Cultural Aesthetic Experience: Perceptions of Learning Developed through Cultural Immersion

This study explored the role of cultural aesthetic expressions (often also referred to in this study as cultural arts) play in perceptions of learning while individuals are in the ongoing process of being immersed in a non-native culture. This inquiry focused specifically on the narratives of seven expatriates undergoing the process of cultural immersion in Germany, Slovenia and the United States. Using narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; He, Phillion & Connelly, 2005), participants were engaged in discussion, observation and interview for the purpose of exploring and analyzing how they make meaning from previous knowledge and their developing encounters with aesthetic expressions, perceived of as culturally diverse from or similar to their own. The researcher\u27s narrative is included as a voice in the study, contributing to establishing contextual elements as well as discussing perceptions of accessibility and awareness to the aesthetic expressions in these cultures. It also includes insights reflecting upon participant narratives, referencing additional research, and citing from formal interviews and informal consultations with host-country community members who practiced in the arts and education sectors of the respective cultures. The narratives included in this dissertation offer significant evidence to suggest that intercultural literacy is developed in part through aesthetic forms of cultural exchange for this set of participants. The results of this study contribute to the discourse regarding how learning is perceived through cultural aesthetic expressions during the cultural immersion process by revealing some of the complex aspects of the meaning making process and presenting examples from lived experience of how cross-cultural complexities are navigated by a diverse sample of individuals in relation to cultural aesthetic expressions

Reproduction and bioconfinement of miR156 transgenic switchgrass (\u3ci\u3ePanicum virgatum\u3c/i\u3e L.)

Genetic engineering of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), an emerging cellulosic bioenergy feedstock, has been performed to alter cell walls for improved biofuel conversion. However, gene flow from transgenic switchgrass presents regulatory issues that may prevent commercialization of the genetically engineered crop in the eastern United States. Depending on its expression level, microRNA156 (miR156) can reduce, delay or eliminate flowering, which may be useful to mitigate transgene flow. However, flowering transition is dependent upon both environmental and genetic cues. In this study of transgenic switchgrass, two low (T14 and T35) and two medium (T27 and T37) miR156 overexpressing ‘Alamo’ lines and nontransgenic control plants were used. A two-year field experiment was performed to compare flowering, reproduction, and biomass yield in eastern Tennessee, U.S.A. Growth chamber studies assessed temperature and photoperiod effects on flowering and reproduction across a simulated latitudinal cline. In the field, medium miR156 overexpression line T37 resulted in the best overall combination of bioconfinement and biomass production. Though line T37 did flower, not all plants produced panicles, and panicle production was delayed in both years. Line T37 also produced fewer panicles, with a 65.9% reduction in year one and 23.8% reduction in year two over controls. T37 panicles produced 70.6% less flowers than control panicles during the second field year with commensurate decreased seed yield: 1205 seeds per plant vs. 18,539 produced by each control. These results are notable given that line T37 produced equivalent vegetative aboveground biomass as controls. In latitudinal simulation growth chambers, elevated temperatures and decreased daylength promoted flowering of the miR156 transgenic switchgrass lines. As temperatures increased and day lengths decreased, more plants in lines T35, T37, and controls produced panicles. The simulated (Ecuador) tropical conditions were the only chambers in which three of the four transgenic lines flowered. These results suggest that miR156 overexpression levels found in transgenic line T37 can be useful for bioconfinement, and the plants can significantly reproduce in tropical conditions, which would enable plant breeding for line improvement. Furthermore, the study suggests additional ways that miR156 can be manipulated to improve both biomass production and bioconfinement

Theoretical And Computational Studies Of Heat Transport Processes In Molecular Systems

There has been growing research interest in the field of nanoscale thermal transport over the past two decades due its importance to a variety of fascinating applications, such as waste heat control, improved electronic functionality, and phononics building blocks. Much of this focus has been on solid-state systems for which advanced experimental characterizations and measurements are readily available. Molecule-based systems, which in principle exhibit no less structural richness than solid state systems and may show excellent energy transport capabilities, have been largely ignored until recently. This is mostly because of the difficulties associated with measuring heat transport on the molecular scale. However, a few recent experimental breakthroughs have brought molecular energy transport process into the spotlight, and at the same time established measurement techniques that can be tested, verified, and explained using theoretical tools. This dissertation examines and explores theoretical approaches for modeling heat transport in molecular systems. Specifically, we have developed a stochastic nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) method which mimics the experimental setting of substrate-bridge-substrate structure, i.e., a molecular junction. We incorporate this approach, along with a quantum Landauer\u27s formalism, into the open-source molecular simulation package--GROMACS, so that it can be applied to molecular systems with different topologies and thermal environments. Our simulations of heat conduction in hydrocarbon-based single molecule junctions yield excellent agreement with the recent state-of-the-art experimental data. Within the capacities of the new method,we have also investigated phononic interference effects in the heat conduction characteristics of benzendithiol molecules. Using the methods developed in this dissertation, we have mapped, for the first time, thermal fluxes down to the atomistic level. In the context of phononic energy transport, we develop a simulation method that integrates quantum effects into classical MD. This hybrid method, once fully implemented, will compensate for the disadvantages of classical approaches at low temperatures and for the difficulty in treating anharmonicites in Landauer-type quantum transport calculations. This method will improve the predictive power of classical heat conduction simulations. The second part of this dissertation explores an intriguing energy transport channel that has been newly discovered termed electron-transfer-induced heat transport (ETIHT), which is distinct from traditional heat transfer mechanisms that rely purely onmolecular vibrations. We construct a theoretical model that combines the two energy transport channels (ETIHT and phononic) into one general model and then we show analytically under certain parametric thresholds (e.g. reorganization energies) that ETIHT dominates while other conditions may magnify the phononic contributions. Although the work in this part of the thesis is currently purely theoretical, it may provide useful insights into future organic molecular thermoelectric devices

To seal or not to seal in Kingborough?

The municipality of Kingborough is located in southern Tasmania. It is predominantly rural in nature with 49% (265 kilometres) of the road network being unsealed. Having one of the highest population growth rates in Tasmania over the past 30 years the ratepayers of Kingborough are increasingly asking Council to upgrade unsealed roads to a sealed road standard citing improved road safety and reduction in dust as the most common reasons for their requests. Kingborough Council does not have a strategy or policy for assessing the merits and long term costs of upgrading unsealed roads to a sealed road standard. Kingborough requires a procedural document which sets forth guidelines and a measurement system appropriate for its climate, topography, geology, ecology, road design standards and limited financial resources to allow staff to appropriately analyse the viability of community requests for sealing unsealed roads. Six key roads were selected for having either considered high traffic volumes (greater than 200 vehicles per day), steep topography, increased residential density or high crash history. Assessments were conducted on each road including traffic counts, geometric analysis and crash analysis based on a preferred scoring system. A cost-benefit analysis was undertaken to compare current annual maintenance requirements with the economic benefits of upgrading the unsealed roads to a sealed standard. A key outcome of this project was to research other Local Government policies and procedures with respect to upgrading unsealed roads to allow an engineering assessment to be completed. Another key outcome was to complete a cost-benefit analysis to compare the long term costs of maintaining an unsealed road with the long term costs of upgrading and maintaining a sealed road. The results of the project will assist Council in the development of a strategy and policy in the future