Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 248-267).

A commonly noted problem in the simulation of warm season convection in the North American monsoon region has been the inability of atmospheric models at the meso- scales (10 s to 100 s of kilometers) to simulate organized convection, principally mesoscale convective systems. With the use of convective parameterization, high precipitation biases in model simulations are typically observed over the peaks of mountain ranges. To address this issue, the Kain-Fritsch (KF) cumulus parameterization scheme has been modified with new diagnostic equations to compute the updraft velocity, the convective available potential energy closure assumption, and the convective trigger function. The scheme has been adapted for use in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF). A numerical weather prediction-type simulation is conducted for the North American Monsoon Experiment Intensive Observing Period 2 and a regional climate simulation is performed, by dynamically downscaling. In both of these applications, there are notable improvements in the WRF model-simulated precipitation due to the better representation of organized, propagating convection. The use of the modified KF scheme for atmospheric model simulations may provide a more computationally economical alternative to improve the representation of organized convection, as compared to convective-permitting simulations at the kilometer scale or a super-parameterization approach.

Passive tectonic margins, like the eastern North American margin (ENAM), represent the meeting of oceanic and continental material where no active deformation is occurring. The recent ENAM Community Seismic Experiment provides an opportunity to examine the crustal structure across the ENAM owing to the simultaneous deployment of offshore and onshore seismic instrumentation. Using Rayleigh wave phase and group velocities derived from ambient noise data, we invert for shear velocity across the ENAM. We observe a region of transitional crustal thicknesses that connects the oceanic and continental crusts. Associated with the transitional crust is a localized positive gravitational anomaly. Farther east, the East Coast magnetic anomaly (ECMA) is located at the intersection of the transitional and oceanic crusts. We propose that underplating of dense magmatic material along the bottom of the transitional crust is responsible for the gravitational anomaly and that the ECMA demarks the location of initial oceanic crustal formation.

Current US government risk assessment and management regulations and policies are based on a position that views risk as an objective measure of a predictable physiological morbidity or mortality outcome that is not otherwise connected to social or cultural beliefs and values. Whereas human health risk assessments are meant to determine the probability of adverse impacts from particular hazards, the conventional risk assessment framework fails to consider Native American definitions of health and so risk. This study was conducted with the Coast Salish Swinomish Indian Tribal Community of Washington State, where contamination of their aquatic natural resources has been found. By conducting two series of interviews with traditional high-use seafood consumers, experts and elders from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and by averting use of what I describe herein as ‘conventional’ fish consumption survey, the study allowed interviewees to provide a more complex narrative set of details and information that bestowed a much more accurate picture of the reasoning behind seafood consumption habits within the community. Among the more salient points that emerged from the interviews was that seafood represents a symbolic, deeply meaningful food source that is linked to a multi-dimensional ‘Swinomish’ concept of health. Yet drastic changes in access, harvest and consumption have occurred over time, and continue to this day. A health evaluation tool was also devised using simple descriptive scaled rankings to elucidate non-physiological health risks and impacts in relation to contaminated seafood. Findings demonstrate that community cohesion, food security, ceremonial use and knowledge transmission all play primary roles as concerns the Swinomish notions of health, and that these indicators are regarded as equally important when juxtaposed to physical indicators of health. Thus, to eat less seafood—as prescribed by current policy and decision-making procedures when contamination is present—is actually detrimental to the multi-dimensional concept of health as defined by the Swinomish. The evaluation tool may be used in conjunction with the conventional risk assessment framework to more accurately and comprehensively deduce risks and impacts. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

A cross-sectional growth study was designed to obtain information on the growth patterns of British Columbian Native Indian children. The object of the study was to establish whether growth patterns of B.C. Native Indian children living in student residences correspond to those of non-Indian reference children. The study sample consisted of all children 6 to 17 years attending the six student residences administered by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. The total sample size was 734 children, representing 77 reserves in the province. Standing height, sitting height, weight, arm circumference, four skinfold thicknesses (triceps, subscapular, biceps and suprailiac), and head circumference were measured according to the recommendations of the International Biological Program (Weiner and Lourie, 1969). Arm muscle diameter, circumference and area were derived according to the method of Frisancho (1974). Individual findings were plotted, as scatter diagrams against standard reference curves, data for which was obtained from Caucasian children. Results indicate a considerable growth deficit in standing and sitting height in younger children which appears to be somewhat corrected by adolescence. Weight measurements, although falling predominantly below the Iowa mean, generally reflect adequate gain with age. Arm measurements indicate well maintained musculature throughout the age-range studied, with relatively low degrees of triceps adipose tissue. Head circumference displays an initial deficit in younger children which is largely corrected by adolwscence. It was concluded that protein nutritional status of B.C. Native Indian children living in student residences may be relatively better than calorie nutritional status. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

Through a study of North American Indian folklore and mythology, the non-Indian can at last begin to know the Indian with whom he has shared a continent and to find out something of his religion, traditions, history, humor, and tribal peculiarities. The approach to this study through motifs, already familiar to the students from other literature, offers a practical approach and one that can be adapted to classroom use, perhaps either in the study of myth, the study of literary types, the study of literature per se, or perhaps in the study of cultural differences.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / In Black and African theology, especially in the North American and African contexts, there is consensus that claims of people of European descent being regarded as God’s chosen people, are heretical and serve to legitimise the domination in the name of differences with regard to race, class and culture. Such discourses may be understood to be a sustained critique, rejection, and even condemnation, of the injustices of imperialism, colonialism, human subjugation like slavery, and racial supremacy. In constructive responses to racial supremacy, claims have been made in certain political discourses, cultural philosophies and theologies, that instead, Black Africans who currently reside in Africa and those Black Africans whose ancestry is vest in Africa, may be regarded as God’s chosen people, and Africa as God’s chosen country. Such views are also expressed in some Christian circles and are discussed in the context of certain historical and contemporary North-American, and Pan-African theologies.

<p>While William Dean Howells's influence in nineteenth-century American Realism is indisputable, this thesis will explain why seeing Howellsian Realism as the gold standard of Realism is not an equitable approach to defining the genre or understanding its social impact. This thesis uses literary historicism to examine, through the literary career of Charles W. Chesnutt, the way Black authors of the nineteenth century had to navigate writing Realism for an audience that was immersed in minstrelsy and was therefore misinformed about Black life and Black culture. This project questions the exclusivity of viewing Realism as the “House of Howells” and asks in what ways that exclusivity affects Black writers’ voices and literary futures. </p>

The literature on Protestant fundamentalism is characterised by instruments that are unidimensional, largely assessing Christian orthodoxy, and use inconsistent conceptual definitions. The present study presents an effort to develop and test an instrument using Ammerman's definition of North American Protestant fundamentalism as a multidimensional construct that includes four components: inerrancy of scripture, evangelism, premillenialism, and separatism. This model was confirmed statistically, and clear evidence of reliability and both convergent and divergent validity is presented. Relationships with other variables, while clearly showing overlap in anticipated directions, also show enough non-shared variance to justify continuing to view fundamentalism as a separate construct.

<p> This thesis, <em>A Notre Dame Man: How Mike DeCicco Made Notre Dame Fencing into an International Powerhouse </em>argues that Mike DeCicco was different from the coaches who came before him, due to his connections within the American and international fencing community, and his relationship with Father Hesburgh. <em>A Notre Dame Man </em>also contends that a Notre Dame team can succeed without a vocal fanbase, united by a Catholic identity. This thesis engages with histories of sport, ethnicity, class, and gender in twentieth-century American history. </p>