Alumni Dissertations

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  • "A Bird's Life": Pragmatism in the Field of Twentieth-Century American Poetry

    Author:
    Kristen Case
    Year of Dissertation:
    2009
    Program:
    English
    Advisor:
    Joan Richardson
    Abstract:

    "A BIRD'S LIFE": PRAGMATISM IN THE FIELD OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY

  • Extremist Networks and Lethality: A mapping of violent white supremacist group networks and an investigation of the relationship between network location and ideologically motivated murder

    Author:
    David Caspi
    Year of Dissertation:
    2010
    Program:
    Criminal Justice
    Advisor:
    Joshua Freilich
    Abstract:

    Empirical evidence indicates that domestic extremists in the United States pose a greater risk to the American public than international terrorism (Carlson, 1995; Hewitt, 2003; Blewas, Griggs, and Potok, 2005; LaFree, Dugan, Fogg & Scott, 2006). This dissertation attempts to further our understanding of domestic extremists by employing Social Network Analysis (SNA) methodology to investigate the network of white supremacist groups associated with - via formal members - extreme ideologically motivated violence (homicides). SNA focuses on how actors (i.e. people, organizations) are linked in patterns of interaction and the meaning of those connections. The general hypothesis of SNA is that entities, like people or groups, are interdependent, and therefore more likely to network with those who share common interests, goals, belief systems, etc. Ultimately, choices are influenced by the company one keeps (Wassserman and Faust, 2006).

  • COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF REACTIVE OXYGEN AND SULFUR SPECIES

    Author:
    Álvaro Castillo
    Year of Dissertation:
    2011
    Program:
    Chemistry
    Advisor:
    ALEXANDER GREER
    Abstract:

    In this thesis, we summarized the use of computational chemistry methods to provide insight into the chemistry of reactive intermediates species like singlet oxygen, thiozone, radical and diradicals of mercapto-quinones, and benzyl alkynyl sulfides anions. The theoretical methods used included Density Functional Theory, and hybrid [Molecular Orbital:Molecular Orbital] methods and the Conductor-like Polarizable Continuum Model for condensed phase calculations.

  • Lavanha Historiador e a Cronica Inacabada de D. Sebastiao

    Author:
    Regina Castro McGowan
    Year of Dissertation:
    2012
    Program:
    Hispanic & Luso Brazilian Literatures & Languages
    Advisor:
    Jose Miguel Martinez Torrejon
    Abstract:

    In 1618, during the Iberian Union, João Baptista Lavanha was appointed by Phillip II of Portugal as Royal Chronicler for that kingdom. Along with this prestigious position came the rather uncomfortable task of writing the first official chronicle of King Sebastian, the young monarch whose disastrous invasion of Morocco forty years earlier had cost him his own life, the lives of almost all of the country's nobility and, ultimately, Portugal's independence.

  • Sex Differences in Systemic and Central Morphine Analgesia in Rats: Organizational-Activational Gonadal Hormone Interactions and Roles of Gonadal Hormone Accumulating Nuclei

    Author:
    Giuseppe Cataldo
    Year of Dissertation:
    2010
    Program:
    Psychology
    Advisor:
    Richard Bodnar
    Abstract:

    Sex differences in morphine analgesia are commonly seen following systemic and intracerebral administration with male rats displaying greater analgesic magnitudes and potencies than females. The purpose of this dissertation research was to elucidate further possible neural mechanisms which elicit these differences. Due to its common roles in both antinociceptive and reproductive behaviors, we hypothesized that the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) is subject to sex differences upon morphine analgesia sensitive to organizational-activational manipulations of gonadal hormones as well as lesions of hypothalamic estradiol-containing nuclei. Thus, the first experiment examined the organizational manipulation of gonadal hormones and effects of adult ovariectomy or estradiol replacement and systemic morphine analgesia. To assess the generalizability of these effects, the second experiment evaluated these differences upon morphine analgesia elicited from the vlPAG as well as the interaction between organizational and activational gonadal hormone manipulations. The third experiment then evaluated the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) and the medial preoptic area (MPOA) hypothalamic estradiol-containing nuclei's contribution to and their possible role by which female rats display a smaller opiate analgesic effect.

  • Computational Studies of the Functional States Associated with Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Activation

    Author:
    Marco Cavalli
    Year of Dissertation:
    2011
    Program:
    Biochemistry
    Advisor:
    Marco Ceruso
    Abstract:

    Epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) belong to the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine

  • Does Temperament Relate to Sensory Processing Styles in 3 -to 5-year Old Preschoolers with Disabilities

    Author:
    Jeanne Cavanaugh-Todd
    Year of Dissertation:
    2010
    Program:
    Educational Psychology
    Advisor:
    Georgiana Tryon
    Abstract:

    The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between

  • Polyadenylation/Deadenylation/Tumor Suppressor Factors Regulate 3' End Processing Under Different Cellular Conditions

    Author:
    Murat Cevher
    Year of Dissertation:
    2009
    Program:
    Biochemistry
    Advisor:
    Frida Kleiman
    Abstract:

    Under DNA damaging conditions the steady-state levels of cellular mRNAs change as a result of regulation of either or both their biosynthesis and turnover. mRNA 3' end cleavage, involved in the regulation of mRNA stability, is strongly but transiently inhibited upon UV treatment. This inhibition is mediated by both the formation of the BRCA1/BARD1/CstF complex and the proteasomal-mediated degradation of RNA polymerase II (RNAP II). As CstF-50 interacts with the tumor suppressor BARD1 to inhibit 3' processing and with RNAP II to activate 3' cleavage, it has been proposed that this cleavage factor plays a coordinating role in the DNA damage response.

  • Émergences du 17 octobre 1961 dans le texte contemporain

    Author:
    Chadia Chambers-Samadi
    Year of Dissertation:
    2012
    Program:
    French
    Advisor:
    Francesca Canadé-Sautman
    Abstract:

    On October 17th 1961, a crowd of North-Africans demonstrates against a racist curfew. A decree from The Paris Chief of Police, Maurice Papon forbids the free circulation of North Africans or Arabs at dawn, at the pinnacle of the Algerian struggle for independence. Children, women and men are urged to leave their suburban ghettos and gather in Paris Intra-Muro by the the FLN (National Liberal Front), a political group claiming independence for the French Departments we now know as Algeria. The night of October 1961 is deadly and many bodies of Algerians are thrown in the "Seine" River in Paris. More than 10 000 North African civilians are arrested and gathered in suburban stadiums for days. It is unclear today how many people lost their lives to the French police brutality; the estimation varies between 6 and 300.

  • Inmate-Perpetrated Harassment: Exploring the Gender-Specific Experience of Female Correction Officers

    Author:
    Sarah Chapman
    Year of Dissertation:
    2009
    Program:
    Criminal Justice
    Advisor:
    Jayne Mooney
    Abstract:

    Perhaps no other work environment is as mysterious to non-participants as is the institute of corrections in America. Other than the officers and inmates of a correctional institution, few people understand, or even care to venture into, the dynamics of a prison or jail. Because of this disregard, many important sociological studies have failed to explore the correctional institution as a legitimate workplace. In particular, sexual harassment studies have all but neglected the correctional workplace. Nevertheless, as in any work environment, sexual harassment is a significant issue in jails and prisons, even more commonplace and more often ignored than that harassment in other workplaces. Furthermore, a significant portion of harassment against female correction officers is perpetrated, not by their coworkers, but by the inmates for whom these officers are responsible.