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Yiddishist in the Mayrev: Yiddish Poetry and Jewish Women in Los Angeles, 1920-1950s
No full text“Yiddishist in the Mayrev: Yiddish Poetry and Jewish Women in Los Angeles 1920-1950s,” examines how Jewish women in the mid-twentieth century made Los Angeles a Yiddish-speaking place, and reshaped American yidishe kultur in the process. These poets employed western environmental motifs in their poetry, including natural landscapes and urban structures, to grapple with changing racial demographics in their L.A. neighborhood, Boyle Heights, the interracial partnerships that emerged particularly between Jewish and Mexican residents there, and the physical urban changes that occurred in the neighborhood during the postwar years. Their commitment to yidishe kultur—an ideology of an autonomous culture that tethered Jewish immigrants together through the Yiddish language and Ashkenazi culture—and their focus on western motifs, symbols, and archetypes created a Yiddish literary style distinctive to the American West. Through analyzing Yiddish poetic works that utilize western themes this thesis demonstrates how these women writers responded to international and domestic events in Los Angeles. This further illustrates how Yiddish culture transformed in the American West but did not disappear after the 1920s, when Jewish immigration from Europe drastically decreased due to the passage of two national origin bills in 1921 and 1924. This analysis also highlights how Jewish women crafted Yiddish culture in the American West. While both Jewish men and women contributed to this place-making process in Los Angeles, I focus on three prolific Jewish women poets who were all part of a communal group of Yiddish writers associated with the Yiddish Cultural Club in Los Angeles, founded in 1926: Shifra Weiss, Brokhe Kudli, and Esther Shumaitcher-Hirschbein. By analyzing these three women’s work the thesis adds new Yiddish source materials into a historical discussion predominantly focused on English source materials and male perspectives. All three of these women emigrated from Europe. Weiss and Kudli made their way through New York City and Shumaitcher moved to New York City from Calgary, Canada in 1918 with her husband Peretz Hirschbein. While these three women moved to Los Angeles at different points in their lives it was California and Los Angeles, not the Yiddishkeit centers of New York and to a lesser degree Chicago that influenced their works and style. This study will illuminate how their poetry reimagined yidishe kultur as a part of the American West and how they navigated international events in the mid-twentieth century, including the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, shifting racial demographics in Boyle Heights, and the construction of new urban landscapes to create their own distinct style. This style of western Yiddish writing combines motifs and themes of Jewish experiences and the American West to address the lived experiences of Yiddish culture in the West. I focus in particular on three substantial poems written by these women between 1953 and 1958: Shifra Weiss’ Kalifornie (California, 1953), Brokhe Kudli’s Fri-vayz (Freeways 1958), and Esther Shumaitcher-Hirschbein’s Kalifornye (California 1956). In addition to providing new non-English source materials, analyzing these Jewish women’s poems expands the American Yiddish literary canon, both in terms of gender and geography. Yiddish writing in California falls outside the period between 1890 and the 1920s that historians usually identify as the hightide of yidishe kultur in the United States. Scholars have also tended to focus on male writers as Jewish men assumed authority over Yiddish writing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and as New York established itself as the hub for the male-centered Yiddish publishing world. It was precisely postwar Los Angeles’s limited number of Yiddish institutions that contributed to the inclusion of Jewish women writers. The L.A. Yiddish Cultural Club with its focus on creating a nonpartisan environment for all writers regardless of political and religious ideologies or gender and its emphasis on local publishing created an environment where women writers could flourish. Through this cultural institution women writers could continue to choose yidishe kultur as a cultural identity, while also reimagining and redefining what it meant. Yiddish cultural productions in the American West indicates that Yiddish did not “die” after the passage of comprehensive immigration restrictions in 1924, the accompanying decline of the Yiddish press, or the suburbanization and acculturation of Jews during the 1940s and 50s. Examining these women and their poetry shows how Yiddish culture did not disappear but was rather transformed as Jewish women travelled to the western United States and recontextualized the culture they carried
Enhanced Radar Detection Based on a Weather-Aware Constant False Alarm Rate Algorithm
No full textThe multifunction phased array radar (MPAR) program was created by organizations including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in an attempt to reduce overall cost by combining the missions of multiple agencies. Required capabilities for this project include detection of both civilian point targets and weather. One benefit of a combined radar for both agencies is the potential to improve detection within a storm. In detection for a point target, the presence of weather is considered clutter. The presence of strong weather clutter limits the abilities of traditional detection algorithms to detect weaker targets, and causes an increase in false alarms. The weather-aware constant false alarm rate (Wx-CFAR) algorithm is proposed as a mitigation path for detection in weather clutter. This algorithm combines the use of traditional constant false alarm rate (CFAR) techniques with additional variables calculated from weather. It uses a decision tree in order to determine if there is clear air or weather clutter. This algorithm is aimed at improving detection within a storm, and lowering the number of false alarms due to increased clutter. The algorithm was demonstrated on single polarization data which was collected using Horus with light precipitation and multiple aircraft present throughout. The results show a decrease in false alarms while maintaining an improved number of detections. The algorithm presented limitations when a point target had a similar radial velocity to the surrounding clutter and when a point target was located along a clutter edge
COULOMB STRESS ANALYSIS OF THE SITES HOSTING THE THREE LARGEST RECORDED EARTHQUAKES IN OKLAHOMA HISTORY: PAWNEE, OK AND PRAGUE, OK
No full textInduced seismicity has been identified as a major concern in areas of hydrocarbon production, subsurface carbon sequestration, and enhanced geothermal systems, among others. Induced earthquakes are now commonly seen in many places around the world, including Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, the frequency of earthquakes with a Mw 3.0+ surged from just 2 per year in 2009 to 579 in 2014, peaking at 903 in 2015 before decreasing to 194 by 2018 and 16 in 2023. Wastewater injection was widely regarded as a significant contributor to this dramatic rise in seismic activity across the state. Most of the seismic activity has been located in the north-central portion of the state. The two sites of interest in this study are in Pawnee County, OK, and near Prague, OK. In both cases, a Coulomb stress analysis is being conducted. Coulomb modeling is used to determine how slip on faults can impact stress changes on surrounding faults, which can help determine where aftershocks patterns should be, how one earthquake impacts another, and the overall stress transfer patterns in these locations.The first area of interest is the region termed the Pawnee Triple Junction (PTJ) in north-central Oklahoma, which consists of the Sooner Lake Fault (SLF), the Stillwater Fault (SWF), and a newly identified fault zone informally named the Northeast Trending Fault Zone (NEFZ). This region was the site of Oklahoma’s largest recorded earthquake—a Mw 5.8 tremor in 2016—along the SLF and there are two main hypotheses for the production of this event that are of interest here. The first hypothesis is that aseismic slip along the NEFZ, resulting from wastewater injection, triggered the rupture along the SLF. The second hypothesis is that slip along the SLF itself triggered the Mw 5.8 rupture along the SLF. These will both be tested and compared to see if either, both, or neither are probable hypotheses. A second site of interest in this study is a series of faults just north of Prague, OK, the Wilzetta Fault System (WFS) and the Meeker-Prague Fault (MPF). These two faults run parallel to one another for a portion of their lengths and have ruptured two mainshocks in the past 14 years. The first occurred on the MPF on November 6, 2011, and was a Mw 5.7 event. The second occurred on the WFS on February 3, 2024, and was a Mw 5.1 event. The 2011 event, similarly to the SLF mainshock, is attributed to wastewater injection as a byproduct of hydrocarbon collection. The 2024 event has had little research done on it, so this thesis is aiming to increase the understanding of this event. To investigate stress interactions in the vicinity of the SLF and Prague, OK sites, a Coulomb stress analysis was conducted with the goal of assessing the stress transfer related to the two hypotheses discussed above as well as for the three mainshocks in these sites. Additionally, for Prague, OK this same analysis was done to assess how much how much stress the 2011 event transferred to 2024 event’s epicentral region and how these two ruptures differentiate from one another with a focus on aftershock pattern differences. We utilized previously collected seismic data from the Oklahoma Geological Survey to better identify fault geometries and complexity. Software such as ArcGIS Pro, Coulomb Modeling Software 3.4 in MATLAB, and Fault Slip Potential 2.0 were used in the study to better understand the interplay of stress and seismicity in the region. The results of the area around the SLF showed the likelihood of the two foreshock hypotheses that are discussed in this thesis. It helped to quantify that slip on the NEFZ and/or SLF could have contributed to the SLF Mw 5.8 rupture in 2016. This was concluded based on Fault Slip Potential 2.0 results showing how much Coulomb stress change was calculated for the SLF to slip and Coulomb Modeling Software 3.4 results showing how much Coulomb stress was added to the hypocenter of the Mw 5.8 rupture along the SLF from each of these foreshocks. Both of these outputs were shown in the form of MPa of stress and by comparing them it was possible to see if these hypotheses were able to cause the mainshock to occur. If the hypothesized foreshock did not produce the same or more added Coulomb stress then it was determined that it was invalid since it would not have caused enough of a stress increase for the fault to slip. If the hypothesized foreshock produced the same or more added Coulomb stress increase then it was determined the hypothesis was valid since the foreshock generated enough Coulomb stress increase for the fault to slip. Comparing the Coulomb stress values for both foreshock hypothesis allowed for the identification of the more probable hypothesis as well. Whichever one added a higher amount of Coulomb stress during the Coulomb modeling portion would be interpreted as the higher probability foreshock since it caused more stress to accumulate at the hypocenter of the mainshock. Additionally, these results helped to assess the time-dependent aftershock distribution along the SLF based on ArcGIS Pro mapping and Coulomb stress change plots from Coulomb Modeling Software 3.4. For Prague, OK these results helped to determine the interplay between the 2011 and 2024 events and how they produced different aftershocks patterns. These findings offer insights into the stress patterns that caused these aftershocks in the locations they did since the areas of increased Coulomb stress are the areas we expect to see aftershocks. In addition to this, these results also helped to better explain the observed aftershock pattern differences in the two sites and how these two events interplayed to some extent. The results from the modelling experiments of the two study sites provided insight into the questions proposed in this thesis. It was able to test the two SLF foreshock hypotheses, construct Coulomb stress change plots to compare to aftershock data for Pawnee and Prague, OK, as well as compare the Mw 5.7 Prague 2011 earthquake with the Mw 5.1 Prague 2024 earthquake. Each of these aspects of this research helped to contribute to the bigger picture of the propagation of these earthquakes in Oklahoma and the role co-seismic Coulomb stress change plays a role in that propagation
PLAYFUL PRACTICES AND PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
No full textThis autoethnographic study examines one veteran teacher’s experiences to understand better how her playful personality and use of play in the classroom have continually shaped her identity and influenced the development of children's social-emotional learning, mental health and well-being, and relationships with students and families. Through a hybrid-process of open-ended coding and a priori coding of parent interviews, personal journals and reflections, and parent communications, six themes emerged that provide insight into the possible interconnections between playfulness, professional identity, and student development: teacher identity, playfulness, social-emotional learning, mental health and well-being, relationships, and joy. Together, these themes can offer insight into how playfulness, both as a mindset and a teaching practice, can create space for connection, healing, and joy in education. Implications derived from the findings point to using a playful approach to help children build emotional regulation, empathy, confidence, and resilience while also supporting the teacher’s own growth. While grounded in one teacher’s lived experience, this study offers reflections that could inform how educators, programs, and policies might value playfulness and joy as essential parts of developmentally appropriate learning practices. Keywords: teacher identity, playfulness, social-emotional learning, mental health and well-being, relationships, jo
DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION, AND LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF THE OKLAHOMA ALL-STATE BAND AUDITION EVALUATION MEASURE
No full textIn 2012, the Oklahoma Music Educators Association (OkMEA) band division embarked on a mission to research and address some of the reliability issues it encountered with its existing audition adjudication measurement tool. In this study, I utilized the McPherson and Thompson (1998) Process Model for Assessing Music Performance as a framework for analyzing the OkMEA audition structure. From this analysis, I developed a general audition measurement rating scale for its all-state band and orchestra wind and percussion auditions. The OkMEA implemented the Barber General Audition Measure (BGAM) at the auditions in 2014. This study examined five years (2015–2019, N = 2699, K = 425) of total scores for all final round wind and percussion audition results, categorized by instrument groups, audition year, and total results. The reliabilities were measured using Cronbach’s alpha, the intraclass coefficients (ICC), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) based on a mean rating (k = 5) in a consistency, 2-way mixed-effects model. The analysis results showed strong overall consistency and reliability by individual group, total year, and the five-year block using the BGAM
Valuative Trees in Arbitrary Characteristic and Applications to Log Canonical Thresholds
No full textValuations naturally encode birational invariants of algebraic varieties. This thesis investigates the valuative tree—the valuative space centered at the affine plane over a field—via two complementary approaches. The first analyzes its tree structure through the observer’s topology and introduces two parameterizations, skewness and thinness, defined using the sequence of key polynomials (SKP). Although obtained from distinct constructions, thinness is shown to coincide with log-discrepancy functions through the universal dual graph. The second approach employs tools from non-Archimedean geometry. We review the Berkovich affine line over a complete valued field, with particular attention to Hahn series and completed Puiseux series; in these cases, the valuative tree embeds naturally into the Berkovich line, revealing characteristic-dependent phenomena. As an application, we use valuative trees to compute the log canonical thresholdof analytically irreducible plane curves. We conclude by discussing an alternative approach to defining log discrepancy functions in positive characteristic, along with the counterpart to the log canonical threshold—the F-pure threshold
LATE PLEISTOCENE AND EARLY HOLOCENE SEDIMENTS, SOILS, AND HUMAN OCCUPATIONS ALONG WILDHORSE CREEK IN THE ARBUCKLE MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL OKLAHOMA.
No full textThe focal area of this study is Wildhorse Creek, a tributary of the Washita River in south-central Oklahoma where an avocational archaeologist, Roger Hamilton, has been collecting lithic tools and debitage for the past 20+ years. Thanks to Roger’s meticulous recording of the provenience of his finds, Wildhorse Creek presents a great opportunity to further archaeological knowledge of Paleoindigenous and Early Archaic groups occupying the Southern Plains, as well as the differential preservation conditions affecting the landforms in which the sites these groups left behind can be found. The results of these investigations evidence a continuous occupation of Wildhorse Creek dating back at least 11,000 radiocarbon years before present (rcybp), as well as the presence of buried landforms of equivalent time depth with the potential to house intact archaeological deposits. Geoarchaeological analyses performed also provide evidence in support of multiple major climatic events on the Southern Plains, including the Late Pleistocene Younger-Dryas cooling event, and the Middle Holocene Altithermal drought period. Lastly, buried soil dates obtained along Wildhorse Creek demonstrate the presence of three known paleosols (Black Mat, Caddo, Delaware), as well as a fourth, new, Middle Holocene paleosol we’ve termed the Wildhorse Paleosol which appears to bracket the Calf Creek Horizon
Using Indicators of Wetland Condition to Predict Metals Changes in Natural and Treatment Wetlands in the Tar Creek Watershed
No full textNatural and treatment wetlands have been shown to improve water quality on mining impacted lands using biogeochemical and microbiological processes, as well as providing ancillary ecosystem services. Wetlands are evaluated through indicators of condition such as hydrology, water quality, hydrophytic vegetation, and hydric soils. In the Tar Creek Superfund Site, part of the historic Tri-State Lead-Zinc Mining District in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri, treatment wetlands have been successfully incorporated into holistic multi-cell passive treatment systems to remove trace metals from net-alkaline, artesian flowing mine drainage. Incidental wetlands have also developed adjacent to the creek and near untreated mine drainage seeps throughout this watershed, due to mining-related landscape disturbances. This study compares the effectiveness of treatment wetlands and incidental wetlands in removing metals from surface water, determines which indicators of wetland condition correlate with effective removal of metals in mining-impacted wetlands, and determines which indicators of wetland condition correlate with a greater wetland vegetative structure in mining-impacted wetlands in order to develop site-specific recommendations for water quality improvement. Ten wetlands in the Tar Creek watershed were included, which represent various hydrologic regimes, water quality characteristics, vegetative communities, and substrate compositions. Treatment wetlands were determined to have greater removal efficiencies for Fe, Pb, Zn, and Cd; however, these trends were more closely related to influent water quality than hydrologic parameters. Vegetative cover was not more representative of metal removal efficiency than richness or diversity indices, and organic matter content in wetland substrate was not correlated with removal efficiency. Finally, excessive Fe concentrations in the substrate were shown to decrease vegetative diversity
IN SITU CO₂ GENERATION: NUMERICAL STUDY IN GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS AND EXPERIMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY
No full textChapter 1 introduces geothermal energy as a clean, renewable source with the potential to provide steady power and support global climate goals. As investment in geothermal grows, low-to-moderate temperature reservoirs that more common than high-temperature ones are gaining attention for both power generation and direct-use applications. The type of use depends largely on reservoir temperature, as outlined in the Lindal diagram. As geothermal development expands, accurately tracking the movement of the thermal front during cold-water injection becomes increasingly important. Unable to track this movement accurately can lead to inefficient heat extraction and poor reservoir management. Tracers have emerged as a promising tool to address this challenge, as they offer a way to monitor subsurface flow paths and thermal front propagation more efficiently. Among various tracer types, temperature-dependent reactive tracers are the most effective due to their sensitivity to temperature changes. However, many existing reactive tracers face limitations in high-temperature reservoirs due to their chemical formulations stability. These challenges have led to growing interest in identifying new tracers that are both stable and responsive under reservoir conditions. This research proposes urea as a temperature-dependent reactive tracer with strong potential for geothermal applications. Its predictable hydrolysis behavior, high solubility, and low cost make it a practical choice for field-scale use. The study is built around three core questions: whether urea can reliably track the thermal front, how its performance is affected by reservoir and operational parameters, and how it compares to existing reactive tracers. Together, these questions guide the work that follows, laying the foundation for simulation-based evaluation of urea’s behavior in geothermal systems. The second chapter of this dissertation focuses on the foundational step of building a reliable and representative numerical model for simulating geothermal reservoir behavior, when exposed to cold-water injection. Numerical simulation is a powerful tool for studying heat extraction, but it naturally involves errors from time and space discretization, such as numerical dispersion that can cause inaccuracy in the results. Thus, if not properly controlled, these errors can distort the simulation of thermal front movement and lead to incorrect predictions of reservoir performance. This chapter addresses these issues by evaluating how grid block size and time-step selection influence the accuracy and efficiency of the model. A key objective is to have the right balance between minimizing numerical dispersion and maintaining manageable running time. The study also emphasizes the importance of applying realistic boundary conditions, to ensure that simulation results are physically relevant to real reservoir situations. Beyond numerical sensitivity, this chapter focuses also on refining reaction parameters related to urea hydrolysis, and ensuring consistency in thermal energy in place calculations. Together, these efforts are aimed at improving model calibration and laying a solid floor for the subsequent simulation chapter that builds upon this base framework. Chapter 3 explores the use of urea as a temperature-dependent reactive tracer for tracking thermal front movement in geothermal reservoirs. Using CMG STARS, urea was simulated under varying temperatures and injection rates. Results showed that its effectiveness depends on in-situ flow velocity, reaction kinetics, and reservoir temperature. urea performed best between 70–90 °C, providing a clear signal at the production well. Its intermediate reaction rate allowed better thermal tracking than both slower and faster-reacting tracers, making it suitable for moderate-temperature systems. To validate the simulation and assess a common temperature estimation method, Hawkins et al. (2021) correlation was applied. This helped to identify whether the method tends to overestimate reservoir temperatures under urea conditions, which offers additional insight into its reliability for geothermal applications. Chapter 4 explores the phase behavior of surfactant formulations designed for further application that will be tested in the future for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in tight shale formations with the addition of urea. The goal was to identify systems capable of forming stable Type III microemulsions and achieving ultra-low interfacial tension (IFT), which are essential for mobilizing trapped oil. Petrostep S2, a thermally stable internal olefin sulfonate (IOS) surfactant, was tested for the first time in this context, within a shale + urea framework. The working hypothesis was that S2, when paired with co-surfactants and under optimal salinity, could promote favorable microemulsion formation and support both IFT reduction and wettability alteration at elevated temperatures. A series of formulations were evaluated across temperatures of 25 °C, 50 °C, and 90 °C, focusing on high-temperature performance. Co-surfactants including Alfoterra, SDBS, and Calfax were combined with S2 at various ratios, and salinity was systematically varied to track microemulsion transitions. Visual phase behavior screening was used to detect the formation of Winsor phases, especially Type III systems. The Chun-Huh correlation was applied to estimate IFT based on observed solubilization parameters. Among the tested systems, a 50:50 blend of S2 and SDBS at 17% NaCl showed the most promising behavior, forming a stable middle-phase microemulsion with theoretically ultra-low IFT. This formulation was selected for further flowthrough evaluation in one-dimensional sand pack experiments in the subsequent chapter, allowing comparison of its oil recovery potential against previously tested urea-based in-situ CO₂ systems. Nevertheless, binary systems with Calfax 16L-35 demonstrated similar behavior but at slightly high salt concentrations. Chapter 5 builds on the findings of Chapter 4 by applying the optimal surfactant formulation in combination with urea under dynamic flowthrough conditions. Using 1D sand pack experiments, the study investigates the performance of this coupled system for EOR in sandstone medium. Upon injection, urea decomposes at elevated temperatures to generate CO₂ and NH₃. The CO₂ partitions into the oil phase, reducing viscosity and swelling the oil, while NH₃ promotes wettability alteration through interaction with the rock surface. The addition of the ultra-low IFT surfactant formulation further enhances oil mobility by significantly reducing interfacial tension. This combined approach depends on multiple recovery mechanisms; viscosity reduction, wettability alteration, and interfacial control, working together to improve oil displacement efficiency. Although earlier studies have reported the benefits of urea-based systems in various formations, they typically used surfactants with only moderate IFT reduction. This chapter explores the synergy between urea and ultra-low IFT surfactants, offering new insights into their potential for boosting recovery in tight reservoir conditions in future work.
ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS OF NEAR-SHORE ACTIVITY ON THE MOLLUSCAN COMMUNITIES IN LAKE TANGANYIKA, AFRICA
No full textIn recent decades, increased near-shore agriculture and urbanization surrounding the large lake basins of the African Rift Valley have led to increasing rates of sedimentation and nutrient loading. These environmental changes can impact benthic habitats through altering substrates, suffocating feeding appendages, and accumulating organic matter on the lake floor. Whereas the response of marine benthos to similar anthropogenic effects is increasingly documented, freshwater environments have been historically understudied. Consequently, our understanding of freshwater benthic response in areas at-risk of sedimentation is limited. Using extensive shell beds of mollusks collected from 9 to 20m along three coastlines of Lake Tanganyika, I reconstructed the taxonomic, functional feeding, and taphonomic composition of benthic communities. Results indicate an inverse taxonomic and functional community composition across sites, driven by substrate type and organic matter concentrations. N. tanganyicense, a gastropod with mixed detritivore/suspension-feeding habits, along with numerous algivore/grazing gastropods, were abundant in muddy, organic-rich areas, whereas a suspension-feeding unionid bivalve, G. burtoni, thrived in sandy, organic-limited substrates. After performing taxonomic rank-order and similarity metrics on each site, results indicate a taxonomic discordance trend in organic-rich substrates similar to that found in areas experiencing anthropogenic eutrophication. The findings also suggest broader relevance for understanding taxonomic and functional tolerances, indicating that relationships among molluscan functional feeding groups could serve as biological indicators of organic-rich substrates