ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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Description
Virtue was a concept of paramount importance in the American founders' republican thought. Without virtue, there could be no liberty, no order, no devotion to the common good, and no republican government. This dissertation examines the concept of virtue at the American founding, particularly virtue in the political thought of Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814). The most important female intellectual of the Revolutionary generation, Warren wrote passionately about liberty and the beauty of republican ideals. Most important to this study, she consistently advocated the central place of virtue in a free and well-ordered republic. I argue that Warren incorporates three distinct philosophical threads - classical, bourgeois-marketplace, and Christian ideals - in her conception of virtue. I first analyze how Warren uses each of these three threads of virtue throughout her writings. I then examine how she synthesizes these individual threads into a single, cohesive conception of virtue. I argue that Warren consistently merges these ideals into a conception of virtue that she employs to address three pressing political problems of her day: How to motivate reluctant colonists to seek independence; how to check various forms of corruption spreading among the people; and how to counter corruption arising from commercial growth in the new nation. Modern political theorists often argue that these three threads, especially the classical republican and Christian ideals of virtue, are irreconcilable. My analysis shows that to divorce virtue from Christianity in Warren's conception is to rob it of its corrective vigor within republican government. I argue that what Machiavelli and Rousseau wrote out of republican virtue Warren writes back in. In Warren's political thought, virtue serves as the foundation for a stable enduring political system, provides the necessary informal ordering principle for the emerging republic, and offers the means by which the new nation could achieve its millennial destiny.
ContributorsMunsil, Tracy F (Author) / Ball, Terence (Thesis advisor) / Dagger, Richard (Thesis advisor) / Crittenden, William J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
In a large network (graph) it would be desirable to guarantee the existence of some local property based only on global knowledge of the network. Consider the following classical example: how many connections are necessary to guarantee that the network contains three nodes which are pairwise adjacent? It turns out that more than n^2/4 connections are needed, and no smaller number will suffice in general. Problems of this type fall into the category of ``extremal graph theory.'' Generally speaking, extremal graph theory is the study of how global parameters of a graph are related to local properties. This dissertation deals with the relationship between minimum degree conditions of a host graph G and the property that G contains a specified spanning subgraph (or class of subgraphs). The goal is to find the optimal minimum degree which guarantees the existence of a desired spanning subgraph. This goal is achieved in four different settings, with the main tools being Szemeredi's Regularity Lemma; the Blow-up Lemma of Komlos, Sarkozy, and Szemeredi; and some basic probabilistic techniques.
ContributorsDeBiasio, Louis (Author) / Kierstead, Henry A (Thesis advisor) / Czygrinow, Andrzej (Thesis advisor) / Hurlbert, Glenn (Committee member) / Kadell, Kevin (Committee member) / Fishel, Susanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Synthetic biology is constantly evolving as new ideas are incorporated into this increasingly flexible field. It incorporates the engineering of life with standard genetic parts and methods; new organisms with new genomes; expansion of life to include new components, capabilities, and chemistries; and even completely synthetic organisms that mimic life while being composed of non-living matter. We have introduced a new paradigm of synthetic biology that melds the methods of in vitro evolution with the goals and philosophy of synthetic biology. The Family B proteins represent the first de novo evolved natively folded proteins to be developed with increasingly powerful tools of molecular evolution. These proteins are folded and functional, composed of the 20 canonical amino acids, and in many ways resemble natural proteins. However, their evolutionary history is quite different from natural proteins, as it did not involve a cellular environment. In this study, we examine the properties of DX, one of the Family B proteins that have been evolutionarily optimized for folding stability. Described in chapter 2 is an investigation into the primitive catalytic properties of DX, which seems to have evolved a serendipitous ATPase activity in addition to its selected ATP binding activity. In chapters 3 and 4 we express the DX gene in E. coli cells and observe massive changes in cell morphology, biochemistry, and life cycle. Exposure to DX activates several defense systems in E. coli, including filamentation, cytoplasmic segregation, and reversion to a viable but non-culturable state. We examined these phenotypes in detail and present a model that accounts for how DX causes such a rearrangement of the cell.
ContributorsStomel, Joshua (Author) / Chaput, John C (Thesis advisor) / Korch, Shaleen (Committee member) / Roberson, Robert (Committee member) / Ghirlanda, Gionvanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Molybdenum (Mo) is a key trace nutrient for biological assimilation of nitrogen, either as nitrogen gas (N2) or nitrate (NO3-). Although Mo is the most abundant metal in seawater (105 nM), its concentration is low (<5 nM) in most freshwaters today, and it was scarce in the ocean before 600 million years ago. The use of Mo for nitrogen assimilation can be understood in terms of the changing Mo availability through time; for instance, the higher Mo content of eukaryotic vs. prokaryotic nitrate reductase may have stalled proliferation of eukaryotes in low-Mo Proterozoic oceans. Field and laboratory experiments were performed to study Mo requirements for NO3- assimilation and N2 fixation, respectively. Molybdenum-nitrate addition experiments at Castle Lake, California revealed interannual and depth variability in plankton community response, perhaps resulting from differences in species composition and/or ammonium availability. Furthermore, lake sediments were elevated in Mo compared to soils and bedrock in the watershed. Box modeling suggested that the largest source of Mo to the lake was particulate matter from the watershed. Month-long laboratory experiments with heterocystous cyanobacteria (HC) showed that <1 nM Mo led to low N2 fixation rates, while 10 nM Mo was sufficient for optimal rates. At 1500 nM Mo, freshwater HC hyperaccumulated Mo intercellularly, whereas coastal HC did not. These differences in storage capacity were likely due to the presence in freshwater HC of the small molybdate-binding protein, Mop, and its absence in coastal and marine cyanobacterial species. Expression of the mop gene was regulated by Mo availability in the freshwater HC species Nostoc sp. PCC 7120. Under low Mo (<1 nM) conditions, mop gene expression was up-regulated compared to higher Mo (150 and 3000 nM) treatments, but the subunit composition of the Mop protein changed, suggesting that Mop does not bind Mo in the same manner at <1 nM Mo that it can at higher Mo concentrations. These findings support a role for Mop as a Mo storage protein in HC and suggest that freshwater HC control Mo cellular homeostasis at the post-translational level. Mop's widespread distribution in prokaryotes lends support to the theory that it may be an ancient protein inherited from low-Mo Precambrian oceans.
ContributorsGlass, Jennifer (Author) / Anbar, Ariel D (Thesis advisor) / Shock, Everett L (Committee member) / Jones, Anne K (Committee member) / Hartnett, Hilairy E (Committee member) / Elser, James J (Committee member) / Fromme, Petra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Nonlinear dispersive equations model nonlinear waves in a wide range of physical and mathematics contexts. They reinforce or dissipate effects of linear dispersion and nonlinear interactions, and thus, may be of a focusing or defocusing nature. The nonlinear Schrödinger equation or NLS is an example of such equations. It appears as a model in hydrodynamics, nonlinear optics, quantum condensates, heat pulses in solids and various other nonlinear instability phenomena. In mathematics, one of the interests is to look at the wave interaction: waves propagation with different speeds and/or different directions produces either small perturbations comparable with linear behavior, or creates solitary waves, or even leads to singular solutions. This dissertation studies the global behavior of finite energy solutions to the $d$-dimensional focusing NLS equation, $i partial _t u+Delta u+ |u|^{p-1}u=0, $ with initial data $u_0in H^1,; x in Rn$; the nonlinearity power $p$ and the dimension $d$ are chosen so that the scaling index $s=frac{d}{2}-frac{2}{p-1}$ is between 0 and 1, thus, the NLS is mass-supercritical $(s>0)$ and energy-subcritical $(s<1).$ For solutions with $ME[u_0]<1$ ($ME[u_0]$ stands for an invariant and conserved quantity in terms of the mass and energy of $u_0$), a sharp threshold for scattering and blowup is given. Namely, if the renormalized gradient $g_u$ of a solution $u$ to NLS is initially less than 1, i.e., $g_u(0)<1,$ then the solution exists globally in time and scatters in $H^1$ (approaches some linear Schr"odinger evolution as $ttopminfty$); if the renormalized gradient $g_u(0)>1,$ then the solution exhibits a blowup behavior, that is, either a finite time blowup occurs, or there is a divergence of $H^1$ norm in infinite time. This work generalizes the results for the 3d cubic NLS obtained in a series of papers by Holmer-Roudenko and Duyckaerts-Holmer-Roudenko with the key ingredients, the concentration compactness and localized variance, developed in the context of the energy-critical NLS and Nonlinear Wave equations by Kenig and Merle. One of the difficulties is fractional powers of nonlinearities which are overcome by considering Besov-Strichartz estimates and various fractional differentiation rules.
ContributorsGuevara, Cristi Darley (Author) / Roudenko, Svetlana (Thesis advisor) / Castillo_Chavez, Carlos (Committee member) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / Mahalov, Alex (Committee member) / Suslov, Sergei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Historians often characterize first ladies in the Progressive Era as representatives of the last vestiges of Victorian womanhood in an increasingly modern society. This dissertation argues that first ladies negotiated an image of themselves that fulfilled both traditional and modern notions of womanhood. In crafting these images, first ladies constructed images of their celebrity selves that were uniquely modern. Thus, images of first ladies in the Progressive Era show them as modest and feminine but also autonomous, intelligent, and capable. Using the historian Charles Ponce de Leon's research on modern human-interest journalism, I contend that first ladies in the Progressive Era worked with the modern press in a symbiotic relationship. This relationship allowed the press exclusive access to what was, ostensibly, the first lady's private, and therefore authentic, self. By purporting to reveal parts of their private lives in the press, first ladies showed themselves as down-to-earth despite their success and fulfilled by their domestic pursuits despite their compelling public lives. By offering the press exclusive access to their lives, first ladies secured the opportunity to shape specific images of themselves to appeal, as broadly as possible, to their husbands and parties' constituents and the American public. First ladies in the Progressive Era thus acted as political figures by using both public and private, or what historian Catherine Allgor terms, "unofficial spaces" to support and reflect their husbands and parties' political agendas. In examining representations of first ladies in popular magazines and newspapers from 1901 to 1921 in tandem with letters, memoirs, and other personal papers from these women, a clear pattern emerges. Despite personal differences, first ladies in the Progressive Era represented themselves according to a specific formula in the modern press. The images, constructed by first ladies in this time period, reflect shifts in economic, social, and political life in Progressive Era America, which called for women to be independent and intelligent yet still maintain their femininity and domesticity.
ContributorsHorohoe, Jill (Author) / Gullett, Gayle (Thesis advisor) / Longley, Rodney K (Committee member) / Warren-Findley, Jannelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The following dissertation provides perspectives on the social, political, economic, and academic influences on language use, and particularly heritage language use, within the Filipino American community. What is the nature of language in this community? In what ways does language exist or co-exist? The hypothesis that autochthonous Filipino languages in the United States cease to be spoken in favor of English by Filipino Americans was tested through mixed methods of research. Literature and databases were reviewed which provided information concerning statistics, issues, and policies relating to language in Filipino America. Field research and interviews were conducted in which language use was of key interest. Results varied individually and contextually. Language seems to exist within the Filipino American community on a dynamic continuum. Immigrant Filipino Americans appear to be bilingual and multilingual. Second generation Filipino Americans tend to be English dominant with a range of bilingualism. The California Department of Education (CDOE) appears to foster bilingualism / multilingualism through its World Languages Departments (secondary education level), by offering language courses, such as Tagalog-based Filipino. Efforts to maintain non-English, Filipino languages in Arizona are less conspicuous, but they do exist primarily in familial and entrepreneurial ways.
ContributorsAxel, Joseph (Author) / Mccarty, Teresa (Thesis advisor) / Wiley, Terrence (Committee member) / Faltis, Christian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Since the 1988 uprising, a transnational advocacy network has formed around the issue of democracy and human rights in Burma. Within this transnational advocacy network, personal narratives of trauma have been promulgated in both international and oppositional news media and human rights reports. My thesis critically analyzes the use of the trauma narrative for advocacy purposes by the transnational advocacy network that has emerged around Burma and reveals the degree to which these narratives adhere to a Western, individualistic meta-narrative focused on political and civil liberties. Examining the "boomerang" pattern and the concept of marketability of movements, I highlight the characteristics of the 1988 uprising and subsequent opposition movement that attracted international interest. Reflecting on the psychological aspects of constructing trauma narratives, I then review the scholarship which links trauma narratives to social and human rights movements. Using a Foucauldian approach to discourse analysis, I subsequently explain my methodology in analyzing the personal narratives I have chosen. Beyond a theoretical discussion of trauma narratives and transnational advocacy networks, I analyze the use of personal narratives of activists involved in the 1988 uprising and the emergence of Aung San Suu Kyi's life story as a compelling narrative for Western audiences. I then explore the structure of human rights reports which situate personal narratives of trauma within the framework of international human rights law. I note the differences in the construction of traumatic narratives of agency and those of victimization. Finally, using Cyclone Nargis as a case study, I uncover the discursive divide between human rights and humanitarian actors and their use of personal narratives to support different discursive constructions of the aid effort in the aftermath of the cyclone. I conclude with an appeal to a more reflexive approach to advocacy work reliant on trauma narratives and highlight feminist methodologies that have been successful in bringing marginalized narratives to the center of human rights discussions.
ContributorsBynum, Kate Elliott (Author) / Stancliff, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Friedrich, Patricia (Committee member) / Vaughan, Suzanne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
More than 30% of college entrants are placed in remedial mathematics (RM). Given that an explicit relationship exists between students' high school mathematics and college success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields, it is important to understand RM students' characteristics in high school. Using the Education Longitudinal Survey 2002/2006 data, this study evaluated more than 130 variables for statistical and practical significance. The variables included standard demographic data, prior achievement and transcript data, family and teacher perceptions, school characteristics, and student attitudinal variables, all of which are identified as influential in mathematical success. These variables were analyzed using logistic regression models to estimate the likelihood that a student would be placed into RM. As might be expected, student test scores, highest mathematics course taken, and high school grade point average were the strongest predictors of success in college mathematics courses. Attitude variables had a marginal effect on the most advantaged students, but their effect cannot be evaluated for disadvantaged students, due to a non-random pattern of missing data. Further research should concentrate on obtaining answers to the attitudinal questions and investigating their influence and interaction with academic indicators.
ContributorsBarber, Rebecca (Author) / Garcia, David R. (Thesis advisor) / Powers, Jeanne (Committee member) / Rodrigue Mcintyre, Lisa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Africa is misrepresented and mis-imaged in the western media. Because of this, notions and beliefs about atrocities that take place on the continent lack context, leaving people to think that Africa is a place of misery, darkness and despair; a monolithic land where evil resides. The image of Africa as the "heart of darkness" was conjured following the Joseph Conrad novel and the idea of Africa as the "Dark Continent" still pervades Western thought. This is an inadequate understanding of Africa, and lacks the context to comprehend why many of the atrocities in Africa occur. I will explore two atrocities in Africa, the 1994 Rwanda Genocide and child slavery on Lake Volta in Ghana. I believe that both these examples reflect how the label of evil is insufficient to describe the circumstances around each atrocity. In order to understand such events we must understand the part that colonialism and poverty play in the disruption of pan-African culture. The "evils" of these two phenomenon, are in many cases the result of the Western world's past involvement in Africa and are remnants and extensions of the disruption caused.
ContributorsBork, Paul (Author) / Simmons, William P (Thesis advisor) / Erfani, Julie (Committee member) / Anokye, Duku A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011