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2020

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Determination Of Mineral & Calorie Content Of Edible Isopods (A. Nasatum) & Examining Their Potential As A Useful Microlivestock, Iliana Moore Jan 2020

Determination Of Mineral & Calorie Content Of Edible Isopods (A. Nasatum) & Examining Their Potential As A Useful Microlivestock, Iliana Moore

Theses & ETDs

Edible insects, also known as “microlivestock,” are becoming increasingly popular across the U.S. and Europe as health foods and in developing countries as a low-cost nutrient source. They pos sess many advantages over “macrolivestock,” including higher nutritive content, lower environmental impact, lower land use requirements and lower cost of rearing and processing. However, insect rearing requires high electricity usage, and many species have highly specific diets that can become expen sive. Pillbugs (suborder Oniscidea), an edible yet rarely consumed arthropod, may offer a new form of minilivestock that does not have these problems. Their broad diet, temperature tolerance, scarce need …

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A Theory Of The Blakean Sublime: Annihilation As An Experience Of Unity In The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell & Jerusalem: The Emanation Of The Giant Albion, Sam Conrad Jan 2020

A Theory Of The Blakean Sublime: Annihilation As An Experience Of Unity In The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell & Jerusalem: The Emanation Of The Giant Albion, Sam Conrad

Theses & ETDs

No abstract provided.

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Tales From The Sarasota Bay: An Informal Environmental Education Approach To Teaching Students From Sarasota County About Their Local Ecosystems, Camila Vallejo Jan 2020

Tales From The Sarasota Bay: An Informal Environmental Education Approach To Teaching Students From Sarasota County About Their Local Ecosystems, Camila Vallejo

Theses & ETDs

Increasing extinction rates and extreme weather are influencing the course of natural patterns and processes around the world. These factors have shown to be heavily influenced by humans, who may have been unaware of the effects their activities would cause. Students need to learn about the human activity that is impacting processes of the Earth. Effectively teaching people about their environment can influence them to be more environmentally conscious and willing to conserve and protect natural areas. Learning models and assessment strategies have been created to examine hypotheses and examine applications of informal environmental education across different communities. Researchers have …

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Carbon Cycling In The Food Forest & Carbon Farm At New College Of Florida, Steven Bressan Jan 2020

Carbon Cycling In The Food Forest & Carbon Farm At New College Of Florida, Steven Bressan

Theses & ETDs

Carbon cycling in the Food Forest & Carbon Farm at New College of Florida and a nearby lawn was studied to assess sources and sinks of organic carbon and overall soil quality. Over three months of fieldwork the organic carbon, bulk density, microbial respiration and nutrient composition of the soils were measured. Nearly all measurements suggest that both areas have sequestered organic carbon in soil. The average Food Forest soil sample had a proportion of organic carbon five times greater than the Lawn. Microbes present in the Food Forest released organic carbon at a rate five times faster than the …

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Common Problems: A Proposal For A Standardized Job Application, Kaelan Dean Jan 2020

Common Problems: A Proposal For A Standardized Job Application, Kaelan Dean

Theses & ETDs

As firms are fundamentally operated by a group of people, important hiring decisions can often be influenced by very human heuristics. This thesis expands on previous research to test the descriptive nature of simple search theory models and the role the heuristics may play in preventing their accuracy in predicting labor markets. Since a person’s name acts as a commonly used marker of socioeconomic class, ethnic background, and gender, privileged groups favoring recognizable demographic information will result in favoring the privileged group on average in the application process. This likely increases the amount of time, and thus the costs associated …

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“Two Warring Ideals In One Dark Body”: The Persistence Of The Persephone Myth In 20th Century African American Women’S Literature, Ashley Miles Jan 2020

“Two Warring Ideals In One Dark Body”: The Persistence Of The Persephone Myth In 20th Century African American Women’S Literature, Ashley Miles

Theses & ETDs

Throughout American literary history, African American authors have had a complex relationship with the Classics. This thesis looks to works written by African American women authors of the 20th century that rework, appropriate, and adapt the Greco-Roman myth of Demeter and Persephone. In “The Anniad” (1949), Gwendolyn Brooks uses epic narrative style while alluding to the myths to elevate the story of a young African American woman, Annie, as she navigates her first love and loss amidst instances of racialized and gendered alterity. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) appropriates the myth to parallel the traumatic repetitions of Persephone’s never-ending …

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Biofuel Production: A Review Of The Industry And Experimental Optimization Of Terminal Alkene Production, Gina Vazquez Jan 2020

Biofuel Production: A Review Of The Industry And Experimental Optimization Of Terminal Alkene Production, Gina Vazquez

Theses & ETDs

Globally people are working towards creating and implementing methods to reduce human-induced climate change. The US has a particularly large responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it is the second leading emitter globally. Being one of the largest consumers of fossil fuels and greenhouse emitters in the world, it’s important to identify the sector that contributes most to climate change, how it affects climate change, and what solutions exists to reduce emissions within that industry. Part 1, identifies that the transportation sector is responsible for the highest consumption of fossil fuels and highest greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists have been …

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Dances With Microbes: Examining Soil Microbial Community Structures In Urban Soils, Jacob Zidek Jan 2020

Dances With Microbes: Examining Soil Microbial Community Structures In Urban Soils, Jacob Zidek

Theses & ETDs

The purpose of this study was to investigate the dynamics of microbes from soil samples of an urban environment. The soil microbiome plays a necessary role in the cycling of various nutrients including carbon, likely plays a role in human health, and is likely impacted by human land developments. For this purpose, we compared samples from managed and unmanaged areas of an urban farm, lawns managed with and without fertilizer and pesticides, and a native preserve. A total of 72 soil samples were collected of organic carbon and nutrient quantification paired with soil microbiome analysis. For the managed urban setting …

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Thermal Comfort Through Vernacular Architecture, Maria Van Allen Jan 2020

Thermal Comfort Through Vernacular Architecture, Maria Van Allen

Theses & ETDs

Thermal comfort through vernacular architecture is explored through the use of a literature review and three cases studies, focusing on Malaysia, Florida, and Iran. The authors reviewed in the literature review agree that we can learn important lessons from vernacular architecture regarding simple, proven techniques for increasing the thermal comfort of building’s inhabitants without relying on high energy-consumptive mechanical systems. The case studies revealed there are several common cooling methods recommended across the different hot climates examined, including shading and natural ventilation. A design portfolio of passive cooling technologies and a final building design in Florida’s climate were proposed to …

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The Political Ecnonomy Of The United States Dollar, Justin Falconer Jan 2020

The Political Ecnonomy Of The United States Dollar, Justin Falconer

Theses & ETDs

This paper is intended to explain the value of the US Dollar. In order to do this, I will begin by developing a theory of money in general before moving on to discuss the unique aspects which set the dollar apart. Before I can explore the value of the US Dollar, I must clearly articulate the concepts of value and money. Value is a wholly subjective concept. Changes in value therefore can be completely explained by changes in the sentiment of individual market actors. I contend that monetary theory often puts too much emphasis on the differences between different forms …

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Consciousness, Embodiment, And Artificial Intelligence, Leah Bender Jan 2020

Consciousness, Embodiment, And Artificial Intelligence, Leah Bender

Theses & ETDs

No abstract provided.

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Can I Afford This Kindness? Sense Of Security And Empathy, Julian Hunter Jan 2020

Can I Afford This Kindness? Sense Of Security And Empathy, Julian Hunter

Theses & ETDs

Evolutionary psychology suggests humans perform prosocial behavior as a means of exchanging short term resources for long term resources, alliance, and kinship. The current study aimed to investigate how the perceived security of resources affects this prosocial behavior and empathy. Six participants completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Hagerty Sense of Belonging Scale, the Belief in a Dangerous World Scale, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index in a computer lab. During their participation, the participants were presented with the opportunity to assist the researcher after a staged mishap. The results suggested that self-esteem has a positive correlation with affective and cognitive …

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The Memory Of Single Motherhood In Contemporary Literature, Shelby Hennessy Jan 2020

The Memory Of Single Motherhood In Contemporary Literature, Shelby Hennessy

Theses & ETDs

The overarching question in this thesis, How are single mothers remembered collectively in contemporary literature? joins two fields of academia, Literature and Memory Studies. The single mothersIdiscussmaybeunwed,divorced,orwidowed.My introduction analyzes the social prejudices directed against single mothers and draws on sociological and historical studies as initial evidence. Within the three chapters and the conclusion, I discuss eight literary examples of single mothers, from books published between 1976 and 2009, and accompany them with relevant memory theories by such scholars as Michael Rothberg and Marianne Hirsch. Each chapter examines one ofthree life stages, and asks: What is pregnancy as a single mother …

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Fixatives And Fixation Protocols: Comparative Analysis Of Techniques For Light Microscopy And Downstream Functional Conservation, Caito Moore Jan 2020

Fixatives And Fixation Protocols: Comparative Analysis Of Techniques For Light Microscopy And Downstream Functional Conservation, Caito Moore

Theses & ETDs

This thesis purports to provide a comprehensive review of fixatives and fixation techniques for the purpose of light microscopy, and for the various downstream processes that may occur during or after microscopic visualization. Fixatives preserve tissues while preventing their natural death by putrefaction, apoptosis, or other natural processes of decay, and allow the tissue to remain structurally or functionally intact for histopathology. Fixation protocols, encompassing the various procedures required to render a tissue usable for microscopy or analysis, are discussed to provide context for the necessity and analysis of chemical fixatives themselves. A “compendium of fixatives” organizes, compares and describes …

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Urbanization And The Spread Of Hiv In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparison Of Lagos, Nigeria And Johannesburg, South Africa, Jacob Wentz Jan 2020

Urbanization And The Spread Of Hiv In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparison Of Lagos, Nigeria And Johannesburg, South Africa, Jacob Wentz

Theses & ETDs

The first documented infection of HIV was found in blood samples in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. Despite these origins, southern Africa is the region most affected by HIV in the world. The second most affected region in the world is west Africa. To build upon research about the spread of HIV across the sub continent, and to assess the impact of demographic change on the differences in HIV prevalence in west and southern Africa, this study investigates the role that urbanization in two regional metropoles—Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa—plays in creating conditions conducive to the …

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Information Networks: Improving Information Consumption Through Human Curation, Parankush Bhardwaj Jan 2020

Information Networks: Improving Information Consumption Through Human Curation, Parankush Bhardwaj

Theses & ETDs

This thesis goes through the development of a software application aimed at delivering news content to readers devoid of misinformation, clickbait, and filter bubbles. Rather than relying on an algorithmically curated timeline, like Facebook and Google, to deliver content to consumers, this application instead relies on human-curation. Two user studies were conducted to examine the effectiveness of the app’s user interface in providing a great user experience to consumers. The results show that human curation creates a high-quality browsing experience and should be used more often in information networks when delivering news content to consumers.

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A Philosophy Of Change: Community Resilience In The Face Of Rising Sea Levels, Olivia Siegel Jan 2020

A Philosophy Of Change: Community Resilience In The Face Of Rising Sea Levels, Olivia Siegel

Theses & ETDs

Global sea levels are rising, and affecting coastal communities across time, space, and species. The popularly held perspective on climate change and rising sea levels are of negative and extreme thought, and embody the attitude that nothing can be done. The climate always has, and always will be dynamic, as should our attitudes and actions regarding the issue of Sea level rise. An interdisciplinary approach based on fundamentals from ecology, landscape archaeology, and the physical and metaphysical properties of water guide this thesis. Three communities of study along the Gulf Coast of Florida, specifically Sarasota Bay, offer insight into how …

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Examining Female Community Power In The Development Of The Chinese Boys’ Love Genre, Grace Hamilton Jan 2020

Examining Female Community Power In The Development Of The Chinese Boys’ Love Genre, Grace Hamilton

Theses & ETDs

In the last thirty years, the Boys’ Love (BL) genre has grown into an international sensation. Featuring gay romances between men, BL evolved from Japanese women’s manga and gained a following of young girls, called “rotten women.” This thesis will explore the developments in the BL genre fueled by the fan community, starting with the conception of BL, then its spread to China, and ending with China’s appropriation of the genre. Since its formation, a large part of the identity of this female community has been its nonconformity, yet the growth of the community in China introduced political stances in …

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Living Tarot, Erin Everdale Jan 2020

Living Tarot, Erin Everdale

Theses & ETDs

This thesis will discuss the ways in which the institution of Christian-patriarchy has worked against liminality. More importantly, it will discuss how liminality has been preserved, by necessity, by those marginalized by the symbolic structure of Christian-Patriarchy. Chapter one of this thesis explores processes which generate extra-institutional symbolic meaning at the individual and community levels. Processes explored here for their generative capacity include those of Dianic ritual, feminist devised theater, traumatic recovery, and tarot-card reading. The playful and porous character of the liminal phases of these processes is understood as being fundamental to their meaning-generating effect. The causal necessity of …

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Cryptozoological Tourism, Savannah Worthington Jan 2020

Cryptozoological Tourism, Savannah Worthington

Theses & ETDs

At the intersection of tourism and cryptozoology there is an emerging form of tourism. This particular form of tourism, based in heritage tourism, which utilizes local invisible heritage and legends is being created in locations that are otherwise bereft of major economic industries. Through three separate case stud ies situated along the eastern side of the United States and an examination of her itage tourism, these particular types of tourist locations are explored to reveal sim ilarities and potential future growth of Cryptozoological Tourism.

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Plant-Pollinator Interactions And Climate Change: Do Shifting Seasonal Cues Affect Pollinator Visitation In The Subtropics?, Shannon Collins Jan 2020

Plant-Pollinator Interactions And Climate Change: Do Shifting Seasonal Cues Affect Pollinator Visitation In The Subtropics?, Shannon Collins

Theses & ETDs

Plants and their pollinators present a particularly concerning case for potential mismatch due to potentially differing phenological responses. To test whether seasonal warming might affect subtropical flowering phenology and whether such effects might impact pollinator visitation, I conducted an experiment in which representatives of four different flowering plant species were either passively warmed in open-top chambers or left unwarmed in interspersed control plots. Over a period of seven weeks, phenological observations were collected in the form of bud, bloom, and seed counts while pollinator visitation was monitored. I hypothesized 1) that all species would significantly advance in response to the …

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Personified Wisdom: Issues Of Gender, Power, And Divinity In Early Jewish And Christian Wisdom Literature, Falon Mansfield Jan 2020

Personified Wisdom: Issues Of Gender, Power, And Divinity In Early Jewish And Christian Wisdom Literature, Falon Mansfield

Theses & ETDs

Early Jewish and Christian texts speak about Wisdom, but not all texts treat Wisdom the same way. Wisdom begins as an abstract concept that evolves into a feminine personification and an aspect of God. Due to the breadth of biblical references to Wisdom, this study includes a brief overview of a number of Hebrew Bible sources in order to situate Wisdom in her earliest narratives. However, this study focuses on the apocryphal Greek text, the Wisdom of Solomon, as a primary source of information about Wisdom. The text presents a different picture of Wisdom than its Hebrew Bible predecessors and …

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Using Dna Barcoding To Compare Intestinal Parasites Of Blacktip And Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks From Terra Ceia Bay And Manatee River, Florida, Sara Sheffer Jan 2020

Using Dna Barcoding To Compare Intestinal Parasites Of Blacktip And Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks From Terra Ceia Bay And Manatee River, Florida, Sara Sheffer

Theses & ETDs

Blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) and Atlantic sharpnose sharks (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) are two common species found in the Gulf of Mexico that, like most sharks, are frequently infected by cestodes in their spiral valve intestines. These endoparasites are difficult to identify because they are often small, cryptic species that are easily confused with one another when identified using only morphology. To compare the intestinal parasites of blacktip and Atlantic sharpnose sharks from Terra Ceia Bay and Manatee River, Florida, DNA was extracted from fecal samples collected from a total of 17 sharks. The highly conserved barcode region of the CO1 gene …

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Circus Lyfe ​ : A Narrative Life Simulation Game, Erik Ridd Jan 2020

Circus Lyfe ​ : A Narrative Life Simulation Game, Erik Ridd

Theses & ETDs

In this thesis I present ​Circus Lyfe ​ , a life simulation game for the Android platform. By creating this game I sought to better learn the video game development process as both a programmer and a writer. My game allows players to experience life within its world as a trapeze artist and to forge a friendship with a non-player character. This paper provides a contextualization of ​Circus Lyfe ​ within the life simulation genre and the mobile game platform, alongside background information on the flying trapeze and an in-depth examination of the Unity Engine. The methodology of both the …

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What Is Enriching For Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Across Enrichment Types And Contexts?, Alyssa Borgschulte Jan 2020

What Is Enriching For Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Across Enrichment Types And Contexts?, Alyssa Borgschulte

Theses & ETDs

Enrichment can be defined as the addition of stimuli to an animal’s environment that aims to enhance the animal’s physical and mental conditions, as well as to reduce stress. Enrichment has been utilized and researched in zoos and aquariums all over the world for years. However, not many studies have focused on the individual across multiple contexts. This study focuses on individual differences in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatas) in response to various environmental enrichment classes, as well as the dolphins’ levels of participation with human interaction versus no human interaction, ingestibles versus no ingestibles, and before versus after fish-reinforced training …

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Esoteric Politics: Leo Strauss And The Power Of Secrets, Matthew Cope Jan 2020

Esoteric Politics: Leo Strauss And The Power Of Secrets, Matthew Cope

Theses & ETDs

In this thesis, I uncover the meaning of Strauss’s critique of modernity and discover the concept of esotericism along the way. I then discuss the possibility of “esoteric politics” and argue that as a concept, it is pertinent to politics today. I examine the assumptions that led Strauss to understand esotericism as a necessary practice. I then critique and invert these assumptions. Finally, I examine three different responses to Straussianism that appeared around the turn of the millennium, and discuss the political shortcomings of each.

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The Effectiveness Of Emotional Support Animals At Alleviating Symptoms Of Depression And Anxiety In College Students Living On A Residential Campus, Cassidy Heaton Jan 2020

The Effectiveness Of Emotional Support Animals At Alleviating Symptoms Of Depression And Anxiety In College Students Living On A Residential Campus, Cassidy Heaton

Theses & ETDs

Emotional support animals (ESAs) are an increasingly popular, medically validated treatment option for several psychiatric disorders. This includes depression and anxiety, which disproportionately affect college students. When prescribed by a medical doctor or psychiatrist, ESAs are a legally protected right and may accompany their person on airplanes and in all types of housing, even housing that is not considered “pet friendly.” ESAs as a disability right has been a contentious and challenging issue in the media; some people claim that ESAs cause more problems than they improve. Using four methods (survey, interview, physiological measures, and a pre-and post ESA cohort), …

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No Man’S Wasteland: A Critical Genealogy Of The Anthropocene, Aubrey Neher Jan 2020

No Man’S Wasteland: A Critical Genealogy Of The Anthropocene, Aubrey Neher

Theses & ETDs

The universalizing narrative of the Anthropocene has been criticized for its failure to engage analyses of power in its representation of the production and distribution of environmental harm. Considering this post-racial and inequity-blind frame, I argue that the concept naturally glides over these realities of life on Earth because it stems from, and perpetuates, a tradition of discursively constructing the Earth in ways that overlook and cause harm toward people of color. I begin by juxtaposing the proposed beginnings of this new planetary era with an example of Anthropocene elision: the nuclear weapons testing and radiological experimentation in the Marshall …

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Anxious Bodies, Miranda Chapman Jan 2020

Anxious Bodies, Miranda Chapman

Theses & ETDs

Combatting the malignant theory of separation of body and mind proposed by René Descartes in 1641, Anxious Bodies details the suffering associated with anxiety disorders. Eleven highly realistic mixed-media paintings featuring embroidery transform anxiety from something invisible to something obvious and alarming, inviting the viewer into the world of mental illness. The horrific subject matter of the works, depicting parasites, dermatological conditions, mutations, etc. corrupting various parts of the human body call to the viewer while also disturbing them. Contrasting my work with more oppressive paintings of mental illness done in the 19th century and comparing my work to the …

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Agency And Time-Space Compression In The Internet, Ariel Parets Jan 2020

Agency And Time-Space Compression In The Internet, Ariel Parets

Theses & ETDs

In this project I claim that agency is impacted by the internet through time-space compression. This topic is very relevant to the effects the internet has on society and individuals today. With the acceleration of mental states in cyberspace through time-space compression, our intentional dispositions are impacted, and thus our agency is impacted. In this thesis I address what time-space compression is, what the effects are, how identity plays a role in agency, and how our agency is impacted by time-space compression through answering the above questions. I use both Kadri Vihvelin and Marya Schechtman’s perspectives to make my points. …

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