A creative dissertation consisting of two parts: a novel and a critical preface. The critical preface, titled “Novel without Falsehood” deals directly with David Shields’s Reality Hunger, touching on issues of reality as it pertains to truth, writing, fiction, and contemporary culture. The novel is entitled Down and Out and follows the fortunes of a small town in Arkansas before, during, and after its sole source of employment ceases to exist.

The primary problem in this study was to develop a comprehensive long-range plan for Arkansas Baptists to use as a guide in meeting their needs in the field of Christian higher education. These needs were viewed in two ways: 1. Need as related to the purposes and philosophy of Christian higher education of Southern Baptists; 2. Need as related to the number of persons to be served.

This research utilized population genetic analyses (protein starch-gel electrophoresis and DNA sequencing of the cytochrome b mtDNA gene), host-parasite specificity (lice coevolution), remote sensing of satellite data, and geographic information systems (GIS) to characterize newly discovered populations of pocket gophers (genus: Geomys) in Arkansas. These populations are isolated and occur in seemingly unsuitable habitat in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Analyses of electrophoretic and ectoparasite data suggested the populations in the Ozark Mountains represented isolates allied to Geomys bursarius, a species not known to occur in Arkansas. Comparison of mitochondrial DNA sequence data of the cytochrome b gene with that of other taxa and morphometric analyses confirmed that these populations are most closely allied to G. bursarius occurring to the north in Missouri. Moreover, these mtDNA sequence analyses indicated a degree of differentiation typical of that between other subspecies of pocket gophers. Therefore, these populations represent a distinct genetic entity in an intermediate stage of speciation and should be designated as a new subspecies, Geomys bursarius ozarkensis. Molecular clock analysis revealed a time of lineage divergence for this new subspecies as approximately 511,000 YBP. Due to the isolated nature and limited distribution of this subspecies, an evaluation of critical habitat needs was initiated. Remote sensing and GIS technologies were used to identify and describe suitable habitat Computerized classification of satellite imagery of suitable vegetation, integrated with ancillary digital information on soil associations, roads, and water systems, revealed that human activity had played a positive role in the establishment and dispersal of pocket gophers in this area. This research represents an initial combination of classical systematic tools with remote sensing and GIS to investigate biogeographic patterns and evolution. This project establishes a framework for using an interdisciplinary approach to studying organisms with limited distributions, determining evolutionary status, and providing recommendations for conservation.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen M. Featherstone / As the U.S. economy has changed, the use of diesel vehicles has increased. With this increase, has come an increase in the demand of highly trained technicians to work on those vehicles. North Arkansas College of Harrison, AR is looking for opportunities to keep its program offerings current with the educational demands of its potential students. During the last few years, North Arkansas College has received requests to start a diesel vehicle maintenance program. This thesis analyzes the feasibility of a diesel vehicle maintenance program at North Arkansas College. To determine the feasibility of such a program, all major aspects of the potential program must be considered and analyzed. The key questions addressed are: what is the interest level in the community for a diesel vehicle maintenance program, what are the major capital costs of starting the program, what would the potential operating budget resemble, and how would the program fit into the current field of area diesel maintenance programs? To study the feasibility of a potential diesel vehicle maintenance program at North Arkansas College, four steps were completed. First, a survey was developed that measured the interest from potential students, prospective employers, and interested community members from the potential market of North Arkansas College. Second, research was done to understand how a potential diesel vehicle maintenance program would fit into the current marketplace of established diesel maintenance programs. This was done by researching and comparing area programs to the type of programs that North Arkansas College offers and the possible model of a potential diesel vehicle maintenance program. Next, research was conducted to estimate the capital costs of starting a diesel vehicle maintenance program, as well as the potential operating budget. This was done by developing blueprints of a potential floor plan, a building to house the program, and the potential areas of study in the program. Based on these blueprints, actual bids and estimates were collected to calculate potential capital and operating costs. Finally, analysis was conducted to determine if the outcomes of a potential diesel vehicle maintenance program would fulfill the mission of North Arkansas College. The analysis of the feasibility of a diesel vehicle maintenance program at North Arkansas College reveals that there is interest from all three parts of the community in starting a diesel vehicle maintenance program. The research also revealed that the program would be a fit in the marketplace if it was an affordable, three semester program that covered the basics of the diesel powered vehicle. Also, research of the potential costs and revenues of the program reveals that the program would be sustainable. Finally, a diesel vehicle maintenance program would have much synergy with the current programs already offered at North Arkansas College. In the end, the results suggest that it is worthwhile to move forward towards starting a diesel vehicle maintenance program.

Veins are ubiquitous features in deformed rocks. Despite observations on syntectonic veins spanning two centuries, fundamental questions remain unanswered. Their origin as fractures is largely established but it is still not known why these fractures initiate where they do and how the vein evolves once started. We studied veins from the Lower Ordovician Mazarn Formation in the Arkansas’ Ouachitas combining textural observations, stable isotopes, fluid inclusions, SEM-based cathodoluminescence and electron back-scattered diffraction to understand the initial stage of vein formation, its later evolution, the role of fluids and their environment of formation. The veins are located at boudin necks and are synchronous with cleavage formation. Texturally, veins are characterized by veinlets (thin veins between 5 and 25 μm thick) that parallel the vein-host interface and fibers (columns of quartz or calcite) perpendicular to the vein-host interface between 30 and 350 μm wide. Veinlets are localized fractures filled with quartz. The crystallographic orientation of the precipitated material in veinlets is inherited from host grains at the micron scale and replicated as fibers’ lengths grow to centimeters. The vein-forming fluid was cyclically supersaturated yet never very far from saturation. δ18O values of vein quartz and host are within 2‰ of each other suggesting that the fluid was rock-buffered. Nevertheless, δ18O and δ13C define a ‘J’ shaped trend. Although it is not possible to date any portion of this curve, the simplest explanation is that the fluid evolved from rock-buffered in a closed system to fluid-dominated in an open system. The range of pressure-temperature conditions of vein formation is between 275 and 385 °C and 1100 and 3400 bars, from fluid inclusions and quartz-calcite oxygen isotopes thermometry. By examining a vein from tip to middle, we have established a sequence of events from inception to maturity in vein growth. Vein formation starts with folding followed by flattening of resistant sandstone layers which in turn gives rise to boudinage. Boudinage formation allowed for fracture localization along boudin-necks. The vein grew by the repeated addition of veinlets in the neck region. Recrystallization later modified the fibers by obliterating some evidence of the veinlets and moving fiber walls.

Veins are ubiquitous features in deformed rocks. Despite observations on syntectonic veins spanning two centuries, fundamental questions remain unanswered. Their origin as fractures is largely established but it is still not known why these fractures initiate where they do and how the vein evolves once started. We studied veins from the Lower Ordovician Mazarn Formation in the Arkansas’ Ouachitas combining textural observations, stable isotopes, fluid inclusions, SEM-based cathodoluminescence and electron back-scattered diffraction to understand the initial stage of vein formation, its later evolution, the role of fluids and their environment of formation. The veins are located at boudin necks and are synchronous with cleavage formation. Texturally, veins are characterized by veinlets (thin veins between 5 and 25 μm thick) that parallel the vein-host interface and fibers (columns of quartz or calcite) perpendicular to the vein-host interface between 30 and 350 μm wide. Veinlets are localized fractures filled with quartz. The crystallographic orientation of the precipitated material in veinlets is inherited from host grains at the micron scale and replicated as fibers’ lengths grow to centimeters. The vein-forming fluid was cyclically supersaturated yet never very far from saturation. δ18O values of vein quartz and host are within 2‰ of each other suggesting that the fluid was rock-buffered. Nevertheless, δ18O and δ13C define a ‘J’ shaped trend. Although it is not possible to date any portion of this curve, the simplest explanation is that the fluid evolved from rock-buffered in a closed system to fluid-dominated in an open system. The range of pressure-temperature conditions of vein formation is between 275 and 385 °C and 1100 and 3400 bars, from fluid inclusions and quartz-calcite oxygen isotopes thermometry. By examining a vein from tip to middle, we have established a sequence of events from inception to maturity in vein growth. Vein formation starts with folding followed by flattening of resistant sandstone layers which in turn gives rise to boudinage. Boudinage formation allowed for fracture localization along boudin-necks. The vein grew by the repeated addition of veinlets in the neck region. Recrystallization later modified the fibers by obliterating some evidence of the veinlets and moving fiber walls.

This investigation explored scientific, religious, and otherwise nonscientific factors that may influence student acceptance of biological evolution and related concepts, how students perceived these factors to have influenced their levels of acceptance of evolution and changes therein, and what patterns arose among students' articulations of how their levels of acceptance of evolution may have changed. This exploration also measured the extent to which students' levels of acceptance changed following a treatment designed to address factors identified as potentially affecting student acceptance of evolution. Acceptance of evolution was measured using the MATE instrument (Rutledge and Warden, 1999; Rutledge and Sadler, 2007) among participants enrolled in a secondary-level academic program during the summer prior to their final year of high school and as they transitioned to the post-secondary level. Student acceptance of evolution was measured to be significantly higher than pre-treatment levels both immediately following and slightly over one year after treatment. Qualitative data from informal questionnaires, from formal course evaluations, and from semi-structured interviews of students engaged in secondary level education and former students at various stages of post-secondary education confirmed that the suspected factors were perceived by participants to have influenced their levels of acceptance of evolution. Furthermore, participant reports provided insight regarding the relative effects they perceived these factors to have had on their evolution acceptance levels. Additionally, many participants reported that their science teachers in public schools had avoided, omitted, or denigrated evolution during instruction, and several of these students expressed frustration regarding what they perceived to have been a lack of education of an important scientific principle. Finally, no students expressed feelings of being offended by having been taught about evolutionary science, and the overwhelming majority of the participants expressed enjoyment of the course and appreciation for having been taught about evolution.

This paper investigates the autobiography of Damien Echols. The autobiographical subject, Echols, depicts his life as a marginalized youth during the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties in Arkansas, USA. It also explores the years that Echols spent on Death Row after having been arrested along with two other youths for the murder of three eight-year-old boys; a crime all three of the accused denied having committed. In 2011, after eighteen years of incarceration, the three now grown up men were released from prison. The author of this paper discusses biography and especially autobiography as a genre and explores to what extent memories represent the actual life the autobiographical subject, Echols, has lived and if memories are or can be truthful. In order to find the underlying meanings of the autobiography, the author of this paper uses as a starting-point a psychoanalytic approach towards Echol’s text. Key terms that will undergo a more close inspection are horror, water and home. This paper concludes with the notion that autobiographical objective truth does not exist.

Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes final project proposal. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-168, 62-69).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-157).