An Experimental and Theoretical Study of The Effect of Temperature on The Mechanical Behavior of Nanoclay Reinforced Polymers
Year of Dissertation:
2012
The goals of this study are to investigate the tensile loading and low velocity impact response of nanoclay reinforced polymers at various temperatures. Three types of polypropylene (PP 3371, Borealis and TP 3868) and epoxy with various nanoclay reinforcement percentages were considered. Tensile tests were conducted on ASTM Type I specimens instrumented with strain gauges using an MTS testing machine equipped with an environmental chamber. Low velocity impact tests were also performed using an Instron-Dynatup 8250 impact test machine equipped with an environmental chamber. Tensile test results were used to determine the effect of nanoclay reinforcement and different resins on the mechanical properties at various temperatures.
Composing with circles, spirals, and lines of fifths: Harmony and voice leading in the music of Nicolai Roslavets
Year of Dissertation:
2009
This dissertation proposes a new theoretical framework for the analysis of works of an important early twentieth-century Soviet composer Nicolai Roslavets. Roslavets was one of the few composers from his generation to develop his own unique compositional style. Although he welcomed the Russian revolution of 1917 and later held important political, professional, and social positions in Soviet society, in the 1930s he fell a victim to Stalinist cultural campaigns to eliminate all radical activity from Soviet art. Consequently, Roslavets lost his high positions in Soviet society and his name was erased from history books. It was not until the early 1980s that efforts were made both in Russia and the West to revive his name and analyze his music.
Landscape Aesthetics and the Sublime in France, 1748-1830
Year of Dissertation:
2013
Advisor:
Patricia Mainardi
This dissertation examines the expression of the sublime in French painting between the years 1748 and 1830, a period spanning ancien régime, Revolution, Terror, Directory, First French Empire, and Bourbon Restoration. It reveals the existence and persistence of a grand classical strain of the sublime derived from Longinus's first century On the Sublime that was passed into the eighteenth century by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux's 1674 French translation, Traité du sublime [Treatise on the Sublime]. These works stress noble greatness and elevation more than the fear and terror more commonly associated during this period with the sublime as articulated by Edmund Burke in his 1757 A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.
Normal Families and Mondromies of Holomorphic Motions
Year of Dissertation:
2012
We explore some generalizations of results in holomorphic motions that result from Earle's infinite-dimensional generalization of Montel's Theorem. We then investigate topological obstructions to extending holomorphic motions. We finish with some miscellaneous facts.
Effects of Group Parent-Training with Online Parent-Teacher Communication on the Homework Performance of Elementary School Students
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Program:
Educational Psychology
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the Homework Improvement Program, a 5-week group-formatted parent training program, in enhancing the homework performance of children experiencing homework difficulties. The study was conducted in an elementary school with a sample consisting of the parents of seven students (N=7) in grades 5 and 6 who were experiencing significant homework difficulties. In accordance with the Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC) model which emphasizes the importance of home-school communication, online Electronic Daily Report Card (EDRC) software was developed as a component of the program through which parents were provided a direct avenue of communication with their child's teacher. The EDRC attempted to address limitations of previously developed home-school communication methods, while maximizing efficiency, and minimizing teacher obligation. It was also designed to be user-friendly for parents. The EDRC informed parents of their child's homework assignments, instructions, and teacher expectations on a daily basis. It also served as a data collection tool through which parents could be provided with regular feedback regarding their child's progress through the program.
The Volatile American Voter: Inconsistent Voting Behavior in the United States, 1948-2004
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Political Science
This dissertation is a study of the political behavior, demographics, and attitudes of Americans who have been inconsistent in party choice, turnout, or both in presidential elections from 1948 to 2004. Most prior scholarship has indicated that these individuals, who play a pivotal role in electoral outcomes, have comprised a minority of the American electorate. The analyses presented here, however, reveal that these "volatile" voters have, from 1948 to 2004, comprised between 50.5 and 60.7 percent of the voting public. Volatile voters are, overall, less likely to be politically sophisticated than party-loyal voters. But the aggregation of all volatile voters into one group when assessing their levels of political aptitude and engagement obscures the fact that volatile sophisticates are plentiful in the United States, and have comprised between 18.1 and 27.0 percent of the electorate since the 1948 - a segment that is decisively large. The large distribution of volatile sophisticates, and volatile voters overall, provides support for the notion that voter engagement with political issues regularly overcomes the habitual party affinities of a substantial fraction of the American public, and that issues indeed matter to voters, most of whom engage them and act upon them in a reasoning manner. I additionally provide evidence, contrary to the findings in much voting and elections literature, that volatile voters can be reliably identified and quantified using sociological measures.
Cyclic Pitch Organization in the Twelve-Tone Works of Aaron Copland
Year of Dissertation:
2013
Abstract
Population Genetics of Canine Heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis)
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Dirofilaria immitis, canine heartworm, is a filarial nematode that may have genetic features that favor the development of drug resistance, including rapid rates of mutation, large population sizes, and high levels of gene flow. This parasite is currently treated with macrocyclic lactone anthelminthics, and while it has not yet shown evidence for evolving resistance to these chemotherapeutic compounds, resistance has evolved in related filarial nematodes infecting ruminants and humans. Heartworm samples from domestic dogs and coyotes were obtained via donations from veterinarians and researchers across the United States. I isolated and characterized 11 microsatellite loci for canine heartworm. Using the observed distribution of alleles, I determined the amount of genetic variability and quantified the partitioning of genetic variance. In conjunction with microsatellite data, specific mitochondrial (cox1) and Wolbachia (wsp and ftsZ) loci were used to genotype a subset of host taxa. Results indicate a lack of mitochondrial diversity and maximum likelihood trees show no discernable geographic patterning on a continental scale. This is not unexpected in a Wolbachia-infected organism like D. immitis as this bacterium has been shown to purge mitochondrial diversity in numerous model systems. After establishing baseline genetic parameters, a model of population dynamics was created to answer questions about the potential spread of drug resistance alleles. In the absence of selection, gene flow between subpopulations drives the dispersal of drug resistance alleles. Fixation time is directly proportional to selection pressure. When resistance alleles arise in a source population they spread more rapidly than if they arise in a sequestered population.
Modern Time: Photography and Temporality
Year of Dissertation:
2010
This dissertation explores the fluid relationship of photography to time. Many theorists have noted that photography has a distinctive manner of representing temporality. Roland Barthes, for example, wrote that the photograph has a peculiar capacity to represent the past in the present, and thus to imply the passing of time in general. As a consequence, Barthes argued, all photographs speak of the inevitability of our own death in the future. Moreover, he linked photography's peculiar temporality to its capacity for a certain kind of realism: "false on the level of perception, true on the level of time." Barthes's analysis poses a challenge to all commentators on photography - what exactly is photography's relationship to time, and by extension, to reality?
Fostering Adolescents: A Foster Parent Perspective on Raising Adolescents
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Advisor:
Dr. Harriet Goodman
Abstract