Anecdotal reports, flipper tag returns, satellite migration paths, and above-water and net surveys have identified an important foraging area for sea turtles in the Robinson Point area, 12 kilometers southwest of Belize City. Visual observations confirmed that sea turtles were actively foraging at Robinson Point. Sixteen 30 minute visual observations from stationary and drifting boats made 132 sea turtle sightings from October 2007 through January 2008, with a maximum of 40 sightings made in one survey. In-water capture methodology tested the traditional turtle net, which captured 14 turtles in 63 sets for a success rate of only 22%. There were 11 green turtles captured during the migratory months from April through October, and three hawksbill turtles were captured during non-migratory months, November through March, indicating that both species were resident at Robinson Point. No loggerheads, adult males, or juvenile turtles were captured, but anecdotal reports confirmed presence. Size range for captured hawksbills was between 63.7 - 80.4 cm SCLnn and between 70.9 - 91.5 cm SCLnn for green turtles. There were two recaptured turtles. One was a nesting hawksbill tagged in Mexico in 2008 and recaptured at Robinson Point in 2009, and the other was a sub adult hawksbill that was captured at Robinson Point in 2008 and recaptured in 2013 in Nicaragua. There was a small growth of fibropapilloma on one green turtle. Habitat surveys suggest benthic communities are more diverse than previously described consisting of prey items sought by sea turtles. Geomorphology of the Robinson Point area is equally diverse and provides shelter for resident turtles. Proposed boundaries for a turtle conservation zone at Robinson Point and an internesting zone to protect turtles at Belize premier hawksbill nesting beach at Gales Point, are linked to existing protected areas, and would facilitate protection of sea turtles not only in Belize, but also throughout the Caribbean.

A sense of place is important to the construction, believability and success of regional mystery novels. Authentic representation of place is challenging if an author is not originally from the area being portrayed. Despite this, some authors are able to depict foreign places more comprehensively and realistically than others. Professor Gary Hausladen of the University of Nevada, Reno identifies: narrative description, dialogue, iconography, and attention to detail as the basic literary devices that convey sense of place. This thesis questions the manner in which successful mystery novelists writing about foreign places meet Hausladen's model. Specifically, do they use all four of the literary devices, which are most commonly used, which are consciously used, and what research methods and resources do they use to incorporate the literary devices. Primary and secondary data are collected through interviews and literary analyses. It is found that these authors use all four of the prescribed literary devices, that some of the literary devices are more challenging to use than others, that place establishing literary techniques are important to the authors and that the authors seek to incorporate sense of place through diverse types of intensive research.

Practitioners have proposed that Digital Natives prefer graphics while Digital Immigrants prefer text. While Instructional Design has been extensively studied and researched, the impact of the graphical emphasis in instructional designs as it relates to digital propensity has not been widely explored. Specifically, this study examined the performance of students when presented with text-only and graphic-only instructional formats. The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between Digital Propensity Index scores of individuals and their performance when interpreting online instruction. A sample of students from the population of a large metropolitan university received the Digital Propensity Index questionnaire, which is a measure of an individual's time spent interacting with digital media. Each student was randomly assigned varying formats of a computer-based instructional unit via a public survey. The instructional unit consisted of the DPI questionnaire and six tasks related to the Central Florida commuter rail system. Participants were asked to answer the DPI questionnaire on a website by clicking on a link in an emailed invitation. Following the DPI questionnaire, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Group One saw three instructional tasks shown in text and shuffled in random order. Each task was displayed on its own webpage. By submitting an answer to the task, the group progressed through the website to the next task. Group Two saw graphic tasks first, again, shuffled in random order. After the first three tasks, the groups swapped instructional formats to view the opposing group's initial questions. Participants were timed on how many seconds they spent reviewing each task. Each task had an assessment question to evaluate the learning outcomes of the instructional unit. Finally, the DPI score of the participant was matched with the time spent viewing each presentation format. The findings indicate that DPI score had a statistically significant prediction of time spent navigating each type of instruction. Though the link between DPI score and time spent navigating instruction was statistically significant, the actual measurable time difference between navigating text and graphic formats was only a fraction of a second for each increment in DPI score. Limitations and potential future research related to the study are discussed as well.

Snyder-Robinson syndrome (SRS) is an X-linked neurodegenerative disorder affecting males. The disease appears early in childhood with symptoms like bone abnormalities, reduced muscle mass, and mobility issues. It results from disrupted polyamine biosynthesis, which is due to a mutation in spermine synthase (Sms). This causes an abnormally elevated Spermidine: Spermine ratios. There is no approved SRS treatment, rather only management of symptoms. A genetic mouse model for the SmsG56S mutation found in some SRS patients was characterized, and a novel spermine Prodrug treatment was tested. The hypothesis is that male SmsG56S mutant mice exhibit polyamine dysregulation and SRS traits, while Prodrug intervention may rebalance abnormal ratios and facilitate a normalized phenotype. Mice were phenotyped in pure C57BL/6J, mixed C3H, and backcrossed C57BL/6J x C3H backgrounds. Lethality of the mutation, especially in C57BL/6J mice, was an obstacle. Viable mutant mice exhibited reduced body weight, typically smaller size, and lower bone densities compared to age-matched wild-type mice. Prodrug treatment was performed using different dosing strategies and in all backgrounds. Upon histological examination, testes and bone exhibited subtle defects in affected mutant male mice, while no detectable differences were found in skeletal muscle, liver, or kidney compared to wild-type mice. Acute prodrug treatment using oral gavage 5 times per week over 2 weeks was found to rebalance the Spermidine: Spermine ratio. Repeated efforts to dose Prodrug over a longer 6-8 week duration in mice required lower intraperitoneal doses but outcomes may have been moderated by the mice background. Overall, the SmsG56S phenotype in the testes and bone are consistent with other mutant Sms models, although C57BL/6J mice seemed to be more sensitive to the SmsG56S mutation. Further testing of Prodrug is needed, including in younger mice and for a longer duration of treatment, to evaluate Prodrug effectiveness in improving traits in SmsG56S mice.

No description available.

<p>This thesis explores the intersection of storytelling and spirituality in contemporary Native literature in Canada. The invocation of the oral tradition and its history will be examined in the works of Eden Robinson, Joseph Boyden, and Harry Robinson, as each author attempts to orient his or her narratives within a First Nations framework. By gesturing towards orality in their written literature, these authors acknowledge the dialogic nature of a narrative that has been shaped by ancestral experiences and memory and thus write against the colonial master narrative of the contemporary Canadian nation-state. In Joseph Boyden's <em>Through Black Spruce</em>, Eden Robinson's <em>Monkey Beach</em>, and the transcribed collections of Harry Robinson's stories, the invocation of orality becomes the vehicle through which to explore Indigenous ways of knowing and traditional spiritual beliefs. This thesis first considers the ways in which the mode of storytelling allows each author to create a new narrative that introduces readers to an Indigenous perspective on the processes of history. It then examines the evolution of specific spiritual beings from traditional narratives into contemporary settings as a way to explore neocolonial attitudes and the compromised contexts of modern Indigenous life in communities across Canada that continue to be haunted by a legacy of colonialism. I end with an exploration of the potential for healing that each author envisions as communities move into a decolonization process through the regeneration of tribal languages, a reconnection to sacred space, and a reimagining of the Canadian master narrative and its colonial interpretation of history.</p> / Master of English

<p>Much of the critical discourse on J.M. Coetzee’s <em>Foe</em> does not fully investigate its relationship with Daniel Defoe’s texts, despite <em>Foe</em>’s intimate relation with them. This thesis offers a postcolonial reading of Coetzee’s Susan Barton, Cruso and Friday against Daniel Defoe’s original characters Roxana, Robinson Crusoe and Friday. Chapter one discusses Roxana-as-feminist, female colonizer, representative of her sex and Amazon and compares her to Barton. It reveals the tendency of critical discourse to attempt to ‘know’ Barton as they ‘know’ Roxana, by categorizing her, and reveals how Coetzee’s character frustrates attempts to define her. The second chapter addresses eighteenth-century knowledge of race and how it differs from present day, which offers an alternate reading of <em>Robinson Crusoe</em> and complicates its use as a colonial handbook. I also discuss masculinity in Defoe’s <em>Robinson Crusoe</em> as an individual characteristic Coetzee alters into something that can be appropriated. His characters are not masculine but can wield phallic symbols such as the pen and the knife to reveal power as systemic rather than individualistic. The final chapter offers an in depth postcolonial reading of Friday and interrogates critical discourse’s tendency to read him as representative of ‘the colonized,’ or as a colonial trope.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

In this paper, I explore the environmental philosophy of three Californian modernists, who I have collectively named the Dust Dwellers: John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, and Jack London. I argue that these writers participated in a broader modernist response to the ascendancy of the Enlightenment and its manifestation in industrial progress. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the Dust Dwellers' response was distinctly informed by their American identity. They engaged modernist themes of decay as applied to Western expansion and the dissolution of the American Edenic dream. Investigating the fractured relationship between civilization and the environment, they searched for a philosophy that could reconcile humanity to nature. Specifically, I argue that their environmental philosophy displays intellectual and creative congruencies that can be traced to the common influence of twentieth-century psychoanalyst Carl Jung. The foundational tenet of the Dust Dwellers' environmental philosophy parallels Jung's concept of the unus mundus. Mirroring Jung's interpretation of this alchemic term, the Dust Dwellers describe a cosmic unity that encompasses all of life. I discuss depictions of the unus mundus across the Dust Dwellers' work and outline other implications of this central philosophic presupposition. Ultimately, I conclude that their environmental philosophy, along with other attributes, permits and even encourages scholars to approach these writers as a distinct group of American modernists. / Master of Arts / In this paper, I explore the environmental philosophy of three Californian modernists, who I have collectively named the Dust Dwellers: John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, and Jack London. I argue that these writers participated in a broader modernist response to the Enlightenment's failed pursuit of utopia. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the Dust Dwellers' response was distinctly informed by their American identity. They engaged modernist themes of decay as applied to the American frontier. Specifically, they recognized that America had failed to transform into a new Garden of Eden. Investigating the negative effects of industrial civilization, the Dust Dwellers searched for a philosophy that could create harmony between humanity and nature. I argue that their environmental philosophy displays intellectual and creative congruencies that can be traced to the common influence of twentieth-century psychoanalyst Carl Jung. The foundational concept of the Dust Dwellers' environmental philosophy parallels the Jungian concept of the unus mundus. Mirroring Jung's interpretation of this alchemic term, the Dust Dwellers describe a cosmic unity that encompasses all of life. I discuss depictions of the unus mundus across the Dust Dwellers' work and outline other implications of this central philosophic presupposition. Ultimately, I conclude that their environmental philosophy, along with other attributes, permits and even encourages scholars to approach these writers as a distinct group of American modernists.

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In the present work, we study some aspects of Einstein's theory of gravitation in general spacetimes with an arbitrary number of dimensions. In the first chapter we summarize the foundations of used geometric formalism and we derive the equation of goedesic deviation representing the relation between relative acceleration and the Riemann tensor. Second chapter presents different types of algebraic classification of the Weyl tensor in four and higher dimensions. Third chapter is devoted to a detailed examination of the test particle motions and also to the interpretation of different terms in the general equation of geodesic deviation. The fourth section examines appropriate choice of the interpretation frame and the coordinates. The final fifth chapter contains an analysis of the motion of test particles in the Robinson-Trautman spacetime with an arbitrary higher number of dimensions.