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- Creator:
- Jaroslovsky, Alan
- Description:
- Intended mainly as a vehicle for rehabilitating draft evaders after the Vietnam War, the Presidential Clemency Board (“PCB”) was largely an orphan of the Ford presidency. Created in the wake of the Nixon pardon as an unpopular compromise between those who opposed any sort of clemency and those who urged a general amnesty, the PCB was plagued by attacks from both the right and the left, internal dissent, and numerous administrative difficulties. Little has been written about the PCB in the four decades since it concluded its work, and those historians who have evaluated it have reached the conclusion that it was largely unsuccessful. Using recently-available records and notes of Ford’s advisors and PCB participants, this thesis will demonstrate that while the PCB did little to accomplish its stated goal of “healing the nation” and was boycotted by the draft evaders who were its primary intended beneficiaries, it was nonetheless a bureaucratic achievement of some note and an incidental success for its least important beneficiaries, common soldiers who had been cast aside by American society.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- History
- Creator:
- Shahrokhshahi, Rita
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: This thesis examines the patriarchal wounding of my Slavic mother line and follows the healing journey I took to transform wounds to enrich my self-identity in my pursuit toward wholeness Procedure: My study follows the motherline. The motherline is the maternal lineage of a woman backward through the generations. I explored the wounding of my motherline by using an autoethnographical narrative. Autoethnography is an autobiographical form of qualitative research that uses self reflection to explore personal stories and experiences within a cultural context. I used self-reflection to aid my stories and employed a Jungian psychological framework. Through the myth of Inanna, I embarked upon a metaphorical descent and met the dark goddess Ereshkigal. I relied on depth techniques to track and interpret my dreams, guide my active imaginations, and create spontaneous healing rituals. I made a pilgrimage to Montenegro to further assist my inquiries and overall depth experience. Findings: I found that healing occurs in the reflective process of sharing my journey of personal and cultural wounding. Healing is not a means to an end but is rather an ongoing process toward a quest to achieve wholeness. I found that my personal female individuation process is a continuous stream of engaging with the rhythms of life, death, and rebirth as a continuous cycle in my developmental pattern. My mother line wounds provided deep layers of meaningful experiences to happen that continue to offer value for me to expand my quest toward wholeness. Conclusions: Suffering from personal wounds affords the opportunity to examine the soul through a process of individuation. The connection with the motherline and one's cultural lineage is a way to further understand self and create wholeness. For women, the sacred feminine is a source for greater meaning. In the quest toward female individuation, a goddess-centered spirituality is an opening to assist the exploration of vast realms and qualities that lives inside every woman.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Lewis, Ryan D.
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: The endangered Sonoma County population of the California tiger salamander, Ambystoma californiense, undergoes migrations between breeding pools and upland dry-season refugia. Orientation in this species during breeding migrations has been addressed minimally in previous studies, and literature is particularly sparse concerning newly metamorphosed juveniles. Previous works have not addressed the ability of metamorphs to orient or the way in which they search for upland refugia. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if California tiger salamander metamorphs can re-orient during initial migration and if search movements constitute a Correlated Random Walk. Procedure: We evaluated fine scale movements of newly metamorphosed California tiger salamanders as they moved away from breeding pools, by capturing salamanders with a drift fence. Metamorphs received different orientation treatments, and subsequent movement was tracked with fluorescent powder. We measured turning angles and step lengths at each segment of the tracks, and compared the effect of different treatments. Findings: Here we show that newly metamorphosed juveniles can re-orient to their upland migration path after being interrupted and disoriented. Further, we demonstrate that while searching for burrow refugia, metamorph movement is a correlated random walk. Conclusions: The initial migration from natal pools to uplands following metamorphosis has been identified as a crucial life history juncture for the persistence of this species. Our findings show that these migrations are directed by some orientation, and that these movements are not random. The presence of a Correlated Random Walk is consistent with search patterns in many vertebrates.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Biology
- Creator:
- Wrisley, Brooke
- Description:
- toogoodtobetrue is a fiction creative project containing a collection of queer short stories designed to examine the unifying and diverse experiences of a modern queer existence. Thematically, the collection seeks to create and explore the practical and affective possibilities of queer optimism, or optimism without futurity.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Boylen, Sarah C.
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: This research study hopes to address the negotiation of important aspects in teaching such as how to foster inquiry and literacy while adhering to standards, specifically the Next Generation Science Standards, and if those standards allow for student epistemic agency in secondary science classrooms. The future of science education lies in teachers instilling in their students the skills that will help them gain scientific literacy and student agency in the classroom, and beyond. For the purposes of this study, a framework was developed around scientific inquiry and literacy, while negotiating varying pedagogical approaches, along a theorized spectrum of increasing student agency. The framework is a tool to help educators visualize a variety of pedagogies as they relate to important characteristics of stages of inquiry that could offer increasing epistemic agency for their students. This research study intends to shed light on the perspectives and opinions of a selected group of high school life science teachers and some of their students in regards to these approaches to teaching a controversial, or Socioscientific Issue (SSI), in the science classroom. The student outcome goals that were considered were critical thinking, personal decision making, ethical questioning, outreach and “social justice” as activism. The three classrooms include one Sheltered Learning biology class and one Advanced Placement biology, both at the same high school, and one Integrated 3-4 biology class in a neighboring County. Within and across the three different classrooms, how do participating teachers, and their students’ perceive, or view, (a) varying approaches toward using a controversial, or Socioscientific Issue (SSI), such as GMOs, in secondary science classroom, and (b) activities designed for the science classroom that have the end goals of outreach, social justice or activism, on or off campus? Finally, how does student preference compare to the proposed theoretical framework set forth in this study? Procedure: This mixed-method study is a one-phase embedded design approach; where quantitative data is the secondary data that was collected while qualitative data was being audio recorded during teacher and student interviews. Four activity “scenarios” were designed, along with interview questionnaires, and used as tools and guides during teacher and student interviews. Three high school life science teachers and 13 of their students were interviewed to investigate their perspectives on using the four different activity scenarios which would explore the topic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as food. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. Findings: Overall, two classes preferred Activity 1; critical thinking in the lab, whereas one classroom preferred Activities 3; outreach and 4; activism, although students had a variety of responses as to why. All three teachers and many students agreed that outreach and activism are important. However, teachers believed that activities that stayed in the classroom were more feasible that activities that left the classroom. Teachers were fairly accurate when predicting their students preferred activity scenario. All the participants said that GMOs as food would be a good topic for learning science in the classroom. Teachers and students felt that activities that are controversial, or that might cause conflict in the classroom, are acceptable for learning at school. Those who were asked felt that conflict can be managed and usually does not leave the classroom. When the varying perspectives within classrooms were reflected on the spectrum, new ideas about what student epistemic agency and scientific literacy are emerged. Conclusions: Student epistemic agency can be defined in many ways, including what the students want to do most. However, agency through varying teaching approaches and a variety of student outcome goals can bring different forms of agency to students while doing inquiry in the science classroom. Finally, students may come into the classroom with prior experiences that give them a different “position” when negotiating a controversial, or socioscientific, type issue. Implications for teaching practice involve balancing factors that are within our control, such as activity planning and pedagogical approach, with factors that are out of teachers control, such as the starting point of a student’s position when they enter the classroom for learning. This starting point position can have large impacts on a student’s perceptions, and willingness, to “like” activities Finally, teachers play a large role in how learning can happen in the classroom, as well the school and society that they lie within.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Soto, Erik M.
- Description:
- Statement of Intent: The intent behind Children of Immigrants is to give a voice to people who are Latinx, Chicanx, or Mexican in a country which constantly shapes our narratives to benefit the Anglo-American narrative. By writing about the culture, religion, relationship dynamics, and the clash of between Mexican and American societies, I hope to give the reader an authentic perspective of the Mexican/Latinx/Chicanx experience. Scope: The scope of Children of Immigrants is always through the eyes of someone who is Mexican/Latinx/Chicanx. Everything about the characters in these poems is a reflection of the Mexican/Latinx/Chicanx and, by extension, people who interact with this identity. Approach: Because the purpose of Children of Immigrants is to illustrate an authentic Mexican/Latinx/Chicanx experience, my approach was to mimic and write about situations and locations that helped build a foundation to this experience. This included incorporating the Spanish language, including real locations, and writing with politically charged themes. Many of the experiences I wrote about come from my personal life or tales told by friends, family members or the news.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Radclyffe, Renee C.
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: This study is an attempt to validate the importance of integrating women's issues into traditional psychology classes at a college level. Psychology, for the most part, had ignored, trivialized, and/or negated women's life experiences. All too often women are viewed as mentally unhealthy or incapable of maturing fully because of the standards set by society and by those in the psychological profession. Because of such stereotypical sex-role attitudes, it is most important to examine why such attitudes exist and to examine their origins. Procedure: I have researched two areas of female psychology: first, Freudian and feminist psychology, and second, looking at women psychologists whose contributions to the development of modern psychology have been deleted from current psychology textbooks. In part one, using literature primarily from feminist books, I chose to explore several of Sigmund Freud's concepts on female sexuality: penis envy, masochism, vaginal versus clitorial orgasm because such concepts appear to be, in part, correlated with the oppression of women. I have also commented on other Freudian theorists, and others who "broke away" from Freud's circle. In part two, I have reviewed psychology textbooks to confirm the absence of women and their contributions and have researched other feminist books to find the history of women psychologists. Findings and Conclusions: With the development of modern psychology, an attitude surfaced that still exists today, and that is that mentally healthy women are those who adhere to sex-role expectations in our society. Freud, for example, once described feminists as women who had a desire to be men. I have often heard men comment that feminists are trying to be like men or that they are dykes or castrating bitches. Because of feminist therapy, many women are challenging such attitudes by learning to understand social conditioning rather than by internalizing such conditioning that has made women feel inferior and mentally unhealthy. As students of psychology, men and women have been taught that women have not been influential in the development of modern psychology. Current textbooks in the history of psychology ignore or trivialize women's contributions. Through extensive and exhausting research, I was able to find information about many women psychologists who have now been deleted from textbooks. The integration of such information is vital to the education of today's students. While women's studies classes have attempted to fill this void, many male students and instructors believe such classes are not pertinent. this research project argues that, until textbooks are revised to include the female half of psychology, it is essential that instructors take the time to find material on women psychologists and on more positive images of female psychology and incorporate it into their lectures and reading materials.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Dunstan Beattie, Dee
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: The Pawnee Star Chart is a relic of the Pawnee tribe, Skiri band, once successful inhabitants of the Central Plains of North America until 19th century pressures forced abandon-of former lifeways. The Skiri had been reknowned for an elaborate ceremonial religious system loosely described as star worship. The Chart is oval, painted on skin, 38 X 56 cm in dimension. Date of execution of execution is unknown. Native identification of stars on the Chart is somewhat mythologized but to a later investigator the Chart is only a partial illustration of either the known fragments of Skiri mythology or the actual sky. The purpose of this study is to investigate the notion that the Chart may be a more realistic portrayal of the actual sky than previously suggested. Procedure: To determine possible relationships between Chart and Sky, this study has used positional astronomy's WHAT/WHERE/WHEN by comparing Chart with contemporary star maps (inverted east-west for consistency with Chart's mirror-image of Sky). underlying this comparison are considerations of the non-scientific observer as painter. Findings: Features on Chart are found to be virtually congruent with the most prominent features of Sky once Chart shape and sequences of execution are considered. (WHAT/WHERE). Quadrant placement and several other features strongly suggest WHEN factors, to be discussed in a subsequent study. Conclusion: Close positional similarities between Chart and Sky suggest that the painter was both a persistent observer of Sky and a practiced copier of spatial relationships.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- History
9. Podloujny
- Creator:
- DeMartini, Paul
- Description:
- Podloujny is a creative thesis in the form of a fiction novel. The thesis features the generational dynamics of a family experiencing a series of profound crises. The narrative form of Podloujny shifts perspectives between each family member, exploring the hopes, fears and delusions within each character’s consciousness. While the work is grounded in traditional drama—scene, dialogue, action, consequence—the novel’s core is what occurs within. Beyond this framework, the novel focuses on what happens when the established solidity of a family unit begins to fray and crumble; in this case, the dementia diagnosis of the family’s elder and spiritual center acts as both a catalyst for change and a means to examine the past. Podloujny investigates thematic conflicts including harmony and dissonance, pride and shame, beauty and ugliness, realization and repression, falling apart and coming together.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Stevens, Samantha K.
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: The Russian River watershed stretches across a significant portion of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, covering 1,485 square miles, and is home to not only humans, but countless fish and wildlife species as well. The Russian River valley is famous for being an ideal place to grow wine grapes and other agriculture, in part for its fertile soil, as well as the region’s Mediterranean climate. In addition to this, the Russian River is a year-round recreational hotspot for both tourists and locals alike. Maintaining a high quality of water in any area is important, and this is especially true when the local economy relies so heavily upon surface water. According to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the entire Russian River watershed is impaired for sediment and temperature, and recent data also show pathogen impairment throughout the watershed. The Laguna de Santa Rosa sub-watershed is also impaired for phosphorus and dissolved oxygen, in addition to the impairments throughout the watershed (Russian River Watershed Overview, 2019). Land uses and water quality are interconnected in the Russian River watershed, but causal patterns between the two are not well understood. Procedure: Water quality data was obtained via the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and input into Microsoft Excel to generate time series graphs of different water quality constituents. The three sites selected are Jimtown, Digger Bend, and Hacienda Bridge. A model from the USGS ScienceBase inventory was utilized for this project, which consists of future land use, land cover, and population projections for the state of California for the period of 2001-2101. This model was projected as a layer in ArcGIS Pro in order to estimate the land cover changes based on low, medium, and high population projections for the years 2050 and 2100. In order to estimate the nutrient input for these different scenarios, models were constructed using WikiWatershed’s Model My Watershed tool. Within Model My Watershed, the land cover was altered to emulate the six models by adding polygons of the desired land cover, running the model, and observing the resulting nutrient and total suspended sediment load output. An additional aspect of this project is to conduct an analysis of policies. Findings: As land is developed into managed cropland, nutrients are typically added in order to increase production and profit. As a result, the runoff from cropland is typically nutrient rich when infiltration rates are low. Records from the Sonoma County Crop Reports indicate that the acreage of vineyards nearly doubled between 1990 and 2000. The exploration of potential land use and land cover changes through the projection of the USGS ScienceBase layers in ArcGIS and the modeling of nutrient load in Model My Watershed showed both an increase in agricultural land use as well as an increase in nutrient load, which is expected. The data obtained from the USGS Water Quality monitoring site did not show many points of interest or concern and generally followed a seasonal pattern. The policies in place in Sonoma County regulate both point source and non point source pollution, which is an extremely effective way to minimize polluted runoff from entering the streams and river in the Russian River watershed. The federal, state, and county regulations seem to be adequately minimizing point source agricultural pollution, and could benefit from increased riparian vegetative buffer zones to help slow the flow of polluted runoff, increase infiltration, and minimize the amount of nutrients that reach the waterways throughout the watershed. Conclusion: While this project did not result in a definitive answer as to what is causing the most nutrient pollution in the Russian River watershed, based on the findings of project, it is safe to speculate that total loads of suspended sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus were lower throughout Sonoma County when there was less agricultural land use since the modeling data predicts higher total loads as agricultural land use increases. In addition to an increase in vineyard, the Sonoma County Crop Reports recorded a two - fold increase in the number of cattle in the county between 1990 and 2018.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Biology
- Creator:
- Sperou, Emily S.
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: Long-lived iteroparous females may suppress reproduction during unfavorable conditions to maximize lifetime reproductive success. Capital breeders must accrue sufficient body reserves to support reproductive effort or they may exhibit reproductive failure. The basis of these reproductive decisions is not well understood. Northern elephant seals are seasonal, colonial breeders with a period of embryonic diapause and biannual foraging trips divided by a breeding and molting haul out. Being capital breeders, they use the post-breeding foraging trip to recover body mass lost during lactation and the gestational foraging trip to accumulate resources for lactation. Females exhibit high natality, roughly 15% of females skip breeding each year. A previous study suggested alteration in baseline cortisol concentrations may be the proximate mechanism linking foraging success and reproductive suppression, but evidence of an interaction between cortisol and reproductive hormones is currently lacking. Procedure: We investigated a suite of reproductive hormones (progesterone, 17β- estradiol, inhibin A, prolactin) and cortisol, to determine patterns across life-history stages. We analyzed 1,029 serum samples from 441 adult female NES during their biannual haul outs. Included in this dataset were 30 females known to have skipped breeding. Findings: The data confirmed a highly seasonal pattern to changes in sex hormones. Estradiol and inhibin were high during the late breeding haul out, suggesting the timing of ovulation. Progesterone was highest at the end of the molt, indicating implantation had occurred. Path analysis revealed strong influences of estradiol and prolactin on progesterone, indicating these three hormones are key for implantation. Individual variation suggests important regulatory roles for prolactin, inhibin, and cortisol in modulating implantation. The data suggest that some females suppress implantation under the modulation of cortisol and inhibin. Most females that skip breeding appear to implant but fail to maintain gestation. Conclusions: Failure to recover body reserves from the preceding reproductive event may inhibit implantation, but most non-breeding females fail to maintain pregnancy during the gestational foraging trip. This bet-hedging strategy is likely one component of a capital breeding life-history that buffers females against short-term changes in foraging success, but limits fitness costs to reproduction through multiple check-points for body reserves.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Biology
- Creator:
- Hudson, Daniel
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: To understand male and female mate choice patterns affecting species and gender recognition via long distance chemical cues, this study examined the rough skin newt, Taricha granulosa, in both pond and creek habitats. Response to chemical cues of males vs. females was examined for T. granulosa, whereas the California newt (Taricha torosa), and the red-bellied newt (Taricha rivularis) were used to examine how T. granulosa would respond to heterospecific chemical cues as compared to conspecific cues in a region of the species’ ranges where all three species occur in sympatry. Methods: To simulate mate choice decisions in nature as closely as possible, we conducted behavioral experiments in the field using a Y-maze apparatus (olfactometer). All trials were run in the field using unique individuals. Data were combined across multiple years. Mate choice was analyzed using a nominal logistic regression model accounting for variation among year, researcher, Y-maze apparatus, sex, and species. Findings: T. granulosa females chose chemical cues of conspecific males significantly more than heterospecific males, whereas males showed no preference between chemical cues of conspecific and heterospecific females. In addition, T. granulosa males chose chemical cues of conspecific males over conspcific females, whereas females showed no preference between chemical cues of conspecific males and females. Conclusions: The results of this study support long-standing theoretical paradigms that males, who have less parental investment in offspring will adopt a strategy of seeking matings with females regardless of quality, whereas females, with greater levels of parental investment, will engage in a more discriminating mate choice strategy. In this case, females use chemical cues to avoid heterospecific males during breeding season encounters and reduce wasting her singular mating event on an act of hybridization. A result of this mating strategy is that reinforcement of reproductive isolation is maintained in this region of sympatric range overlap. In contrast, will mate with any female across multiple mating events, and use chemical cues to either locate females or to avoid other males (or both).
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Biology
- Creator:
- Poska, Ryan
- Description:
- Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study was to determine if there were archaeological traces of the colonial past embedded in the landscape at the Bureau of Land Management’s Bear Creek Unit (Bear Creek Ranch). By studying the archaeological traces of the colonial past in the landscape, a clearer picture of regional history and Hill Patwin ethnohistory could be developed. The main goal of the study was to distinguish distinct “phases” of colonial settlement, identified as distinct archaeological “landscape layers” that span the Bear Creek Unit. Procedure: Archaeological surveys, archaeological excavations, a record search, and extensive Historic, Ethnographic, and Archival research were conducted to identify pertinent archaeological remains, and to contextualize those remains within the regional history. Archaeological sites received formal recordings, were digitized into a GIS database, and were mapped to show the spatial and temporal relationships. Findings: The fieldwork and record search identified 36 sites implicated in the colonial era (1769 – c. 1945). 10 of these sites received their first recording, and 3 received supplemental information. The obsidian hydration dating following the archaeological excavations indicated continued indigenous use of the property into the late 19th and early 20th century. Conclusions: The thesis concludes that there are distinct archaeological layers in the landscape that can yield data on how colonization effected the Hill Patwin over time, and how the Hill Patwin adapted to the eventual influx of Euro-American settlers who occupied the landscape from the 1870s on. While no clear archaeological indicators of resistance were found, historical and archival finding indicate that resistance to colonization was an important aspect of Hill Patwin ethnohistory and the Indigenous history of the Coast Ranges as whole.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Anthropology
- Creator:
- Thurston, Samantha A.
- Description:
- The purpose of this study is to investigate how educators can support the mental health needs of students with developmental disabilities and what role an educator can play in the identification of a student’s mental illness. This study was conducted with 23 teacher candidates who were enrolled in their first year of a teaching credential program. A mixed methods approach was used through a survey that contained both fixed-choice and open-ended questions. Preceding a training held by the researcher, the survey was distributed to the subjects one week prior; then they were given the survey directly after attending the training. Along with the survey, the researcher collected anecdotal notes taken during the training based on subject-driven discussions. Based on the gathered data, the researcher found that a majority of the subjects admitted to feeling a lack of knowledge on mental illness and mental health resources, confusion over identifying a student’s behavior versus potential symptoms of a mental illness, and the need for a whole team support approach. All of the subjects reported an opinion that, while an educator should play some role within the identification process and daily support of a student’s mental health needs, that it should not be solely the educator’s responsibility. Rather, it should be a team of professionals that assist with the identification or daily support of a student’s mental health needs.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Thao, Bee
- Description:
- Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this research is to create a historical context for Historical Archaeology to understand the lived experiences of Asian/Asian-American women so archaeologists can ask questions for the evaluation of historical sites, places, spaces, and properties associated with Asian/Asian-American women. Procedure: A contextual approach utilizing theoretical frameworks from the fields of Asian American studies, Gender Studies, and Historical Archaeology were used to analyze how Asian/Asian-American women create, recreate, maintain their identities in the context of their community involvement, labor participation, marriages, and family dynamics. This research conducted ethnographic interviews of four Sonoma County residents and analyzed historical, archival, and digital resources. Findings: Asian/Asian-American women did not interact with the broader Sonoma County residents or inter-ethnically; however, they were still able to create and maintain a sense of belonging to the community. They took on an assortment of jobs for pay, worked in the family business as unpaid laborers, and took part in the outside labor force. They maintained gendered roles to hold onto their feminine identity while also holding onto the family as a unit. Conclusions: Asian / Asian-American women were empowered actors of their own lives. They were conscious of the social structures around them and adapted to it. They made decisions throughout their lives to take part in the labor force, to join and create communities, and maintain gender roles to maintain their power in social settings that did not allow them to do so.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Cultural Resources Management
- Creator:
- Tercero, Anthony D.
- Description:
- The perciform suborder Notothenioidae is comprised of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic fishes, several of which have lost their ability to rapidly upregulate major heat shock proteins (HSP’s) in response to thermal stress. In fact, some notothenioid species have instead adopted a pattern of expression resembling ancestrally constitutive genes. It is possible that evolution in the Southern Ocean has selected for increased expression of molecular chaperones given the denaturing effect extreme cold temperature has on proteins. The selective pressures of the sub-zero water may have also favored duplication events that bolster quantitative output of chaperones via gene dosage effects. Given that newly duplicated genes are under more relaxed selective pressures, it is plausible that gene duplication preceded alterations in the regulatory regions of the inducible HSP genes, enabling altered regulation of such highly conserved gene products. To test for evidence of these mechanisms, gene copy number of ancestrally inducible and constitutive isoforms within the major heat shock gene families were characterized via qPCR and compared for the Antarctic notothen Trematomus bernacchii, which has lost the inducible HSR, and the non-Antarctic notothen, Notothenia angustata, which has maintained an inducible HSR. Results indicate duplication of inducible isoforms within the Hsp70 and Hsp40 superfamily have occurred in the genome of T. bernacchii. The findings from this study suggest adaptive gene duplications may have played a role in maintaining increased protein folding efficiency in the sub-zero waters of the Southern Ocean and provided a mechanism for the evolution of alternative regulation of these conserved gene families.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Biology
- Creator:
- Senteney, Natasha D.
- Description:
- Nobody’s Damn Business is a collection of autobiographical narratives that focus, primarily, on the author’s childhood. As a whole, the essays aim to convey the complicated nature of trauma in relation to familial relationships, while dealing with topics such as child abuse, domestic violence, addiction, mental illness, and poverty.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Santos, Henry
- Description:
- Purpose of the Project: Animated films have allowed many fantastic stories to be told. Mythology, magic, and fantasy films thrive as feature-length creations of computer animation processes. Typically, these in large productions require large studios, extended schedules, and bottomless budgets. Rarely are non-mystical stories depicted in this genre by small teams. By depicting real-life situations with ordinary characters, the absurdities, difficulties, and realities in life can be expressed. My original fictional story expresses such human experiences, with no magic, etc... Sumo wrestling and Tango dancing collide in a short film that tells of an up-and-coming Sumo wrestler whose secret passion for Tango crashes head-on into a life filled with success, abundance, and respect. Atana wears the heart of a warrior and embraces the soul of a dancer. The purpose of this creative project is to start a small production of a feature-length film by writing an original screenplay’s establishing acts and developing a pre-production storyboard of a pivotal part of the story. Procedure: In developing the story, researching Sumo and Tango, with their nuances, rituals and actual occurrences is key to creating believable scenarios. The story can then start to be developed in screenplay software to maintain consistency and editability. Character and set design can begin, which allows for a more accurate depiction of storyboards. This initial practice can then proceed into the next steps in creating a completed animated film. Findings: In this particular creative process, initial ideas of the story, production, funding, and other areas of creating an animated short film proved to be extremely time-consuming. As with big productions, the amount of time needed in animated film production is often longer than anticipated. The story may begin as a spark of brilliance, but it’s telling requires research, revision, more research, more revisions, and heartache. My story, in particular, contains many personal experiences. These are not only heart wrenching to expose at times, but they also open floodgates of memories and emotions. Time is required to process this. During the storyboard stage, the story becomes visual and therefore tested for believability. The story enters a re-molding effect that develops it further. Conclusions: The creative process for creating an animated film requires many varied proficiencies. Although a filmmaker may have most or all the necessary abilities, the story presents itself as the critical component of an animated film. For quality, studios such as Pixar or Dreamworks spend a number of years developing a single feature-length story. My best-laid plans encountered this creative reality. Because of my emotional connection with the story, it now demands mindful writing and storyboarding.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Film Studies
- Creator:
- Rzucidlo, Caroline L.
- Description:
- Purpose of the study: Adipose tissue is essential to endotherms for thermal regulation and energy storage as well as functioning as an endocrine organ. Adipose derived hormones, or adipokines, regulate metabolism, energy expenditure, reproduction, and immune function in model systems but are less well studied in wildlife. Female northern elephant seals (NES) achieve high adiposity during foraging and then undergo natural prolonged fasts while breeding, lactating, and molting, resulting in large changes in adipose reserves. Procedure: We measured circulating levels of four adipokines, leptin, resistin, adiponectin, and kisspeptin-54, in 196 serum samples from female NES at the beginning and end of their breeding and molting fasts. We examined the relationships between these adipokines and life history stage, adiposity, mass, cortisol, and the immune cytokine interleukin 6 (IL-6). Findings: All four adipokines varied with life history stage. Leptin concentrations were highest during the beginning of the breeding haul-out and resistin concentrations were higher throughout the breeding haul-out compared to the molt haul-out. Adiponectin was highest during the beginning of both haul-outs and kisspeptin-54 concentrations were highest during the end of the breeding haul-out. Leptin, resistin, and adiponectin were associated with measures of body condition, either adiposity, mass, or both. Resistin, adiponectin, and kisspeptin-54 were associated with circulating cortisol concentrations. Resistin was strongly associated with circulating IL-6, a multifunctional cytokine associated with the innate immune response. Adiponectin was associated with glucose concentrations and may be a driver of tissue-specific insulin sensitivity during life history stages categorized by high adiposity. Increased cortisol concentrations late in lactation were associated with increased kisspeptin-54 which may play a role in initiation ovulation in NES. Conclusions: This study suggests dramatic changes in circulating adipokines with life history and body condition that may exert important regulatory roles in NES. Differences from biomedical model systems suggest the potential for modifications of expression and function of adipose-derived hormones in species that undergo natural changes in adiposity as part of their life-history.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- Biology
- Creator:
- Rouley, Hannah
- Description:
- This thesis project examines the role that narrative and memoir play in a writing classroom that is focused on growing and educating an entire student. I begin by examining critical expressivist and postpedagogical approaches to teaching writing; these pedagogies, I argue, support the work that memoir and narrative writing can do in helping students build effective and diverse literacies, and towards the end of the first chapter, I define memoir and narrative; these definitions emphasize the humanizing effect on students who read the writing of others about being human. In doing this, I aim to set a precedent for a writing classroom that asks students to engage with their own experience, which provides them with an education which is far more than a final term grade, and instead offers them a way of relating to the entirety of humanity through story and experience.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English