Conservation efforts that involve habitat protection, population augmentation, and species reintroductions require knowledge of the habitat requirements, distribution, and abundance of a species—information that can be challenging to acquire, especially for rare organisms with patchy distributions. In this thesis, I develop a protocol for the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) and create a Species Distribution Model for the endangered James spinymussel, Parvaspina collina (Unionidae). The results of this work show that eDNA is a robust tool for identifying species presence but not for estimating the relative abundance of populations. This study found that P. collina’s distribution is influenced by abiotic habitat characteristics related to sedimentation and runoff rather than by the distribution of its host fishes. The predicted habitat suitability was used to identify locations of priority conservation concern and these results can be used to direct future sampling efforts, identify potential dispersal routes, and inform conservation decisions.

This dissertation examines how contemporary Irish women writers dismantle national conceptions linking Irish women to the hearth and home by offering an alternate version of women’s lived experience, which nationalist ideologies have simplified. I consider how these writers define “home”—the domestic, the familiar, the intimate—as complicated by sexuality, exile, and violence. Using Freud’s theory of the uncanny as a lens, I analyze how these writers question established social relations in order to uncover uneasy relationships to self, home, and homeland. In my project, postcolonial theory and transnational feminisms, coupled with trauma theory, facilitate the contextualization of the uncanny as a response to the hybrid identities, dislocations, and effects of violence on gender roles within the nation. The first two chapters examine Edna O’Brien’s later fiction, which unsettles conceptions of the nation by emphasizing the experiences of marginal figures, thereby questioning who belongs within the nation’s borders. The next two chapters on the fiction of Jennifer Johnston and Mary Beckett reveal how the crossing of the public into the private sphere exposes a paradoxical homespace that is both haven and prison for rich Anglo-Irish Dubliners and working-class Catholics in Belfast. The final chapter on Kate O’Riordan’s novels explores issues of exile, alienation, and trauma through a multi-generational lens, revealing how memories of “home” and fraught parent-child relationships at once hinder and facilitate identity formation. In the epilogue, I briefly discuss how contemporary Irish poetry could address the issues raised by the works of fiction examined in my project.

This thesis uses archetypal theory as explained by Carol Pearson in The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By to illustrate the heroic journey undertaken by the protagonist in Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "Renascence." Feminist archetypal theory is a useful lens for gaining the reader access to the underlying paradigms of struggle experienced by the female literary character because it exposes the parallels that exist in separate female experiences. By applying Pearson's theory to Millay's work, readers are able to elucidate more clearly the methods used by the poet to create commonality and continuity with her female audience. Throughout the poem, the protagonist hero recursively circles through the Innocent, Orphan, Martyr, Wanderer, Warrior, and Magician phases. This essay utilizes a close reading strategy to illustrate its argument and provide evidence to its conclusions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-309).

According to James Mulholland, choral works in which the composer begins by using the text to inspire creativity evolve in three stages. First, the poet carefully chooses words and expressions as a vehicle for thoughts and emotions. The composer, in the second stage, enhances the artistic impact of the poem by setting it to music. In the final stage, conductor and performers give voice to the poet's work and to the composer's musical expression of it in a live performance.Choral conductors serve two art forms, language and music. In this study, I will investigate the compositional process and musical style of James Mulholland in five of his choral works, focusing on the composer's use of scansion (measurement of metrical patterns in each line of poetry), vocalization, imagery, and Leitmotif to express the text. The choral works to be studied include Heart, we will forget him! (Emily Dickinson), Fulfillment (Anonymous), The Wild Honeysuckle (Philip Freneau), What lips my lips have kissed (Edna St. Vincent Millay), and If love should count you worthy (attributed to Sidney Royse Lysaght). These pieces were chosen in consultation with the composer to represent his general style. My desire to survey a variety of poets was an additional consideration.Although the focus of my study lies in the second stage of the evolution of a choral work (the setting of the text by the composer), I suggest rehearsal considerations based upon my research. To provide historical context highlighting the circumstances under which each poem was written, poets' biographies (where applicable) are included. Additionally, a synopsis of each poem will provide a cursory understanding of its meaning. Familiarity with the poem's historical context and basic vocabulary is essential to the performance in order to clearly communicate the emotion of the text to a live audience.

This thesis uses archetypal theory as explained by Carol Pearson in The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By to illustrate the heroic journey undertaken by the protagonist in Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "Renascence." Feminist archetypal theory is a useful lens for gaining the reader access to the underlying paradigms of struggle experienced by the female literary character because it exposes the parallels that exist in separate female experiences. By applying Pearson's theory to Millay's work, readers are able to elucidate more clearly the methods used by the poet to create commonality and continuity with her female audience. Throughout the poem, the protagonist hero recursively circles through the Innocent, Orphan, Martyr, Wanderer, Warrior, and Magician phases. This essay utilizes a close reading strategy to illustrate its argument and provide evidence to its conclusions.

Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2007. / English Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-137).

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-137).

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-137).