This study investigates the lives of female sufferers of the Holocaust and American slavery by comparing the different experiences of female and male imprisonment. Critics’ viewpoints on African-American slavery versus the Holocaust genocide were used to write this study. Lastly, it will be noted from renowned authors, their perspective of enslavement being much more torturous to women than men. A historical-analysis approach will be used to record the lives of the women discussed. Diaries, biographies, and reputable sources such as scholarly journals are to be employed to verify and document the events of the Holocaust and American slavery. The conclusion drawn from the research supports the idea that the aspects of female daily life in bondage consists of vulnerability to rape, forced motherhood, humiliation, sexual bargaining, pregnancy, abortion and fear for one’s children.

Land based aquaculture systems are growing in popularity, and there is a drive to improve the efficiency of their energy and water systems for both economic and environmental benefit. Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) generally refer to systems that recycle their wastewater streams to be more or less a zero discharge facility. A more sustainable approach is emerging in the form of Integrated Aquaculture Systems (IAS) where maximum utility is realized from the various components so that fresh water use is reduced, water quality is improved, energy use is reduced, and new markets are created or fulfilled. Under a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an interdisciplinary group from MOTE Aquaculture Research Park, Mote Marine Lab, the University of South Florida, and Aquatic Plants of Florida have been working on a pilot IAS in Sarasota, FL starting 10/1/2010 which couples high- value pompano fish production with the production of native FL marine plant species (Spartina alternaflora (smooth cordgrass), Juncus roemareanus (needlegrass rush), and Rhizophora mangle (red mangrove) for wetlands restoration. This research contributes to the understanding of water quality as a function of space and time in the MOTE IAS system and compared the performance of the plant bed configurations (with and without a sand filter) with a more common geotube membrane used in RAS, for treating effluent sludge from marine fish tank systems. For the same influent concentration from the solids waste tank, the overall average percentage of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) removed was 84%, 84%, and 80% from the south plant bed (SB), north plant bed (NB), and geotube (GT) and the overall average Volatile Suspended Solids (VSS) removed was 85%, 90%, and 87% from the SB, NB, and GT respectively. The plant beds performed as well as the geotube in terms of TSS and VSS removal. Dissolved oxygen concentrations ranged from 0.28 mg/L in the geotube effluent (GTe) to 10.72 mg/L in the moving bed bioreactor influent (MBBRi). Overall averages (n = 5 per sample) of DO between May 2011 and January 2012 varied from 1.97±1.92 mg/L in the solids tank effluent (STe) to 8.20±1.60 mg/L in the MBBRi. pH values ranged from 6.35 STe to 7.74 in the GTe. Overall averages of pH between May 2011 and January 2012 varied from 6.89±0.5 mg/L in the STe to 7.45±0.21 in the MBBRe. Temperature values ranged from 17.3 oC in the GTe in December to 28.8 oC in the SFe during the month of September. The average unfiltered Chemical Oxygen Demand (UCOD) ranged from 105±37 mg/L in the NBe to 231±99 mg/L in the STe. Compared to the STe the percentage of COD removed from the SBe, NBe, GTe, and SFe was 47%, 55%, 53%, and 23% respectively. Average filtered COD (FCOD) ranged from 91±46 mg/L in the NBe to 132±66 mg/L in the STe. Compared to the STe the percentage of FCOD removed from the SBe, NBe, GTe, and SFe was 22%, 31%, 25%, and 2% respectively.The average unfiltered total nitrogen (UTN) concentration ranged from 24±17 mg/L in the SBe to 52±25 mg/L in the MBBRi. The overall average percentage removed was 54%, 46%, 47%, 15% from the SBe, NBe, GTe, and SFe respectively based on the STe concentration. The average filtered total nitrogen (FTN) concentration ranged from 20±13 mg/L in the SBe to 68±37 mg/L in the MBBRi and for the given effluent streams, FTN was either comparable to UTN or higher with the higher values seen prior to and after the moving bed bioreactor (MBBR). The majority of total nitrogen is dissolved. Average filtered N03--N concentrations ranged from 0.73±0.79 mg/L in the NBe to 29± mg/L in the MBBRe. The overall average percentage removed was 96%, 76%, -2%, 95% from the SBe, NBe, GTe, and SFe based on the STe concentration. Average filtered NH3-N concentrations ranged from 0.2±0.2 mg/L in the MBBRi to 3.9±3.1 in the SFe. The overall average percentage removed was 51%, 80%, 71%, -5% from the SBe, NBe, GTe, and SFe based on the STe concentration The average unfiltered total phosphorous (UTP) concentration ranged from 30±11 mg/L in the SBe to 37±12 mg/L in the GTe. The average filtered total phosphorous (FTP) concentration ranged from 23±17 mg/L in the MBBRi to 36±29 mg/L in the NBe and for the given effluent streams, FTP was always less than UTP with the NBe being an exception. The average filtered total reactive phosphorus (FOP) concentration ranged from 18±18 mg/L in the MBBRe to 26±15 mg/L in the SBe and for the given effluent streams. Samples taken over an 18 hour period on 2/1/12 showed high variability in terms of concentrations in the solids tank effluent which was not seen in the rest of the system. Metals and trace elements were of similar concentration in all effluents from 5/17/11 to 9/7/11. Accumulation of metals of elements was not observed,but a removal mechanism was not identified. The SBe had the lowest concentrations of Mn, Ni, Se, Fe, and B, however a longer monitoring period is recommended. The IAS is successfully growing pompano in land based low salinity tanks, the fish wastewater is producing wetlands restoration plants and zero discharges of water or solid waste (dead fish an exception) have occurred from the system which began operation in October 2010.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a concept for producing a Statically Balanced Shape-Shifting Surface (SB-SSS). In this context, an SB-SSS is a surface that can require near-zero magnitude force changes to accomplish a change in shape while retaining effectiveness as a physical barrier. This paper focuses on how to statically balance a specifically-designed compliant mechanism and how to incorporate this mechanism into a polygonal cell. The mechanism consists of a compliant Peaucellier-Lipkin linkage layered with a pre-stressed link as the balancer. Previous work is presented that can show how a polygonal cell can be incorporated into a surface via a tiling array. Specifically shaped overlapping thin plates are used to retain the physical barrier requirement. The demonstration of a virtually zero-force Shape-Shifting Surface (SSS) suggests that SSS's can be designed with a wide range of force-displacement properties, i.e. ranging from that of a square of the parent material to the zero-force mechanism presented here. Applications for an SB-SSS may be macro-scale or micro-scale and may include sensors, biomedical applications, defense applications, and variable stiffness materials.

This thesis concerns identity constructions among rural migrant workers in Kentucky in relation to experiences and articulations of transnational spaces, networks, and identities. It was conducted through semi-structured interviews of migrant laborers on two rural Kentucky horse farms with 13 men. In this project, the men’s identities could be seen to have access to and utilize social, economic, cultural, and familial connections across national borders. These aspects of transnational identities were contrasted and compared to aspects of these men’s masculine identities to problematize popular representations of masculinities. This thesis shows how traditional notions of masculinities are questioned, reinforced, discarded, touted and ignored as these migrant laborers construct and navigate their identities.

This thesis explores nine individuals’ personal experiences with sexual assault and rape. The project provides a platform for voices that have been historically silenced, striving to empower and support survivors while raising awareness on the pertinent issues surrounding sexual assault and rape. By engaging in the tension between the individual narratives and the collective dimension of the experience of sexual assault, this thesis reframes the relationship between the personal and the political.

The 1993 Colombian health reform act, known as Law 100, is an on-going process aimed at implementing substantive changes to universalize coverage and correcting well-documented deficiencies in the health sector. The purpose of this study is to assess to what extent the reform has achieved its goals in terms of four indicators: equity, efficiency, quality, and sustainability by means of implementing Pan American Health Organization's Methodology for Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Sector Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean. This appraisal is a measure of the four indicators in two cross-sections of the population both before and after the reform. Data have been collected from primary and secondary sources including regulatory and steering agencies in Colombia. One of the main achievements of Colombian reform is the establishment of a subsidized system to cover the poorest segment of the population. The system's coverage in social security in health increased from 23% to 57% in the period 1993-1997. The public health insurance agency -the ISS- continues being the largest single insurer due in iv part to unfair competition strategies implemented by the ISS which in turn have increased the cost of health services in that agency. Finances of public hospitals still depend on national budget allocations made by the Ministry of Health. The productivity of human resources is low at all levels of the health system although hospitals have increased their funding from provision of healthcare services. Several studies have documented problems of evasion and underreport of contributions that in the case of self-employees reach 92.6 percent, which threatens the sustainability of the system. In spite of having the highest freedom of choice in Latin America, the Colombian health system evidences low levels of technical quality and client satisfaction. Despite the increases in coverage and efficiency, assessment of quality and sustainability requires future research depending on the maturation of the system, and the concomitant development of data.

The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze the works of Federico Garcia Lorca within the mystic context that dominates their very genesis. The problematic definition of mysticism was explored lest it be confused with traditional mysticism, which implies union with the divine. The historiography of literature speaks of the Mystic Genre, yet it does not address the mystic mode of artistic creation due to its inability to adhere to rational measure. This mode of conception was explored through Lorca’s poetic discourse: ‘Lorquian mysticism’ is the result of the poet’s cultivation of an innate spiritual potential enhanced by external influences and technical mastery. There is visible influence of Fray Luis of Leon in Lorca’s early Libro de poemas and El maleficio de la mariposa, as well as of Saint John of the Cross in the later Divan del Tamarit, Sonetos de amor and Yerma. However, definitive echoes of poets from theSufi and other Eastern mystic traditions were also illustrated in these late works. A persistent longing to elide the physical condition, the greatest obstacle of the transcendental quest, is the essence of Lorca’s poetic voice. The object of this analysis was Lorca’s language, which reaches levels removed from conventional thought. His dazzling metaphors and his particular use of symbols and of paradox compare equitably with those of great mystic poets. Like them, Lorca was faced with the same limitations of language to describe an ineffable experience; he embraced what Octavio Paz describes as ‘sacred language’: there is a linguistic frugality as well as an ambiguity in Lorca’s poetic art that result from his realization of super- cognitive states. Yet such an interpretation is rejected by the rationalist approach, invoking the age-old debate between faith and reason and signaling the application of psychoanalytical theory. This limited approach was disputed on the basis of reader- response theory. Lorca was truly an eclectic and a modification of the conventional reader’s preestablished horizon of expectations is essential in order to seal the gaps in his late works. This innovative perspective placed Lorca within the framework of a new mysticism in the modem world.

This research explores the visual culture surrounding liberal arts women’s colleges. This visuality is dependent on gender, and specifically how femininity is ingrained in the existence of women’s colleges. The outdated foundations and the current implications of these college’s prohibit the optimization of an inclusive academic environment. Through the architecture, layout, apparel, and online presence, women’s colleges capitalize of the femininity of the students, while the students are more apt to prioritize their education then the femininity of their peers.

The purpose of the lecture/recital was to demonstrate how pioneering composers such as Vincent Persichetti, Karel Husa, Joseph Schwantner, Michael Colgrass, and David Maslanka helped create the modem day wind ensemble percussion section. The Lecture/Recital consisted of a demonstration of extended techniques used in each of these composers’ works for wind ensemble, which enabled the composers to add different colors and timbres to the music. The lecture also included illustrations of possible setups and the number of percussion instruments utilized for each composition. A performance of various excerpts from each work concluded the lecture/recital.

This thesis examines my studio practice and research during my studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Photo & Film MFA program, which has culminated into my thesis exhibition. Through traditional portraiture and landscape photography that utilize contemporary photographic practices such as digital processing and material studies, my work in Plantiod Planet creates a fiction which examines plant intelligence and the gendering of landscape.