bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Birds and backs : a scholarly exploration of writing, performance, and body image
Authors:   , Burns Melissa Jackson
Published: April 2021

Diet culture is an intricate part of the current society in the United States, affecting countless women and girls, and men and boys. The health problems associated with dieting are major concerns, especially given the current fat phobia and endless declarations that we are in an obesity epidemic. This dissertation offers a personal examination of diet culture, body image, performance, and writing. Through writing and performing a series of characters, I made a political statement about the health of the fat body and learned to live in my own body peacefully and healthfully. As a former dieter who has made the decision to live in my current body, I offer a unique perspective with my autoethnographic performances and writing. As a playwright and performer, I transgressed societal norms by presenting a performance that did not adhere to traditional storytelling structures and presenting a body on stage that does not adhere to societal expectations of the female body. Through these acts, I offered my audience a chance to rethink their own beliefs about the body and to begin moving toward a healthier way of living and being in their bodies.
Centered on the periphery : the changing dynamic between Ionia and imperial powers 454-c.294 BCE
Authors:   , Nudell Joshua P.
Published: April 2021

Consisting of twelve cities on the coast of Asia Minor and proximate islands, Ionia is commonly thought to have flourished in the Archaic period, only to go into decline after the Persian conquest in 540 BCE before suffering through a long, fallow Classical period. In this interpretation, Ionia was reborn in the early Hellenistic period In the intervening years, the standard narrative goes, Ionia was a prize to be won by imperial contenders in the Aegean, and peripheral to both Greek and Persian history. Thus, Ionia is marginalized from histories of Classical Greece. This dissertation demonstrates that the traditional view of Ionia is far from true. The region was one of the nodes that connected East and West in the ancient world and thus was a frequent site of conflict. Ionians remained deeply embedded in Aegean networks, with their merchants playing a central role in the Aegean economy and their intellectuals playing critical roles both in local politics and in the evolution of Greek literature. I focus on the political, social, and economic situation of the Ionian cities along two axes of networks: one, regional interaction between Ionian communities, and another, how these regional relationships intersected with the broader imperial interaction in the Mediterranean world. By centering the narrative for Greek history on Ionia, I demonstrate that these communities and their inhabitants continually negotiated their position within the restrictions of larger conflicts. The Ionian cities played a critical role in Mediterranean history as active partners in the imperial projects of the states that subjugated the region.
Weinergate, Twitter, and marginalized voices : political sex scandals in a new media environment
Authors:   , Turner McGowen Sarah
Published: April 2021

Discourse strongly influences the ways in which ideologies are formed, maintained, and contested, thus the dialogue surrounding political sex scandals may shape the ways in which individuals negotiate their own beliefs and behaviors. Research into political sex scandals is further complicated by the changing nature of interactions within a new media environment, involving numerous voices and perspectives. This research project attempts to look closely at this phenomenon, discovering the cultural discourses surrounding political sex scandals and critiquing the assumptions made therein. The first chapter will explain the importance and significance of the study of political sex scandals. The second chapter will then review the extant literature surrounding the study of political sex scandals, as well as covering gender and sexuality and new media theories. The third chapter describes the multi-methodological approach for the study, detailing a case study for this project. The fourth chapter reviews the rhetorical strategies employed in the political sex scandal, Weinergate. The fifth chapter describes the content analysis of messages about Weinergate sent through the social media website Twitter. The sixth chapter critiques the ideological messages surrounding the Weinergate scandal, specifically as they relate to sex, sexualities, and gender roles. The seventh and final chapter discusses limitations of this project and suggestions for future research.
Utilization-focused evaluation of the cohort-based ethical strategic leadership M.B.A. program offered by the Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies at the University of Central Missouri
Authors:   , Jensen Daniel H.
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Program assessment allows administrators to facilitate strategic changes that integrate external opportunities and internal capabilities for long-term viability and relevance of the program (Wells and Wells, 2011). In this dissertation, the framework of utilization-focused evaluation with a mixed methods approach was used to explore how a cohort-based MBA program for working professionals created outcomes in terms of leadership competency development, career enhancement, and organizational impact. Additionally, this study investigated the overall effectiveness and impact of the educational program itself in terms of marketing, recruitment, onboarding, course delivery, assessment, and adaptive change. The participants in this study consisted of six alumni, 20 current students, five administrators, and ten faculty members. Data collection methods included surveys, focus groups, and interviews. The basis for the alumni and student surveys was a researcher created assessment of sixteen leadership competencies and their importance in professional work. A combination of survey-based, open-ended questions, focus groups, and interviews were used to gain an understanding of stakeholder perceptions of program effectiveness and impact. The data revealed growth in all sixteen leadership competencies with "Building Trust," "Communication," and "Planning and Organizing" identified as being most important for current professional work. Substantial value creation generated by students as a result of participation in the program was not uncovered through this research. In terms of program effectiveness and impact, the general consensus revealed many program strengths, but in its current design, it is not an ideal fit for the stakeholders involved.
High-throughput visual knowledge analysis and retrieval in big data ecosystems
Authors:   , Cao Hongfei
Published: April 2021

Visual knowledge plays an important role in many highly skilled applications, such as medical diagnosis, geospatial image analysis and pathology diagnosis. Medical practitioners are able to interpret and reason about diagnostic images based on not only primitive-level image features such as color, texture, and spatial distribution but also their experience and tacit knowledge which are seldom articulated explicitly. This reasoning process is dynamic and closely related to real-time human cognition. Due to a lack of visual knowledge management and sharing tools, it is difficult to capture and transfer such tacit and hard-won expertise to novices. Moreover, many mission-critical applications require the ability to process such tacit visual knowledge in real time. Precisely how to index this visual knowledge computationally and systematically still poses a challenge to the computing community. My dissertation research results in novel computational approaches for high-throughput visual knowledge analysis and retrieval from large-scale databases using latest technologies in big data ecosystems. To provide a better understanding of visual reasoning, human gaze patterns are qualitatively measured spatially and temporally to model observers' cognitive process. These gaze patterns are then indexed in a NoSQL distributed database as a visual knowledge repository, which is accessed using various unique retrieval methods developed through this dissertation work. To provide meaningful retrievals in real time, deep-learning methods for automatic annotation of visual activities and streaming similarity comparisons are developed under a gaze-streaming framework using Apache Spark. This research has several potential applications that offer a broader impact among the scientific community and in the practical world. First, the proposed framework can be adapted for different domains, such as fine arts, life sciences, etc. with minimal effort to capture human reasoning processes. Second, with its real-time visual knowledge search function, this framework can be used for training novices in the interpretation of domain images, by helping them learn experts' reasoning processes. Third, by helping researchers to understand human visual reasoning, it may shed light on human semantics modeling. Finally, integrating reasoning process with multimedia data, future retrieval of media could embed human perceptual reasoning for database search beyond traditional content-based media retrievals.
The birth and adoption of kinship: Folklore and fakelore in the context of nation-states and world religions
Authors:   , Begley Ryan O'Dell
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation centers upon the premise that human kinship, cooperation, and sociopolitical organization are not fully comprehensible without reference to the influence of stories in shaping them and that stories are not fully comprehensible without reference to the context of their origin, persistence, and subsequent modification. It is through transmitting traditional stories that human ancestors built a model of kinship around which their descendants would organize into clans and tribes, with ancestors as a unifying theme and moral center. It was these ancestors that tribes would compare upon meeting, oftentimes to disastrous results, but would in time serve as the model for their regular interaction within the emerging context of complex political structures. As the context of later storytelling began to diverge that of its evolution, the influence of traditional stories on descendant behavior would undergo a fundamental change, retaining much of an ancestral function in influencing behavior, but modified for an audience shifting in composition and circumstance. With the support of cross-cultural ethnographic evidence, I argue that traditional storytelling was a means through which ancestors were able to influence descendants to recognize a widening web of co-descendants and to teach them the rules for their cooperative interaction, in such a way that left the storytelling descendants that anthropologists would come to document. I then turn to the adoption of this effect in the context of nation-states and world religions, wherein the modification of traditional stories/storytelling extends the trope of kinship to include citizens and co-religionists, resulting, I found, in their identification, cooperation, and sociopolitical organization as a homogenous "people" (a nation).
Stages of change, coparenting patterns, and post-divorce parent education programming : a pre-program assessment
Authors:   , Galovan Adam M.
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Given concerns about the effect of divorce and interparental conflict on children, many judges now require divorcing/legally separating parents with children under age 18 to attend parent education programs (PEPs). In general, evaluations of these programs have shown their effectiveness. Evaluation studies of PEPs, however, have often not been rigorous. Despite the fact that researchers and practitioners acknowledge that individuals display markedly different patterns of coparenting following divorce and that not all program participants are amenable to making changes in their coparental relationship, researchers have not empirically assessed participants' coparenting patterns or stage of change prior to participation in PEP . Using latent class analysis of survey data from participants in a PEP class, this dissertation provides an initial evaluation of participants coparenting patterns and stage of change prior to participating in PEP and considers how demographic factors are related to both coparenting pattern and stage of change. The association between coparenting pattern and stage of change is also evaluated. Results from this evaluation suggest a need for a more tailored approach to parent education programming and have broader implications for family life education and relationships research.
The integrating of teaching and learning through technology in high school : learning management systems (LMS) and alternatives
Authors:   , Jamsri Pornsuree
Published: April 2021

This dissertation is a case study about how teachers use Learning Management Systems (LMS) and teaching technologies in their classes. Research was conducted through interviews, observations, and document analysis. Data analysis yielded fourteen themes and thirty-two codes about teachers' beliefs and experiences. Codes were validated using triangulation, rich, thick description, and member checking. This research builds on Fishbein and Ajzen's Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the theory of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI). Data was collected in two high schools and a career center situated within a school district that provided and supported, but did not require the use of, a commercial LMS. All participants use the LMS and other technologies. They were motivated by their positive attitude, subject expertise, longevity in the field, and previous experiences. They also believed that regular use of technology prepares students for the future. Participants self-identified as a minority among teachers in their early adoption of technology confirming the theory of DOI. This study found differences between the LMS use of the extensive and limited users of technology, with the extensive users incorporating a wide variety of tools in unsupported Open Source LMSs. The most extensive users of technology were in science, humanities and IT; limited users, who rely mostly on the district-supported LMS, were in business and health, suggesting different needs in an LMS across the curriculum. This research found that new technologies require time to learn and to use effectively, suggesting that teachers need more time to prepare during school hours as well as more peer mentoring to use the LMS to its fullest extent.
Analysis of host-pathogen interactions via clustering, statistical analysis, and data visualization
Authors:   , Warren Samantha
Published: April 2021

Infectious diseases are caused by a variety of agents: viruses, bacteria, parasites, or even proteins. Using existing state-of-the-art methods and tools I developed myself, I studied aspects of infectious agents. To find the most conserved and diverse regions of influenza A proteins, I found clusters of extremely conserved or diverse residues. Because traditional methods of clustering proved ineffective for diverse regions, I developed a Metropolis Criterion Monte Carlo (MMC) clustering algorithm to discover clusters of extremely diverse regions. In addition to viruses, I studied pathogenic bacterial proteins known as effectors. Using an in-house prediction method, Preffector, I generated predicted effectors for 14 bacteria and created a database and webserver to hold relevant information: BacPaC. BacPaC uses intuitive visualizations and script-generated profile pages to display relevant data about the predicted effectors. Finally, I applied structural modeling and docking techniques to soybean proteins that are known to incur resistance to nematodes. For each of these studies, I used clustering, data analysis, and data visualization to better understand infectious agents.
Intelligent fall detection system for eldercare
Authors:   , Liu Liang
Published: April 2021

Fall among elders is a main reason to cause accidental death among the population over the age 65 in United States. The fall detection methods have been brought into scene by implemented on different fall monitoring devices. For the advantages in privacy protection and non-invasive, independent of light, I design the fall detection system based on Doppler radar sensor. This dissertation explores different Doppler radar sensor configurations and positioning in both of the lab and real senior home environment, signal processing and machine learning algorithms. Firstly, I design the system based on the data collected with three configurations: two floor radars, one ceiling and one wall radars, one ceiling and one floor radars in lab. The performance of the sensor positioning and features are evaluated with classifiers: support vector machine, nearest neighbor, naÃ¯ve Bayes, hidden Markov model. In the real senior home, I investigate the system by evaluating the detection variances caused by training dataset due to the variable subjects and environment settings. Moreover, I adjust the automatic fall detection system for the actual retired community apartment. I examine different features: Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs), local binary patterns (LBP) and the combined version of features with RELIEF algorithm. I also improve the detection performance with both pre-screener and features selection. I fuse the radar fall detection system with motion sensors. I develop a standalone fall detection system and generate a result to display on a designed webpage.
The effects of drought stress and western corn rootworm feeding on maize root biology
Authors:   , Leach Kristen A.
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Drought and western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, can have substantial impacts on the potential yield of maize, Zea may L. Maize lines were selected to survey the level of diversity available for primary root elongation maintenance under water stress and three WCR-related traits: WCR damage, root size, and root regrowth. Data analysis suggests that lines belonging to the Tropical/Semi-tropical population structure group are a significant source of alleles which would improve resistance/tolerance to these stressors. Further analysis of the WCR trait data found significant correlations with agronomically important traits related to plant maturity, confirming the impact of maize phenology on WCR damage. This indicates that phase change or changes in biochemical pathways as the plant matures may serve as additional criteria to effectively select germplasm that is resistant/tolerant to WCR feeding. In an effort to identify maize genes responsible for defense against WCR herbivory, a transcriptome analysis discovered that the presence of an endosymbiont, Wolbachia, down-regulated the expression of defense genes. Gene expression time courses suggest WCR elicits a response to herbivory by WCR+wb which was confirmed by a more extensive analysis of the microarray data. Maize defense genes were found to be down-regulated in agreement with the previous study. Transcriptional down-regulation may be the result of transposable element interference or post-transcriptional regulation by small RNAs, i.e. siRNAs or miRNAs. Three classes of miRNA were identified based on their response to WCR+wb, WCR-wb, and control treatments in the CRW3 germplasm; WCR-specific response, Wolbachia-specific response, and generalized defense response. Models based on the miRNA expression patterns along with information from the literature about their targets and downstream effects enabled us to predict phenotypes based on miRNA mediated-changes in gene expression. Results of the GO term enrichment analysis together with miRNA expression analysis support miRNA-mediated post-translational modification as one mechanism underlying the Wolbachia-associated changes in maize gene expression.
Preparation of polymeric boron-containing nanoparticles by emulsion polymerization for application in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT)
Authors:   , Yang Shuo
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is based on the nuclear capture reaction of isotope [superscript 10]B irradiated by low energy thermal neutron to produce high linear energy transfer (LET) alpha particles and recoiling lithium nuclei. BNCT has used clinically to treat glioblastoma multiforme, melanomas, head, neck and liver cancer. The clinical trials of BNCT have completed in Japan, Europe and the United States since the limited neutron source from reactors are available in these countries. The delivery agents of BNCT are required to achieve high boron concentration (10[superscript 9] boron atoms per targeted cell) and selective uptake on tumor cells with the minimal normal tissue damage and toxicity. With the rapid development of biological engineering and boron chemistry, many delivery agents have been proposed and synthesized such as boron-rich antibody conjugates, boron-containing liposomes, oligomeric phosphate diesters, etc. The first chapter gives the introduction of BNCT. The second chapter describes the preparation of boron-containing polymeric nanoparticles by emulsion polymerization technology for application in BNCT. Particle size is controlled by changing the amount of surfactant. The third chapter discusses the modifications of the surface of boron-containing polymeric nanoparticles by acrylic acid and polyethylene glycol (PEG) to enhance the solubility, stability and circulation time, to reduce toxicity and immunogenicity in vivo. Specific bioligands are going to be attached to boron-containing nanoparticles to improve the targeting of delivery to tumor cells. The sixth chapter describes the work I did for my Master's degree in chemistry at University of Missouri-Columbia.
Rural emergency management : an inter-organizational case study
Authors:   , Bryant Dianna Havner
Published: April 2021

Preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation are the essential disaster management functions that characterize emergency management. Emergency management is a multi-organizational activity. The connections between these organizations form a network. Members of rural emergency services, often volunteers, may belong to more than one organization in the network. Thus the network is really a network of networks. This mixed methods research collected empirical data about rural organizations, in one rural county in Missouri, which are part of the emergency management network. Three theoretical frameworks were examined to identify antecedents that produce the four C's of emergency management; communication, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration. A critical analysis of network theory, organizational theory and community field theory revealed the inter-organizational activities that enable each of the four C's. This study describes the characteristics of a rural emergency management network and seeks to explain the complex inter-organizational relations. The critical inter-organizational relationships; communication, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration, are necessary for community disaster resilience. Organizational social capital is produced from the four C's of emergency management, facilitating future interactions.
Perceived corporate hypocrisy : scale development in the context of US retail employees
Authors:   , Goswami Saheli
Published: April 2021

The study drew attention to matter that employees might perceive corporate hypocrisy as their employers pretend to be something they are not. In the US retail sector, businesses are often wrestling with unethical business practices, and the sector often becomes the subject of media scrutiny for failure to behave responsibly concerning the consumers, well-being of people, human rights, or the environment. These offer huge room for potential corporate hypocrisy perceived by employees, and such perceived corporate hypocrisy (PCH) can be problematic for corporations' reputations and even economic performances. Despite the context and vulnerability surrounding PCH that the retail sector may face, limited research has been done to investigate PCH amongst employees of corporations. Also, there seemed to be lack of a viable objective scale, measuring all the critical dimensions of PCH in the literature. Thus, this study developed and preliminarily validated a scale to measure PCH among employees for their employers using the item response theory. Based on various qualitative and quantitative data as collected in this study, a scale of nine items representing different theoretical aspects of hypocrisy was developed to measure employees' PCH. By creating robust measurements of PCH, the findings can help retail corporations to understand their employees' perceptions, assess their PCH to address any potential problems, and better manage employees as they reshape their workplaces to attract and retain the new generation of millennials.
The effects of modality, English language proficiency, and length of stay on immigrants' learning from American news about politics
Authors:   , Medvedeva Yulia
Published: April 2021

This dissertation explored how well immigrants in the United States learn from American political news. Predictions in this online experiment were based on a 1990 survey in which Korean Americans with lower language proficiency and shorter length of stay in the U.S. demonstrated higher political knowledge scores when they reported relying on television news instead of print news. To test the findings of the 1990 study, news media were operationalized through modality as two symbol systems: words, which need to be learned to be understood, and pictures, which need to be recognized. One-hundred-forty-six individuals born in 52 countries completed the study in which each participant was exposed to one of the three conditions representing either television or radio or print news. Data demonstrated that immigrants with lower self-reported language proficiency correctly recognized more multiple-choice answers to questions about stories from television news in comparison to print news. This finding establishes a causal relationship between the presence of pictures in television's two-channel stream and better outcomes of memory about news for immigrants with weaker English language skills. Years of education in the U.S. emerged as the only reliable predictor of comprehension. Furthermore, in the television condition, immigrants with higher language proficiency correctly recognized about half-an-answer fewer than did immigrants with lower language proficiency. Findings suggest that television news is indeed beneficial for immigrants' learning about American politics, yet it becomes less beneficial once immigrants' competence increase.
Interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1) directs IL-4/IL-13 induced death of neonatal Th1 cells
Authors:   , Miller Mindy Marie
Published: April 2021

Newborns typically have immune responses that are allergic, due to a predominance of Th2 cells, and lack the ability to respond to vaccines as well as display poor protection against microbes, due to a lack of Th1 cells. Our lab has previously discovered that the paucity of Th1 cells in the neonatal period occurs because these cells die during a second antigen encounter. This research utilizes murine neonates to demonstrate that Th1 cell death occurs from antigen and IL-4/IL-13 cytokine signaling and identifies the signaling pathway within the cell that leads to death. Interestingly, a novel role for a transcription factor, interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1), has been discovered whereby it is induced upon cytokine signaling and initiates the intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Furthermore, by blocking this pathway, it is possible to rescue neonatal Th1 cells and improve vaccine efficacy in newborn mice. This is of high clinical importance as a significant number of human neonatal deaths occur from infections and vaccines remain at the forefront of infection prevention.
Humor in the entrepreneurial pitch context : the effect of humor, investor regulatory focus and argument quality on pitch evaluations and funding decisions
Authors:   , Seyrek Scott Ugur
Published: April 2021

Conventional wisdom and a small body of empirical research suggests that while humor can sometimes be used for negative purposes, it tends to be "good," and associated with positive outcomes. Many entrepreneurs incorporate humor into their entrepreneurial pitches to appeal to investors. But does the common belief about humor's positive effects really hold true for the entrepreneurial pitch context? To examine the role humor plays in entrepreneurial pitches, an experiment was conducted where humor, argument quality and investor regulatory focus were manipulated either before or during a video-recorded entrepreneurial pitch to predict individuals' perceptions of the pitch and their likelihood of investing in the venture. The data consisted of responses by 186 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university. The results suggested that humor and argument quality interact to influence pitch perceptions and investment likelihood such that humorous content is appreciated when the arguments are strong (i.e., more positive perceptions and higher investment likelihood), whereas the pitches with humor are penalized when the arguments are weak. The results also suggested that this effect was only observed among individuals who were prompted to be promotion-focused during the pitch (i.e., to be open-minded about the pitch and to consider factors beyond economic interests), and not among those who were prevention-focused (i.e., those who were prompted to focus on the venture's risks). The results indicate that although humor might indeed have an impact on investor perceptions, the question of whether entrepreneurs should use humor is more nuanced than the simple â€œhumor is goodâ€ conventional wisdom.
Imaging 3D tissue fiber organization using optical polarization tractography
Authors:   , Wang Yuanbo
Published: April 2021

Optical polarization tractography (OPT) is a new imaging technology developed based on an advanced Jones matrix implementation of polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT). OPT can acquire high-resolution, three-dimensional (3D), depth-resolved images of fiber organization in tissue. To validate OPT's accuracy in measuring fiber orientation, a comprehensive histology comparison study was conducted using heart tissues which are known to have a depth-dependent fiber orientation change. A systematic image processing procedure was developed to register histology images with OPT images so that the pixel-wise difference between the two measurements can be compared in details. The validation results indicated that OPT can reveal the tissue fiber tractography with histology-like resolution. OPT was then applied to image freshly excised heart samples of the mdx mouse model of Duchene muscular dystrophies (DMD). A rotational imaging platform was developed to obtain OPT images of the excised whole mouse heart. The imaging light was repetitively scanned along the long axis of the heart while the heart was rotated continuously on the imaging platform. The acquired 3D image data were then transformed to construct the 3D whole heart image. The "cross-helical" laminar architecture of the myocardial fibers can be clearly visualized. More importantly, the OPT results revealed significant global and microscopic structural remodeling in the heart of the mdx mouse. OPT can also be applied to image fiber organization in other fibrous tissue samples. For example, OPT revealed focal fiber disorganization in the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle of the mdx mouse, which was confirmed in histology as muscle damage. The 3D OPT images of the TA muscle can be quantified by analyzing the randomness of the fiber orientation distribution. A "fiber disarray" index can be computed to automatically identify and visualize all damaged tissues in the 3D TA muscle. Since the OPT only images the projected fiber orientation within a plane perpendicular to the light propagation, a dual-angle imaging procedure was developed to obtain the absolute 3D fiber orientation. The two 3D OPT images of the same tissue acquired at two different view angles were registered to reconstruct the image of the absolute 3D fiber orientation. This new method was validated by imaging a mouse extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle placed at various known positions. The capability of this dual-angle OPT method was demonstrated by visualizing the absolute 3D muscle fiber structure in mouse TA muscles and the unique arcade collagen fiber architecture in a piece of articular cartilage. In summary, the results presented in this dissertation study indicated that the newly developed OPT technology can obtain high-resolution 3D image of tissue fiber organization. OPT may provide a practical tool for studying disease related fiber structural changes in many fibrous tissues.
Genetic and physical interactions of Arabidopsis TOPLESS related 2 with regulators of plant innate immunity
Authors:   , Garner Christopher M.
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Plants are constantly subjected to attack from pathogens. In order to defend themselves, plants have evolved a robust immune system. However, activation of this immune system interferes with plant growth and development. As such, it is very important for plant health to keep the immune system properly repressed when not needed. Using genetics and microscopy we have identified a novel repressor of the plant immune system, TOPLESS RELATED 2 (TPR2). TPR2 appears to repress the immune response after activation, thereby preventing a prolonged immune response. These results help us understand how the plant immune system is regulated at a molecular level.
Journalism's next generation : socialization of high school journalists
Authors:   , Hendricks Marina A.
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Like their professional counterparts, high school journalists are confronting the societal and technological forces that are reshaping journalism. As members of journalism's next generation, high school journalists are charged with the responsibility of carrying journalism forward long after senior journalists exit the newsroom. This case study incorporated ethnographic observation and interviews to examine how high school journalists are socialized into journalism as an occupational ideology (Deuze, 2005). It focused on how high school journalists make meaning of public service, objectivity, autonomy, immediacy, and ethics through the intersection of their journalistic roles. It also looked at how high school journalists are socialized into journalism in the educational setting. Lastly, it considered the role of agents of socialization, such as individual educators, peers, family, part-time work, and the media. The findings suggest that high school journalists who practice free of threats from prior review and restraint are acclimating to the shared autonomy of the multimedia environment. High school journalists also are adapting to new considerations of immediacy that provide them with flexibility to act as disseminators or interpreters, as the situation warrants. Finally, high school journalists in an autonomous environment exert a strong socialization influence on their peers.
I'ma just keep moving : a case study of Black first-generation college student persistence
Authors:   , Sconyers Ta'janette
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Although access and retention are regularly explored in higher education, there continues to be a lack of emphasis on the psychological variables and strategies that influence the persistence of students, particularly those who are labeled as â€œat-riskâ€ for college dropout. The tendency to view students as â€œat-riskâ€ is deficit-focused (Riele, 2006) as it assumes insufficiency without acknowledging the context and strengths of the individual. The current study challenged deficit-focused narratives and examined the persistence of Black first-generation students and the factors to which they attribute their degree completion. Utilizing a case study qualitative research approach and critical race lens, the study consisted of two individual interviews with each of five Black first-generation women participants. Additionally, data collection included a document analysis to describe the campus climate and the unique political context of the university. The findings suggested that participants utilized multi-faceted ways of coping with academic, financial, social, emotional, and campus climate challenges such as racial division and lack of inclusion. Participants endorsed coping strategies that included religious/spiritual beliefs and practices, community support, and cognitive behavioral strategies. Further, participants discussed that their ability to persist and graduate was influenced by their perceived responsibility to their families and Black community to seize the educational opportunity not afforded to everyone. The findings implicate the need to identify and support Black first-generation college students prior to or early on in their college degrees in order to increase their likelihood of degree completion. Particularly, Black first-generation students would likely benefit from affirming academic and emotional coaching as they navigate college culture and expectations.
Examining the boundaries of journalism in the digital age : a SEM test of digital transitions in newsrooms
Authors:   , Wu Yanfang
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] The debate about boundaries in journalism amid the rise of citizen journalism, the crisis of business models in the news industry and the use of social media in the news-gathering and dissemination process, has become a central focus in the media industry and academia. There is no doubt that the digital transition is a trend. Based on the Carlson's (2015) boundaries of journalism theory and Shoemaker and Vos' (2009) levels of analysis in the gatekeeping theory, administering a cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire, national online survey (N=1063), conducting a Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis, the study seeks to find out the relationships between socialization and perceptions of digital impact on journalism, journalists and news organizations. The findings showed news organizations' social media culture affects journalists' use of social media. Twitter interactivity mediates journalists' social media internalization and their attitude toward social media. However, this mediating effects does not apply to Facebook and other social media interactivity. The distinguishing line between reporters and editors is blurring in news organizations. Older journalists (age>40) are picking up social media as additional journalistic tools and developing a positive attitude toward them. However, there still may be a long way to go before old journalists become experts in social media.
Factoring in gamer identity : the application of social identity theory and flow to understanding video game violence effects
Authors:   , Hoffswell Joseph
Published: April 2021

The video game industry has become integrated into American lives and has continued to grow at a steady rate. This project utilizes social identity theory, self-categorization theory, and flow theory to examine differences in aggression and processing of video games between three gamer types: non-gamer, casual gamer, and core gamer. A careful review of previous literature was conducted to explore research involving violent video games, various effects caused by video game play, and how video game research has been utilized in conjunction with social identity theory, self-categorization theory, and flow theory. A gap in the literature was identified that most studies focusing on video game effects did not address participants' relationship with video games beyond the amount of time dedicated to gameplay. In past research focused on analyzing gamer identity (Neys, Jansz, and Tan, 2014), non-gamers were excluded from analyses, limiting the conclusions one can make about how video game may affect gamers versus non-gamers differentially. Gamer identity is not unidimensional, rather different types of gamers have a different level of investment in the time they dedicate to video games as well as preferences for what they play. This project explored the idea that gamers may react differently to video game stimuli when compared to non-gamers. Grand Theft Auto IV was utilized as a stimulus in an experiment that measured how violence impacts the different types of gamers. The results indicated that core gamers do react to violent content differently than non-gamers and casual gamers in that hostility and empathy are unaffected by short-term exposure to a violent game stimulus for core gamers. This study suggests that core gamers process video game stimuli differently than non-gamers and casual gamers. The mechanisms by which this happens were not explored, but the consistency of the results provide evidence for unique processing of video game stimulus by core gamers. Results are discussed, and suggestions are made for future research.
On the global Gan-Gross-Prasad conjecture for general spin groups
Authors:   , Emory Melissa
Published: April 2021

In the 1990s, Benedict Gross and Dipendra Prasad formulated an intriguing conjecture connected with restriction laws for automorphic representations of a particular group. More recently, Gan, Gross, and Prasad extended this conjecture, now known as the Gan-Gross-Prasad Conjecture, to the remaining classical groups. Roughly speaking, they conjectured the non-vanishing of a certain period integral is equivalent to the non-vanishing of the central value of a certain L- function. Ichino and Ikeda refined the conjecture to give an explicit relationship between this central value of a L-function and the period integral. We propose a similar conjecture for a nonclassical group, the general spin group, and prove one case.
Skepticism, reason, and decision
Authors:   , Wu Tung-Ying
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] "This dissertation is a combination of three different projects. The first project investigates the history of philosophy: Kant's refutation of idealism. In this project I propose a more plausible interpretation of Kant's argument against idealism. Next, the second project investigates ethical theory: the ideal observer view. There, I criticize an argument for ideal observer view as untenable. Finally, the third project investigates decision theory: the decision problem: Psycho Buttons. I argue that causal decision theory supplemented with Full Information does not lead to intransitivity in Psycho Buttons. In this chapter I present an introduction to each project." --Introduction
The development and implementation of a heuristic for teaching reflective scientific skepticism within a socio-scientific issue instructional framework
Authors:   , Kinslow Andrew T.
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Science ideas are frequently miscommunicated or distorted. In our digital age, a social media post may provoke an emotional response triggering a cascade of replies that spread misinformation about a socio-scientific issue such as a disease outbreak, genetically modified foods, or vaccine safety. Other times, as in the case of climate change denial, science ideas may be deliberately distorted in order to manipulate public opinion toward a special interest group's agenda. Citizens need functional scientific literacy that includes reflective scientific skepticism in order to navigate these hurdles. This multiple manuscript dissertation draws from a comprehensive review of the literature from diverse academic fields and proposes a heuristic for fostering the development of reflective scientific skepticism. The heuristic informed the curriculum development and instruction for a high school class studying contemporary socio-scientific issues. Using a multiple methods approach, I explored student development of reflective scientific skepticism in the context of the generation and communication of science knowledge within this class. Students showed gains in both socio-scientific reasoning, generally, and in reflective scientific skepticism, specifically. Findings informed further revision of the heuristic. Implications for instruction and research are discussed.
Three measurement strategies for examining time allocation and college alcohol use : a methodological study
Authors:   , Herring Tracy E.
Published: April 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Heavy alcohol use continues to be a noteworthy concern for both college students and college/university campuses. Research suggests behavioral economic principles, such as substance-free and substance-related reinforcement, offer a theoretical basis for understanding and predicting risky alcohol use. A component of substance-free and substance-related reinforcement includes time allocation (i.e., how many hours a day one spends engaging in various activities). Previous research has used time allocation data to determine which types of activities are negative and positive predictors of alcohol use among college students. However, research has not yet explored optimal methodologies for measuring time allocation. Therefore, the current methodological study utilized three different analytical techniques: ratio-based approach; variable-centered approach (principal component analysis); and person-centered approach (latent profile analysis) to establish best practices for measuring time allocation as it relates to alcohol use among college students. Participants were 380 first and second year undergraduate students from two large public universities who reported two or more binge drinking episodes within the past month. Results indicated the proportional ratio-based approach yielded the strongest association with the alcohol use variables. The variable-centered approach did not produce interpretable data. The person-centered approach grouped individuals into distinct profiles based on their reported time allocation, and revealed a unique relationship between time allocation profiles and two alcohol use variables. Clinical and research implications, future directions, and limitations are discussed.