Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Lysophosphatidylcholine Acyltransferase-2 (Lpcat-2) In Inflammatory Responses, Hanaa Alrammah

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Sepsis is the overwhelming inflammatory response to infection, especially bacterial infection and associated bacterial products. It has major healthcare impacts, affecting an estimated 19-30 million persons/year worldwide with a mortality of 30-70%. Despite intense research, no specific therapy has been established for sepsis and in addition to the high mortality, the associated economic costs are very high. For example, recent data shows that the annual cost of patients with sepsis is more than $20 billion in the USA, and £2.5 billion in the UK. Therefore, novel targets and new therapies for sepsis are required which will have an important impact …

What’S In A Frame? Cosmopolitan Morality, The Media And Interventionism, Nicola Katy Langdon

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis examines the media-foreign policy nexus through a specific focus on the moral framing of conflict and interventionism within British media and policy discourses. While morality has been identified as a frequently used frame through which we may understand issues, there has been little extant discussion of the nature of morality embedded within media texts, or how it may shape understanding and policy-making. This research contributes to this void through forwarding cosmopolitan morality framing as a new theoretical framework. Consideration is given to how appeals to a cosmopolitan moral consciousness can resonate and build support for or legitimise particular …

A Continued Musical And Personal Dialogue With The Waves Of Epilepsy., Alan Douglas Miles

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

A Continued Musical and Personal Dialogue with the Waves of Epilepsy. In the early hours of the morning several years ago I awoke with paramedics leaning over me. In a state of confusion, my first conscious decision was to enter my music production studio while they attempted to lead me to the ambulance. Music was important to me even in a disorientated post-ictal state (an altered state of consciousness following a seizure). Two weeks later I awoke with paramedics standing over me again. I had started to experience multiple seizures. During the previous weeks, I also experienced numerous incidents of …

Algorithmic Sovereignty, Denis Roio

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis describes a practice based research journey across various projects dealing with the design of algorithms, to highlight the governance implications in design choices made on them. The research provides answers and documents methodologies to address the urgent need for more awareness of decisions made by algorithms about the social and economical context in which we live. Algorithms consitute a foundational basis across different fields of studies: policy making, governance, art and technology. The ability to understand what is inscribed in such algorithms, what are the consequences of their execution and what is the agency left for the living …

The Impact Of Social Media Usage For Work Purposes On Innovation In Smes: The Role Of Human Capital And Knowledge Sharing, Omar Aydh Alghamdi

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

With the advent of the technology era, social media is considered a useful platform that has contributed actively to social interaction and a wealth of knowledge for both individuals and groups. Many organisations have begun to take into consideration the benefits of such platforms. However, there remains very limited understanding as to social media usage for work purposes in the organisational context. This study therefore investigates the debate surrounding whether or not the use of social media for work purposes adds value to firms. This is has been done by examining the impact of social media usage on innovation through …

Listening Patterns. From Music To Perception And Cognition, Massimiliano Viel

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

The research aims to propose a narrative of the experience of listening and to provide some first examples of its possible application. This is done in three parts. Part One, “Words”, aims to methodologically frame the narrative by discussing the limits and requirements of a theory of listening. After discussing the difficulties of building an objective characterization of the listening experience, the research proposes that any theorization on listening can only express a point of view that is implied by descriptions of listening both in linguistic terms and in the data they involve. The analysis of theories about listening is …

Imagining Peace And War: Plymouth 1918-1939, Glyn Potter

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

After the trench warfare of the Great War the development of aerial warfare and widespread urbanisation meant that military doctrine in any future conflict would likely bring unprecedented death and destruction to non-combatants. Therefore, war prevention became the most important foreign policy issue in Britain, and after the collapse of the disarmament conference in 1934 and the Spanish civil war (1936-1939), war preparation became the dominant concern for the decision makers and the public. Both were hotly debated at all levels of British public life in the 1920’s and 1930’s. This dissertation uses Plymouth as the case study for an …

The Other Middle-Earth: Intertextuality And Iconography In Sergei Iukhimov’S Illustrations For The Lord Of The Rings, Joel Merriner

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

J. R. R. Tolkien once remarked in a 1949 letter to George Allen & Unwin that his friends were so impressed by Pauline Baynes’ illustrations for Farmer Giles of Ham that they labelled his text an adjunct to her drawings. This apparently light-hearted anecdote conceals an interesting truth: the relationship between text and image can be problematic and the reading of an illustration depends largely on the culturally acquired “discursive precedents” which an individual viewer brings to the act of looking. This situation may be further complicated when account is taken of any incidences of visual borrowing (motif) within the …

Post African Futures: Decoloniality And Actional Methodologies In Art And Cultural Practices In African Cultures Of Technology, Tegan Mary Bristow

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis addresses the presence and role of critical aesthetic practices by cultural practitioners and creative technologists in addressing cultures of technology in contemporary African societies. Nairobi and Johannesburg are used as primary case studies through which a closer understanding of these unique cultures of technology are unpacked. The learning established from the findings of the cases is applied to understanding the concerns of cultures of technology within these and other African contexts. In this, attention is placed on latent neo-colonialism found in the relationship between African cultures and the networked global information economy being led by technology practices. This …

'Our Mission Is Protest': Femen, Toplessness And Female Spectacle, Leah Dungay

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis examines the dramaturgical strategies of protest employed by the contemporary Ukrainian protest group, FEMEN. In doing so, it draws from theories of protest as performance, outlined by Richard Schechner (1993) and Baz Kershaw (1999). The all-female group are arguably most well known for their use of the topless female body in protest. As such, this thesis will explore FEMEN’s use of toplessness in relation to Mary Russo’s notions of ‘female spectacle’ (1994), considering the ways in which the group might challenge understandings regarding the appropriate behaviours and appearances for women. This exploration of understandings of the female body …

Gold Griot: Jean-Michel Basquiat Telling (His) Story In Art, Lucinda Ross

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Emerging from an early association with street art during the 1980s, the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was largely regarded within the New York avant-garde, as ‘an exotic other,’ a token Black artist in the world of American modern art; a perception which forced him to examine and seek to define his sense of identity within art and within society. Drawing upon what he described as his ‘cultural memory,’ Basquiat deftly mixed together fragments of past and present, creating a unique style of painting, based upon his own experiences of contemporary American life blended with a remembering of an African past. This …

‘The Road To Learning’: Re-Evaluating The Mechanics’ Institute Movement, Douglas Robert Watson

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis is a re-evaluation of a movement founded to provide what Samuel Smiles called “the road to learning” for workers in the nineteenth century. Mechanics’ institutes emerged during the 1820s to both criticism and acclaim, becoming part of the physical and intellectual fabric of the age and inspiring a nationwide building programme funded entirely by public subscription. Beginning with a handful of examples in major British cities, they eventually spread across the Anglophone world. They were at the forefront of public engagement with arts, science and technology. This thesis is a history of the mechanics’ institute movement in the …

‘I Have Never Mattered Less In This World Than During My Children’S Adoption’: A Socio-Legal Study Of Birth Mothers’ Experiences Of Adoption Law, Lisa Deblasio

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis explores the experiences that birth mothers face in adoption proceedings within a socio-legal context. With analysis of data from interviews with 32 birth mothers synthesised with the relevant provisions of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, it is argued that ingrained unfairness and a lack of accountability exists in the legal and administrative system where birth mothers’ rights are concerned. The requirement for fairness in adoption practice is an underlying principle of jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights, with emphasis on the right to family life under Article 8 of the Convention. Analysis extends to the …

Exploring Privilege Through The Creation And Live/Digital Performance Of An Alter Ego, Gemma Nicole Chatwin

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Through the creation of my own alter ego, called Gemella, this Practice-as-Research project interrogates the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘ego’, and how this relationship is performed on social media sites such as YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Using psychoanalytic theory, it considers how concepts such as the ‘shadow’ and ‘mask’ can work alongside creative performance strategies. Grounded in the experiences of my teenage years living in an expat community in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the thesis explores concepts such as ‘privilege’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’ – underpinned by scholars such as Jen Harvie, Urlich Beck and Peggy McIntosh – and how these …

Graduate Catalog 2018-2019, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Role Of Schema Development And Its Impact Within The Digital Vocabulary Application Quizlet, Jana M. Tolleson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to ascertain the possible impact of using schema development strategies and the digital application Quizlet on student learning perspectives and achievement in a mid-level social studies classroom. U.S. schools are highly influenced by state standardized testing based on standards-driven curriculum that reinforces basic recall and recognition. School curriculum should be focused on higherlevel thinking skills such as critical thinking, social negotiation, and self-directed learning. The identified problem of practice of this study explored and described the use of technology at a basic level. Students are exploiting technology by copying and pasting information …

Immunobiology Of Adenovirus-Vector Vaccines For Mrsa, Emily Orvis

Master's Theses

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive, extracellular bacterium that has emerged as an

important human pathogen. This bacterium is a leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections

(SSTIs) in humans, often leading to invasive and life-threatening infections. Treatment of S.

aureus infections is becoming more complicated due to the rise of methicillin-resistant S. aureus

(MRSA) strains, which are becoming increasingly resistant to a number of antibiotics. In the

United States, invasive MRSA infections result in more deaths annually than any other infectious

agent.

Despite a dire need, there is currently no vaccine against S. aureus infections. The failure

of past …

Surveying Host Innate Immune Responses To Interferon Antagonist-Deficient Murine Coronaviruses, Aaron Brian Volk

Master's Theses

Two coronaviruses (CoVs)—severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus—have emerged in the 21st century from animal reservoirs into the human population, each causing an epidemic associated with significant disease and mortality. CoV epidemics are currently only controllable by rigorous public health measures; no targeted therapeutics or vaccines exist to treat or prevent any human CoV infection. One method of generating attenuated CoV strains to be studied as vaccine candidates involves specifically disrupting CoV-encoded interferon (IFN) antagonists, thereby rendering the virus vulnerable to host innate antiviral immunity. Deubiquitinating (DUB) activity encoded within CoV nonstructural protein …

Investigating Autophagy, Extracellular Vesicles, And Glycobiology, Benjamin Cook

Master's Theses

Autophagy is a cellular process of degradation which degrades cellular materials in acidic organelles called lysosomes. Impairment of lysosomal degradation can lead to lysosomal storage disorders such as Parkinson's Disease. In Parkinson's Disease neurotoxic α-synuclein can spread from cell-to-cell via extracellular vesicles. We investigated the changes in extra vesicular glycans upon perturbation of autophagy using a class of glycan binding molecules termed lectins.

We found that upon induction of autophagy causes EV glycans to increase while others remained consistent. Additionally, we found that specific glycans are increased more than others. Conversely, when lysosomal degradation was impaired, we observed a decrease …

Cell Intrinsic Characteristics Of Cord Blood Naive Cd4 T Cells, Taylor Keller

Master's Theses

The neonatal immune system is functionally distinct from the adult immune system. Neonatal immune responses are less reactive than their adult counterparts, and as such, have an increased susceptibility to infection, resulting in increased duration and severity of disease. There is evidence that T-cells are partially responsible for the observed immunological differences between neonates and adults. Murine studies on neonatal immunity suggest that Th2 like responses predominate the neonatal immune system, an observation not found in the adult immune system. However, studies on human cord blood revealed that human neonates do not exhibit elevated Th2 like cytokines (with the exception …

Inhibition Of Mutant Egfr In Nsclc Promotes Endothelin-1-Mediated Nsclc Disease Progression, Stephen Ollosi

Master's Theses

Angiogenesis in NSCLC has been identified as important therapeutic target in combination with EGFR TKIs. However, only small incremental advancements have been made for the use of angiogenesis inhibitors in NSCLC and it remains elusive why the inhibition of VEGF-mediated neovascularization is not therapeutically efficacious. I present experimental evidence that a subpopulation of NSCLC cells with EGFR TKI-induced EMT contributes toward the attenuation of the response to EGFR TKI therapy. One of the hallmarks of cancer is heterogeneity and I have previously demonstrated that tumor heterogeneity within NSCLC cells lines harboring EGFR kinase domain mutations gives rise to divergent resistance …

International Student Intersectionality In The Trump Era, Sarah Tolman

Master's Theses

This study examines the impact of the current U.S. presidential administration's policies and rhetoric on international student experiences and identities. The researcher approaches this question through the theoretical lens of intersectionality, with the goal of highlighting the complexity and diversity of international student identities in this unique historical moment. Through in-depth narratives collected from interviews with 8 diverse international students, it becomes clear that the 2016 presidential election and the administration's rhetoric and policies have influenced international student experiences and identities in significant ways. Students perceive the statements and actions of the current government to have shifted their perspectives and …

The Characterization Of Rna Content And Biogenesis Pathways Of Extracellular Vesicles That Have Been Implicated In The Pathogenesis Of Hiv-1 Associated Neurocognitive Disorders, Virginia Elizabeth Zwikelmaier

Master's Theses

Patients infected with HIV-1 adhering to Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) still suffer from a variety of neurocognitive, behavioral, and motor dysfunctions, collectively referred to has HIV-1 Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND). Current research suggests the manifestations of HAND might in part be due to the dissemination of toxic HIV-1 components throughout the brain via extracellular vesicles (EVs). Our goal is to characterize these pathogenic EVs to begin to gain a better understanding of this EV-mediated pathology.

We took the first steps in developing a technique to assess the microRNA content of individual EVs but it needs to be heavily optimized to eliminate …

Female Murderers And The Representation Of Crime In Execution Broadsheets In Eighteenth Century Vienna, Daniela Fasching, Claudia Resch

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

While crime broadsides were a prominent part of eighteenth and nineteenth century print culture in countries such as Great Britain and France, scholars working on crime in early modern Austria have relatively few sources to work from in comparison. However, researchers have recently discovered 180 execution broadsides in the archives of the Austrian National Library and the Vienna City Library. This paper discusses the digitisation, annotation, and forthcoming online publication of these sources by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities (ACDH).

That's Business': Organised Crime In G.W.M. Reynolds' The Mysteries Of London (1844-48), Stephen Basdeo

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

Scholars such as Stephen J. Carver argue that G.W.M. Reynolds’s penny blood The Mysteries of London (1844-48) represents organised crime in the Victorian criminal underworld. Yet thus far no researcher has yet applied any theories from criminology relating to organised crime to explain why the activities of the Resurrection Man, the novel's principal criminal protagonist, and his associates constitute an example of it. This article remedies this situation by applying Mark Galeotti’s definition of organised crime to a study of the Resurrection Man's gang in Reynolds’s novel, showing how Reynolds understood that, not only was there an underworld, but there …

Incarcerating The Poor: Interpreting Poverty And Punishment In British Prison Museums, Daniel Johnson

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

This article will seek to understand how and why many prisoners interpreted in prison museums come from lower class backgrounds, and pose questions about how these interpretations contribute to or counter stereotypes about crime and poverty in Victorian England. The article will analyse the Victorian Prison at Lincoln Castle and the York Castle Museum because both sites present the history of punishment without any substantial collections on display, thus utilising creative techniques to present their histories to their visitors. The York Castle Museum presents the history of punishment at the site from 1706 to 1829, while the Victorian Prison at …

The Hampstead Murder: Subversion In Press Portrayals Of A Murderess, Nell Darby

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

The murders of Phoebe Hogg and her toddler daughter by Mary Eleanor Piercey, the lover of Phoebe’s husband, in London in 1892 subverted the usual Victorian press conventions surrounding a female killer. Whereas such women were commonly depicted as monsters, representing ‘the other’ and portrayed as plain, even masculine, creatures, Mary Eleanor was presented in romanticised terms, her good looks contrasted with the more masculine looks of her female victim. This article looks at how, and why, the coverage of this murderess differed, asks whether this case should make us re-evaluate how cases involving female killers were covered by the …

Editorial: Solon Law, Crime And History Volume 8 No.1 2018, Kim Stevenson, Judith Rowbotham

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

No abstract provided.

To Pry Unnecessarily Into Other Men's Secrets': Crime Writing, Private Spaces And The Mid-Victorian Police Memoir, Samuel Saunders

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

This article explores connections between eighteenth/early nineteenth century forms of crime writing and police memoir-fiction – a genre that deserves greater recognition for its contribution to the development of the detective genre. It does this through examining how eighteenth/early nineteenth century crime-writing and mid-Victorian police memoirs were connected through their interest in examining private spaces associated with criminality and rendering them public, yet which remained distinct from each other through their different representations of police officers and detectives.

You've Got A Friend In Me: The Effects Of Lgbtqia+ Legislators On Same-Sex Partnership Rights In Latin America, Danica Genners

Senior Independent Study Theses

Scholars have debated how descriptive representation might operate as a vehicle for furthering minority rights. Rarely discussed in this literature is the role that the election of LGBTQIA+ politicians can have on overall approval of LGBTQIA+ rights within a country. This study aims to identify the various effects that LGBTQIA+ sexual minority federal representatives in Latin America have on public opinion on pro-LGBTQIA+ policies. Using a multi-year, cross-national survey of eleven Latin American countries my study tests whether the election of a LGBTQIA+ representative is related to more progressive views on same-sex marriage. This study finds that the election of …