Digital Commons Network^™

Resistance Against Futility In The Name Of Convenience, Dalia Karina Delanuez

All Theses

While utilizing plastics, my primary motivation as an artist is to understand how this material can disassociate the body from its natural environment and its subsequent effects. In my work, I speak of three spaces that are not distinct but that overlap each other. I analyzed my interaction with plastics as an intermediate space. This space of transition and domestic use is explained through sculpture in several modalities. My first sculpture is a fragmented installation. My second is a video projection of my body within a sculptural surface and a filmed documentation. My third sculpture is participatory and includes a …

A Tidy Data Model For Natural Language Processing Using Cleannlp, Taylor B. Arnold

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

Recent advances in natural language processing have produced libraries that extract low level features from a collection of raw texts. These features, known as annotations, are usually stored internally in hierarchical, tree-based data structures. This paper proposes a data model to represent annotations as a collection of normalized relational data tables optimized for exploratory data analysis and predictive modeling. The R package cleanNLP, which calls one of two state of the art NLP libraries (CoreNLP or spaCy), is presented as an implementation of this data model. It takes raw text as an input and returns a list of normalized tables. …

Engaging Participants Without Leaving The Office: Planning And Conducting Effective Webinars, Julie Robinson, Mary Poling

Journal of Extension

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service has been developing and refining webinar delivery practices since 2012. On the basis of a review of existing literature and our own experiences, we have established methods for necessary planning, organization of content and people, and effective delivery of high-quality webinars. We have distilled those methods into a collection of best practices. By using those best practices, which we identify in this article, Extension educators can deliver virtual learning experiences that are engaging and enjoyable for all parties involved.

Divergent Schwannoma-Like Phenotype In A Pleomorphic Adenoma, Srinivasa R. Chandra, Farah Karim, Yeshwant B. Rawal

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

The schwannoma-like pleomorphic adenoma is a rare histopathological variant of the pleomorphic adenoma. Five previous reports with seven cases exist in English language literature. These tumors present in the parotid gland most commonly. Intraparotid schwannomas of the facial nerve and schwannomas with glandular differentiation have also been reported. A 60-year-old male presented with an asymptomatic swelling over the left angle of the mandible. The swelling had been present for about 12 years with a recent increase in size. CT imaging showed a hyperdense circumscribed mass of the superficial lobe of the parotid. The working diagnosis was that of a benign …

A Molecular Diagnostic Survey Of Pathogens And Parasites Of Honey Bees, Apis Mellifera L., From Arkansas And Oklahoma, Dylan Cleary

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The health and viability of colonies of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, in the United States have fluctuated dramatically over the past decade. This poses a substantial threat to agricultural production in this country. Currently, no single factor has been identified for this decline. Rather, it has been suggested that the interaction between multiple biotic and abiotic stressors may be responsible. Among these factors are pesticides, habitat loss, climate and weather, parasites and pathogens, and colony management techniques. For this reason, it is important to examine the prevalence of honey bee parasite and pathogen infection at the state level in …

"I Was Not Ready To Die Yet": William Stowell's Utah War Ordeal, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D., R. Devan Jensen

Faculty Publications

In the fall of 1857, young wives Cynthia Jane Stowell and Sophronia Stowell bade fare­well to their husband, William R. R. Stowell, a lieutenant in the Utah militia working to hinder the US Army from entering Utah Territory. That winter they received word that William had been captured and was being held prisoner at Camp Scott, in present-day Wyoming. The Utah War arose from a complex web of causes and motivations: federal and Utah territorial authorities often clashed regarding Mormon authority and influence in the territorial court sys­tem, the mail service, policies regarding American-Indian relations, polygamy, and the moral character …

Copyrighting The Quotidian: An Analysis Of Copyright Law For Postmodern Choreographers, Jessica Goudreault

Cardozo Law Review

Part I begins with a primer on the laws of copyright. It provides an overview of the statute's history, as well as some background on particular doctrines developed through case law. Part II introduces the history of postmodern dance and the choreographer Trisha Brown, whose work will function as a case study herein. Part III analyzes Brown's work as it relates to the statutory language of copyright law and the doctrines of originality, functionality, idea/expression dichotomy, and fixation. The analysis uses Brown's work Man Walking Down the Side of a Building as a single example to provide a real sense …

Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser Fulvescens) Trophic Position And Movement Patterns In The Lower Niagara River, Ny, Eric Bruestle

Great Lakes Center Masters Theses

Lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens were once widely distributed throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes. However, widespread overharvest and habitat degradation has diminished their numbers. The lower Niagara River, NY contains one of the few remaining recovering populations of lake sturgeon in New York State. The goal of this study was to characterize the trophic position of lake sturgeon in the context of an invasive species dominated food web and to describe their movement patterns and residency within the lower Niagara River. Stomach content analysis and stable nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) and carbon (δ¹³C) isotope analysis of tissue was used …

Magical Realism And Film: A Look At Midnight’S Children, Jeff Floss

English Theses

Magical Realism, arguably one of the most important literary forms to develop in the 20th century, is rarely discussed as a film genre, though there are notable film adaptations of magical realist novels. This thesis explores the film adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children to demonstrate how a magical realist novel may be adapted to a visual form, and still maintain the aesthetic sensibilities—and political implications—of the literary original. Drawing on film adaptation studies, close reading, and film analysis, the thesis argues that film can be an effective magical realist genre, even if the conventions of visual mediums are dramatically …

Flushing Responses Of Golden Eagles (Aquila Chrysaetos) In Response To Recreation, Robert J. Spaul, Julie A. Heath

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Disturbance because of human activity, including recreation on wildlands, can affect bird behavior which in turn can reduce breeding success, an important consideration for species of management concern. We observed Golden Eagles (Aquila chysaetos) during the breeding season to determine whether the probability of flushing was affected by the type of recreationist, distance to encounter, eagle nest attendance, or date. We monitored eagles in 23 nesting territories from distant (600-1,200 m) observation points and recorded recreation activity within 1,200 m of eagles in the Owyhee Front of southwestern Idaho. In most (86%, n = 270) encounters, eagles did …

Commentary: Research Recommendations For Understanding The Decline Of American Kestrels (Falco Sparverius) Across Much Of North America, Christopher J.W. Mcclure, Sarah E. Schulwitz, Richard Van Buskirk, Benjamin P. Pauli, Julie A. Heath

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Across much of North America, populations of American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) have been in decline for decades (Farmer et al. 2008, Farmer and Smith 2009, Smallwood et al. 2009a, Paprocki et al. 2014, Sauer et al. 2014). Hypothesized causes of kestrel declines include predation by Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter cooperii; Farmer et al. 2008), pathogens (e.g., Nemeth et al. 2006), habitat loss (Sullivan and Wood 2005, Farmer et al. 2008, Bolgiano et al. 2015), pesticides (Smallwood et al. 2009a, Rattner et al. 2015), and climate change (Steenhof and Peterson 2009b), yet no hypothesized factor has been supported …

Preschoolers And Pandas Making Friends: A Journey About Healing From Brain Injury, Barbara Anne Doucette

Museum Studies Projects

Preschoolers that have obtained Non-Accidental Injury (NAI) from familial child abuse are in need of having a unique place for neurorehabilitation in correlation with traditional therapies. My thesis project suggests adding an exhibit annex to an existing giant panda exhibit that will give preschoolers an opportunity to help develop new neuropathways when exposed to mediation and creative activities. Meditation and creative activities are being examined by neuroscientists as an aid in neuroplasticity after brain injury. This thesis reviews the neurotypical preschooler’s milestones and the playful means by which they are achieved. Conjoining the contemporary museums’ and zoological gardens’ outreach to …

Endocrinology And Women’S Sports: The Diagnosis Matters, Richard J. Auchus

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Pernicious P-Values: Statistical Proof Of Not Very Much, Kingsley R. Browne

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

Food Transitions: How Food Symbolizes Another Chapter, Josiah Peralta

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Through critical self-analysis of my life, I intend to answer the question, “How does food help us transition from one chapter of our life to another?” My purpose is to provide a personal viewpoint about related topics associated with food, like class, origin of food, religion or lack of, culture and tradition, obesity, food choice, and love. Through this viewpoint, I will demonstrate how food associations can encapsulate our past, memories, and identity in a way that moves us from the past to the present, and, hopefully, the future.

Capstone theme: Food, Ethics, and Politics

Ihss My Source, Daisy Meza

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

IHSS My Source is a smartphone application intended for a field research project as well as an evaluation process with the purpose of tracking and connecting clients to community resources. As a result, it is difficult for Social Workers to follow up with all clients regarding unmet needs. Implementation method began with gathering client data. IHSS My Source, a smartphone application implemented by the Monterey County Department of Social Services, division of Aging and Adult Services, department of In Home Supportive Services to have all community resources listed in one organized and easy to access smartphone app. Expected outcomes are …

Correlations Between Religion And Book Sales In The Mississippi Gulf Coast Region, Ashley C. Yount

Honors Theses

This thesis will involve how local religious populations might affect the sales of books/book genres on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This paper will endeavor to answer this question: how would local religions affect book sales in the Mississippi Gulf Coast region? Firstly, it will explain the history behind religious literary censorship, as well as listing secular and religious institutions that protest or ban books. Secondly, it will define and categorize literature into genres, mainly fiction and nonfiction, with subgenres including fantasy and spiritual. Similarly, it will record what characteristics such as gender/sexuality, presence of intimate/sexual scenes, violence, supernatural phenomena/creatures, inappropriate …

Dreadful Reality: Fear And Madness In The Fiction Of H. P. Lovecraft, Phillip J. Snyder

Honors Theses

The effectiveness of H. P. Lovecraft’s horror relies on an atmosphere of dread in his stories. Both the verisimilitude of Lovecraft’s stories and the dilemma many of his protagonists face in losing their sanity or being perceived to have lost their sanity play a large role in creating this atmosphere. By viewing Lovecraft’s fiction through the lens of recent psychological research on fear, this project shows how his intuitive understanding of fear and his vivid imagery and sensory descriptions conform to our understanding of unconscious automatic threat avoidance behaviors. Because Lovecraft’s behavioral descriptions accurately reflect these behaviors, they increase the …

Public Opinion Of Violence In The Mississippi Gulf Coast Region, Michael R. Smith

Honors Theses

Currently, there is an outcry to Mississippi legislators from law enforcement professionals and citizens to address the spike in violent crime levels observed since 2015. The Great Recession of 2008 reduced community policing programs in the United States, resulting in fewer police officers patrolling the residential communities and minor criminal offenses going unreported. This effect has been especially prevalent in the “South Region” of the United States. In 2014, this region reported the largest increase of all regions at 1.9%. Because the public act on their perceptions and legislators react to strong public opinion by creating or changing policies, one …

Young People’S Perceptions Of Nature And Interactions With National Parks, Addy Falgoust

Honors Theses

This thesis examines young people’s perceptions of nature and the outdoors, in order to better understand their interactions and experiences with national parks. Younger generations currently are not engaging with the national parks as much as older generations. This study seeks to understand the reasons behind this change and explore potential solutions to this challenge, as younger generations will be responsible for the conservation and preservation of national parks in the near future. This research was modeled on a previous study based on students at the University of Northern Colorado. Research methodologies included both a survey and focus groups to …

Understanding The English Bible: A Comparative Analysis Of Four Bible Versions, Michael R. Coats

Honors Theses

Scholarship pertaining to the Bible accounts for a great deal of research. A search for “the Bible” on just the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries website archive results in 549,075 hits, and specifying “English Bible versions” only reduces those results to 70,000. My largest difficulty in discussing the Bible lies not in finding a conversation but in finding which part of the conversation to enter. In the past fifty years, one of the largest emphases has been on using the best translation style for the Bible, a topic that has dominated the field of biblical scholarship (Ryken, Understanding 15). I …

Comments On Preliminary Draft 3 [Black Letter And Comments], Jane C. Ginsburg, June M. Besek

Faculty Scholarship

The absence of stated principles underlying the articulation of the black letter and comments – principles that the Reporters have said they will provide at the end of the process – continues to trouble the Draft. It remains unclear whether the Reporters are synthesizing positive law, or seeking to reform it. We are not contending that ALI should not push for law reform (even though Principles or some other form might provide a preferable and more transparent vehicle for aspirational endeavors), but we do think the objectives and methodology should be clear from the outset. We remain concerned that ALI’s …

A Microdebitage Analysis Of The Winterville Mounds Site (22ws500), Stephanie Leigh-Ann Guest

Master's Theses

The Winterville Mounds site (22WS500) was a civic ceremonial center of 23 mounds and is located near Greenville in northwest Mississippi. Winterville excavations as field schools are ongoing since 2005 under the direction of Dr. H. Edwin Jackson of The University of Southern Mississippi. Examination of the >1/4" (6.35 mm) mesh screened lithic material provided mixed results of reduction stages and lacked variety of non-local materials (Guest 2006, Winter 2009, McClendon 2012). Authors of these analyses called for the examination of the 1/16” (1.58 mm) water-screened lithic material to identify reduction stages and traces of non-local materials to provide evidence …

Comparison Study Between Post-Fermentation Stillage And Pre-Fermentation Mash Utilizing Acidification And Steam Explosion Techniques For Cellulose Saccharification, Daniel Mckee

Master's Theses

Pre-fermentation mash fiber and post-distillation stillage fiber were examined and compared using a variety of preparatory techniques to determine the better source for cellulose fiber saccharification. Once screened, dried, and diluted to a 10% solution, mash fiber and stillage fiber were exposed to increasing temperatures for steam explosion techniques as well as increasing acidification techniques. Both underwent enzymatic saccharification to convert the exposed cellulose to glucose and other sugars. Once the optimum steam explosion technique parameters and acidification parameters were determined to be 2.5% sulfuric acid at 127.8°C for 1 hour, a comparison of the saccharification of pre-fermentation mash fiber …

Combined Effects Of Dissolved Oxygen And Temperature On Aerobic Respiration And Respiratory Recovery Responses Of The Spioniform Polychaete, Streblospio Gynobranchiata, In Relation To Body Size, Alyssa Bennett

Master's Theses

Elevated surface temperatures exacerbate the threat of hypoxia within coastal ecosystems. These two primary stressors likely interact as they elicit opposing physiological responses from marine organisms. Metabolic depression is typically associated with hypoxia, while metabolic rates increase with temperature. Moreover, physiological effects of combined stressors may not be additive. In light of increasing pressures from hypoxia, elevated ocean temperatures, and other stressors within coastal regions, studies need to examine effects of multiple stressors on physiology of coastal organisms.

Mass-specific aerobic respiration (V_O2) was characterized as a proxy for metabolic cost of Streblospio gynobranchiata, at combined levels of …

Short-Term Effects Of Theracurmin Dose And Exercise Type On Pain, Walking Ability, And Muscle Function In Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis, Yun-A Shin, Min-Hwa Suk, Hee-Seung Jang, Hyejung Choi

Kinesiology Faculty Publications (Archived)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the short-term of Theracurmin dose and exercise type on pain, walking ability, and muscle function in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Twenty-five patients with knee osteoarthritis randomly selected to Theracurmin intake (T) group and Theracurmin in combined with exercise (T+E) group. T group (n= 13) was taken orally a capsule of 700 mg, 3 times per day, (total 2,100 mg, 35 mg/kg-body weight). T+E group (n= 12) performed aerobic training of 30-min walking and weight training for increasing leg muscular strength. After treatment, the number of steps, muscle mass, range of motion of …

Effect Of Endophyte-Infected Tall Fescue Toxins On Growth Performance And The Microbial Community In The Rumen And Feces In Pregnant Ewes, Saleh Alrashedi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fifty pregnant Katahdin ewes grazed pastures with high (HE) and moderate (MI) levels of Neotyphodium coenophialum-infected tall fescue between February 1 and May 24 to determine the impacts of tall fescue toxins on body weight (BW), body condition scores, FAMACHA scores, fecal egg counts (FEC), and serum Cu, Zn, prolactin, and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA). Within those 50 ewes, 15 were selected randomly for fecal and rumen sampling to assess the impacts of HE and MI on the microbiome community. Total bacterial DNA was extracted from rumen and fecal samples, and alpha and beta diversities were used to relate microbiome …

In The Field The Women Saved The Crop: The Women’S Land Army Of World War Ii, Denna M. Clymer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Women’s Land Army brought together rural and urban sectors of the United States in a climate of national and regional crisis. By the time the country was cast into war, the agricultural sector was already caught in a downward economic spiral that drove away laborers. With demand falling, and farms propped up only by experiments in subsidy and parity, when military and industrial jobs emerged in urban areas, farm laborers became scarce. At the same time the war created jobs for men outside of the agricultural sector, farm prices recovered and demand soared, forcing farmers to look to women …

Habitat Ecology, Trophic Interactions, And Distribution Of Endangered Himalayan Musk Deer In The Nepal Himalaya, Kapil Kishor Khadka

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to explore and assess the habitat selection, trophic interactions and distribution of Himalayan musk deer. Chapter one deals with seasonal diet analysis of musk deer along with the overlap in consumption with livestock during summer. Microhistological technique was employed to assess dietary consumption. Results showed that Abies spectabilis, Pinus wallichiana, and Berberis species constituted the major portion of musk deer’s diet. Dietary breadth measured by the Shannon index was found higher in winter compared to summer. Although musk deer and livestock shared a considerable number of plant species in their diets, the consumption however was significantly different …

A Study Of The Prevalence Of Gastrointestinal Nematodes In Goats Obtained From Northwest Arkansas, Christine Rose Weingartz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parasitic helminths have always been an issue in small ruminant production; pathogens that pose great negative impact on goat health and productivity. Insufficient work has been done to document the prevalence of parasitic helminths in the United States, especially in the south and southeast, where the largest goat populations are found.

The aim of this study was to survey the prevalence of infections by gastrointestinal nematodes in goats in Northwestern Arkansas. Gastrointestinal tracts were examined from 41 goats of various locations around Northwest Arkansas. Worm species were identified and population burdens were determined. Coprology was correlated with the actual worm …