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Pestilence And Other Calamities In Civilizational Theory: Sorokin, Mcneill, Diamond, And Beyond, Vlad Alalykin-Izvekov

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper analyses the phenomenon of pestilence through paradigmatic and methodological lenses of several outstanding social scholars, including Pitirim A. Sorokin, William H. McNeill, and Jared M. Diamond. All three thinkers have advanced original, fundamental, and revolutionary paradigms regarding the profound role which infectious diseases played, are playing, and will continue to play in world history and culture. The phenomenon of pestilence is studied in the context of other major calamities. The relevant historic, as well as contemporary macro-level and long-term sociocultural research, is reviewed. The author advances a number of original concepts, as well as makes relevant projections into …

A Comparative Study On The Active Constituents, Antioxidant Capacity And Anti-Cancer Activity Of Cruciferous Vegetable Residues, Alaa A. Gaafar, Zeinab A. Salama, Farouk K. El-Baz

Baghdad Science Journal

This study is pointed out to estimate the effectiveness of two solvents in the extraction and evaluating the active ingredients and their antioxidant activity as well as anti-cancer efficiency. Therefore, residues from four different Brassica vegetables viz. broccoli, Brussels sprout, cauliflower, and red cherry radish were extracted using two procedures methods: methanolic and water crude extracts. Methanol extracts showed the highest content of total phenolic (TP), total flavonoids (TF), and total tannins (TT) for broccoli and Brussels sprouts residues. Methanolic extract of broccoli and Brussels sprouts residues showed the highest DPPH· scavenging activity (IC50 = 15.39 and 18.64 µg/ml). The …

Accurately Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder Among A Comorbid Population, Michelle Okolita

Dissertations

Two of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are diagnosed in early childhood. The two disorders share similar impairments across domains, are highly comorbid, and have many overlapping symptoms. Studies have shown that among this comorbid population, children receive an ASD diagnosis a few years after their initial ADHD diagnosis, which leads to many negative consequences, including a delay in treatment. The focus in this study was on the early indicators of ASD that are present prior to the age of 3 years in order to educate others on these symptoms. In an …

The Relationship Between The Next Generation Content Area Reading Professional Development Program On The Effectiveness Of Teaching Literacy Strategies In High School Biology Classes, Tia Pridgen Brown

Dissertations

The need for effective content area reading teachers have continued to increase since the introduction of one public school districts’ Content Area Reading Professional Development (CAR-PD) in 2006. In 2011, modifications were made to improve the program, and it became known as the Next Generation Content Area Reading Professional Development (NGCAR-PD). The purpose of this program evaluation is to investigate the relationship between NGCAR-PD certified Biology teachers and their ability to implement reading strategies with science content effectively. The context of this inquiry is a mid-sized public school district that has implemented the program since 2006 at the middle and …

Fostering Resilience: A Pilot Study For Mindful Yoga As An Intervention For Adolescents Exposed To Chronic Adversity, Michele Pinellas

Dissertations

The effects of ongoing stress can cause chronic affect dysregulation, destructive behavior against self and others, learning disabilities, dissociative problems, somatization, and distortions in concepts about self and others (Bessel van der Kolk, 1994, p. 259). There may be particular benefits for youth who live in urban, underserved populations as they have experienced social challenges such as poverty, violence, drugs, racism, and immigration. Given the historical tendency of youth to express their emotions externally as a coping strategy, there is rationale to support a physically based treatment, like yoga, as an intervention for this population (Beltran et al., 2016). This …

Culturally Responsive Teaching And Learning For Success, Fred A. Hunter

Dissertations

The enduring gap between White and Black student achievement has challenged our educational systems for decades. This study evaluates an instructional pedagogy that values and embraces students’ culture and experiences. Participants in this study include one teacher trained to implement culturally relevant instruction, her middle school students, and teacher leaders at the school where I served as principal during the time of the study.

The results of this study reveal the positive impact that a culturally relevant teacher yields for students and teacher. Students receiving an affirming instructional pedagogy benefit from improved academic outcomes. Teachers embracing this method of teaching …

Inversion Modeling Of Japonica Rice Canopy Chlorophyll Content With Uav Hyperspectral Remote Sensing, Yingli Cao, Kailun Jiang, Jingxian Wu, Fenghua Yu, Wen Du, Tongyu Xu

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Chlorophyll content is an important indicator of the growth status of japonica rice. The objective of this paper is to develop an inversion model that can predict japonica rice chlorophyll content by using hyperspectral image of rice canopy collected with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). UAV-based hyperspectral remote sensing can provide timely and cost-effective monitoring of chlorophyll content over a large region. The study was based on hyperspectral data collected at the Shenyang Agricultural College Academician Japonica Rice Experimental Base in 2018 and 2019. In order to extract the salient information embedded in the high-dimensional hyperspectral data, we first perform dimension …

Describing The Dress Of Women: Author’S Notes On The Development Of Gender, Cassandra B. Tan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis is an examination of how authors of the late Victorian and early Twentieth Century describe the embodied and mental effects of the nature of women’s clothing through works of fiction and nonfiction. Through this analysis, I argue that clothing serves as a mechanism to oppress women by eliminating concrete and philosophical access to wealth and necessities as well as by instigating acts of violence upon a developing body through stricture and hygiene. I examine the ways that feminine dress, from youth through adulthood, shapes the way women view themselves, and in turn has a reciprocal effect on how …

A Study Of Police Officers With Military Service Backgrounds Compared To Police Officers Without Military Service: Can Military Veterans Interact And Properly Engage The Public?, John F. Hussey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research was to determine if police officers with military experience are less likely to receive civilian complaints for use of force and unprofessional behavior than police officers without military experience. The research consisted of eight research questions that the dissertation attempted to answer. From these eight research questions, three hypotheses were established. To facilitate the research a mixed-methods approach was utilized to compare whether police officers with military experience accrued more or less civilian complaints than police officers without military experience. The initial portion of the dissertation utilized quantitative data collected from three police departments in …

Rewriting The Oeuvre: Raymond Queneau And The Art Of Translation, Christopher Clarke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While the literary oeuvre of French author Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) has been extensively studied, his work as a literary translator has been largely overlooked. Queneau was a prominent member of the French literary avant-garde, but also a literary translator for two decades (1934-1953), and his writing was greatly influenced and impacted by his readings and translations of Anglophone writers. This dissertation provides insight into the role of translation in his conception of writing and language, and the inseparability of the different facets of his career as a writer, literary translator, and publisher. I examine his personal linguistic and literary history …

Integrating Affect Perception Tasks From The New York Emotion Battery Into A Comprehensive Measure Of Neuropsychological Change Across The Lifespan, Melinda A. Cornwell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: The ability to perceive others’ emotions is a vital skill for social competency, impacting the success of personal and professional relationships (Brinton & Fujiki, 2011; Cassidy et al., 1992; Côté & Miners, 2006). According to Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST; Carstensen, 1991), human motivation develops to become more discerning in choosing milieus that yield the most gratifying return on the investment of personal resources (e.g., time, attention, and effort), perhaps explaining why some research findings indicate that older adults may demonstrate an affect perception (AP) bias described as a positivity effect (Reed et al., 2014). Moreover, AP predicts cognitive and …

Applying A Systems Approach To The Legacy Of Lead In Soil, Sara Perl Egendorf

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lead (Pb) in soil is a global environmental issue. The particularly high lead concentrations found in surface soils have been emplaced by humans and bring with them life-altering and life-shortening effects for our species and countless others. While much of the general population is unaware of lead lurking in our soils, scientists from a range of backgrounds have generated a body of research documenting this ubiquitous phenomenon, arising from sources such as lead in gasoline, paint, industry, and incineration. Scientists have also explored ways to remediate soil and continue calling for efforts to limit toxicant exposure. Why, then, does this …

Memory For Episodic Details Of Naturalistic Events Remains Stable Over The Course Of One Week, Kennedy E. Stomberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We have many experiences every day, and we tend to parse them into individual events. While many studies have been conducted to understand the nature of event segmentation, less is known how event memories change over time. In the present study, participants watched a movie clip, and then were asked to immediately retell what they had seen. They performed the same free recall task a week later. We found that the passage of time did not significantly affect the number of recalled events or the detailedness of event memories. We discuss potential explanations for our findings, including our small sample …

The Temporal Dynamics Of Ensemble Perception, Michael L. Epstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The striking disparity between the subjective richness of experience and the considerable limitations of perceptual processing has emerged as an essential, enduring question in both vision science and philosophy of mind. A potential solution to this issue is ensemble perception: the ability for the visual system to compute the statistical summaries of object groups, effectively compressing an otherwise overwhelming amount of information. Previous work has supported that ensemble statistics can be perceived quickly and accurately for a wide range of object features. This has motivated models of ensemble perception as an early process in vision, providing an initial sense of …

Structural And Functional Brain Markers Of Trauma-Related Symptoms, Glenn Blessington

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The neurocircuitry model of posttraumatic stress disorder suggests an association between trauma-related symptoms and abnormalities in the structure and function of limbic and prefrontal brain regions. Evidence also suggests that these structural and functional abnormalities are related. We tested the relation between whole brain white matter integrity, resting-state functional connectivity of a fronto-limbic network, and trauma-related symptoms in 22 trauma-exposed women. We hypothesized that components of whole brain white matter would correlate with components of resting connectivity within a fronto-limbic network. We used parallel independent component analysis (pICA) to test the associations between whole brain fractional anisotropy (FA) maps and …

Emotion In Mind, Kathryn E. Pendoley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Emotions consume our thoughts and drive our actions. If you had different emotions, or no emotions at all, the way you move in the world and understand your place in it would be completely different. We need a satisfactory theory of emotion for a complete science of the mind. In this dissertation, I consider two of the most compelling theories of emotion: broad perceptualism – the view that emotions either are themselves perceptual or include a perceptual aspect as at least a part – and constructionism – the theory that emotions are self-interpretive thoughts. I find that perceptualist thinking fails …

The Emergence Of Ecosystems-Based Fisheries Management From The Groundfish Crisis In New England: An Actor-Network Theory Analysis, Catherine King

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research investigates the emergence of ecosystems-based fisheries management (EBFM) for New England's marine fisheries in the context of the "crisis" that is escalating in its groundfish fishery. Close observations of the practices of fisheries scientists in coordination with managers at the New England Fisheries Management Council, with focus on how knowledge is being produced and employed, allows for understanding EBFM as an emergent construction produced by networks of associations between actants, human and non-human, material and semiotic, and not strictly as a policy prescription informed by experts on biology, ecology, and socio-economics. This analysis identifies and elucidates the multiplicity …

Machine Learning Applications For Drug Repurposing, Hansaim Lim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The cost of bringing a drug to market is astounding and the failure rate is intimidating. Drug discovery has been of limited success under the conventional reductionist model of one-drug-one-gene-one-disease paradigm, where a single disease-associated gene is identified and a molecular binder to the specific target is subsequently designed. Under the simplistic paradigm of drug discovery, a drug molecule is assumed to interact only with the intended on-target. However, small molecular drugs often interact with multiple targets, and those off-target interactions are not considered under the conventional paradigm. As a result, drug-induced side effects and adverse reactions are often neglected …

Gender Differences In Personality: An Item-Level Analysis, Casey C. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Personality is a social and organizational construct with a substantial history and discourse. One particular area in personality that is of interest is gender differences in personality. Gender differences have been found on scales measuring various aspects of personality, such as narcissism (Grijalva et al., 2014). While there are differences present in personality data, there hasn’t been a consistent explanation for why this occurs. This research looked specifically at the construction of personality items to begin to understand the differences in personality by gender. While social roles and social context are mostly referenced to inform the response patterns of men …

Role Of Influence In Complex Networks, Nur Dean

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Game theory is a wide ranging research area; that has attracted researchers from various fields. Scientists have been using game theory to understand the evolution of cooperation in complex networks. However, there is limited research that considers the structure and connectivity patterns in networks, which create heterogeneity among nodes. For example, due to the complex ways most networks are formed, it is common to have some highly “social” nodes, while others are highly isolated. This heterogeneity is measured through metrics referred to as “centrality” of nodes. Thus, the more “social” nodes tend to also have higher centrality.

In this thesis, …

Rehabilitative Movement Approaches And Dance Interventions In Parkinson’S Disease, Cecilia Fontanesi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The scope of this work is to address the functional deficits and symptoms experienced by those living with Parkinson’s Disease through movement interventions.

Chapter 1 offers a brief overview of current pharmacotherapy and rehabilitation approaches in Parkinson’s, focusing on dance in particular as a movement intervention that may be particularly suited to this population.

Chapter 2 focuses on brain plasticity and motor learning in PD, reporting the effects of rTMS applied after the acquisition of a motor skill. In this study, adaptation tested in patients with PD was comparable in the sham and TMS sessions, while retention indices tested on …

Black Parental Involvement In A Suburban School District, Walter L. Fields

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the historic decision of the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Black parents in the United States have been in a continual search for public school districts in which their children would receive an education that would allow them to be productive citizens and economically self-sufficient. From the period of the Great Migration to present day, the movement of Blacks in America has been driven by a quest for opportunity. Black parents have made tremendous sacrifices in the hope of securing a good education for their children, including movement away from families, longtime …

The Role Of Mentalized Affectivity In Romantic Love And Relationship Satisfaction, Camilla P. Hegsted

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction: The role that mentalized affectivity plays in the relationship between romance love and relationship satisfaction was investigated. Methods: 504 participants completed three measures: Mentalized Affectivity Scale, Adapted Triangular Love Scale, and the Relationship Assessment Scale. Results: A number of relationships among the variables was found. However, the processing variable of mentalized affectivity did not moderate the relationship between the intimacy and relationship satisfaction variables. Conclusion: Possible reasons for this finding are discussed. Results show the importance of modulating ability on romantic relationships: being better skilled at modulating one’s affects and emotions predicts greater intimacy levels in relationships as well …

Locke’S Rebellious Progeny: Phenomenology And Ethics Of Leopardi’S A-Dialectical Materialism, Paolo Pellecchia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With this study I reconstruct a genealogy of the a-dialectic materialism that defines the production of 19^th-century Italian author Giacomo Leopardi and with which he criticizes canonical metaphysical stances. In this regard, I consider John Locke as the first instance of a philosophical outlook that stands as an alternative to the anthropocentrism demanded by traditional metaphysics. By focusing on An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and its significant influence on Leopardi’s philosophical and aesthetic work, I emphasize how Locke’s system finds a synthetic formulation in the hypothesis, at the time highly contested yet groundbreaking, that matter might be endowed …

Affect, Behavior And (Dys)Regulation: Integrating Youth's Projective Tests And Self-Reports, Laurel Wright

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Past and current research indicates that unconscious processes (e.g., outside the realm of conscious awareness) contribute to aspects of adaptation and development, such as emotion regulation, adaptability, interpersonal flexibility and overall identity formation. Further, unconscious processes including: Defense Mechanisms (DMs), Affect Maturity (AM) and Object Relations (OR), can be operationalized and scored using valid and reliable psychodynamic instruments (e.g., Rorschach Inkblot Method), with theoretical and empirical links to underlying emotion regulation processes. Currently however, emotional dysregulation and its sequelae (e.g.,depression and ADHD symptoms) are most often assessed based on one’s conscious awareness, using standardized self-report measures or structured clinical interviews. …

Developmental Predictors Of Adolescent Mental Health Stigma And A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Of "Ending The Silence" In New York City, Joseph S. Deluca

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explored predictors of mental health stigma among adolescents and the effectiveness of a school-based mental health stigma reduction and health promotion program, “Ending the Silence” (ETS), developed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Youth mental health service use is impacted by many factors, but concern about stigma and low mental health knowledge have been consistently identified as leading barriers to help-seeking. Beyond education and contact program components, existing research on how to design a successful adolescent stigma reduction intervention has been inconclusive. A diverse sample of 206 high school students in New York City participated in the …

Energy Metabolism In Jersey Cows: Improving Our Understanding Of Energy Requirements And Utilization, Dennis Morris

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Energy is the most limiting nutrient for high producing lactating dairy cows and improving our understand of factors affecting energy supply should improve our ability to estimate net energy of lactation (NE_L), milk production, and tissue accretion. To achieve this object, firstly, three experiments were completed to determine 1) maintenance energy requirements; 2) factors affecting heat production; and 3) the relationship between urinary N and energy excretion. Three additional experiments using lactating Jersey cows were completed to evaluate energy utilization of diets varying in 1) supply of Lys and His; 2) fatty acids (FA) and …

Editorial Special Issue: Plant Interactions With Microbes And Environment, Dhirendra Kumar, Sushma Naithani

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Zerofly® Hermetic Storage Bags For Protection Of Maize Against Insect Pests In Ghana, Augustine Bosomtwe, Enoch Adjei Osekre, Georgina Bingham, George Opit

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

High post-harvest loss of maize due to stored product insect pests remains a food security challenge in Ghana. This field study evaluated the effectiveness of a novel technology, ZeroFly® Hermetic storage bags with different inner liners, to protect maize against infestation by Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky and Prostephanus truncatus Horn. The study was carried out in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, during the period September 2017 to March 2018. Maize pre-fumigated with Phostoxin® was stored in 50-kg ZeroFly® Hermetic storage bags. Experimental treatments were 20-μm High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) inner liner …

Investigating The Association Between Motor Function, Neuroinflammation, And Recording Metrics In The Performance Of Intracortical Microelectrode Implanted In Motor Cortex, Youjun Li, Monika Goss-Varley, Youjoung Kim, Seth M. Meade, Keying Chen, Jacob M. Rayyan, He Feng, Keith R. Dona, Justin A, Mcmahon, Dawn M. Taylor, Jeffrey R. Capadona

Faculty Scholarship

Long-term reliability of intracortical microelectrodes remains a challenge for increased acceptance and deployment. There are conflicting reports comparing measurements associated with recording quality with postmortem histology, in attempts to better understand failure of intracortical microelectrodes (IMEs). Our group has recently introduced the assessment of motor behavior tasks as another metric to evaluate the effects of IME implantation. We hypothesized that adding the third dimension to our analysis, functional behavior testing, could provide substantial insight on the health of the tissue, success of surgery/implantation, and the long-term performance of the implanted device. Here we present our novel analysis scheme including: (1) …