Digital Commons Network^™

Nutrient And Organic Carbon Losses By Erosion, And Their Economic And Environmental Implications In The Drylands Of Kenya, Nathan O. Oduor, Monicah Mucheru-Muna, Jayne N. Mugwe, Isaya Sijali, George Nyabuga, Daniel N. Mugendi

Graduate School of Media and Communications

Erosion causes soil nutrients and financial losses, and negatively impacts the environment. We sought to assess the effects of integrated soil fertility and soil & water management practices on nutrient losses, their equivalent economic losses, and environmental disturbance in the drylands of Tharaka-Nithi County. An experiment was set in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Six treatments implemented included manure + fertilizer + tied ridging under 120 kg ha−1 and 30 kg ha−1 nitrogen (N) application rate, manure + fertilizer + minimum tillage with crop residue mulch under 120 N kg ha−1 and 30 N kg ha−1, Managing …

Sex-Specific Effects Of Hatching Order On Nestling Baseline Corticosterone In A Wild Songbird, Madison A. Rittinger, Rachel M. Bowden, Logan A. Sauers, Ryan T. Paitz, Christine J. Poppe, Charles F. Thompson, Scott K. Sakaluk

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Variation in nestling growth and survival is often influenced by hatching order, with first-hatched offspring having an advantage over later-hatched younger siblings. In house wrens (Troglodytes aedon), this effect of hatching order is especially evident in asynchronously hatched broods and can lead to sex-specific differences in the size and condition of nestlings. Females appear to allocate the sex of their offspring across the laying order to capitalize on these differences. We hypothesized that levels of circulating corticosterone, the primary metabolic hormone in birds, mediates these sex-specific effects in nestlings. We predicted that: i) baseline levels of corticosterone in nestlings should …

Genome-Wide Identification, Expression Pattern And Sequence Variation Analysis Of Snrk Family Genes In Barley, Jiangyan Xiong, Danyi Chen, Tingting Su, Qiufang Shen, Dezhi Wu, Guoping Zhang

Publications

Sucrose non-fermenting 1 (SNF1)-related protein kinase (SnRK) is a large family of protein kinases that play a significant role in plant stress responses. Although intensive studies have been conducted on SnRK members in some crops, little is known about the SnRK in barley. Using phylogenetic and conserved motif analyses, we discovered 46 SnRK members scattered across barley's 7 chromosomes and classified them into 3 sub-families. The gene structures of HvSnRKs showed the divergence among three subfamilies. Gene duplication and synteny analyses on the genomes of barley and rice revealed the evolutionary features of HvSnRKs. The promoter regions of HvSnRK family …

Remote Vascular Interventional Surgery Robotics: A Literature Review, Yang Zhao, Ziyang Mei, Xiaoxiao Luo, Jingsong Mao, Qingliang Zhao, Gang Liu, Dezhi Wu

Publications

Vascular interventional doctors are exposed to radiation hazards during surgery and endure high work intensity. Remote vascular interventional surgery robotics is a hot research field, in which researchers aim to not only protect the health of interventional doctors, but to also improve surgical accuracy and efficiency. However, the current vascular interventional robots have numerous shortcomings, such as poor haptic feedback, few compatible surgeries and instruments, and cumbersome maintenance and operational procedures. Nevertheless, vascular interventional surgery combined with robotics provides more cutting-edge directions, such as Internet remote surgery combined with 5G network technology and the application of artificial intelligence in surgical …

Angel Babies Ascending To Heaven A Family Saga Of Death Across Cultures, Heidi Riboldi

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis is a microhistory focused on infant death and burial practices in Spain and Argentina at the turn of the twentieth century. The study uses primary sources from biographical journal pages, vital records, and notarial documents. The biographical journal pages are eleven loose pages written by Pablo Montaña that provide information about his family's births, marriages, and deaths, for four generations. Vital records for birth, marriage, and death events were found in the local parish and municipal archives in Cañizo, Spain, and the Catholic Diocese Archive in Zamora, Spain, Archivo Histórico Diocesano de Zamora. Notarial records like wills …

The Troubled Teen Industry And Its Effects: An Oral History, C. Jamie Mater

Inquiry Journal Spring 2022

In 2021, I received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) to study the effects of the system I lived in from ages 13 to 16: the troubled teen industry. The troubled teen industry (TTI) consists of thousands of underregulated residential youth treatment facilities. These treatment facilities operate on a for-profit basis and trace their origins back to the 1958 cult Synanon. Many cases of abuse have been reported about these facilities, including deaths. Adolescents are sent into the TTI for anything from truancy to depression to drug addiction. My research focused on gaining first-hand insight into people’s experiences surrounding one …

The Presence Of 17-Beta Estradiol, 17-Alpha Ethinyl Estradiol, And Estrone In Wastewater Treatment: Navigating Unanticipated Results, Alexis Eaton

Inquiry Journal Spring 2022

In 2021, I participated in the Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program (REAP) under the guidance of Dr. Paula Mouser of UNH’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. I researched the fate and transport of several estrogenic compounds in a Connecticut wastewater treatment facility. The popularity of oral contraceptives has led to an increase in hormonal contaminants in surface water bodies. Estradiols and ethinyl estradiols, the two estrogenic compounds that I intended to study, can negatively impact the development of reproductive organs in male fish, such as reducing testes size as well as lowering sperm count. Municipal wastewater treatment plant discharge …

Behind The Scenes: Turtle Trapping And Connectivity Mapping For Endangered Blanding’S Turtle Conservation In Southern New Hampshire, Maeve Kelley

Inquiry Journal Spring 2022

Freshwater turtles are experiencing dramatic population declines due to human-caused stressors. Roads, in particular, have significantly increased turtle mortality rates through vehicle collisions. The Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) is state endangered in New Hampshire and is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Blanding’s turtles are especially vulnerable to population declines because they reproduce late in life and their young have low survival rates. Adult Blanding’s turtles migrate from ponds to upland habitats to nest and hatchlings must later travel across the landscape to reach ponds. These overland movements increase the risk of …

In-Lieu Fee Program Case Studies: Lessons Learned For Potentially Expanding In-Lieu Fee Habitat Coverage In Virginia, Erika Bosack, Luke Miller

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

This white paper contains case studies of coastal ILF [in-lieu fee] programs across the United States: Maine Natural Resources Conservation Program (“MNRCP”), Northwest Florida Water Management District (“NWFWMD”) ILF Program, Keys Restoration Fund (“KRF”), Sacramento District California ILF Program, Maryland Department of the Environment ILF Program, and Virginia Aquatic Resources Trust Fund (“VARTF”). The Conclusion will provide general recommendations and questions to consider in deciding whether and how to implement an in-lieu fee program for wildlife habitats in Virginia. Each program has a unique regulatory structure and method for selecting projects on which to spend their funds. The programs do …

Queering Pina Bausch: Tanztheater For Queer Bipoc Artists, Lu Chen

Theatre and Dance Honors Projects

Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater (“dance-theater” in English) revolutionized global dance theater performance. From a feminist perspective, Bausch mixed movement with theatrical design elements and film techniques to express emotions and sentiments of women-men relationships, and the boundary between performing and being displayed. Inspired by German Expressionist Dance and post-World-War-II avant-garde movements across Europe and the United States, her movement language and text were visceral in expressiveness through repetition, alienation, montage technique, and emotive gestures (Helden 134). In this essay I explore how Bausch’s approach to dance-theater can welcome dancers who stand outside of the German choreographer’s identity as a white European …

2022 Spring Newsletter, Morehead State University. Nursing Department.

Nursing Department Publications Archive

2022 Spring Newsletter of the Department of Nursing at Morehead State University.

Wet Detention Pond Phosphorus Cycling Dynamics: Evaluation Of Pond Performance And Application Of The General Lake Model, Caitlin Lulay

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Anthropogenic activities degrade surface water quality by increasing nutrient input to the watershed which is transported via stormwater runoff and accumulated in waterbodies leading to eutrophication. Wet detention ponds are a means of mitigating the impacts of these non-point source pollutants, such as phosphorus (P), through treatment mechanisms such as sediment settling and biological uptake. While these wet detention ponds are designed to serve as P sinks, they have the potential to serve as P sources as well due to release mechanisms such as sediment resuspension and algal decay. Many existing models used in the design and performance evaluation of …

Edge-Chipping And Translucency Comparison Among Lithium Silicate-Based Ceramics, Essa Abdullah Alghamdi

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Purpose: The purpose of this in vitro study was to determine the edge-chipping toughness and the translucency of lithium silicate-based glass ceramics. Materials and Methods: Four lithium silicate/disilicate glass-ceramic materials, IPS e.max CAD and GC Initial LiSi blocks, and two zirconia-lithium silicate glass-ceramic materials, Vita Suprinity and Celtra Duo, were prepared and tested (n=20 specimens/group). Specimens (14 x 12 x 1.5 mm) were sectioned from commercially available chairside computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) blocks, fired (if indicated), ground, and polished. Translucency was assessed via a spectrophotometer for each group. For edge chipping, specimens were adhered to a resin bed created in …

Improving Antibiotic Durations For Skin And Soft Tissue Infections In Pediatric Urgent Care Clinics, Megan Hamner, Amanda Nedved, Holly Austin, Donna Wyly, Alaina N. Burns, Brian Lee, Rana El Feghaly

Presentations

Background: Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are the second most common diagnosis leading to pediatric antibiotic prescriptions in the outpatient setting after respiratory diagnoses. However, most antibiotic stewardship programs have mainly focused on respiratory diagnoses. Children seen in the ambulatory setting for SSTIs often receive >7 days of antibiotics, although current society guidelines recommend 5-7 days for most diagnoses. Objective: To increase the percentage of patients receiving 5-7 days of oral antibiotics for SSTIs from 58% to 75% by December 31st, 2021, in pediatric urgent care clinics (UCCs). Design/Methods: We formed a multidisciplinary team in April 2020. We completed …

The Rise Of An Eco-Spiritual Imaginary: Ecology And Spirituality As Decolonial Protest In Contemporary Multi-Ethnic American Literature, Andrew Michael Spencer

English Theses and Dissertations

The Rise of an Eco-Spiritual Imaginary reveals a shared ecological aesthetic among contemporary U.S. ethnic writers whose novels communicate a decolonial spiritual reverence for the earth. This shared narrative focus challenges white settler colonial mythologies of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism to instantiate new ways of imagining community across socially constructed boundaries of time, space, nation, race, and species. The eco-spiritual imaginary—by which I mean a shared reverence for the ecological interconnection between all living beings—articulates a common biological origin and sacredness of all life that transcends racial difference while remaining grounded in local ethnicities and bioregions. The novelists representing …

The Importance Of Wetlands And Creating Policy To Protect Wetlands In Georgetown County Goal 14, Daniel O'Hara

Goal 14: Life Below Water

No abstract provided.

Murrells Inlet 2020: Building A Sustainable Future. 2023 Report, Jessica Aponte

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

No abstract provided.

“Whenever We Crossed A Mountain / On This Earth, Yet Another One Appeared”: Circumstantial Poetry In ʿAbd Al-Ghanī Al-Nābulusī’S (D. 1143/1731) Travelogues, Tom J. Abi Samra

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

This essay identifies an early modern aesthetic that mobilizes the mundane to make a point about the world or the grandiose. Through a close reading of the poetry in the travelogues of the 17th-century Ottoman Damascene scholar ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (d. 1143/1731), this essay identifies, theorizes, and historicizes early modern Arabic circumstantial verse—what the 19th-century French poet Stéphane Mallarmé calls vers de circonstance. By drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the “chronotope,” this essay shows how the poetry in Nābulusī’s travelogues fits within, and sometimes advances, their linear narrative. If poetry is expected to transcend the chronotope in which …

“For Now We See In A Mirror, Dimly”: Dialectical Wholeness In Oshii Mamoru’S Ghost In The Shell, Mari Aida

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

This essay argues that Oshii Mamoru's 1995 animated film Ghost in the Shell, while indicating possible alliances with the political interests of cyberfeminism, ultimately advocates for the oppositional agenda of dialectical wholeness. Foundational texts of cyberfeminism, such as Donna J. Haraway's "A Manifesto for Cyborgs," have criticized narratives of isolation and a return towards a primordial wholeness implicit in Euro-American scientific culture. In the context of these texts, the cyborg symbolizes a departure from such narratives and guides the political project of reimagining epistemological boundaries. However, despite its apparent alignment with such projects, Ghost in the Shell dramatizes and …

The Idyllic Houses Of Collective Trauma Reading Home And World War Ii In Ian Mcewan’S Atonement And Jenny Erpenbeck’S Heimsuchung, Victoria Wirtz

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

This essay investigates the themes of home, homeland and belonging in Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Jenny Erpenbeck’s Heimsuchung. Both works encourage critical reflection on the nostalgia for Home, in exposing that the idea of such is all too often based on an ideological concept and social exclusion. Using Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the ‘Idyllic Chronotope', I identify the houses of both narratives as spaces that allow for the uncorrupted preservation of their families' values and traditions. However, as the concept of ‘home’ is embedded in their owners’ belief in national supremacy, their residencies are revealed as realms of collective, social …

Essential Oil Yield, Composition, And Bioactivity Of Sagebrush Species In The Bighorn Mountains, Valtcho D. Zheljazkov, Charles L. Cantrell, Ekaterina A. Jeliazkova, Tess Astatkie, Vicki Schlegel

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) are dominant wild plants in large areas of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and they include several species and subspecies. The aim was to determine if there are significant differences in essential oil (EO) yield, composition, and biological activity of sagebrush within the Bighorn Mountains, U.S. The EO yield in fresh herbage varied from 0.15 to 1.69% for all species, including 0.25–1.69% in A. tridentata var. vaseyana, 0.64–1.44% in A. tridentata var. tridentata, 1% in A. tridentata var. wyomingensis, 0.8–1.2% in A. longifolia, 0.8–1% in A. cana, and 0.16% in A. ludoviciana. There was …

Encountering Education: Elements For A Marxist Pedagogy, Derek R. Ford

Education Studies Faculty publications

In Encountering Education, organizer and political and educational theorist Derek R. Ford develops new marxist pedagogical elements to advance the class struggle. Ford argues that the entire marxist project of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and creating a classless society entails an educational praxis that builds up disinterpellative encounters. Through an inventive reading of Marx, Althusser, Glissant, and others, they advance two dialectical pedagogical processes of inquiry and presentation, developing both--and the political relations between the two--through a range of theorists and situations. Encountering Education both illuminates the historical, political, spatial, technological, and sonic conditions of our struggle …

Ten Simple Rules To Ruin A Collaborative Environment, Carolyn J. Lawrence-Dill, Robyn L. Allscheid, Albert Boaitey, Todd Bauman, Edward S. Buckler, Jennifer L. Clarke, Christopher Cullis, Jack Dekkers, Cassandra J. Dorius, Shawn F. Dorius, David Ertl, Matthew Homann, Guiping Hu, Mary Losch, Eric Lyons, Brenda Murdoch, Zahra Katy Navabi, Somashekhar Punnuri, Fahad Rafiq, James M. Reecy, Patrick S. Schnable, Nicole M. Scott, Moira Sheehan, Xavier Sirault, Margaret Staton, Christopher K. Tuggle, Alison Van Eenennaam, Rachael Voas

Faculty Publications

Trigger warning: Here, you will find a bit of satire, written from the not-so-funny, real experiences of the authors who have been involved in “team science” collaboratives. The material presented below covers topics that readers may find offensive or even traumatizing. We present a breakdown (pun intended) of how to ruin a functioning collaboration, rather than how to build one.

The ideas contained in this work were developed during two virtual meetings of members of the Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI; www.ag2pi.org) community and leadership team in May and June of 2021. In these sessions, we looked back …

Contemporary Art Therapists: Study Of Identity Within Artmaking, Chelsea Cota, Essayan Hart, Jamie Lombrana, Ivan Lopez, Liz Sizemore, Susana Valdez

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This paper highlights the design and results of a research study conducted by graduate art therapy students that surveyed professional art therapists and the role that personal and clinical art making has in their practice. The study included a mixed-method approach that involved a survey of 88 graduates from art therapy programs, interviews, the creation of art by art therapists, and the creation of art responses by the graduate researchers. The researchers analyzed the data from the surveys and interviews through thematic coding and identified common themes that reflected the research questions: What is the relationship between personal art making …

Vulnerable Vegetables And Efficient Fishers: A Study Of Primary Production Food Losses And Waste In Ireland, Tracey O'Connor, Rosanna Kleeman, Jennifer Attard

Publications

From 2022, the European Union Waste Framework Directive (WFD) requires member states to report annual food waste from each food supply chain stage. Comprehensive food losses and waste (FLW) data can be challenging to obtain for the primary production stage, i.e., farming and fishing. However, this information is vital in developing FLW mitigation actions appropriate to each country. This study describes the nature and extent of FLW from primary production in Ireland, using methods approved for WFD reporting. Causes of FLW and FLW as a proportion of total production were determined through interviews with Irish primary production stakeholders and using …

The Anchor: April 2022, Hope College

The Anchor: 2022

The Anchor began in 1887 and was first issued weekly in 1914. Covering national and campus news alike, Hope College’s student-run newspaper has grown over the years to encompass over two-dozen editors, reporters, and staff. For much of The Anchor's history, the latest issue was distributed across campus each Wednesday throughout the academic school year (with few exceptions). In recent years The Anchor moved to monthly print issues and a more frequently updated website. The Anchor is now published in print twice per academic semester. Occasionally, the volume and/or issue numbering is irregular.

Eco Yoga Therapy For Mental Health Related To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Karyn Stein

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Recently the magnitude of the mental health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been emerging. Reports of anxiety or depression related to COVID-19 have been on the rise globally. Individuals have been living in a perpetual state of the unknown for over two years. Fear of the virus, sickness of oneself or family/friends and social isolation have taken a toll. According to the WHO, anxiety and depression have gone up 25% in the last year (2022). The effects of a rising mental health crisis will be drastic on top of the deaths and sickness related to COVID-19. While governments …

Hidden Christians And Non-Churches: Indigenized Christian Practices In Japan, Shayne Naoyuki Yano

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Throughout Christianity's tumultuous history in Japan, there have been several traditions which have stood independent from Western missionary churches. Two such traditions are the Kakure Kirishitan (“Hidden Christians”) and Uchimura Kanzo's Non-Church Movement. Both have interpreted Christianity in ways that make sense within their own historical and cultural contexts. Japan's Hidden Christians were forced by strict persecution to practice their faith in secret, where they developed ways to disguise their practices. Meanwhile, at the dawn of a new era of religious freedom in Japan, Uchimura Kanzo formed a new way to practice Christianity that both integrated Japanese traditions such as …

The Wheel Of Power In Hbo's Game Of Thrones, Inbar Shaham

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Maps the familial power struggles and patterns of inheritance of Westeros as depicted in the television adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series by using A.J. Griemas’s semiotic square. Applying this framework to the title logo of the series also supports this interpretation.

A Queer Atheist Feminist Autist Responds To Donald Williams's "Keystone Or Cornerstone? A Rejoinder To Verlyn Flieger On The Alleged 'Conflicting Sides' Of Tolkien's Singular Self", Robin Anne Reid

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This response traces what the author sees as significant areas of disagreement between Flieger’s essay “The Arch and the Keystone” and Williams’s rejoinder in Mythlore #139, and touches on the wider contemporary context of pushback against diverse scholarship about and readings of Tolkien’s works.

The repository PDF of this note includes an online-only supplement.