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This thesis focuses on the erotic depictions of Lucretia and Susanna in Renaissance art. Both noted for displaying exemplary chastity, Lucretia and Susanna gained popularity as Christian and secular role models for women in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. My examination of the heroines addresses the seductive portrayal of these women in painting, which seemingly contradicts the essence of their celebrity. The images specifically analyzed in this thesis include: Lucas Cranach the Elder's Lucretia from 1525, Lucretia from 1533, and Venus from 1532 as well as Tintoretto's Susanna and the Elders and Annibale Carracci's Susanna and the Elders. The scope of my thesis includes both textual and visual analyses of the myths/figures and the disparity that arises between them. Employing Lucretia and Susanna as examples, my aim is to demonstrate a subtle subversion occurring within images of powerful women that ultimately strips them of their power.
ContributorsWilliamson, Jennifer Marie (Author) / Schleif, Corine (Thesis director) / Geschwind, Rachel (Committee member) / Pratt, Rebekah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Science fiction themed video games, specifically Role Playing Games (RPGs) like Deus Ex: Human Revolution (DX:HR), that focus on an emerging technology, contain features that help to better inform anticipatory governance. In a game like DX:HR, players vicariously experience human-enhancement technology and its societal effects through their in-game character. Acting as the character, the player explores the topic of human-enhancement technology in various ways, including dialogue with non-player characters (NPCs) and decisions that directly affect the game's world. Because Deus Ex: Human Revolution and games similar to it, allow players to explore and think about the technology itself, the stances on it, and its potential societal effects, they facilitate the anticipatory governance process. In this paper I postulate a theory of anticipatory gaming, which asserts that video games inform the anticipatory governance process for an emerging technology. To demonstrate this theory I examine the parts of the anticipatory governance process and demonstrate RPG's ability to inform it, through a case study of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
ContributorsShedd, Jesse Bernard (Author) / Wetmore, Jameson (Thesis director) / Fisher, Erik (Committee member) / McKnight, John Carter (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Rabies disease remains enzootic among raccoons, skunks, foxes and bats in the United States. It is of primary concern for public-health agencies to control spatial spread of rabies in wildlife and its potential spillover infection of domestic animals and humans. Rabies is invariably fatal in wildlife if untreated, with a non-negligible incubation period. Understanding how this latency affects spatial spread of rabies in wildlife is the concern of chapter 2 and 3. Chapter 1 deals with the background of mathematical models for rabies and lists main objectives. In chapter 2, a reaction-diffusion susceptible-exposed-infected (SEI) model and a delayed diffusive susceptible-infected (SI) model are constructed to describe the same epidemic process -- rabies spread in foxes. For the delayed diffusive model a non-local infection term with delay is resulted from modeling the dispersal during incubation stage. Comparison is made regarding minimum traveling wave speeds of the two models, which are verified using numerical experiments. In chapter 3, starting with two Kermack and McKendrick's models where infectivity, death rate and diffusion rate of infected individuals can depend on the age of infection, the asymptotic speed of spread $c^\ast$ for the cumulated force of infection can be analyzed. For the special case of fixed incubation period, the asymptotic speed of spread is governed by the same integral equation for both models. Although explicit solutions for $c^\ast$ are difficult to obtain, assuming that diffusion coefficient of incubating animals is small, $c^\ast$ can be estimated in terms of model parameter values. Chapter 4 considers the implementation of realistic landscape in simulation of rabies spread in skunks and bats in northeast Texas. The Finite Element Method (FEM) is adopted because the irregular shapes of realistic landscape naturally lead to unstructured grids in the spatial domain. This implementation leads to a more accurate description of skunk rabies cases distributions.
ContributorsLiu, Hao (Author) / Kuang, Yang (Thesis advisor) / Jackiewicz, Zdzislaw (Committee member) / Lanchier, Nicolas (Committee member) / Smith, Hal (Committee member) / Thieme, Horst (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Bacteriophage (phage) are viruses that infect bacteria. Typical laboratory experiments show that in a chemostat containing phage and susceptible bacteria species, a mutant bacteria species will evolve. This mutant species is usually resistant to the phage infection and less competitive compared to the susceptible bacteria species. In some experiments, both susceptible and resistant bacteria species, as well as phage, can coexist at an equilibrium for hundreds of hours. The current research is inspired by these observations, and the goal is to establish a mathematical model and explore sufficient and necessary conditions for the coexistence. In this dissertation a model with infinite distributed delay terms based on some existing work is established. A rigorous analysis of the well-posedness of this model is provided, and it is proved that the susceptible bacteria persist. To study the persistence of phage species, a "Phage Reproduction Number" (PRN) is defined. The mathematical analysis shows phage persist if PRN > 1 and vanish if PRN < 1. A sufficient condition and a necessary condition for persistence of resistant bacteria are given. The persistence of the phage is essential for the persistence of resistant bacteria. Also, the resistant bacteria persist if its fitness is the same as the susceptible bacteria and if PRN > 1. A special case of the general model leads to a system of ordinary differential equations, for which numerical simulation results are presented.
ContributorsHan, Zhun (Author) / Smith, Hal (Thesis advisor) / Armbruster, Dieter (Committee member) / Kawski, Matthias (Committee member) / Kuang, Yang (Committee member) / Thieme, Horst (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In vertebrate outer retina, changes in the membrane potential of horizontal cells affect the calcium influx and glutamate release of cone photoreceptors via a negative feedback. This feedback has a number of important physiological consequences. One is called background-induced flicker enhancement (BIFE) in which the onset of dim background enhances the center flicker response of horizontal cells. The underlying mechanism for the feedback is still unclear but competing hypotheses have been proposed. One is the GABA hypothesis, which states that the feedback is mediated by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter released from horizontal cells. Another is the ephaptic hypothesis, which contends that the feedback is non-GABAergic and is achieved through the modulation of electrical potential in the intersynaptic cleft between cones and horizontal cells. In this study, a continuum spine model of the cone-horizontal cell synaptic circuitry is formulated. This model, a partial differential equation system, incorporates both the GABA and ephaptic feedback mechanisms. Simulation results, in comparison with experiments, indicate that the ephaptic mechanism is necessary in order for the model to capture the major spatial and temporal dynamics of the BIFE effect. In addition, simulations indicate that the GABA mechanism may play some minor modulation role.
ContributorsChang, Shaojie (Author) / Baer, Steven M. (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Carl L (Thesis advisor) / Crook, Sharon M (Committee member) / Kuang, Yang (Committee member) / Ringhofer, Christian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This paper studies the change in social diversity and interaction space from the Classic to Postclassic periods in the Mimbres Valley and East Mimbres Area. Between the Classic and Postclassic periods the Mimbres region of the American Southwest exhibits an increase in diversity of ceramic wares. Previous research suggests that increased diversity of ceramics indicates a more diverse community, which could pose challenges to local social interaction (Nelson et al. 2011). I am interested in whether the architecture of plazas, focal points of communities' social structures, change in response to the growing social diversity. To examine this, I quantify the diversity of painted ceramics at Classic and Postclassic villages as well as the extent of the enclosure of plazas. I find that there is a definite shift towards greater plaza enclosure between the Classic and Postclassic periods. I conclude this paper with a discussion of possible interpretations of this trend regarding the social reactions of Mimbres communities to the changes which reshaped the region between the Classic and Postclassic periods.
ContributorsHarkness, Rebecca Jean (Author) / Nelson, Margaret (Thesis director) / Hegmon, Michelle (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Background: Both puberty and diets composed of high levels of saturated fats have been shown to result in central adiposity, fasting hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance. While a significantly insulinogenic phenotypic change occurs in these two incidences, glucose homeostasis does not appear to be affected. Methods: Male, Sprague-dawley rats were fed diets consisting of CHOW or low fat (LF), High Fat Diet and High Fat Diet (HFD) with supplementary Canola Oil (Monounsaturated fat). These rats were given these diets at 4-5 weeks old and given intraperitoneal and oral glucose tolerance tests(IPGTT; OGTT) at 4 and 8 weeks to further understand glucose and insulin behavior under different treatments. (IPGTT: LF-n=14, HFD-n=16, HFD+CAN-n=12; OGTT: LF-n=8, HFD-n=8, HFD+CAN-n=6). Results: When comparing LF fed rats at 8 weeks with 4 week glucose challenge test, area under the curve (AUC) of glucose was 1.2 that of 4 weeks. At 8 weeks, HFD fed rats AUCg was much greater than LF fed rats under both IPGTT and OGTT. When supplemented with Canola oil, HFD fed rats AUC returned to LF data range. Despite the alleviating glucose homeostasis affects of Canola oil the AUC of insulin curve, which was elevated by HFD, remained high. Conclusion: HFD in maturing rats elevates fasting insulin levels, increases insulin resistance and lowers glucose homeostasis. When given a monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) supplement fasting hyperinsulinemia, and late hyperinsulinemia still occur though glucose homeostasis is regained. For OGTT HFD also induced late hyper c-peptide levels and compared to LF and HFD+CAN, a higher c-peptide level over time.
ContributorsRay, Tyler John (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / Herman, Richard (Committee member) / Towner, Kali (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis looks at how feminist biography is used as a part of mainstream feminism in the United States. In particular, I look at how Sheryl Sandberg and Anne-Marie Slaughter share their experiences in the workplace in an effort to illuminate the struggles they have faced as women and to justify the changes they see necessary for the success of women. They base their argument for these changes on their own social assumptions about women in the private sphere and women at work. Their feminist biography may serve to help a small set of individuals, but overall the solutions they provide are applicable to only a limited demographic of women. The ultimate goal for both Sandberg and Slaughter is to achieve equality, although they base their call for change on a normative understanding of the world. In the end, I look at how a broader view of feminism that takes into account the intersection of race, class, gender, and politics can enrich popular forms of feminism in the U.S.
ContributorsSteffens, Jane Melissa (Author) / Popova, Laura (Thesis director) / Ingram-Waters, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Background: Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) is a respiratory disease that is caused by the soil-dwelling fungi Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii. Because fungal glycosylation patterns are distinct from mammalian glycosylation patterns, we hypothesized that certain lectins (carbohydrate-binding proteins) might have differential binding properties to coccidioidal glycoproteins, and therefore serve as a tool for the purification and characterization of these glycoproteins from patient specimens. Materials and Methods: To identify potential Coccidioides-binding lectins, lectin-based immunohistochemistry was performed using a panel of 21 lectins on lung tissue from human patients infected with Coccidioides. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISAs) were used to confirm and test candidate Coccidioides-binding lectins for their ability to bind to proteins from antigen preparations of laboratory-grown Coccidioides. Inhibition IHC and ELISAs were used to confirm binding properties of these lectins. SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry were performed on eluates from coccidioidal antigen preparations run through lectin-affinity chromatography columns to characterize and identify lectin-binding coccidioidal glycoproteins. Results: Two GlcNAc-binding lectins, GSLII and sWGA, bound specifically to spherules and endospores in infected human lung tissue, and not to adjacent lung tissue. The binding of these lectins to both Coccidioides proteins in lung tissue and to coccidioidal antigen preparations was confirmed to have lectin-like characteristics. SDS-PAGE analysis of eluates from lectin-affinity chromatography demonstrated that GSLII and sWGA bind to coccidioidal glycoproteins. Mass spectrometric identification of the top ten lectin affinity-purified glycoproteins demonstrated that GSLII and sWGA share affinity to a common set of coccidioidal glycoproteins. Conclusion: This is the first report of lectins that bind specifically to Coccidioides spherules and endospores in infected humans. These lectins may have the potential to serve as tools for a better method of detection and diagnosis of Valley Fever.
ContributorsChowdhury, Yasmynn (Author) / Lake, Douglas (Thesis director) / Grys, Thomas (Committee member) / Magee, Mitchell (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
In this thesis I argue that American missionaries in the Ottoman Empire shaped American perceptions of the Armenian Genocide. I trace how this influence took shape as a result of missionaries' responses to the Armenian massacres of 1894-1896, which set a precedent for how missionaries would influence the American public during and after the genocide of 1915. The missionaries spread knowledge of the events of 1915 through their eyewitness testimonies and relationships with foreign diplomats in the Ottoman Empire. These accounts, in turn, influenced American politics by inspiring the creation of large-scale national relief programs and delaying the US entry in World War One. The missionaries' accounts were compelling enough that many Americans recognized the violence as a systematic eradication of the Armenians by Ottoman authorities. While today the United States does not formally recognize the tragic events of 1915 as genocide, discussing how the United States perceived the genocide while it was underway clearly shows that missionaries played a central role in shaping Americans' understandings of the violence perpetrated against Armenians.
ContributorsHull, Christina Renee (Author) / Bruner, Jason (Thesis director) / Kefeli-Clay, Agnes (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05