Variations in the oxygen three-isotope terrestrial fractionation line revealed by an inter-laboratory comparison of silicate mineral analyses

An inter-laboratory comparison of analytical results for the slopes of Terrestrial Fractionation Lines (TFL) measured on a group of quartz and a separate group of garnet samples shows good agreement between laboratories. However, the slopes of the TFL’s for each mineral group differ slightly

The Impact of Local: Exploring Availability and Location on Food Buying Decisions

The term “local food ” is a buzzword in the food industry for consumers. However, when consumers make food-purchasing decisions, do they look for the specif ic growing locations and consider the seasonality of the product? In this study, researchers used focus groups to determine the impact growing location and months of availability have on consumers’ purchasing decisions in order to identify effective communication strategies when communicating about local food. The theoretical framework of framing and cognitive dissonance informed this study. The findings from this research indicated consumers defined local food as grown in a certain area, state, or region. Additionally, results indicated consumers make food-buying decisions based on personal preference, versatility, health benef its, preparation, and seasonal cooking. Overall, consumers’ decisions to buy produce were not impacted by growing season, but rather by their preference for a specific product. Participants noted most produce is available year round nationally. The researchers recommend communicators focus on developing message strategies framed toward the purchasing attributes identified by the participants instead of growing location and availability. Future research should continue to examine the impact of different frames on consumer food-purchasing decisions and how consumers perceive specific message frames

Law, Space, and Gendered Vulnerability: A Critique of VAWA's Jurisdictional Fix in Indian Country

This thesis evaluates the jurisdictional extension included within the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) of 2013, which grants tribal courts criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian perpetrators of certain domestic violence crimes. This thesis begins by examining the structural and historical conditions that expose women to racialized and gendered violence. After developing an understanding of the spatio-legal production of vulnerability, this research evaluates the prospects for responding to violence against Native women through VAWA's jurisdictional fix. In recognizing the jurisdictional extension as a liberal fix, the VAWA provision is understood as a moralistic, normative legal response by the state that seeks to respond to the crisis (of gender-violence) without significantly re-ordering the underlying structuration of Indian Country that is responsible for producing such violence in the first place. This research suggests that the jurisdictional fix provided by VAWA is a limited solution to the problem of gender-based violence in Indian Country

Promoting Commodities through Comic Books: A Framing Analysis of the Captain Citrus Campaign

The communication campaign starring Captain Citrus, first released in 2011, was aimed at elementary school students with the goals of encouraging health and agricultural literacy, as well as promoting the consumption of Florida orange juice. This study was designed as a qualitative, inductive framing analysis of the Captain Citrus comic book series featured in the campaign. The goal was to identify the prominent frames along with evidence of agricultural perspective and promotion throughout the series. The first two editions of the series, totaling 38 pages, were evaluated for the study. The results indicated the presence of four predominate frames: “Amazing Inside,” health, responsibility, and empowerment. A majority of the agricultural perspective and promotion was found in the form of images, followed by textual mentions, and symbolic references. It was determined that the “Amazing Inside” and health frames contributed to meeting the campaign objective to boost health literacy. The second objective, to promote agricultural literacy, was somewhat endorsed through the agricultural references, however there is an opportunity for this to be strengthened. The presence of all four frames aided in the achievement of the final goal, to promote Florida citrus through the sale of orange juice. It is recommended that further research be conducted to measure the effects of framing on the attitudes and behaviors of elementary school students before and after they are exposed to the campaign materials

The Critical Target Audience: Communicating Water Conservation Behaviors to Critical Thinking Styles

Although water covers approximately 70% of the planet, only a fraction is fresh water, and even less is used as a major source of drinking water. With the continuous increase in the amount of water used in modern standards of living, the quantity of water available is decreasing. The public is beginning to understand water needs to be conserved and they must play a role in water conservation. While previous literature examined how the majority of messages were catered toward the cost-effectiveness of conserving water, this study proposed how using a specific audience attribute could affect behaviors. The purpose of the study was to determine if critical thinking style can be used in the development of future communication strategies to improve water conservation behaviors. The findings of this study provided evidence of a relationship between critical thinking style and the level of engagement in water conservation behaviors. Recommendations suggested targeting the two constructs of critical thinking style, information seekers and engagers, in two different ways. Since the seekers prefer to gather information by seeking the sources themselves, communicators should focus on developing quality information about water conservation and placing it in easily accessible communications channels for the information seeker. On the other hand, a different communications approach should be taken with the engagers, who prefer to learn through their environment. Communicators should focus on communicating to the engager through the environment in word-of-mouth situations using traditional means such as opinion leaders as well as social media

VARiD: A variation detection framework for color-space and letter-space platforms

Motivation: High-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies are transforming the study of genomic variation. The various HTS technologies have different sequencing biases and error rates, and while most HTS technologies sequence the residues of the genome directly, generating base calls for each position, the Applied Biosystem's SOLiD platform generates dibase-coded (color space) sequences. While combining data from the various platforms should increase the accuracy of variation detection, to date there are only a few tools that can identify variants from color space data, and none that can analyze color space and regular (letter space) data together

Should livestock images provide historical reference or modern reality? An examination of the Influence of Livestock Communication on Attitude.

The livestock industry has repeatedly struggled to effectively communicate livestock care and handling practices in order to promote awareness and acceptance. Many consumers still hold on to the historically picturesque view of production agriculture instead of the modern reality. It is necessary for the industry to identify how much is too much to tell or show consumers. Therefore, this study sought to understand the influence of two communication treatments on attitudes toward livestock care and use. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) served as the theoretical framework for this study. A sample of 1,049 respondents was obtained through non-probability sampling. To fulfill the purpose of this study, the development of an online survey was informed by ELM and measured prior beliefs, personal involvement, and knowledge. An experimental treatment, consistent with persuasive communication within ELM, presented respondents with one of two images of cage-free egg laying housing and accompanying text. One image could be described as “historically picturesque” and the other as “modern reality.” Attitude toward livestock care and use was measured after exposure to one of the images. Respondents held favorable prior beliefs, demonstrated neutral involvement, and answered three or less knowledge questions correctly. Respondents exposed to the modern reality treatment displayed slightly lower attitudes than those exposed to the historically picturesque treatment. The results indicated that both prior beliefs and image exposure had a significant impact on attitude, while personal involvement was not found to be significant

Museum of Futures: Pandemic Pivots

The Museum of Futures: Pandemic Pivots is a work of collaborative foresight and participatory futures. In 2020, it is clear that we are living in post-normal times. A summer of catastrophic bushfires followed by a global pandemic has shown us all the importance of thinking about the future. In this exhibition, ten communities explored how they hoped that life in Sydney would pivot after the Covid-19 pandemic. Their ideas were given to nine Australian artists to interpret into works that you see in this exhibition. Alongside each work you will also see the 'history' of what happened to make this future occur

Oxygen Isotope Composition of Almahata Sitta

The name Almahata Sitta is applied collectively to some hundreds of stones that were found in a linear strewn field in the Nubian Desert coincident with the projected Earth-impacting orbit of the Asteroid 2008 TC3. Fragments of the meteorite were collected in December 2008 and March 2009, 2 to 5 months after the asteroid exploded in Earths atmosphere on 7 October 2008

Apprehending Joule Thieves with Cinder

Energy is the critical limiting resource to mobile computing devices. Correspondingly, an operating system must track, provision, and ration how applications consume energy. The emergence of third-party application stores and marketplaces makes this concern even more pressing. A third-party application must not deny service through excessive, unforeseen energy expenditure, whether accidental or malicious. Previous research has shown promise in tracking energy usage and rationing it to meet device lifetime goals, but such mechanisms and policies are still nascent, especially regarding user interaction. We argue for a new operating system, called Cinder, which builds on top of the HiStar OS. Cinder's energy awareness is based on hierarchical capacitors and task profiles. We introduce and explore these abstractions, paying particular attention to the ways in which policies could be generated and enforced in a dynamic system