12466 research outputs found
Sort by
A Floristic Checklist of Shenandoah River State Park Warren Co., Virginia
Get PDFA floristic checklist of vascular plants was conducted at Shenandoah River State Park (SHSP) in Bentonville, Virginia during the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons. SHSP encompasses 665 hectares (1619 acres) of the northern Shenandoah Valley between the Massanutten Mountains and Shenandoah National Park. The park lies in Warren County which has been botanically underexplored, consistently ranking last in plant collection metrics among the five northern Shenandoah Valley counties. SHSP contains 11 community types that span 165 – 296 masl from inland wetlands and river scour communities to upland forests, including endemic Central Appalachian Shale Barrens. A total of 797 collections yielded 536 unique taxa from 109 vascular plant families. These collections were secondarily extended with in-field pictures that were aggregated on an iNaturalist project page. Quick Response (QR) codes were used to link herbarium vouchers to their respective iNaturalist entry. Sixty-four county records of taxa not yet observed in Warren County and one state record, Equisetum laevigatum A. Braun were documented. As a first for SHSP, this floristic checklist provides baseline botanical knowledge of the park and expands the available digital data of vascular plants for Warren County by 20%. This augmented knowledge, in tandem with the accompanying iNaturalist project page, will not only be useful to park managers for future development and conservation plans but will also serve as a tool for community scientists to enhance their knowledge of the local flora
Echoes in the Forge
Get PDFOn a future Earth ravaged by the fall of civilization, the descendants of the survivors are forced to scrape out a living amid a century-long ice age. Five years have passed since disgraced general Khess Lindhorne and her small group of loyal ex-soldiers fled from the walled city of Greyhaven and took up residence at an abandoned outpost in the uninhabited and brutal Northern Wilds. Just when she thought she was safe from her former king’s bounty hunters, a mysterious stranger arrives to pass on a message from the city she once defended: a revolution is brewing but doomed to be snuffed out in its infancy without a unifying leader. Seeing an opportunity to atone for her failures, Khess accepts an offer to be that leader—and run straight into what might be her own death. In Greyhaven, Duchess Estrid Ahmedani works from within the king’s inner circle to nurture rebellion against a cruel tyrant. Knowing that success rests on Khess’s return, she navigates a dangerous court determined to hold onto power by any means necessary. Meanwhile, in the unknown reaches of the north, a world-spanning threat awakens from a long slumber to fulfill a vengeful promise
A Narrative Analysis of Korean Secondary School English Teachers' Language Teacher Identities
Get PDFThis qualitative study seeks to understand how English teachers in Korean secondary schools develop their language teacher identities through their personal and professional experiences as they teach, learn, and live in the unique sociological context of South Korea. Merging multi-case study method with narrative inquiry framework, it analyzed the narratives of language teacher identity (LTI) formation process from Korean secondary school English teachers (KSSET), their past and present as well as of the future prospect as a language professional. Although there has been burgeoning field of research on LTI in language teacher education, and second language acquisition (SLT) in global scholarship, few studies have examined the KSSETs’ professional identity formation using the teachers’ voices. The study attempted to extend the existing knowledge and theory basis related to diverse LTI formation of English teachers in different places in the globe. The analysis drew the following conclusions: 1) KSSET early experiences are context-bound and foundational in their career choice, 2) overseas learning was a transformative experience for pre-service LTI, 3) KSSET LTI is challenged and negotiated by competing English language teaching practices and multiple roles coupled with conflicting emotions, and 4) KSSET’s identity is an ongoing journey. Also, articulation of the LTI development process of this group - their learning and teaching, struggles and agencies, and perceived meanings of their profession from the teachers’ own points of view - indicated some implications for language teacher educators and administrators in South Korea as well as in other relevant contexts
Pollo a la Brasa: The Localization and Transnational Identity of Peruvian Chicken in Northern Virginia
Get PDFSince 1988, Peruvian migrants and, eventually, other immigrants from diverse backgrounds have produced a boom in successful Peruvian chicken restaurants that continue to grow in the present. As a result, this project examines the dynamic cultural spaces where cultures “flow” and are produced within the spaces of Peruvian chicken restaurants. Overall, this research contributes to the field of food anthropology by illustrating how Peruvian chicken acts as a lens to understand the modern human condition. It demonstrates that food goes beyond mere sustenance, with communal experiences shaping culinary preferences and cultural identities. Peruvian chicken's influence on local food culture and the evolving food consumption practices facilitated by digital platforms provides valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of globalization and the multifaceted interactions between diverse cultural communities in Northern Virginia
Synthesis And Magnetotransport Study of Kagome Lattice Magnets
Get PDFThis thesis has been embargoed for 2 years. It will not be available until July 2023 at the earliest.The investigation and manipulation of novel magnetic textures within topological quantum materials is emerging as a new frontier for future spin-based electronic devices. Recently, transition-metal based kagome magnets have shown to provide a natural platform to study the interplay between complex magnetism and electronic topology. Of particular interest is the family of RMn6Sn6 (R = rare-earth) compounds with kagome lattices, shown to host complex magnetic textures and topological states, both strongly dependent on the choice of R atom. This master's thesis is an experimental study on role of the rare-earth elements R = Y, Tb on the magnetic and magnetotransport properties within single crystals of RMn6Sn6 compounds using magnetometry and magnetotransport measurements combined with first-principles calculations. The framework of this study largely focuses on the magnetic rare-earth compound TbMn6Sn6 and compares the magnetic and electronic properties to the non-magnetic rare-earth parent compound YMn6Sn6. We first present the methods and review the crystal growth and characterization of single crystals of YMn6Sn6 and TbMn6Sn6. The Sn self-flux method was employed for crystal growth, yielding thick plate-like shaped single crystals of YMn6Sn6 and TbMn6Sn6. Once trimmed to adequate dimensions, magnetic susceptibility and electrical transport measurements were performed. The DC magnetic susceptibility () of YMn6Sn6 with the applied field ⊥ and TbMn6Sn6 with ⊥ and ∥ reveal high ordering temperatures of ! ≈ 345 and 423 K, respectively, as well as distinct features consistent with transformations to their magnetic structure. For TbMn6Sn6, a spin-reorientation transition is observed at "# ≈ 308 K where the collinear moments on Tb and Mn reorient along the ab-plane to the c-axis upon decreasing temperature. The electrical resistivity (
+ dependence for TbMn6Sn6 provides evidence of a likely dominating extrinsic contribution below around 100 K and a leading intrinsic contribution above 100 K that is likely not generated by a field-induced topological Chern gap. At the end, we summarize the key findings of this study and outline future work to expand the scope of this study. Ultimately, the goal following this project would be to construct a comprehensive understanding of the role of the rare-earth elements among the nine available RMn6Sn6 compounds to simultaneously engineer desirable magnetic and topological states potentially valuable for future spin-based electronic devices.2023-07-2
Neural Effects of Estrogen on Mitochondrial Lipids and Cardiolipin Levels and Distribution
Get PDFA variety of lipid classes play important roles in neuronal structure and function. One of these lipids is cardiolipin, a phospholipid exclusive to the mitochondria and important to processes such as mitophagy and apoptosis through its differential oxidation. Estradiol (E2), a steroid sex hormone, is known to exert antioxidant effects in various cell types. I will establish a baseline lipidome in a line of neural cells and use E2-treatment conditions to determine if estrogen antioxidant effects are mediated through lipids, with a particular focus on cardiolipin. The results could contribute to understanding how hormonal changes can impact neural cell health and neurodegeneration
Poisson Mixture Network Tomography
Get PDFNetwork tomography is the study of the internal characteristics of networks from incomplete measurements. Statistical methods are used to infer the parameters of underlying distributions of network traffic. Consider a network consisting of a number of nodes and links. One goal is to estimate mean traffic rates on pairs of source-destination nodes using measurements of traffic on a number of links. This is in essence the solving of an inverse problem of a system of equations. In general, the system of equations is underdetermined, because the number of links on which traffic is being measured is less than the number of source-destination pairs. The network can be deterministic, where the path from source to destination is known a priori, or random, where the path from source to destination is unknown a priori but defined by probabilities. The field was pioneered by Y. Vardi in 1996. One of the methods Vardi used to estimate mean traffic rates is called moment matching. Here, equations relating the first moments and second central moments of the link traffic to the first moments and second central moments of the source-destination traffic are used to estimate the mean source-destination traffic rates. Throughout much of its history, network traffic flows were assumed to be Poisson random processes. Recently, network tomography has been extended to traffic flows that are not necessarily Poisson random processes. The distributions of traffic flow in a given time interval were allowed to be mixtures of Poisson distributions. This approach significantly generalizes the capabilities of network tomography. The mixture distributions utilized here are overdispersed, with variances larger than the means. Thus, they are more suitable for traffic than the Poisson model. Second-order and third-order moment matching approaches are developed for estimating the mean traffic rate for each source-destination pair using the minimum I-divergence iterative procedure. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated for several numerical examples and compared to the EM algorithm, which was derived assuming a Gaussian traffic model
The Bladeless Sword
No full textThis thesis has been embargoed for 10 years. It will not be available until May 2030 at the earliest.For sixteen years, Rian Abanhart has grown up in The Kingdom of Man next to a dormant mountain whose sleeping evil is the stuff of legends. However, one day, in order to escape the local bully, Rian chooses to step into the mountain's shadow and wake the mountain. Now, Rian and his village must flee the devouring shadow and the evil that's been awakened. Their only hope, and the only thing that can destroy the mountain, lies in a hilt whose blade will only be revealed by a god who's been lost for centuries.2030-05-0
Persephone
Get PDFThis thesis is an excerpt from a novel in progress titled Persephone. The main storyline follows the goddess Persephone as she learns about the world around her, falls in love, and strains against her mother’s iron will. Her life aboveground is abruptly halted when Hades, the somber god of the dead, kidnaps her and makes her an offer she cannot refuse. Meanwhile, her mother unleashes her rage upon the world, while her best friend and true love makes a drastic decision. The story explores the themes of love, coming-of-age, grief, personal growth, and anger. The author intends for this thesis to become a novel, which she hopes to eventually publish
Are We Socializing Them for Success? An Analysis of New Full-Time Community College Faculty Needs
Get PDFThis dissertation explored the experiences of 16 new full-time community college faculty as they learned to understand and meet their work expectations. Informed by the literature on the preparation of future faculty and the dimensions of full-time community college faculty work, this qualitative study narrowed in on the experiences of new faculty at one multi-campus community college on the east coast of the United States. Purposive sampling was used to identify new full-time faculty at the community college. Once identified, interested participants engaged in an individual interview, a qualitative survey, and a focus group as part of the data collection. Additionally, documents pertaining to faculty evaluation procedures and metrics were collected and analyzed. Using thematic analysis, a picture of how new faculty come to know their faculty role responsibilities and the professional development they need to fulfill those responsibilities emerged. The findings from this study indicate that new faculty come to their roles with existing expectations, seek out interpretations from institutional members, and discover latent work expectations. Additionally, the findings also demonstrate the ways in which new faculty actively participate in shaping their work expectations. The implications for community college faculty, leaders, and scholars are discussed in the final chapter of this dissertation