Clarinets are perfect example of musical instruments produced from tropical wood species Grenadilla (Dalbergia melanoxylon), wood species which could have a suspicion origin. It is of high interest for producers and consumers to find a sustainable substitution for the currently used material for its production. Therefore, a case study was developed in cooperation with local clarinet producer to evaluate possible substitution of Grenadilla for a new material sourced from U.S. temperate forests. Specifically, a study was conducted on the production of clarinets from four U.S. hardwood species, Hard Maple, Black Walnut, Black Cherry and Yellow Poplar. These instruments were compared with clarinets made of Grenadilla and ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic, materials currently used for clarinet production. To improve workability (machining), wood treatment with cactus juice (Methyl Methacrylate) was also investigated. Clarinets made from U.S. hardwood species and their treatment were benchmarked with traditionally made clarinets from Grenadilla and ABS plastic. Producer and users perception surveys were conducted. Seventeen experienced clarinet testers and ten experienced players evaluated eleven different instruments. All study participants were very open to the idea of using U.S. hardwoods for production of clarinets. Instruments made of U.S. hardwoods were evaluated and graded from four perspectives: appearance & color, touch & feel, tone & sound, and overall quality. Quantitative and qualitative measures were used to assess the feasibility of proposed material substitution. Study findings are supported by statistical analysis. Based on the Tukey results, clarinet made of treated Maple was comparable with both Grenadilla and ABS plastic clarinets. Mann-Whitney results show that treated Maple was also a best substitution option in all categories when compared with ABS plastic, but when compared with Grenadilla, treated Maple was comparable only in touch/feel and tone/sound aspects. Cactus juice treatment improved material properties, especially workability, which is a very important property for the production of clarinets. In conclusion, treated Hard Maple was the most promising substitution material.

<p> </p> <p>The relationship between termites and their gut microbiome is inseparable as the microbes provide plenty of physiological benefits such as digestion, acetogenesis, nitrogen fixation, caste differentiation and immunity. Therefore, it is very important to understand this relationship to attain innovations in pest management solutions. This project was undertaken to study the dynamics of termite gut microbiomes in response to environmental and colony-genetic factors. Here I investigated environmental variations under lab conditions by manipulating the social environment of termite workers via hormonal treatments (Chapter 2) and by exposing termites to commonly used insecticides (Appendix A). To investigate the interaction of gut microbes with natural environmental variation, I sampled field termites every month from May through October (Chapter 3). In addition, to study the impact of termite colony genetics, I reared termites originally from two different field colonies in a controlled environment in the lab (Chapter 4). The combination of lab and field investigations, and bioinformatic analyses have resulted in the following major findings- (1) gut microbes do impact the social environment within a colony, (2) seasonality has an impact on gut microbial abundances, (3) significant variation in microbiome follows genetics of termite colonies, and (4) insecticide applications do change the gut microbial loads specifically the protists load.</p> <p>Results from these experiments support the idea that termite gut symbionts change their community structure possibly to help the host termite to be best fit to survive changing environmental conditions. For example, when termites were provided hormonal treatment to artificially induce caste differentiation, gut microbes were linked with this eusocial mechanism via differential selection. However, when termites were in the field experiencing change in the season, monthly temperature was correlated with several bacterial taxa, possibly selecting for taxa that help termite to thrive the changed environmental conditions. These results indicate that studying termite system without considering their gut microbiome would not provide a complete picture of physiological, biological or pest management studies. This dissertation altogether highlights the possible dynamics of gut microbiome to help a host adapt to changing conditions and emphasizes the importance of a holobiont approach while studying an insect system. </p>

<p> In 2016 Caterpillar Inc. made the corporate decision to close the Newberry, SC manufacturing facility and move a portion of their power generation product line to the engine assembly facility in Seguin, TX. This case study documented and evaluated the project management strategy utilized to execute the transition. The case study aimed to understand the power generation project’s effectiveness. The case study’s research questions included:</p><p> 1. What factors facilitated or hindered the power generation transition project?</p><p> 2. How did the project team develop the project plan, prepare for the execution, and ultimately execute the project?</p><p> 3. How was the team developed from project management to initial leadership?</p><p> Utilizing qualitative research methods available in NVivo 12 Pro, including analyzing the project’s details and reviewing similar project methods in Seguin, the research summarized the project and presented an evaluation to understand project management within the facility. The resultant themes aligned with Olivier Mesly’s (2016, p. 14) project management “four P’s,” including “plan,” “process,” “people,” and “power.” In addition, “challenges” was added as an additional theme to capture important influences on the project.</p><p> The resultant research culminated in recommendations that organizations within Caterpillar Seguin can use to execute large-scale, complex projects.</p>

Institutions of learning are discrete because of distinctive curricular and co-curricular programs, culture, history, and symbols. Thus, civic learning and identity development may differ across higher learning institutions, particularly in faith-based colleges and universities. This study sought to explore how Gethsemane College students make sense of their learning experiences in relation to civic identity development. I drew on relational developmental systems perspective to explore the mutual and bidirectional relationship between the participants and context. I collected documents and civic identity development narratives of eight graduating student sat Gethsemane College. Using qualitative content analysis and analysis of narratives in narrative inquiry, the findings revealed the mediating role of social identities, faith-learning integration, the influence of founding denomination, campus climate, civic contexts within Gethsemane College, institutional narratives, and pre-college civic experiences in the participants’ civic identity development. The participants civic identity development evolved in college. They transitioned from charitable actions to social change issues such as climate change and racial and environmental injustices. Global citizenship is an influential construct in how the participants think about their civic identities and citizenship. <br>

External cost from meat consumption raises an issue of possible government mechanisms toward mitigation. Economic theory provides a framework for determining the optimal set of mechanisms considering the associated benefits and costs. Such a theoretical development rests on the responsiveness of consumers to alternative mechanisms. Considering two mechanisms, a Pigouvian tax and green-label education, yields tandem theoretical optimal government mechanisms. Populating this theoretical model with empirically derived elasticities and other parameters provides an application. Results indicate education alone will likely not yield a high social-optimal level of mitigation. Instead, a Pigouvian tax will be required to move consumption toward a socially desired state. <br>

Research has shown that using Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and Speech Generating Devices (SGD) helps in the increase of verbal communication in those with limited verbal communication. The purpose of this study was to 1.) Investigate the impact of various low-technology and high-technology on the increase in social-communicative behavior in individuals with limited verbal communication and 2.) Create a resource of PECS and SGD, and their uses, to guide teachers and other educators to determine which device best fits the student’s communication needs. Qualitative and quantitative research design, surveying educators from four Northeast Indiana schools, was used in this study. The survey, which included force-choice and open-ended questions, was distributed to educators, including specials teachers, paraprofessionals, and speech language pathologist, in the general and special education setting. Seven educators completed the survey. Research showed that based on the devices used within the school, teachers agreed that augmentative and alternative communication devices were beneficial for various aspects of communication for students with limited verbal communication within the classroom. <br>

<p>The Food Processing and Postharvest Handling Innovation Lab (FPIL) project seeks to reduce food loss and link up consumers with food-to-food fortified instant products that are enriched with micronutrient sources that target vitamin A, zinc, and iron deficiencies. These are mostly maize-based products, but may be combined with other cereals, such as sorghum, and pseudocereals, such as amaranth. The general goal of this thesis study was to facilitate the adoption of extrusion technology to process instant flours, assess the acceptance and willingness to pay (WTP) for these products, and to assess the health impacts of the products on gut health. A low-cost, single-screw extruder was used that was developed at Purdue, and has been placed in different locations in Africa country study sites. The first study aimed to optimize process conditions of a low-cost single-screw extruder, currently done at 35% feed moisture, for African small- to medium-scale entrepreneurs to produce good quality and low-cost pregelatinized instant pearl millet porridge flours and other whole grains by relating feed moisture (27, 29, 31, 33, and 35%) to extrusion energy, drying time and physicochemical properties. We found that we could lower the feed moisture to 27% and still attain good pasting profiles of the porridges, reduce drying time, have better expansion of the extrudates, obtain increased <i>L</i>* color values of the flours, and with a higher extrusion energy but lower drying time. In conclusion, the single screw extruder can be efficiently operated at 27% feed moisture compared to the currently used 35% feed moisture and obtain instant flours with desired quality. It is not known whether higher extrudate energy consumption may be offset by the lower drying time representing lower drying energy. In the second study, we investigated extrusion enhance <i>in vitro</i> fecal fermentation of maize bran, which has been characterized by a poor gut microbiota fermentation property due to its highly crosslinked and densely branched arabinoxylan chemical structure, making it poorly available to the gut microbiota. We hypothesized that this dense cell wall matrix can be opened for better fermentation by applying extrusion. Test conditions of a twin-screw extruder at Purdue were low (200 RPM) and high (400 RPM) shear rates applied to a maize meal and bran mixture (60:40) at different feed moisture conditions (20, 25, 30%). <i>In vitro</i> fermentation of test materials was conducted on stool samples from three donors. Extrusion increased total short chain fatty acids and produced individualized donor effects on the gut microbiota. Some extruder test condition effects were observed on certain bacteria. For example, extrusion at 30% feed moisture and 400 RPM tended to increase genera of <i>Subdoligranulum</i> and <i>Eubacterium hallii</i> and <i>Ruminococcus</i> <i>torques</i> groups in Donor 1 compared to non-extruded bran. There was also a trend of increase in <i>Subdoligranulum</i> and <i>Blautia</i> in extruded compared to non-extruded bran in Donor 2. In Donor 3, <i>Lachnospiraceae NK4A136</i> group was increased at 20 and 25% feed moistures at 200 RPM and 30% feed moisture at 400 RPM compared to non-extruded bran. In the final study, we investigated the acceptance and WTP for instant fortified flours using the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism when consumers are incrementally given nutrition information and demonstration how to reconstitute instant flours. This study was conducted in Eldoret, Kenya. Participants preferred the fortified thick porridge higher in maize content than fortified thin porridge prepared from the same blend. Contrarily, thin porridge made from fortified flour with higher sorghum content was ranked more highly than for the corresponding thick porridge. Participants were willing to pay more for instant fortified products higher in sorghum when given product name and nutrient composition, even without a practical demonstration of how to reconstitute the flours. For the instant product higher in maize, consumers needed demonstration of how to reconstitute the instant flour for them pay a higher premium. These findings suggest that food-to-food fortified instant porridge flours have the potential to be adopted and can be used as a vehicle to deliver micronutrients to these populations and that extrusion somewhat enhances fermentation of whole grain fibers by the gut microbiome.</p>

<p>Relationships between motor development and language abilities have been consistently reported in previous literature. One of the relationships that has becoming increasing popular is the link between walking and language. Whereas research has demonstrated that onset of walking is related to communicative skills and vocabulary abilities (e.g., Clearfield, 2011; Walle & Campos, 2014), the mechanism underlying this relationship remains unclear. One potential explanation is that walking increases young children’s opportunities to interact with objects and explore the environment. Young children’s ability to adapt gait while playing is necessary for successful navigation of their environment and may be one factor underlying the walking-language relationship. However, little research has examined how young children adapt gait when interacting with objects in their environment when they are free to walk in a naturalistic manner. Additionally, how young children’s gait control and behavior during free-play is related to word learning has also been understudied. The purpose of this dissertation was to quantify how new and experienced walkers adapt gait behavior based on task (carrying objects compared to not carrying objects) and environmental constraints (free-play versus straight-path) and assess how these behaviors may be related to language abilities early in development. </p> <p><br></p><p>Chapter 3 examined how object carriage impacts gait characteristics and behavioral measures of stability during free-play and a straight-path task. New (13-month-olds) and experienced (24-month-olds) walkers engaged in a 20-minute free-play session with their parents. Eighteen toys that varied in size and weight were provided. Following the free-play session, new and experienced walkers engaged in a straight-path task where they were encouraged to walk from their parents to the experimenter, take a toy, and carry the toy back to their parent. Overall, size and weight did not appear to impact lower-body gait characteristics. Although there were no differences in lower-body gait control when carrying a toy compared to not carrying a toy, there were individual differences in how young children adapted their step length, step width, and stride speed with some children adopting more mature gait characteristics and others adopting less mature gait patterns. Young children’s lower-body gait also differed based on environmental constraints (free-play versus straight-path task). In addition to these lower-body findings, new and experienced walkers also adapted their upper-body control when carrying toys in both free-play and the straight-path task. New walkers also appear to focus on weight of the toy when selecting toys to carry whereas experienced walkers did not demonstrate preference for specific toy characteristics. </p> <p><br></p><p>Chapter 4 assessed the relationship between gait characteristics and functional behavior during free-play and communicative/vocabulary abilities in new and experienced walkers. Thirty-eight new walkers and thirty-eight experienced walkers from Chapter 3 were included in the analyses. Additionally, thirteen new walkers also returned at 24-months and repeated the data collection procedure for a longitudinal analysis of these relationships. The protocol for Chapter 3 was the same as Chapter 4; however, only free-play measures were included in the analyses. Parents also filled out the age-appropriate version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory as a measure of communicative/vocabulary abilities. Overall, the results of Chapter 4 demonstrated that quality of upper-body gait control and time spent in motion were significant predictors of new walkers’ communicative skills and vocabulary abilities. Whereas these relationships were not apparent in the experienced walking group, quality of gait at 13-months was predictive of productive vocabulary scores at 24-months of age. </p> <p><br></p><p>Taken together, the results from these studies suggest that examining gait behavior during free-play reveals how complex young children’s navigation of their environment is. Furthermore, these early movements and functional behavior during free-play may be important predictors underlying the relationship between onset of walking and language development.</p>

<p>This study examined job satisfaction factors and teacher demographics in relation to a teacher’s likelihood of returning to an urban teaching setting the following school year. The researcher specifically examined factors relating to teachers’ job satisfaction, utilizing Paul Spector’s Job Satisfaction Survey (1999). Four hundred fifty-nine Indiana urban schoolteachers whose districts are members of Indiana Urban School Association (IUSA) participated in this study. Participants’ demographic and job satisfaction data was analyzed by point biserial correlations and binary logistic regressions. A significant correlation was found between the total JSS score and teachers’ decision to return teaching in urban school setting. Additionally, an increased number of years of teaching, promotion, and nature of work were associated with an increased likelihood of returning to teach. In contrast, an increase in age was associated with a reduced probability of teaching or returning by 0.746. An increase in the number of teaching years was related to an increased probability of returning to teaching by 3.204. There is an increased chance of returning to teaching by 4.066 as promotion increases. A reduced probability of returning to teaching by .313 was correlated with relationships with colleagues. Finally, increasing levels of nature of work was associated with an increased likelihood or returning to work by 3.103. Based on the findings from this study, the researcher concluded administrators in urban school settings should focus on factors that will enhance teacher experience and overall job satisfaction to discourage attrition. </p>

<p>  </p> <p>Invasive species are a prominent problem throughout the world due to the high economic and ecological impact they have on environments. The spongy moth, <em>Lymantria dispar</em>, is a well-known and intensely studied invasive species within the United States because of the high environmental (<em>e.g.</em>, defoliation) and economic (<em>e.g.</em>, management efforts) costs. Originally introduced in Massachusetts in 1869 their range now covers much of the Northeast and Midwest, with the potential to disperse much further. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The goal of this study is to determine how the landscape has influenced <em>L. dispar</em>’s invasion rate through least-cost resistance modeling. Resistance modeling is a technique that combines the biology of <em>L. dispar </em>and landscape connectivity to potentially explain the invasion rate. Landscape connectivity has varying effects on invasion dynamics depending on the spatial scale. Monitoring efforts for <em>L. dispar</em> have occurred at a small spatial scale throughout the entire range for many years, which now provides the opportunity to look at invasion dynamics at small spatial scales. Identifying the landscape’s influence on invasion dynamics at these scales can assist in targeting management efforts to areas that have a high likelihood of being invaded soon based on the landscape connectivity within the area. This targeted management strategy can potentially help to slow <em>L. dispar</em>’s establishment and dispersal ability and reduce management and monitoring costs.</p>