Middle Tennessee State University
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Air Conditioning for Cows? Determining the Effects of Heat and Cold Stress on Dairy Cattle Using Applied Economics
No full textThis undergraduate honors thesis uses an ordinary least squares regression model
to measure the relationship between temperature and milk output in the dairy industry
followed by a partial equilibrium analysis to estimate the welfare impacts of increasing
global temperatures. Regression results show that milk output is subject to both heat and
cold stress and that there is an optimal temperature for dairy production. However, the
average U.S. temperature is currently below the optimal threshold. Thus, rising average
temperatures may increase the milk supply nominally as cows spend more time in the
thermoneutral comfort zone. However, the increased farm revenue from increased
production is offset by lower market prices, resulting in a small negative financial impact
for dairy farmers and a 3
million in farm revenue and $50 million in consumer surplus.
Keywords: heat stress, cold stress, dairy cattle, applied welfare economics, partial
equilibrium, elasticity of demand, climate change, agricultur
Exploring opportunities for reconceptualizing place-based science education as a three-way dance of agency
No full textTeaching science involves designing learning experiences that attend to a complex set of relationships between students, the discipline of science, and the places where science experiences are carried out. Unfortunately, with traditional approaches to K-12 science instruction, contributions to learning from students and places are often overlooked as educators seek to create disciplinary experiences that increase science learning outcomes that are measurable, repeatable, and standardized. Place-based science education seeks to push back on traditional science education approaches, and create opportunities for children, places, and disciplines to equitably take up their agency and influence the learning experiences. However, the way these agents interact in place-based science education experiences in K-12 settings is still largely unknown. Therefore, to gain a greater understanding of how these agents interact, this work explores the design, implementation, and outcomes of a Place-Based Science Education (PBSE) learning experience that equitably positions children, a place, and the discipline of science. To do this, I completed a design-based research project where I developed two science investigations that engaged 6th grade science students in the exploration of “variation” in their schoolyard ecosystem. I analyzed a variety of data from these two investigations to characterize children’s knowledge, experiences during the instructional design, and subsequent learning outcomes. I also characterized the nature of interactions amongst children, the material world, and the discipline of science.Ph.D
Fleur Pillager: Storytellers and Stories Told
No full textContemporary Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich uses storytelling within her Love Medicine series in order to weave countless intricacies throughout her narrative pertaining to the several generations that reside in her fictional North Dakota reservation named Little No Horse. Analysis of Erdrich’s storytelling methods illuminates her ability to draw inspiration from and honor traditional Ojibwe oral storytelling through the story and character of Fleur Pillager. Several similarities between traditional Ojibwe storytelling and Erdrich’s narrative can be found within her storytelling methods surrounding the character of Fleur Pillager, most notably being the interconnected nature of these narratives and how they relate to the traditional Ojibwe symbol of the circle. Erdrich’s integration of the oral storytelling tradition is highlighted by analysis of each individual Love Medicine novel, therefore providing a new lens with which to understand Erdrich’s Ojibwe influences and narrative techniques and how they are used to create and define the character of Fleur Pillager.M.A
The Invisible Wound: Jewish Poetics, Modernity, and the Return of the Repressed
No full textThis dissertation explores a narrative in which, in the process of its own subject formation, Western culture produced a salvific but antisemitic fantasy of Judaization which shaped its approach to aesthetics. Over centuries, that aesthetic vision would be systematized by writers and thinkers like St. Paul, St. Augustine, and Geoffrey Chaucer. In time, it would come to inform the development of modernism—an influence I track through the work of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot (who rejected it), as well as Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) and Wallace Stevens (who embraced it). At the same time, and rather ironically, it would also provide modern Jewish writers with an entry point—albeit an overdetermined one—for engaging and revising the tradition of Western aesthetics. I argue that, due in part to the interventions of Jewish artists, notably Louis Zukofsky, this fantasy produced a counter discourse within modernism, some of whose practitioners, both Jewish (e.g. Zukofsky) and gentile (e.g. H.D. and Stevens), came to see in Jewishness, or in the Jewish approach to language and textuality, something subversive and vital, something which—though derided as sacrilege—might yet prove energizing to a new generation of modern artists. Through a mixture of New Historicist, New Critical, poststructuralist, and deconstructive approaches, this dissertation investigates the roots of antisemitic aesthetics in the Western tradition, traces that dispensation into modernity, and then examines the counter discourse produced by Jewish writers—itself an alternate mode of modern poetics based in the Jewish philosophy of language and in the practice of rabbinical hermeneutics—as well as its influence on non-Jewish writers and on the development of literary modernism.Ph.D
Confucianism in Chinese Politics: Comparing Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping
No full textChina's recent and dramatic rise has both led to concerns in many democratic
countries about its authoritarian leanings and increased interest in Chinese politics.
This paper explores one aspect of modem China's political landscape by
investigating how Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping have used Confucianism in their
politics and whether this corresponds to how each leader claims to view
Confucianism. It concludes that Mao's policies and the values he promoted were
almost always antithetical to the fundamental principles of Confucianism, which is
consistent with his habit of condemning the philosophy. On the other hand, Xi is
consistent in his support of Confucianism, both praising it verbally and enacting
many of its tenets in policy. Overall, the actions of each man correspond
surprisingly well to the positions they claim to hold on Confucianism
Does This Building Make Me Look Fat? The Relationship Between Work from Home, Barriers and Facilitators to Nutrition and Exercise, and the Role of Stress By
No full textWork-related stress has become a public health crisis, which is deeply concerning given the detrimental effects it can have on an individual's mental and physical well-being. It was hypothesized that barriers and facilitators of healthy decision making would be associated with healthy decision making. It was also hypothesized that work from home would be associated with barriers and facilitators of healthy decision making, as well as that barriers and facilitators would be associated with stress. Lastly, a mediation relationship was hypothesized of work from home and stress through barriers and facilitators of healthy decision making. A total of 214 participants engaged in a daily diary survey over a span of five consecutive workdays, reporting their daily dietary and exercise choices, daily factors that acted as barriers or facilitators of those choices, daily stress, and whether they worked from home. This study found support for the association of facilitators with healthy decision making, as well as support for the potential of remote work to decrease the barriers and facilitators of healthy decision making. There was also no support for the mediation relationship hypothesized. Organizations can use the knowledge of various barriers and facilitators of healthy decision making to redesign the organizational practices, create healthy interventions, and promote employee well-being to make it easier for employees to make healthy decisions. Implications and future directions are also discussed.M.A
Can Collaborative Professional Development Impact Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Self-Efficacy Beliefs And Knowledge Regarding Vocabulary Instruction?
No full textThis study examined the variations between providing secondary-school teachers with collaborative professional development (PD) and traditional PD. Although the U.S. local and federal governments spend billions of dollars on teacher PDs each year, there is still a debate on the effectiveness of those trainings. Research suggests that the most effective PDs have several features: 1) teachers can collaborate, 2) ongoing PDs are provided with more content hours for learning, and 3) learning activities are presented with clear objectives. This study examined secondary teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of vocabulary instruction gained via a traditional versus a collaborative PD. The researcher conducted a five-session PD emphasizing instructional vocabulary strategies. Thirty-six secondary teachers from different content areas working in a rural southeastern high school participated. The study collected pre- and post-survey data using a quantitative research methodology. Participants were assessed through two survey instruments to determine potential changes in their 1) instructional vocabulary knowledge, and 2) their perceptions of self-efficacy regarding delivering vocabulary via effective instructional strategies. This study’s independent variable (IV) was a collaborative PD intervention provided to the collaborative (COL) cohort. The business-as-usual cohort (BAU) received a traditional PD. The dependent variables (DVs) comprised participants’ perceptions of self-efficacy and vocabulary content knowledge. Independent and dependent t-tests data were used to analyze differences within each cohort from pre- to post-surveys and between the two cohorts from pre- to post-surveys. The data showed cohort-wide changes in knowledge and perceptions as an outcome of each PD. When analyzing the data for the differences within each cohort, the study determined that both cohorts showed statistically significant gains in knowledge and perceptions from pre- to post-surveys. However, when analyzing the data for the differences between the cohorts, the study determined that the COL cohort’s growth from pre- to post-surveys was not significantly different from the BAU cohort. Thus, the collaborative interventional PD did not substantially shape the COL cohort’s knowledge and perceptions.Ph.D
Using a Podcast to Raise Awareness for Issues within the Foster System and Lift the Voices of Ex-Foster Youth
No full textFor this Honors creative thesis, I recorded, edited, and produced a podcast in
which I interviewed people about their experience with foster care. The intent of the
podcast was to make information about the foster system more accessible, make current
and previous foster youth visible, and hold residential treatment facilities accountable for
abuse and neglect. Most of the sources interviewed were ex-foster youth or adoptees but
also included were a previous Tennessee Department of Children’s Services worker, an
adoptive parent, and an individual who was “restraint trained” to protect people from
harm. Prominent topics included restraints, seclusions, family court, revictimization in
foster care, and mental health. Over seven episodes, the podcast grows the body of
knowledge about foster care while including reforms and changes that ex-foster youth
would like to see implemented in residential treatment facilities, group homes, and
traditional care. A continuation of the podcast series would expand to more testimonies
from ex-foster youth about group and residential homes and discussions about the
representation of current and previous foster youth in popular media
MORAL AMBIGUITY IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: FINDING THE GRAY SPACE AND IN BETWEEN IN THE WORKS OF GARTH NIX AND J.K. ROWLING
No full textOne of the cornerstones of heroic fantasy literature is the ever-persistent struggle between opposing forces traditionally conceived as the sides of good and evil, often metaphorically described as a conflict between “the light versus the dark.” This dichotomy was cemented within the genre with the publishing of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series in the mid-twentieth century. Since that time, the lines between “good” and “evil” within the genre of heroic fantasy have been drawn very clearly, especially when the fantasy is intended for a child or young adult audience. However, in more recent years, subversions to these characteristic conventions have been increasingly popular; moral ambiguity now seems to be a dominant thematic trend for twenty-first century heroic fantasy, especially that aimed at a young adult audience. The focus of this thesis will be on morally ambiguous characters as seen in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.M.A