How plants from a common species pool form community has been considered from a variety of approaches. A promising approach involves the search for assembly rules based on plant functional traits. This approach has potential to provide insight into community and ecosystem processes In this research. a general and simple conceptual model based on life forms and independent of species is used as a framework for assessing the internal structure of plant communities. Plant functional traits are used to identify patterns within and between plant communities in the contrasting environments of Camp Williams, Utah, and Camp Grayling, Michigan. The conceptual model has three different functional types formed by one to three functional groups. A functional group, made up of species with similar life form, is analogous to a vegetation stratum. A functional type, consisting of one or more functional groups. is analogous to a community or vegetation type. Correspondence analysis (CA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicate that richness, species diversity, and trait diversity are essentially independent of functional type and are, for example, fairly consistent regardless of climatic regime or structural complexity. Cover. on the other hand. increases with the number of functional groups in a functional type. Consistent patterns and trends for sets of functional traits support the view that assembly rules may account for internal structure in plant communities. The consistent association of sets of traits with functional groups even in taxonomically dissimilar communities suggests that the functional traits are related to fundamental ecological processes that shape these communities. Ambiguity in some of the results might be explained by extending the analysis to additional installations that replicate the climatic conditions found at Camp Williams and Camp Grayling.

Current vegetation classes were generated from remotely sensed data to provide coarse-level information for an ecosystem management plan developed at Camp Williams, Utah. Vegetation trend from 1973 - 1993 was also examined via satellite imagery. The data set consisted of Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) images from July or August of 1973, 1975, 1980, 1988, and 1993. Two approaches were used to detect vegetation change. The first approach determined overall and cover type trend from standard digital image differencing of soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) images. The second approach used an unsupervised classification of a composite SAVI image of all dates. The first approach defined areas of increase, decrease, and no significant change in SAVI and differences in trend for tree versus shrub cover types. The second approach resulted in an ecological classification that defined new environmental patterns based on vegetation trend.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-232).

The purpose of this essay is to encourage the study and performance of trumpet concertos written by notable contemporary composers. The essay focuses on two outstanding trumpet concertos composed in recent years: Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, op. 64 and John Williams’ Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. The essay specifically provides the following information: 1) a concise history of the concerto for trumpet, 2) a short biography of Lowell Liebermann and John Williams, 3) the history of Liebermann’s and Williams’ concertos for trumpet, 4) musical analysis of both concertos, 5) a soloist’s practice and performance guide to both works, and 6) a short list of other contemporary trumpet concertos worthy of study. Both Liebermann’s and Williams’ trumpet concertos acknowledge established musical convention, and neither uses any experimental performance techniques. However, both works are written in their own distinctive harmonic language, and each provides its own unique modifications to traditional forms and melodic shapes. Hopefully, this essay will advance the status of Liebermann’s Trumpet Concerto and Williams’ Trumpet Concerto in the history of the trumpet concerto genre and serve as a resource for those who wish to research, study, and perform Liebermann’s Concerto, Williams’ Concerto, or other contemporary trumpet concertos.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was one of the most prolific British composers of the twentieth century, yet his operas are virtually unknown in the standard operatic repertoire. Singers and teachers of singing are often challenged in finding operatic arias composed in the English language, because the standard operatic repertoire simply does not have as many works originally written in English as are found in Italian, German, or French. If there are arias from Vaughan Williams’ operas that are accessible to the young singing voice, they should not remain unknown. This study was executed in hopes of identifying for singers and teachers of singing, the arias, duets and scenes for male voice that can stand alone outside performances of the operas. The implications of this research project are that singers and teachers of singing have a newly found wealth of repertoire to utilize in performance as well as in the learning environment. Not only are these findings beautiful music from one of the twentieth century’s most prominent composers, but they are perhaps more importantly, accessible to the young and developing singer.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005. / "May, 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-113). Online version available on the World Wide Web. Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2005]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.

This study consist of a comparative analysis of the nostalgic female characters in Pai Hsien-yung's two short stories: "Wandering in a Garden, Waking from a Dream," and "A Celestial in Mundane Exile," and Tennessee Williams's two plays: The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Beginning with a brief discussion of the socio-historical background of Pai's Republican China and Williams's American South, a general analysis of previous scholarship on Pai and Williams's works follows. The analysis of the selected works focuses on the stylistic and symbolic features in Pai and Williams's characterizations, such as Pai's use of stream-of-consciousness, reference to the k'un opera Peony Pavilion, elaboration over descriptive details of the setting, symbolic use of clothing and accessories, and Williams's symbolic use of music genres: "Blues Piano" and the "Varsouviana Polka," and his use of rhythm and other poetic elements in his characters' speech, in the style of "personal lyricism." My study is based on a close-reading analysis of the selected works by Pai and Williams. Their humanistic approach to their respective declining aristocratic cultures and their sympathy for the nostalgic female characters' tragedies will be more apparent when the study focuses mostly on the texts themselves. Their similar belief in the universal values, such as compassion, sacrifice, and courage, has made their works comparable. In the discussion of themes, the idea of the humanistic role of literature articulated by William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize Speech is also used to connect Pai and Williams's sympathetic approach to their characters.

Toleration is a core liberal ideal, but it is not an ideal without limits. To tolerate the intolerant would be to violate the principles and purposes underlying liberal societies. This important exception to the liberal ideal of toleration is dangerous, however, in that we may make it too exclusionary in practice. That is, we may mistakenly apply it to peaceful, beneficial members of our communities as well as to the truly intolerant. In particular, some contemporary liberals see religion either as inherently intolerant and dangerous or as violating standards of public discourse that they feel are necessary to uphold liberalism's core ideals, including toleration. This work argues that we risk violating the liberal ideal of toleration in a hasty over-generalization about religious belief. Through an examination of the arguments of Roger Williams and John Locke, this work argues that religious belief can be compatible with toleration, and that the practice and popular value of liberal toleration has at least in part a religious origin. These authors, and believers like them, defended toleration, partially as a result of their own experiences of intolerance, but also because they saw toleration as a theological necessity. Thus, this work shows that we have misunderstood the relationship between religion and toleration. While some forms of religious belief may incite intolerance and violence, others provide a firm foundation for toleration. We must show care in distinguishing the two to avoid violating the fundamental liberal ideal of toleration. Moreover, it is important that we do so to foster civil comity and cooperation, as well as to sustain the other benefits that religious groups provide to liberal, democratic societies.

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 2006. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-157).

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Bristol, 1993. / BLDSC reference no.: DX181689.