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Introduction Excerpt:Appalachian women face barriers to self-sufficiency in many aspects of their lives. A review of the relevant literature provides evidence of both barriers to self-sufficiency and examples of personal resiliency...

“Mash” is a term used to describe one of the most recent major style shifts in the iconic American string band music known as bluegrass. Beginning in the 1990s, the bluegrass sound began to evolve, and ‘mash’ worked its way into the genre as a descriptor of a certain sound. Though a handful of scholars have discussed the social stigmas of the style, no one yet has investigated the simple musical question about mash: what is it? The purpose of this thesis is to define mash in its musical form through a combination of transcription methods and extensive analysis. Through this research, a recurring set of musical phenomena is identified in the repertoire, related to rhythms, melody, and modality. This study shows the relationship between the downbeat and this music, and identifies and articulates the musical characteristics that define mash as a unique style of bluegrass.

Through the characters’ ideas of religion as seen in The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow, a full image of who Christ is in World War II America is shown. While the text appears to critique certain images of Christ through the characters’ representations, the greater, more conclusive argument advocating religious diversity is proven. The characters, instead of having their representation of Christ based in only the Christian denomination from which they come, represent Christ through their character traits.

INTRODUCTION: Nursing practice is continuously evolving in response to global health care need, sociopolitical culture, and advancing medical knowledge necessitating ongoing evaluation of professional practice. The purpose of this state of this science paper was to explore current perceptions of nursing and critique the depth of knowledge specific to nursing practice in the Appalachian region. METHODOLOGY: A review of the literature in multiple databases was conducted to explore perceptions of nursing in Appalachia. RESULTS: Categories of perception included the following: (a) perceptions of nurses and education leaders that practice in the Appalachian region, (b) perceptions of communities of Appalachia and Appalachian health care systems, and (c) perceptions of patients possessing inherent cultural characteristics of the Appalachian region. DISCUSSION: None of the literature specifically addressed perceptions of nursing. Much of the available literature was over 5 years old. A significant deficiency in understanding perceptions of nursing in Appalachia was identified.

The Appalachian region has long been regarded as an economically disadvantaged area, with a lower percentage of individuals pursuing higher education than in the nation as a whole . Improving the educational status of residents of Appalachia may foster some economic transition in the region, shifting the employment focus from an unskilled labor emphasis to more professional and career opportunities. Better understanding of the influences in the decision processes of Appalachian students is needed in order to design and implement intervention programs to increase enrollment in higher education. The concept of possible selves is introduced as a way to examine individuals' goals and beliefs about themselves in future contexts. Other factors (academic preparation, family, and culture) influencing the decision regarding college attendance were considered and evaluated in relation to possible selves. A model was developed to examine the influences of academic preparation, family, and culture on Appalachian students' educational goals and aspirations, as they are mediated by possible selves. It was hypothesized that the mediated influences model sufficiently predicts students' plans for college attendance. Statistical analysis and a revision of the original model were conducted, and results indicate that the model was adequately supported. Interpretations for these results were offered, and implications and limitations of the study were discussed.

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The Appalachian Highlands Region is a biodiverse temperate forest that scales through a multitude of states along the eastern United States. This region contains microbial-rich soil with more than 10,000 different species of bacteria in one gram of soil and is still almost entirely undiscovered with very little known about the microbes that call this region home. The goals of this study are to 1) characterize the microbiome of this unique region and 2) potentially find uncharacterized microbes that are capable of producing their own natural antibiotics. Our research team utilized Buffalo Mountain as a training ground to collect soil samples at differing locations such as creek banks, bases of trees, overlooks, forested areas, bald ridges, and many more. With these samples, the team was able to grow and isolate various microorganisms that were characterized to have specific roles in this ecosystem. These included those microbes that have roles in degradation of pollutants, aid in the health of the plant species native to the region, belong to the biome of regional insects, and still others that were able to produce antimicrobial compounds. Through the process of isolation, purification, and 16s rRNA sequencing of the microorganism’s DNA, our team was able to identify many of the regional microbes and begin to characterize them, as well as, testing them against known pathogens such as Staphylococcus, Bacillus, and Escherichia. Two of the isolated microorganisms, PAP6, a previously unidentified and uncultured bacterium, and BK1, identified as Pseudomonas vancouverensis, exhibited zones-of-inhibition towards Gram positive bacteria indicating potentially uncharacterized antimicrobials. Taken together, these results prove that there are numerous culturable microorganisms with numerous unique abilities and qualities in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Future work from this project will continue to sample the various mountain ranges in the regions, identify and characterize these microbes, investigate potential antimicrobial producers, and map the unique microbiome of our region.

The Upper Mississippian (Chesterian) Bluefield Formation of southeastern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia is the basal unit of the Mauch Chunk Group, a succession of predominantly siliciclastic strata sourced from actively rising tectonic highlands east of the Appalachian Basin. The Bluefield Formation conformably overlies shallow-marine carbonate units of the Greenbrier Group, and is unconformably overlain by incised fluvio-estuarine facies of the Stony Gap sandstone member (Hinton Formation). Outcrops along the Allegheny Front were investigated sedimentologically and structurally, and subjected to gamma ray analysis. Composite outcrop sections from deformed rocks of the Allegheny Front were correlated with the relatively undeformed rocks in the subsurface of the Appalachian Basin to the west using over 100 commercial oil and gas test wells. Regional subsurface cross-sections and isopachs define a depocenter in the southeastern part of the study area. Measured outcrop sections reveal that the stratigraphic record in the depocenter consists predominantly of meter-scale, upward-shallowing parasequences, each capped by a flooding surface. These parasequences are stacked into four regionally correlatable depositional sequences. On the basin margin to the southwest and northwest, incised valleys, and fewer meter-scale parasequences characterize depositional sequences. Stacking of parasequences into sequences reflects a hierarchy of greenhouse-type 5th order, and icehouse-type 4th order eustatic changes superimposed on differential subsidence. Due to early Alleghenian thrust loading, the depocenter experienced greater total accommodation, which prevented incision during lowstands. Instead, in the depocenter, lowstands are typified by preservation of 5th order coal-bearing parasequences. Basin-margin areas experienced less total accommodation resulting in development of 4th order lowstand incised valleys and erosive removal of parasequences. This study demonstrates that both tectonic and eustatic forcing mechanisms controlled stratigraphic evolution of the Bluefield Formation. / Master of Science