signature of the heavenly bodies to which they supposedly correspond'. By envisioning man as a 'picture', Peele conceives of the universe as readily legible upon the human body. In his discussion of the history of signatures and correspondences in The Order of …

Modelling Container Logistics Processes In Container Terminals: A Case Study In Alexandria, Hebatallah Mohammed Elmesmary

Plymouth Business School Theses

This study aims to optimize the logistics processes of container terminals. Potentially powerful pipe-flow models of container terminal logistics processes have been neglected to date and modelling of terminals is rare. Because research which adopts a pipe flow and dynamic operational perspective is rare, a case application in Alexandria, Egypt collated empirical container and information flows using interviews and company records to describe its logistics processes and model container and information flows. The methodology used includes qualitative and quantitative methods and a descriptive methodology proceeds sequentially. Primary and secondary data were presented as a pipe flow model to show interrelations …

Visualizing Peripheral Nerve Regeneration By Whole Mount Staining., Xin Peng Dun, David B. Parkinson

Peninsula Medical School

Peripheral nerve trauma triggers a well characterised sequence of events both proximal and distal to the site of injury. Axons distal to the injury degenerate, Schwann cells convert to a repair supportive phenotype and macrophages enter the nerve to clear myelin and axonal debris. Following these events, axons must regrow through the distal part of the nerve, re-innervate and finally are re-myelinated by Schwann cells. For nerve crush injuries (axonotmesis), in which the integrity of the nerve is maintained, repair may be relatively effective whereas for nerve transection (neurotmesis) repair will likely be very poor as few axons may be …

Europeana Sounds And Copyrights: The Need For And Challenges In Licensing Archival Materials, S Schroff

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Music-Induced Emotions Can Be Predicted From A Combination Of Brain Activity And Acoustic Features, Ian Daly, Duncan Williams, James Hallowell, Faustina Hwang, Alexis Kirke, Asad Malik, James Weaver, Eduardo Miranda, Slawomir J. Nasuto

School of Art, Design and Architecture

No abstract provided.

Community Resilience And Land Degradation In Forest And Shrubland Socio-Ecological Systems: Evidence From Gorgoglione, Basilicata, Italy, Claire Kelly, Agostino Ferrara, Geoff A. Wilson, Francesco Ripullone, Angelo Nolè, Nichola Harmer, Luca Salvati

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Assessing the resilience of communities is assuming greater importance at a time of global economic upheaval, climatic and socio-demographic changes. The past 10–15 years have seen a significant increase in the number of studies addressing resilience issues at community level from a variety of perspectives,and although the resilience of communities in dealing with disturbance feature strongly in these studies, less work appears to have been undertaken at the interface between community resilience and land degradation. In addition, little attention has been paid to land degradation, desertification risk and community resilience at the forest–community interface, despite the fact that forest ecosystems …

Artificial Intelligence InOrganised Sound, Eduardo R. Miranda, Duncan Williams

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Artificial Intelligence is a rich and still-developing field with a number of musical applications. This paper surveys the use of Artificial Intelligence in music in the pages ofOrganised Sound, from the first issue to the latest, at the time of writing. Traditionally, Artificial Intelligence systems for music have been designed with note-based composition in mind, but the research we present here finds that Artificial Intelligence has also had a significant impact in electroacoustic music, with contributions in the fields of sound analysis, real-time sonic interaction and interactive performance-driven composition, to cite but three. Two distinct categories emerged in theOrganised Soundpapers: …

Soils And Interventions, Linus Lancaster

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

Linus Lancaster Soils and Interventions Dissertation Abstract The problem that I have identified during my research for this dissertation is the quantifiable depletion and exhaustion of large percentages of the world's soils through human activity in agriculture and other industrial practices. In the course of researching this problem I have looked closely at some of the primary causes, and a range of proposed and applied solutions in the field of ecology. The primary focus of the research has been in looking at how artists have responded to ecological issues and have engaged in environmental activism in their practices. Integral to …

From Soul To Mind: A History Of An Idea, Michael Punt

School of Art, Design and Architecture

No abstract provided.

A Time Series Analysis Of Private And Public Investment In Iraq’S Economic Growth Process (1970 – 2010), Jwan Hussein

Plymouth Business School Theses

Abstract: Since the 1980s, there has been growing recognition among developing countries that an essential foundation for sustainable growth is capital investment, both public and private. While Iraq is an oil-rich country, with substantial oil revenue, only a small proportion of it has been allocated to importing the capital that is most needed, while the rest has mainly been used for consumption purposes. The effects of the oil-driven state development, conflicts, sanctions, high unemployment and delayed reforms have significantly shaped Iraq’s economy and limited the potential for private-sector-led growth over the past 40 years. This conclusion is worrying for a …

Britons Abroad Or European Citizens? The Negotiation Of (Trans)National Space And Citizenship By British Migrants In France, Fiona Ferbrache, Richard Yarwood

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Effectiveness Of Video Assisted Diversional Therapy And Application Of Local Anaesthetic Agent On Pain, Behavioural Response And Physiological Parameters Among Children During Intravenous (Iv) Cannulation, Litna George Ms, Anjalin D'Souza Mrs, Anice George Dr

Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences

Intravenous (IV) cannulation is a common procedure done in hospitals. Although it is an essential procedure providing easy access for IV hydration or medication, its insertion leads to pain, anxiety and distress in children. The study was undertaken with the objective of comparing the effectiveness of video assisted diversional (VAD) therapy and application of local anaesthetic (LA) agent on pain relief, behavioural response and physiological parameters among children. Methods: The study was done using an experimental post-test only control group design. The participants were randomized to one of the three groups, with 25 subjects in each group: experimental group 1 …