Letter from Marc Woodmansee to Horace Kephart in 1919 Transcription and Annotations

This edition project originated as a final assessment for the ENGL 618 – Research Methods course at Western Carolina University. For the project, we were assigned between four and ten individual manuscript pages of letters related to local literary figures. Using scanned images of the manuscripts along with access to physical copies through the special collections in Hunter Library, we were required to transcribe the content of the letters while creating annotations and making editing choices based on personal preference in presenting the text. This introduction will provide information regarding the context of the letter I was assigned including biographical material related to the literary figure involved, textual notes about the manuscript itself, and an explanation of the editorial practices that I used in preparing this document. The introduction will be followed by the transcription of the letter with annotations, and finally, this edition will be concluded with a works cited containing short annotations of each source used to prepare annotations

An Unusual Succulent In The Appalachian Understory: Light Capture And Drought Tolerance In Sedum ternatum

Sedum ternatum is a succulent plant native to the Appalachian forest understory. This study first examines its use of understory sunlight throughout the year by measuring field photosynthesis, growth, and pigment production. Leaf thickness, succulence, and stomatal density are quantified. The thesis also reports the results of two greenhouse experiments. One experiment tested drought tolerance in S. ternatum, including its expression of Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM). The other compared morphology and chlorophyll production between plants grown under high and low light. The study concludes that the thick S. ternatum leaf accomplishes most of the plant’s carbon gain in the sunny windows of spring and fall, when the tree canopy is absent. The thick leaf and CAM expression also facilitate plant survival during the type of short-term water deprivation encountered in the drier understory microhabitats (boulders, south-facing slopes, eroding soil) often colonized by S. ternatum

Get On Board, Children: The Story of Integration in Yancey County, North Carolina

In the early 1950s America witnessed the beginnings of what would become one of the most significant social campaigns in the nation’s history. The murder of fourteen- year old Emmett Till created unrest among black communities and influenced a serious social upheaval. The arrest of Rosa Parks brought more attention to a chain of uprisings that eventually became known as the civil rights movement. National events, such as these, stand at the forefront of civil rights history. However, they were not the only successful movements that occurred. Resources devoted to America’s past tend to gloss over the struggles rural African Americans faced in the mid twentieth century, especially in Appalachia. Black invisibility has long reinforced the myth of homogeneity in the region. Of the limited scholarship that does address black Appalachian culture, the period of the civil rights movement is either summed up in a couple of paragraphs or is omitted all together. In the wake of the nationally publicized affairs of the 1950s, a small black community in Yancey County quietly fought the local Board of Education in pursuit of school integration. My work examines the struggles and successes experienced by these residents during that campaign

A technique for estimating three-dimensional volume-of-interest using eye gaze

Assistive robotics promises to be of use to those who have limited mobility or dexterity. Moreover, those who have limited movement of limbs can benefit greatly from such assistive devices. However, to use such devices, one would need to give commands to an assistive agent, often in the form of speech, gesture, or text. The need for a more convenient method of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is prevalent, especially for impaired users because of severe mobility constraints. For a socially responsive assistive device to be an effective aid, the device generally should understand the intention of the user. Also, to perform a task based on gesture, the assistive device requires the user's area of attention in three-dimensional (3D) space. Gaze tracking can be used as a method to determine a specific volume of interest (VOI). However, heretofore gaze tracking has been under-utilized as a means of interaction and control in 3Dspace. The main objective of this research is to determine a practical VOI in which an individual's eyes are focused by combining existing methods. Achieving this objective sets a foundation for further use of vergence data as a useful discriminant to generate a proper directive technique for assistive robotics. This research investigates the accuracy of the Vector Intersection (VI) model when applied to a usable workspace. A neural network is also applied to gaze data for use in tandem with the VI model to create a Combined Model. The output of the Combined Model is a VOI that can be used to aid in a number of applications including robot path planning, entertainment, ubiquitous computing, and others. An alternative Search Region method is investigated as well

“Dreamkeepers”: School Experiences From The Voices Of Successful Adult African American Males

While there is an abundance of literature portraying the African American male in a negative light, this study focused on successful African American males and explored educational practices that contributed to their academic success. This study asked successful Black adult school leaders to reflect on their early school experiences and to discuss the impact of their school experiences on their academic success. In addition, this study explored the commitments successful adult males made to support young Black males and focused on the guidance these men provided to support school success. In this interpretive qualitative study, a phenomenological approach was employed to document, in their own voices, the early school experiences of successful African American male school administrators. Ladson-Billings’ (2009) characteristics and critical dimensions of culturally relevant teaching were employed to guide this study. Results indicated that the Black adult male participants experienced academic success during their early school experiences and that they have success stories to voice despite the predominance of negative research in the literature. These African American male school leaders experienced teachers that Ladson-Billings would describe as Dreamkeepers

Adaptive Segmentation Of Cardiovascular Vessels

Coronary collateral vessels may contribute to survival after myocardial infarction by providing blood to the cardiac muscle after coronary arterial occlusion. However, these vessels are not present in all people and can develop after infarction and in some cases they develop prior to infarction for reasons not fully understood. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the segmentation of coronary collateral vessels from micro-computed tomography (microCT) images of a mouse's heart. A problem limiting study of collateral vessels is the exceedingly small size and correspondingly low blood flow of these vessels, making the regions of interest (ROI) below the resolution of most imaging modalities. Segmentation of vessels is a challenge for all imaging modalities and organs. There is no standard algorithm or method that works for all images, therefore, a combination of multiple approaches were used to address this problem

An Exploratory Study On Consumer Perceptions Of Amazon Echo, Alexa, And Smart Speakers

The Internet of Things has become a compelling topic of the past decade. Smart Speakers, like Amazon Echo, have become a mainstream product over the past few years. By exploring the consumer perceptions of Amazon and these “Internet of Things” products, we can better curate the marketing mix to serve the needs and values of customers. Through an exploration of various demographics via an online survey, we sought to uncover specific perceptions of consumers in regards to Amazon Echo and Alexa, while also analyzing differences between these demographics so that Amazon can further understand how to create value for their customers

The end of the wor(l)d as we know it? : language in postapocalyptic

In recent times, the idea of apocalypse has consumed the public consciousness. Naturally, this preoccupation with the end of the world has been a frequent subject for literary exploration. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake are two recent novels that are set in the aftermath of global destruction. In The Road, an unnamed cataclysmic event has left the world in ruins, while in Oryx and Crake, the human race has been nearly annihilated by a man-made pandemic. As a result of these apocalyptic events, the postapocalyptic landscapes of the novels have been radically changed and rendered unspeakable for many of the characters that have survived. These characters are equipped only with the signifiers of the old world, and these signifiers no longer hold meaning in the new, postapocalyptic world. Therefore, as a result of the cataclysmic events, the postapocalyptic worlds of The Road and Oryx and Crake become sites for linguistic transformation. Both novels feature protagonists, in the father and Snowman, who represent the pre-apocalyptic world. These characters struggle to find their place in the new world, since they are burdened by the signifiers of the old world. Ultimately, their existences prove anachronistic, as they are unable to fully define themselves in the new world. Both novels also feature characters, in the boy and the Crakers, who represent the postapocalyptic world. These characters are charged with determining the linguistic transformation that will take place in the postapocalyptic world. Both the boy and the Crakers employ a simple, pared-down language that stands in stark contrast to the language of the pre-apocalyptic world. As a result of the apocalyptic events in the novels, language has been restored to its essential elements. Ultimately, both The Road and Oryx and Crake affirm language as a redemptive and inextricable part of human existence. They also suggest, however, that if language is to exist after an apocalyptic event, it must be radically re-imagined

Laser-wakefield accelerators as hard x-ray sources for 3D medical imaging of human bone

A bright μm-sized source of hard synchrotron x-rays (critical energy Ecrit > 30 keV) based on the betatron oscillations of laser wakefield accelerated electrons has been developed. The potential of this source for medical imaging was demonstrated by performing micro-computed tomography of a human femoral trabecular bone sample, allowing full 3D reconstruction to a resolution below 50 μm. The use of a 1 cm long wakefield accelerator means that the length of the beamline (excluding the laser) is dominated by the x-ray imaging distances rather than the electron acceleration distances. The source possesses high peak brightness, which allows each image to be recorded with a single exposure and reduces the time required for a full tomographic scan. These properties make this an interesting laboratory source for many tomographic imaging applications

The shoemaker's holiday : a study in technique and significance

Although Thomas Dekker is accused of being a "hack without ideas," a man whose talent was chiefly journalistic, his contributions to Elizabethan drama through The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599) cannot be ignored. This play is usually classified as a romantic comedy; but the Shoemaker's Holiday is not so lacking in serious thought as many critics propose. On the surface this play is simple in theme, purpose, and construction, but it is really a piece of subtly designed dramatic fiction. Dekker's method involves the principles of romantic comedy, but his play is set against a verifiable background. Characters come from chronicles, records, legends, and contemporary London; landmarks in the play were outstanding in Dekker's day; situations and events arose from customs and life in the early seventeenth century. Above all The Shoemaker's Holiday reveals particular strength in the authenticity of characterization. Dekker had special ability in portraying convincingly the many sides of man's nature and the various forms of his personality