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Reading on the home front: the evolution of U.S. children’s literature and American values during wartime conflicts
Get PDFChildren’s print culture is an understudied dimension of American history. It is well established that children’s history is vital to understanding the role of the child in American history and how modern childhood has developed. This study aims to uncover how children’s print culture plays a vital role in understanding how children’s perspectives changed and the varied messages adults imposed on children during the Civil War, World War One, and World War Two. In this Honors Thesis, I study various types of print productions including short stories, comics, and school textbooks in order to understand the various ways adults attempted to shape children’s thoughts and political ideologies. By studying this dimension of American children’s history, historians can peer into the private and personal lives of American families during some of the most horrific as well as influential times in American lives and understand the profound impacts the Civil War, World War One, and World War Two had on the lives of Americans
Analyzing the social aspect of e-cigarette prevention with college-aged consumers
Get PDFThis research investigated how social aspects influence college-aged e-cigarette users’ decision to use or quit using these devices. We conducted interviews of 10 young adult e-cigarette users and past users to explore three main topics: their experience with e-cigarettes, their evaluation of selected picture and narrative-based advertisements, and preventative phrasing they would suggest for future advertisements. We identified that social influence on young adults’ e-cigarette consumption/cessation revolved around three primary themes: availability of the device, peer pressure, and change of perspective. More importantly, we discovered that the effect of these themes would differ, and the source of the social influence would differ in different stages of a young adult’s journey with e-cigarettes (initiation, continuation, and cessation). Finally, we also identified young adults’ preferences for message and presentation format of e-cigarette preventive campaigns. This research offered insights into understanding social factors\u27 role in young adults’ cigarette consumption/cessation and provided implications for practitioners to create e-cigarette preventative campaigns for this age group
Kuei-Chih Lee: Contemporary Taiwanese Artist
Get PDFKuei-Chih Lee is an contemporary Taiwanese environmental artist that focuses on using natural materials within his art installations.https://scholar.utc.edu/global-contemporary-artists/1012/thumbnail.jp
Reconstructing a Soviet-Era Plastic Model to Predict Vibratory Pile Driving Performance
Get PDFAbstract: The technique for driving piles by vibration (as opposed to impact) has been an important component of deep foundations and retaining wall installation since it was first demonstrated in the Soviet Union in the late 1940\u27s. The Soviets originally developed the technology and applied it to a wide variety of pile types. Nevertheless, the analytical methods they developed to estimate the performance of these machines have not been widely disseminated outside of the country, either before or after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In this paper one specific model, analysing longitudinal vibratory performance using a purely plastic/Coulombic model of soil resistance, is reconstructed and discussed. The model is compared with the most disseminated Soviet model for sizing vibratory pile drivers and predicting performance. Some discussion on Soviet vibratory modelling beyond the model presented is also included
Effects of Sexual Orientation and Gender on Perceptions of the Bereaved
Get PDFBereavement is associated with increased risk of mortality, decrements in physical health, and diverse psychological reactions (Stroebe et al., 2007, p.1960). To cope, many turn to friends and family for emotional and instrumental support (Taylor, 2007, p.193). However, the support offered to the bereaved may vary based on the gender and/or sexual orientation of the bereaved. Previous research regarding the grieving process has mainly involved those in heterosexual relationships, with little focused on the grieving process for LGBTQ people; the LGBTQ research available generally focuses on addressing grief in HIV/AIDS-related deaths among gay males, resulting in a paucity of research on the experiences of lesbian women and gay men whose partners’ deaths were not HIV/AIDS-related within the literature (e.g., Almack et al., 2010). Research shows that same sex partners are more likely to experience disenfranchised grief after the loss of a loved one (Green & Grant, 2008). Disenfranchised grief is experienced when one “incur[s] a loss that is not, or cannot be, openly acknowledged, publicly mourned, or socially supported” (Doka, 1999, p.37). The current study aims to investigate the effects of sexual orientation and gender on perceptions of bereaved partners. Participants were recruited from undergraduate courses in psychology. Participants were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire, read a scenario depicting a bereaved partner, and respond to questions measuring their perceptions of the person depicted in the scenario (e.g. empathy, social support, expected grief time, proposed grief time). The study randomly assigned each participant a scenario in which they read about a straight man, a straight woman, a gay man, or a lesbian woman who lost their married partner. Preliminary results, including descriptive statistics and 2x2 ANOVA, will be presented. This research may have practical implications for social workers, counselors, and psychologists working with bereaved individuals, particularly those in the LGBTQ+ community. Implications and suggestions for future research will be discussed
Multi-scale and multi-group modeling techniques applied to Cholera and COVID-19
Get PDFCholera is an acute intestinal illness caused by infection with the Vibrio cholerae bacteria. The dynamics of the disease transmission are governed by human-human, environment-human, and within-human sub-dynamics. Specifically, the within-host dynamics incorporate virus and immune cell interaction with the vibrios. One model is presented to incorporate all three of these dynamical components. This model is extended to consider the case of a sub-divided population interacting in a spatially heterogeneous environment. In particular, we find that the between-host reproduction number is shaped by the collection of the disease risk factors from all the individual host groups. These multi-patch techniques are used to present a model of the United States outbreak of COVID-19 during the summer of 2020. The existence and uniqueness of a DFE (Disease Free Equilibrium) are discussed in light of the number R0, when applicable, as well as the existence and uniqueness of a positive EE (Endemic Equilibrium). The conditions needed to achieve local and global stability in each system are reviewed, and numerical simulations are presented to supplement these mathematical results
Creation of a Trimmed Powered Aerodynamic Database for a Generic Hypersonic Vehicle
Get PDFThe purpose of this thesis is to propose and evaluate a methodology for creating an inviscid trimmed powered database for a generic airbreathing hypersonic vehicle. The database was created using the cartesian flow solver Cart3D. Propulsion effects were coupled to the airframe and inlet by using conditions at the inlet of the combustor to determine conditions at the exit of the combustor. This was done by solving the quasi-one-dimensional momentum equation with heat addition. Selected trajectory points were also evaluated using the viscous solver, FUN3D. The viscous solutions contain effects such as boundary layer separation which had a pronounced effect on the computed axial force. In all cases, the viscous solutions predicted a lower thrust than the inviscid solutions, mainly due to the presence of viscous shear stresses. Experimental data would be required to further evaluate the validity of the assumptions made in both the inviscid and viscous analysis
Rodney Stephenson biographical sketch
Get PDFRodney Stephenson was a Civil rights activist at the UTC campus in the 1970\u27s. He was known for many specific roles he held on campus as well as the organizations he was involved in. The UTC newspaper titled Echo was also a large platform for Stephenson in advocating for Civil Rights on campus. This article explains some of the ways Stephenson fought to expose and eradicate racism that existed at UTC in the 1970\u27s.https://scholar.utc.edu/racial-justice-biographies/1003/thumbnail.jp
The geography of social connectedness
No full textSocial networks can shape many aspects of social and economic activity: migration and trade, job-seeking, innovation, consumer preferences and sentiment, public health, social mobility, and more. In turn, social networks themselves are associated with geographic proximity, historical ties, political boundaries, and other factors. This talk will overview how we use data from Facebook to understand the determinants and geography of social connections and the role social networks play in migration, trade, consumer preferences, and social mobility
Calibration study of a bacterial quantification technique using transport swabs and line inoculations on agar growth medium
Get PDFEnumeration of bacteria has been the subject of research for over a century. Some of the techniques that have been developed include viable plate counts, the most probable number assessment, and more modern molecular techniques. Many of the newer molecular-based techniques provide little or no information about the viability of the cells being counted, and are generally not quantitative. Having quantitative data for potentially pathogenic bacteria on surfaces can be very useful in many settings, particularly in healthcare facilities. Knowing the numbers of bacterial cells present on surfaces within healthcare facilities may be important to attempt to study the cause of healthcare associated infections (HAIs). This study was envisioned to help develop a rapid technique to quantify viable bacteria utilizing a short (5 cm) line inoculation on agar-based growth media, providing a quick assessment of the density of bacterial cells present. To do this required determination of the relationship between colony counts from line inoculations compared with viable plate counts from the same source of bacterial cells. This study of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus has produced data that suggests that there is a close relationship between the number of cells placed on a microscope slide and the colony counts obtained from swabs used to remove those cells from the slide, whether counted by a viable plate count or via a short line inoculation on an agar surface. When the number of colony forming units (CFUs) on the microscope slide are \u3c 5000 for E. coli, and \u3c 10,000 for S. aureus there is good correlation between the viable plate count and the line inoculation count. This relationship between the numbers of colonies in the starting material surface and the line inoculation falls off when the numbers of colonies from the source material (the microscope slide) is greater. Factors that may contribute to this loss of correlation when the source material has higher numbers of CFUs may include surface area issues similar to limitations to statistically valid viable plate counts that have been known for a century. The results of this work should lead to additional studies with different species of bacteria, as this study only included one Gram-positive, non-motile coccus (S. aureus) and one Gram-negative, motile rod (E. coli). Other species of bacteria should be studied