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The Missionary Colonist: Narrative Authority in Representing the Subaltern
No full textThis thesis explores various questions about narrative authority by exploring missionary narrative tropes and how these tropes are contested in the work of contemporary novel-ists who attempt to challenge the dominant narratives that portray subaltern groups. Mis-sionaries have often dominated the narrative authority that speaks about the peoples they encounter and the morality of their cultures. Missionaries open the door to Western ide-ology, create a physical presence that then justifies an imperial presence that allows Western power to seize control. The missionary emphasis on Western education and in-doctrination furthers their impact on these communities as not only is their land taken, their doctrines and ideologies are shifted. Novels such as Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions offer alternative perspectives by granting voice to subaltern peoples in an attempt to challenge the dominant narratives controlled by missionary perspectives. This thesis attempts to understand how these accounts are heard and understood and to high-light the continuance of limitation to subaltern speech.M.L.A
The complementary relationship between concerts and recorded music for top-performing artists
No full textPaper 1: Promotional effects of recorded music and superstars on
concert financial outcomes
Using a comprehensive data set of hand-collected observations of top touring performing artists, I examine the relationship between recorded music and concert financial outcomes. I find that music streaming derives substantive financial benefit to the top-100 touring artists. Using empirical estimates from a panel model with artist fixed-effects, an artist can derive an incremental 49K per show when achieving a 20% increase in music streaming. Additionally, using a 2SLS model with artist fixed-effects to account for potential endogenous promotional effects, I identify top performers ("superstars") who derive significant additional concert revenue because of their back-catalog of hit songs. These top performers earn an incremental $15K per show in response to every week they have a song from their catalog in the Billboard Top-20. These findings indicate that artists maintain the ability to use their musical and performance legacy to build lifelong earnings from their music and performance.
Paper 2: The complementary relationship between concerts
and recorded music for top-performing artists
This paper examines the complementary effects of live concerts on incremental pre-and-post concert music streams in twenty-nine US cities. The work identifies that performers who have greater concert ticket demand, deeper hit-song catalogs, and/or are in the middle of their career experience stronger trends in their streams before and after their concerts in the markets where they perform. It also identifies that post-concert effects last up to ten weeks after the event. I hand-collected data of concert ticket sales, music streaming, and song rankings from the top sixty global performing artists. I then utilized a panel model empirical approach with artist and market fixed-effects to identify pre-concert promotional and post-concert decaying effects. This work will help top performing artists gain insight into the little-understood influence of live performance on the streaming of their recorded music.
Paper 3: Performing artist response to the Copyright Royalty Board rate increase
and the Music Modernization Act
This paper examines the financial impact of the consecutive regulatory events of the Copyright Royalty Board rate increase in January 2018 and the passage of the Music Modernization Act in October 2018 on the release activity by the top 100 artists. This work identifies that the rate increase corresponded with a significant increase in musical track releases for a short eight-month period until the Music Modernization Act became law. Artists who are younger, had composed their music, and/or actively touring were more likely to increase their release activity. The analysis also identifies a handful of artists who have benefited from the new regulations.Ph.D
Data-driven deep Neural Networks for epidemiological and biochemical models
No full textIn recent years, the efficiency of deep neural networks to forward and inverse problems that have found applications in biochemical and epidemiological models has been demonstrated. In these systems, it has been observed that the system parameters fit unknown nonlinear functions. Classical models mostly assume these system parameters to be constants. Some researchers explicitly chose a form for these nonlinear parameters using intuition and good reasoning. In this work, we will study mathematical models with nonlinear dynamics that occur in biochemical and epidemiological models and we will develop data-driven deep learning approaches to learn the nonlinear parameters in these models and thereby detect hidden patterns in these complex systems. In our study, we will employ a modification of the physics-informed neural network. The modified network, which we call an epidemiology informed neural network, allows us to predict nonlinear system parameters. Here, multilayer perceptrons are connected to a larger multilayer perceptron that learns the solution to a system of partial differential equations or a system of ordinary differential equations. The Neural network approaches we present are suitable for partial differential equations and ordinary differential equations because they are meshless and can scale to high spatial dimensions. They can also solve forward and inverse problems with sparse data. We enforce the physics of our model in the objective function and device efficient methods that allows us to train with a small dataset. The adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system, a widely used Neural network in time series forecast, is combined with an epidemiology informed neural network. We demonstrate that this hybrid network is an improvement over the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. We also demonstrate that the epidemiology informed neural network combined with a recurrent neural network such as the long short-term memory network provides a more accurate short-term forecast than a plain recurrent neural network. Next, we develop an attention-based neural network that is capable of learning nonlinear dynamics from noisy data.Ph.D
DIGITAL SEED GRANT WINNERS AND FINAL PROJECTS 2021-2022
No full textRevisiting the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) with Computerized Linguistic Analysis, Cindi Brown; Voices From the Amazon: Translating Three Brazilian Films, Paul Chilsen; Tissue Culture of American Ginseng, Ethan Swiggart.Walker Library Digital Scholarship Initiatives supports individual and collaborative digital projects in research, teaching, and public outreach from any discipline on campus. The Digital Seed Grant is an annual award for start-up funds, developed to encourage and create opportunities for faculty, staff, and graduate students to use digital technologies in their research, service, or teaching.
The Digital Seed Grant (dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant) had impressive applications for its fifth year (award period 2021-2022), which initially launched in 2016 for the award period of 2017-2018. The Digital Seed Grant Review Committee and Library Dean decided to award three grants for the 2021-2022 academic year.
The AY 21-22 awardees were announced on the website at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant21-22. Below is a summary of the three winning projects and resulting outcomes.The Digital Seed Grant is made possible by generous funding and support from the Library Dean and the Digital Scholarship Initiatives team. For many, this is a starter grant, which can lead to national grant opportunities in the future and Walker Library wants to encourage and support such creativity activity.
As a competitive grant, evaluation of applications and assessment of digital lifecycles of selected projects takes time. The Digital Seed Grant is indebted to the time of the Review Committee, comprised of digital project experts from Walker Library and the Digital Partners (a rotating member from the Department of History, Center for Historic Preservation, Center for Popular Music, Albert Gore Research Center, and the University Archives). The Walker Library also thanks those that help promote the grant and encourage participation. Since 2017, the library has jumped-started campus research by funding 15 digital seed grant projects across various academic disciplines.
The 2022-2023 call for proposals closed, and those projects are running from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2022. As those projects are completed, the following website will be updated: https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant22-23.
For more information on the Digital Seed Grant and access the application, visit https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant
Examining Sleep and Sleep Hygiene in a Sample of College Students and Differences Between On and Off-Campus Housing
No full textInsufficient sleep poses risks to mental health, physical health, and overall well-being but is often overlooked, particularly in young adults and college students whose academic success may also be impacted. Improving sleep health of students is therefore paramount to improving student success and well-being, but little information exists on student’s existing sleep habits. Sleep hygiene practices are associated with better sleep, but may not be common in students, particularly among those who live in dorms and have little control over their environment. This study aimed to analyze sleep habits in a sample of 74 students at Middle Tennessee State University and determine if differences exist between those who live on-campus and those who live off-campus after accounting for the impact of anxiety. Results indicated that worse sleep hygiene was significantly correlated with lower sleep efficiency. Additionally, anxiety was negatively correlated with sleep hygiene, time asleep, and sleep efficiency. No differences were found between students who live on-campus and off-campus after controlling for the influence of anxiety, although future studies should further examine this using larger samples. KEYWORDS: Sleep Hygiene; Insufficient Sleep; Sleep Efficiency; Sleep Quality; Anxiety; College Students; Young Adult
The Cult of Cinderella: A Perennial Princess in Fourth-Wave Feminist America
No full textCinderella can either be considered a beloved staple of film, fairy tales, and childhood or a character whose portrayal as a persecuted heroine makes her a keen target for feminist critique. Her continuous presence on screen and in print attests to her popularity, yet many new versions of “Cinderella” draw ire as the character is typically depicted in need of a (male) savior. Current trends are shifting Cinderella away from this damsel-in-distress role, ensuring her relevancy to modern audiences. This dissertation examines Cinderella through a feminist lens and explains her permanent placement in feminist discourse and popular culture.
Chapter One examines the history and evolution of “Cinderella” and variants of the Cinderella-tale as defined by Marian Roalfe Cox and classified by the Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type index. This chapter scrutinizes the best-known variants of “Cinderella,” as written by Giambattista Basile, Charles Perrault, and the Brothers Grimm and discusses how the popularity of these three tales helped cement Cinderella’s continued relevance in both academic study and popular culture. Chapter Two examines feminist criticism of “Cinderella” and explores the shifts in that criticism through the second, third, and fourth waves of this movement. The changing focus of feminist critique towards this tale is reflected in modern retellings, which present a heroine with more depth and greater agency. Chapter Three examines these modern retellings, focusing on trends which shape the new “Cinderella,” presenting the tale through the lens of gender inclusivity, sex positivity and young adult expectations. This chapter also follows a trend which presents the tale from the perspective of previously supporting characters, such as the stepmother or the prince. Chapter Four follows Cinderella’s representation in film over the past seventy years, both as retellings which are true to the traditional fairy tale version or as retellings which present a Cinderella-story. Several films are examined through the lens of feminist criticism in an attempt to determine if that criticism has an effect on how Cinderella is presented in future adaptations. Chapter Five discusses the effect that Walt Disney’s Cinderella has had on how Americans view Cinderella, how this character has been monetized, and how she launched the idea of happily-ever-after, via a Disney wedding. This chapter examines feminist criticism which claims that viewing this film or engaging with Cinderella through games or make-believe will foster gendered behavior in children. Chapter Six discusses Cinderella’s relevance in popular culture, focusing on digital platforms which allow both academics and non-academics to offer defense or vitriol towards this princess. The continued relevance of Cinderella is demonstrated through her presentation in various pop culture formats, which offer the tale with changes that reflect current social ideology and shifts in feminist thinking.Ph.D
The Use and Perceptions of Alternative Therapies in the Horse Industry
No full textHorse owners use and interest in alternative therapies appears to be growing. It is imperative then to understand what drives perception and use of chiropractic, acupuncture, pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF), and massage therapy on horses. This study explored horse owner use and perceptions of these alternative therapies. We hypothesized that participant-reported use of these therapies would differ by rider discipline, age, education, and frequency of competition. An online survey was distributed via social media and included demographics and questions to determine respondents’ use and perceptions of these alternative therapies. Of 702 respondents, 661 met the criteria of inclusion of having owned or cared for horses. Overall, 86% of respondents had used a form of alternative therapy on a horse they owned or cared for. Further, respondent age, frequency of competition, and discipline influenced use in chiropractic and acupuncture, but only age and frequency of competition influenced PEMF use. Ninety-nine percent of respondents agreed that massage was safe to use on their horse, while only 91% felt similarly about PEMF. When asked if the effectiveness of each therapy was well researched, only 63% agreed for PEMF, while 85% agreed that chiropractic was. This study indicates that owners feel that these therapies are beneficial to their horses, and perceive they are generally safe or effective despite little scientific evidence.M.S
The Study of Symmetric and Asymmetric Key Encryptions
No full textEncryption has become a mission critical component in the concept of cyber security. As we know, cryptography prior to the modern age was effectively synonymous with encryption, which has a large amount of complex information that needs to be understood for encryption algorithms to make sense for an average person. In this thesis, we present the background information needed to understand modern day encryption, including mathematical background, encryption keys, security level, and other relevant topics. We also introduce and discuss cryptography and encryption in fine detail to provide an assessable reading experience for those who are both professionals in the field and general readers. Moreover, we implement several classic encryption algorithms in Python, such as DES, AES, RSA, Diffie-Hellman and Elgamal encryption, by analyzing the differences and similarities among them. We evaluate and compare the performance of those algorithms based on a list of carefully selected performance metrics, such as security and speed, to determine which algorithms should be used and which ones should be avoided in different scenarios. The study reveals that different encryption algorithms may have different performances in various scenarios, which can be used as a guidance when a security system is being developed and implemented
The Application of Systems Engineering to Address CKD Healthcare Disparities
No full textChronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is one of the most prevailing national health problems in the United States. According to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), as of 2019, 37 million of the US's adult population (about 15% of the population) have been estimated to have CKD. In this respect, health inequities are major national concerns regarding the treatments for patients with CKD nationwide. The disparities observed in the healthcare interventions for patients with CKD are usually some significant healthcare gaps in the national public health system. However, there is a need for immediate intervention to improve the present healthcare conditions of minorities experiencing CKD nationwide. A systems engineering approach is employed to address and understand these interventions by representing the complex factors associated with health disparities for chronic kidney disease. Hence, in this research, the application of system dynamics modeling (SDM) is proposed to model chronic kidney disease health disparities. This process is based on the health interventions administered to health minorities experiencing chronic kidney disease. The graphical results from the model showed that there are relationships among the dynamic factors influencing the incidence and prevalence of CKD. Hence, healthcare disparities are inherent challenges in the treatment and management of this disease.M.S
Lesson Study as a Component of an Induction Program for Novice Teachers
Get PDFTypically, beginning teachers need proper support as they transition to the
classroom to be successful; they may not have the specialized skills and knowledge to
teach mathematics effectively. Induction programs are designed to provide the needed
support to novice teachers during their early years of teaching (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011);
however, many induction programs within the US are not providing the necessary
support to teachers to be successful (Wong et al., 2005). This study used a single case
study to explore the effectiveness of lesson study as a component of an induction
program for a novice mathematics teacher.
The researcher interpreted the novice teacher’s development through the lens of
the situative perspective. According to this perspective, which is the combination of
constructivist and sociocultural perspectives, learning is a process of the active
construction of individual knowledge through interaction with others. To explore the
effectiveness of lesson study as a component of induction, a novice teacher was selected
to participate in one cycle of lesson study with three iterations of the research lesson. The
novice teacher was a first-year mathematics teacher starting the alternative route for a
practitioner license. The lesson study group consisted of the novice teacher’s professional
learning community. Multiple data sources were collected before, during, and after the
lesson study to identify changes in the participant. Through coding and categorizing the
data from each iteration of lesson study, the researcher identified her development
pathways in her disposition, cooperative relationships, and mathematical knowledge for
teaching (MKT).
The researcher identified how the novice teacher developed through the course of
the study. At the start of the study, the novice teacher was unsure of what constituted
effective teaching practices. Through the progression of the study, she learned the
importance of teaching through problem solving to promote productive struggle in the
learning of mathematics. This had a positive effect on her disposition as she started to
understand the benefits of perseverance and experienced the joys of mathematics sense
making. As the teachers collaborated throughout the lesson study process, the nature of
their conversations shifted from congeniality to collegiality. Through participation in
lesson study, the novice teacher developed MKT. The multiple iterations of the research
lesson and involvement of the knowledgeable other are two critical factors influencing
the growth of the novice teacher. The findings from this research study demonstrate the
compatibility of lesson study with characteristics of effective induction programs, but
more research on the sustainability and scalability of the findings of this case study is
needed. In conclusion, this study suggests that lesson study can provide the necessary
components of induction.Ph.D