Dynamic Configuration of Distributed Multimedia Components

A thesis submitted to the University of London in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosoph

The influence of different sources of polyphenols on submaximal cycling and time trial performance

The primary purpose of the study was to establish the effects of commercially available polyphenol-rich antioxidant supplements, Pycnogenol® with added bioflavonoids (PYC-B) and CherryActive (CHA), on 20 km cycling performance. Using a double-blind counterbalanced, repeated-measures design, nine male cyclists or triathletes (32.1 ± 11.2 years; maximal aerobic capacity 4.2 ± 0.7 L•min-1; maximal power output 391.7 ± 39.5 watts) consumed 200 mg of CHA, 120 mg of PYC-B, or 200 mg of placebo (PLA) capsules, 2 days before and on the day of each experimental trial. The experimental trials consisted of four 5 minute stages at 40%, 50%, 60%, and 70% maximal power output (Wmax), followed by a 20 km time trial (TT). Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences between trials for heart rate, respiratory exchange ratio, gross mechanical efficiency, oxygen consumption, or blood lactate, at any of the intensities completed during the initial 20 minute phase of the trial (p>0.05). Final 20 km TT times were not significantly different between trials (p=0.115), but, compared to PLA, PYC-B did significantly increase power output by 6.2% over the final 5 km of the TT (p=0.022). The study suggests that the PYC-B supplement could be beneficial towards the end of an intense bout of cycling exercise. However, as total 20 km time was not significantly different between trials the doses used are unlikely to benefit 20 km cycling time trial performance

Science for Place-based Socioecological Management: Lessons from the Maya Forest (Chiapas and Petén)

The role humans should play in conservation is a pervasive issue of debate in environmental thinking. Two long-established poles of this debate can be identified on a preservation-sustainable use continuum. At one extreme are use bans and natural science-based, top-down management for preservation. At the other extreme is community-based, multidisciplinary management for sustainable resource use and livelihoods. In this paper, we discuss and illustrate how these two strategies have competed and conflicted in conservation initiatives in the Maya forest (MF) of the Middle Usumacinta River watershed (Guatemala and Mexico). We further argue that both extremes have produced unconvincing results in terms of the region’s sustainability. An alternative consists of sustainability initiatives based on place-based and integrated-knowledge approaches. These approaches imply a flexible combination of disciplines and types of knowledge in the context of nature-human interactions occurring in a place. They can be operationalized within the framework of sustainability science in three steps: 1) characterize the contextual circumstances that are most relevant for sustainability in a place; 2) identify the disciplines and knowledge(s) that need to be combined to appropriately address these contextual circumstances; and 3) decide how these disciplines and knowledge can be effectively combined and integrated. Epistemological flexibility in the design of analytic and implementation frameworks is key. Place-based and integrative-knowledge approaches strive to deal with local context and complexity, including that of human individuals and cultures. The success of any sustainability initiative will ultimately depend on its structural coupling with the context in which it is applied

Art in the Basement: Mandingo Gara from Sierra Leone

In the spring of 2006, however, while a graduate intern at the Missouri Folk Arts Program, I was able to observe firsthand an artist as he created art in what may seem the most unlikely of settings—a basement in urban St. Louis. That day I traveled with folklorist Deborah Bailey to visit with Mahmoud Conteh, a master of Mandingo tie dye, and his apprentice Salieu Kamara, one of eight apprenticeship teams in the 2006 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Debbie and I visited them to observe and document the progress of their apprenticeship

Interlibrary Loan Article Use and User GPA: Findings and Implications for Library Services

A recent institutional study at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay investigated the academic achievement of interlibrary loan (ILL) users as compared to non-ILL users. While this study provided important local insight into ILL use and the demographics of ILL users (class rank, major), it uncovered a rather minor overall GPA difference,.20 GPA points, between ILL users and non-ILL users. However, within these data was an interesting subset that once thoroughly investigated, provided rich details about ILL article use, the users who rely on ILL for articles, and the GPA differences between users across the spectrum of ILL article use. The resulting analysis compares users who use ILL for a large number of articles, those who use ILL for a medium number of articles, those who use ILL for a small number of articles, and those who do not use ILL. Takeaways from the data presented should provide libraries and practitioners with a greater understanding of ILL article use, its role in user information-seeking behaviors, its correlational effect on student academic achievement, and for whom—ILL article users—libraries are incurring the high cost of articles through ILL.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1009/thumbnail.jp

Using Student GPA to Show the “Nutritional Value” of a Library Service

Students can interact, or not interact, with their campus library in a variety of ways and through a variety of services—circulation, interlibrary loan, instruction, using our physical spaces, accessing electronic materials, to name a few. Comparing the GPA of library users to non-users is a valuable assessment strategy for demonstrating the value-added impact or “nutritional value” of library services on our usershttps://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1008/thumbnail.jp

Integrating Identities: Negotiating the Religious Lives of Homosexual Christians in the Netherlands

This paper explores how homosexual Christians experience their religious life, as well as the various methods used to negotiate any difficulties or conflicts between these two identities. Data for this study consists of in-depth interviews with homosexual Dutch adults who participate in worship services at a Catholic congregation in North Holland which ministers specifically to the homosexual community. Findings reveal that respondents describe their religious life as taking place on three different levels: the denominational, the individual, and the community level. These descriptions were characterized by an overall rejection of official denominational doctrine concerning homosexuality, an isolation of religious practice and experience in the personal level, and a strong desire for a welcoming church community. The complexity of the multidimensional nature of religious experience suggests that the existing typologies oversimplify the negotiation of religion and sexuality among homosexual Christians, and that a new analytical tool for examining this process is needed

Constitutive Memories Of City Space: Rhetorics Of Civil Rights Memory In Detroit’s Urban Landscape

This dissertation examines public memories of civil rights injustice and resistance as constitutive rhetorics of urban culture and spatiality for the city of Detroit. By studying the city of Detroit as it navigates an ongoing period of dramatic change and redevelopment, this study demonstrates how material manifestations of memory become the constitutive forces that define what many describe as “Detroit’s heart and soul.” This project illustrates the embedded cultural logics produced from sites of public memory, thereby arguing city spaces as locations bound to their legacies and beholden to material and symbolic consequences of their past. This dissertation proceeds through four analytical focuses on memory sites in Detroit, demonstrating the mnemonic features of haunting memory, emergent memory, forgetting, and disruptive memory that mold the city space as a whole. While previous scholarship on the relationship between memory, rhetoric, and cities introduces the network of mnemonic narratives that produce our singular ideological frameworks, they fail to extend such conclusions to complicated cultural amalgamations, such as city spaces and the cultures that define them. This dissertation closes with a look to Detroit’s future and an extended conclusion detailing the cautions that Detroit’s public memories of the civil rights struggle suggest, particularly in the context of ongoing controversies in contemporary Detroit. From the cases explored across this project, the author argues Detroit and city spaces like it are a social, assemblage of cultural palimpsests, spaces bound to public memories that continue to shape, inform, and influence the manner in which these locations move forward