Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond "Main Street": Small Towns In Post-"Revolt" American Literature, Rachael Price

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Beyond Main Street” examines the impact and legacy of the literary movement that Carl Van Doren, in an infamous 1920 article from The Nation, referred to as the “revolt from the village.” This movement, which is widely acknowledged to encompass such writers as Edgar Lee Masters, Sherwood Anderson, and Sinclair Lewis, pushed back against the primacy of the heretofore-dominant pastoral tradition when it came to depictions of rural America. These authors sought to create a more accurate portrayal of the small town, one that, while not completely eschewing the pastoral, also exposed the more seedy side of village life. Critics …

Patsy Sings For Me: Stories, Brenna Elizabeth Womer

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis begins with a critical introduction about the function of place in works of fiction and creative nonfiction. I use quotes from Joan Didion, Flannery O'Connor, Dorothy Allison, and others to support the idea that, though many hold to the belief that people are shaped by place, really it is people who prescribe meaning to landscape and location, not the other way around. Place is at the mercy of memory and language. After the critical introduction, you will find short stories, flash fiction, essay, short memoir, and flash nonfiction. These works were not written with a specific theme in …

Spatial Distribution And Geomorphic Factors Of Lead Contamination On Floodplains Affected By Historical Mining, Big Rover, S.E. Missouri, David Bower Huggins

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Historical mining in the Old Lead Belt resulted in lead (Pb) contamination of floodplain soils for over 170 km along the Big River in southeastern Missouri. The overall pattern of contamination are understood. However, Pb distribution across floodplain surfaces has not been investigated at the scale needed for site-level remediation planning. The goal of this project is to examine spatial distribution of Pb with more detail and identify the role of geomorphic processes. Predictive models are needed to evaluate factors affecting Pb distribution such as elevation, distance from the channel, and geochemistry. This study evaluates Pb distribution at three ~1km …

Eastern, Spring 2016, Eastern Washington University. Division Of University Relations.

Alumni Publications

This issue contains articles about: Not Your Father's Philosophy, professor Kevin Decker teaches without being "teachy", and In the Winners' Circle, Nikeela Black an attorney in Arkoosh Law Offices in Boise and jockey with the most wins in North America, and Growing a Great Future, living: building, curriculum, community; plans to become a worldwide leader in the field of sustainability by offering a new academic degree and by constructing the first “living building” on the campus of a public university in the United States, and A Toast to History, Monica Stenzel uses food to give students an appetite for history, …

Reading Readers: Documenting Reader Response And Analyzing The Colored Illustrations Found In The Cary Graphic Art Collection’S Copy Of The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Amanda Packard

Theses

The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was published in 1499 by Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius. The incunable1 is a distinct example of Renaissance printing; it is illustrated with 172 elaborate woodcuts including eleven full page illustrations and thirty-nine decorative capitals. The Cary Graphic Arts Collection located in The Wallace Center at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) holds a first edition of Aldus’ work. This copy possesses hand-coloring on eighty-four of the 172 woodcuts. I hypothesize that the coloring was done by a previous owner as a form of reader response. How does the reader response and color annotations communicate to other readers? To …

"As Long As Grass Grows And Water Flows": Lyda Conley And The Huron Indian Cemetery, Samantha Rae Dean

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Amongst a sea of concrete in a restless city stands a cemetery that predates the Civil War. The final resting place of at least four hundred Wyandots, Huron Indian Cemetery reflects the tribe’s long history. Today a sense of calm surrounds the sacred grounds, canceling out the noise of Minnesota Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, but this grassy space was once the target of controversy and legal dispute. Beneath the century-old trees, surrounded by her immediate family members and Wyandot ancestors, lies Eliza “Lyda” Burton Conley, attorney and historic preservationist. Without her dedication, strength, and love for her people, the …

Conflict Beyond Borders: The International Dimensions Of Nicaragua's Violent Twentieth-Century, 1909–1990, Andrew William Wilson

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this research is to identify the importance of Nicaraguan political contests in the global twentieth century. The goal is to demonstrate that, despite its relatively small size, Nicaragua significantly influenced the course of modern history. This has been done by examining the international contestations between Nicaragua’s revolutionary and counterrevolutionary currents from Augusto Sandino’s resistance to U.S. imperialism, to the machinations of the Somoza family, and the Contra War of the 1980s. Upon examination of these events, it becomes clear that Nicaraguans on both sides of the conflict proved adept at cultivating and utilizing transnational networks of material …

Machines In The Valley: Community, Urban Change, And Environmental Politics In Silicon Valley, 1945–1990, Jason A. Heppler

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Using Silicon Valley as a case study, this dissertation examines how activists influenced by the environmental movement reconfigured urban culture in the American West. *Machines in the Valley* argues that the spatial influences of the region's urban development gave rise to modern environmentalism that arose to criticize growth, but along the way failed to ultimately shape growth policies. While high technology sought to introduce a new urban form predicated on "clean and green" industries and an environmental urbanism, the premise of "clean" industry proved elusive.

High technology industrialization emerged as a key component of economic and urban development in postwar …

Exploring Elementary Students’ Agricultural And Scientific Knowledge Using Evidence Centered Design, Molly R. Brandt

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The public is more disconnected from agriculture than ever. Americans are two to four generations removed from the farm, and a majority of Americans, even in rural agricultural states have no direct link to agriculture. As a result, the public lacks the knowledge and appreciation of the food, fuel, and fiber it demands. The National Center for Agricultural Literacy (NCAL) uses National Agricultural Learning Objectives (NALOs) to measure student’s agricultural knowledge. The purpose of this project is to develop assessments aligned with the NALOs and to use results from the assessments to further understand students’ agricultural literacy. This study focuses …

Super-Utilization: The New Perfect Storm Of Health Reform, Jill Diane Nault

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

This three-essay dissertation was focused on geographic variation of super-utilization, or the disproportionately high healthcare utilization and costs attributed to a small sub-set of the inpatient population. For purposes of this research, super-utilization was operationalized as high repeat utilization (HRU) and referred to inpatient utilization and inpatient readmission expenditures attributed to beneficiaries with four or more 30-day readmissions per year. The overall purpose of the research was to identify geographic areas at increased risk for HRU. These areas corresponded to where beneficiaries live and were aligned with the geographically-bound healthcare delivery systems. Each essay employed an observational study design using …

Renewable Energy Matters: Small Hydel Power And Sustainability In India, Madhu N. Rao

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

The Dissemination Of Local Food Rhetoric Via Restaurant Wait Staff: A Pilot Study, Laura Dragon

Dissertations - ALL

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe restaurant waiter and manager perceptions of local foods with regard to customer inquiries, personal values, barriers of local foods, ingredient source, waiter training, and personal definitions of local food.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from restaurant managers, chefs, and wait staff at local food promoting restaurants (LFPR) in an urban county in central New York State. The study design involved questionnaires consisting of close-ended and open-ended questions about local foods. Questions regarding local food perceptions, motivations, customer inquiries, training, source, and barriers to local foods were …

Assessing The Contribution Of Geography And Host Use To Genetic Structure In New York Populations Of The Parasitoid Wasp, Aphidius Ervi, Haley Jay Plasman

Dissertations - ALL

Host-associated differentiation (HAD) has been shown to be important in generating genetic differentiation within herbivorous insects, but the applicability of HAD to other parasitic taxonomic groups remains unclear. For example, parasitoid wasps that attack herbivorous insects share many similar life habits with their hosts, suggesting that HAD may also be a prevalent and important mechanism in this group. I tested for the genetic signature of HAD in the parasitoid wasp, Aphidius ervi, that attacks aphids. Aphidius ervi is a biocontrol agent that uses many species of pest aphids including the clover and alfalfa host-races of the pea aphid (Acyrthospihon pisum). …

The Western Diet's Negative Impact On The Health Of The Pacific Islands., Jessica Ruikka

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

In an already challenging environment, the Western diet has introduced noncommunicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease to the Pacific Islands (PIC). Without modern medicine, many of these regions, including Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia are ill equipped to handle the long-term effects of these noncommunicable diseases. A high percentage of the Pacific Island population is obese and overweight; and the Islands are struggling to combat the epidemic. Many programs and proposals have been implemented, such as changes in trade policy, local activism, and government modifications, but there has been no evidence of a decline in noncommunicable diseases. There …

The State Of Tobacco : A Remote Sensing Approach To Understanding Tobacco Crop Production In Kentucky., Laura Krauser

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Agricultural policy allows for governing bodies to better control the landscape, economy, and security of resources. Because of this power, it is essential for policy and its effects to be thoroughly understood. This study examines the Tobacco Transition Payment Program (TTPP, “tobacco buyout”), in effect from 2005 to 2014, using a mixed methods approach. The TTPP lifted the existing geographic restrictions of tobacco production and deregulated market prices formerly controlled by the government. Kentucky’s economic, social, and agricultural landscapes changed significantly in the wake of this legislation. To explore these changes, this study employs semi-structured interviews and remote sensing analyses …

Effects Of Numeracy And Financial Literacy On Undesirable Financial And Related Academic Outcomes In College Students, Sriram Govindarajan

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

Numeracy was a better predictor of financial delinquency than financial literacy. The relationship between numeracy and undesirable academic effects was fully mediated by financial delinquency. It was also found that in a credit card related decision making task, the relationship between numeracy and performance was partially mediated by the deliberation time. This is similar to the finding in Ghazal et al. (2014) and supporting their conclusion that numeracy is just not facility with numbers, but also related directly to heuristic deliberation and metacognition. The findings also support the notion that people low in numeracy might be prone to various biases …

Preparing For And Responding To Flood Disasters: A Tale Of Two Floods, Rachel Correll

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Major floods have occurred throughout geologic history and will continue to for centuries and millenia to come. Preparation and response strategies have been in place to various degrees. However, with more frequent and severe floods expected in many regions in the future, improving these strategies is a societal priority. In this thesis, I outline the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies in two case studies, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and The Great Mississippi Flood of 1993 in St. Louis. My research compares disaster preparedness and response of recent major flooding in the U.S. My objective is to learn from …

Exploring The Connections Between Literary Places, Literary Texts, And Tourist Performance, Alana Nicole Seaman

All Dissertations

Books and travel are inseparable. From inspiring destination choices to offering vacationers a diversion during their journeys, books and other literature have long been a part of the travel experience. In many cases, thousands of tourists trek to places of literary importance in order to participate in literature-inspired activities such as wading in the serene waters of Walden Pond (Mass. State Parks, 2015), jump frogs in the real Calaveras County (Calaveras County, 2015), and go fly-fishing in the actual river from A River Runs Through It (Hepworth, 1992). However, in many cases these tourist “performances” also appear to be reliant …

The Spectre Of Terrorism And Nigeria’S Industrial Development: A Multi-Stakeholder Imperative, David Imhonopi, Ugochukwu Moses Urim

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

Since 2009, Nigeria has gradually slipped into a terrorist enclave where terror acts have become the regular signature of the country’s social memoirs. Aside the complex permutations of socio-economic and political upheavals already facing the polity, the sudden emergence of a supercilious army of terror extremists has not only exposed the polity’s unpreparedness for such an intimidating challenge, but has also brought a spectral bite to industrial development. Efforts to achieve development in industry in the country, a strong criterion for economic development and the improvement of the country’s Human Development Indices may continue to suffer setbacks in the face …

Criminality: Illegal Logging Of Woods In Nigeria’S South-West Forest Belt, Adediran Daniel Ikuomola, Rashidi Akanji Okunola, Adeshina Francis Akindutire

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

The problems facing the rich forest belts in Nigeria have become so intense in relation to the unemployment dilemma ravaging most youths in several urban and rural settlements as well as the wide-ranging negative impacts on environmental crime in South-West Nigeria. This study examines the dynamics of forest exploitation, youth adaptability and survival strategies in the nation’s forest belt. Data collected for the study was basically qualitative, among a hundred and twenty-five (125) respondents in Ondo-Edo forest belts. It was discovered that a strong network of syndicates often (local and foreign) capitalized on the prevailing surge of unemployment in the …

A Study On Nigerian And U.S. College Students’ Views On Justice Issues, O. Oko Elechi, Eric G. Lambert, Morris Jenkins

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

People’s views on justice issues are often a function of their socialization, the cultural norms, values and beliefs of their society. Views on justice often vary between nations. The current study explored and compared the views of Nigerian and U.S. college students regarding justice views. Nigeria is a developing nation which has a long history of informal restorative justice practices, but also uses formal government justice agencies to deal with crime. The U.S. is a developed nation which often relies on a formal state administered punitive crime control approach. Based on multivariate analyses, there were significant differences in views between …

Refocusing The Frontier: Recalling The Photography Of Robert Adams And Mark Klett, Christian W. Olsson

Art & Art History ETDs

This thesis argues that the American West is a melting pot unprecedented by anything else in the North American continent. The natural beauty observed by the nineteenth-century photographers still prevails. The land is shaped not only by new peoples and cultures, and by those already inhabiting the land, but also by political ideas about how the land should be used. The works of Robert Adams and Mark Klett examine these agendas through their respective works. They illustrate ideas of how the land should be used--from national parks, to cities, to energy and environmental projects. Both photographers focus on different areas …

Middle School Teachers’ Perspectives On Promoting Effective Technology Integration, Yona Andrew Rose

All Theses And Dissertations

Technology integration reforms in education have increased in number and expectation throughout schools across the United States. Some instructors have experienced barriers with skill sets, attitudes, professional development opportunities, and collaboration time which have impacted their ability to model good practices. Pictures of qualified, confident teachers integrating technology into their classrooms with regularity and fidelity are unclear. Existing literature was reviewed regarding methods of increasing teacher comfort and knowledge related to technology integration so that the 21st Century Skills of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication can be addressed in public schools. This research study explored what middle school teachers …

Exploring Attitude Transformation: A Grounded Theory Study Of Romanian Teachers Of Roma Students, Laura Jones

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this systematic grounded theory study was to explore the process of change in teacher attitudes toward including Roma (“Gypsy”) students in non-segregated schools in Romania. The theories guiding this study included Mezirow’s (1991, 2000) theory of transformation, Gay’s (2002, 2013) theory of culturally responsive teaching, and Bandura’s (1977, 1997) theory of self-efficacy. These three theories guided this research inquiry into how attitudes change, how teacher attitudes affect beliefs and actions, and how self-efficacy affects teacher attitudes. This study sought to answer the following questions: What is the process of transforming Romanian teacher attitudes toward including Roma students? …

College-Bound Students: A Study Of The Relationship Between Religiosity/Spirituality, And Achievement, William Wright

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The achievement gap between private and public school college-bound students has continued to widen each year since 1972. The researcher studied the relationship of Christian school college-bound students’ religiosity/spirituality using a validated survey instrument and their achievement as measured on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. The literature implies a relationship, but there is a gap in studying homogeneous religious groups. Therefore, the researcher selected a homogeneous grouping, Texas Christian high school college-bound seniors, as the sample for this study. The researcher obtained permission to use the Religiosity and Spirituality Scale for Youth (RASSY) survey instrument and included demographic and score data …

Relating Administrators’ Training In Technology Integration And Their Attitudes Toward Technology In Southeastern Virginia Schools, Abbie Martin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the study was to determine if there is a relationship between amount of training administrators receive in technology integration and their attitudes toward technology. Previous research has revealed a relationship between teachers’ attitudes (Shiue, 2007; Shoffner, 2009), training (Adcock, 2008; Donnell, 2009; Lei, 2009; Sadik, 2008), and actual usage of computers. However, a gap in the research exists around the role and influence of administrators’ training and attitudes on the integration technology. A quantitative correlational research design was employed to investigate three hypotheses: the relationship between training and attitude, age and attitude, and years of administrative experience …

Exceptional Accumulations Of Statoliths In Association With The Christian Malford Lagersta¨ Tte (Callovian, Jurassic) In Wiltshire, United Kingdom, Malcolm B. Hart, Jonghe A De, Kevin N. Page, Gregory D. Price, Christopher W. Smart

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Downtown Cleveland: The Dynamic Engine Of A Talent-Driven Economy, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Charlie Post

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Cities have long been seen as places serving a variety of purposes. In 1933, for example, the architect Le Corbusier detailed four essential roles of a functional city. A working city is one that provides dwelling, work, recreation, and circulation to its people.

Throughout the 20th century, trends in city building were to separate these functions into differing spaces. There were areas meant for living (the suburbs), areas meant for working (the central business district), and areas meant for playing (the entertainment district).

More recently, the trend has been to move away from the division of city life toward a …

High-Growth Firms: Delineating Definitions, Industries, And Business Cycle Performance, Merissa Piazza, Ziona Austrian, Iryna Lendel, Serena Alexander, Ellen Cyran, Deborah D. Hoover, Ray Leach

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

There are strong reasons to believe that public policy affects the prevalence and success of entrepreneurial firms, and there is consensus in the literature that high-growth firms (HGFs), a specific subset of entrepreneurial firms that have a propensity to be employment generators in the economy, contribute significantly to employment growth (see, for example, Acs & Mueller, 2008; Acs, Parsons, & Tracy, 2008; Birch & Medoff, 1994; Choi, Robertson, & Rupasingha, 2013, Clayton, Sadeghi, Spletzer, & Talan, 2013; Kirchhoff, 1994; Mason & Brown, 2013; Stangler, 2010; Thurik, 2009). Moreover, authors have called for policy makers to provide HGFs with the resources …

Statistical Modeling To Predict N2O Production Within The Hyporheic Zone By Coupling Denitrifying Microbial Community Abundance To Geochemical And Hydrological Parameters, Tiffany Brooke Farrell

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The hyporheic zone (HZ) of streams can be a significant source of nitrous oxide (N₂O). However, the biogeochemical processes controlling N₂O emissions remain poorly constrained due to difficulties in obtaining high-resolution chemical, physical, and biological data from streams. We performed a large-scale flume experiment to unravel the complexities of a natural system by constraining streambed morphology, flow rate, organic carbon loading, grain size distribution, and exogenous nitrate loading while enabling regular monitoring of dissolved oxygen, pH, alkalinity, and concentrations of NO₃^-, NO₂^-, NH₄⁺, and N₂O …