Some Results on Large Cardinals and the Continuum Function
Year of Dissertation:
2012
I prove several new relative consistency results concerning large cardinals and the continuum function.
Mural Painting and Social Change in the Colonial Andes, 1626-1830
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Advisor:
Eloise Quinones Keber
Mural painting in colonial Peru (1534-1824) grew out of both indigenous Andean and European pictorial traditions that coalesced into a hybrid art form deployed to serve a variety of functions. Unlike paintings on canvas and panel, for which there existed no precedent in the Pre-Columbian Andes, mural painting was practiced in South America for at least 2,000 years before the Spanish invasion in 1532. Murals produced in the post-conquest period retained continuity with pre-Columbian traditions in terms of their technical aspects, while their iconography and style shifted dramatically to suit the needs of the Spanish colonial enterprise. First and foremost, colonial Andean mural painting served as an important visual tool in the religious conversion of indigenous peoples by encasing the interiors of churches with didactic illustrations of Catholic doctrine. In addition to their religious aspect, however, murals also transmitted social and political values to their local communities.
Structure Determination of a Double Transmembrane Fragment of the G protein-coupled Receptor Ste2p in Membrane Mimetic Environments
Year of Dissertation:
2010
G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are relevant in cellular signal transduction pathways and are targets for disease therapeutics. Since the sequencing of the human genome, there have been close to 1000 GPCRs predicted and many have been characterized by biological and biochemical analysis. Though these integral membrane proteins (IMPs) have little sequence similarity, they show strong putative structural similarities. All GPCRs contain an N-terminal extracellular domain (NT), 7 transmembrane helical regions (TM) connected by intra- and extracellular loops (IL and EL, respectively), and a C-terminal intracellular tail (CT). The extracellular domains are thought to play a role in ligand-receptor interactions and together with the TM domains form the ligand binding site for many GPCRs.
Improving the Acquisition and Retention of Science Material by Fifth Grade Students Through the Use of Imagery Interventions
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Educational Psychology
A strong base of knowledge in vocabulary is imperative for all students as they are exposed to a great deal of novel words throughout their academic careers, especially in content areas such as science. By devising effective interventions to teach science vocabulary, literacy and science can be integrated and students' mastery of novel words will improve.
'Roman' Nation: racializing Italians (1903-1912)
Author:
Italia Colabianchi
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Advisor:
Marta Petrusewicz
`ROMAN' NATION: RACIALIZING ITALIANS (1903-1912)
Rhythmic Juggling: Tracing the Disembodied Voice of Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Productions, 1968-2009
Year of Dissertation:
2012
This dissertation is concerned with the genealogies of the disembodied voice in Richard Foreman's Ontological Hysteric Theater. Each of the first three chapters posits a genealogy in which the disembodied voice is elaborated: first by the discovery of the unconscious, the historical avant-gardes, and finally by the neo-avant-gardes that return to the disembodied voice as a device with a difference, through technology and theorization. The final chapter demonstrates that these genealogies are essential to an understanding of Foreman's uses of the disembodied voice. The final chapter divides Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric productions into four sections, which trace the particular uses of disembodied voice of each period. Each section demonstrates how the disembodied voice gives form to Foreman's intellectual and aesthetic preoccupations. The disembodied voice allows Foreman to position himself as a literary critic with his own works of art as the object of his criticism and to "echo" the abyss that is left by the voice's retreat from the body.
Dead Man's Space and the Language of Democracy on the American Frontier
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Program:
Comparative Literature
Daniel E. Colleran
The Nature and Implementation of Representation in Biological Systems
Year of Dissertation:
2009
I defend a theory of mental representation that satisfies naturalistic constraints. Briefly, we begin by distinguishing (i) what makes something a representation from (ii) given that a thing is a representation, what determines what it represents. Representations are states of biological organisms, so we should expect a unified theoretical framework for explaining both what it is to be a representation as well as what it is to be a heart or a kidney. I follow Millikan in explaining (i) in terms of teleofunction, explicated in terms of natural selection.
The Relationship of Primary Caregiver Perceptions of Language and Behavioral Levels of Children with Autism to Primary Caregiver Stress and Ratings of Family Climate
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Educational Psychology
Advisor:
Georgiana Shick Tryon
The present study explored language and behavioral levels in a sample of 85 children on the Autism Spectrum between the ages of 6 to 12 years. It also studied the relationship of these levels to the primary caregiver's ratings of parental stress and family environment. Participants were primary caregivers of children diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum. Language levels were measured by primary caregiver ratings of non verbal, pre verbal, phrase speech and verbal as defined by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS; Lord, Rutter, DiLavore & Risi, 2002). Primary Caregivers of verbal children also completed the Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006). Behavioral levels were measured as Externalizing and Internalizing by the Children's Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) completed by the primary caregivers and 71 of the children's teachers. Primary Caregivers also completed the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF; Abidin, 1995) and the Familly Environment Scale (FES; Moos & Moos, 2002) to measure primary caregiver stress and family environment respectively.
Pharmaceutical Innovation and Infant Health: Palivizumab and RSV in California
Year of Dissertation:
2010
The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of bronchiolitis and other lower respiratory diseases in infants and is also the foremost cause of hospitalizations of infants younger than one year of age. In 1998 palivizumab was approved, a drug designed to provide passive immunity against the virus for infants who have risk factors making them especially susceptible to severe RSV infections. Although the drug can never increase the likelihood of a severe RSV infection, infants who are born with well developed respiratory and immune systems receive no additional benefit from the drug, and because of the high price of the drug, with a full treatment regimen costing over $5,000 per infant, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) releases policy statements outlining which risk factors should be considered when determining if an infant will benefit from the application of palivizumab.