Brothers, Sing On: The Story of Nuance

For this project, I have elected to create a documentary detailing the chronological history of the University of Akron’s all-male contemporary pop a Cappella group, Nuance. The Documentary is titled: “Brothers, Sing On: the Story of Nuance” as a reference to the song “Brothers, Sing On!” by Edvard Grieg, and was named such because of the theme of brotherhood I have showcased in the documentary. I have been a member of Nuance since the Spring Semester of 2018 and have served as the president of the group since Spring Semester 2019. Nuance was founded in 2004, making it one of the longest-standing student organizations at the University. Nuance’s alumni base continues to be supportive and attentive to the group’s current events, often coming to visit at evening rehearsals, local performances, and the end of semester concerts. However, much of the group’s history has not been recorded in any tangible form, and is left up to word-of-mouth, guessing, or rumors. With this documentary, I interviewed some of the group’s most influential and long-standing members to provide their accounts on the group’s most pivotal moments

A long quavering chant : peonage labor camps in the rural-industrial South, 1905-1965

This dissertation is a study of social and environmental conditions inside rural industrial labor camps throughout the U.S. South between 1905 and 1965. The use of peonage labor, i.e., the coercion of labor against ones’ will through indebtedness or violence impacted nearly a fourth of rural workers in the postbellum south, particularly in isolated railroad construction sites, lumber operations, turpentine camps, and commercial vegetable farms. Though employers’ various peonage labor regimes changed within the context of the camps’ physical environment and evolved over time, they continually took advantage of marginalized social groups, immigrants, African-Americans, and the poor. The relative inability of workers, their families, and reformers to prosecute employers and foremen for labor abuses stemmed from the collusion of local law enforcement and the indifference of federal government officials. Ultimately, broader market forces of globalization and technology changed peonage labor regimes, not the enforcement of federal statues outlawing the practice.Histor

American heritage abroad: the connection between military cemeteries and soft power

Military cemeteries play an important role in present day heritage and history commemoration events. More than simple repositories for war dead, military cemeteries are built with certain symbolic and interpretive meanings for visitors. This symbolism and meaning helps them to become the setting for political speeches and commemoration events in the present day. As such, military cemeteries function as part of memorial, heritage, and cultural diplomatic strategies around the world. This thesis focuses on the military cemeteries overseen by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Being located outside of the United States (US), and primarily visited by visitors from the host country, the ABMC cemeteries provide a case study of the uses that military cemeteries have in the contemporary world. Using legislative historiography, heritagescape, and access map methodologies under a semiotic interpretive framework, this thesis examines the ABMC and its cemeteries from their inception to the present day. Most of the cemeteries overseen by the ABMC hold the war dead from the First and Second World Wars. The symbolism and meaning of these cemeteries tell visitors a specific story and version of history centered on the US and their status within the emerging inter- and post-war global power structures. Visitors experience these stories in different ways depending on what aspects of and what way they maneuver through the cemeteries. This thesis shows how soft power is constructed at US military cemeteries located in foreign countries to support international diplomatic efforts and ideas of American exceptionalism

Microfluidic detection of arsenic contamination in groundwater

The difficulty of detecting small quantities of arsenic in water currently threatens the health of millions of people worldwide, as long-term exposure to arsenic has been associated with both cancerous and noncancerous health risks. Existing technologies make it possible to very accurately quantify arsenic levels in water; however the expense, extensive training, and off-site analysis required by these methods impede wide scale use. Here, we report on research to develop an affordable and point-of-use microfluidic platform capable of detecting trace amounts of arsenic in groundwater samples. We intend this device to meet the World Health Organization\u27s (WHO\u27s) ASSURED criteria for diagnostic devices in developing regions. Our electrochemical solution utilizes a three-electrode system with carbon, silver, and silver/silver chloride ink electrodes printed onto a disposable plastic substrate. A small water sample is applied to the electrodes and the current response is quickly captured, returning quantitative information to the user. This alleviates the lag times and imprecise colorimetric assays that encumber current arsenic detection systems. In order to perform electrochemical detection we will use cyclic voltammetry (CV) using a CH Instruments 7000 Series B iopotentiostat

Access to Nitrogen Heterocycles via Borrowing Hydrogen Catalysis

Nitrogen heterocycles are ubiquitous motifs which occur as the core structure of several alkaloid natural products exhibiting inherent biological activity against an array of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and cancer cell lines. These azacycles serve as key synthetic building blocks for medicinal chemists to access more structurally complex and diverse compounds with tunable biological properties. A synthetic approach to these valuable motifs employing intramolecular borrowing hydrogen catalysis has been developed. The utility of the developed chemistry will be applied to synthetic efforts towards the recently isolated Cylicomorphins A-E

Developing Professionals

The common path into a career in higher education and student affairs (HESA) involves undergraduate campus leadership, involvement, and mentorship from professionals in the field and leads to enrolling in a graduate program in HESA. What is less common is intentional preparation or curricula to transition undergraduates into a graduate program in HESA and a career in the field. This paper describes how one “Careers in Higher Education” course for undergraduate students at one university informed students’ decisions to enter the field. This study uses Kolb’s learning cycle (Kolb, 1984) as a conceptual and analytical framework

Ecology of Conflict: Marine Food Supply Affects Human-Wildlife Interactions on Land

Human-wildlife conflicts impose considerable costs to people and wildlife worldwide. Most research focuses on proximate causes, offering limited generalizable understanding of ultimate drivers. We tested three competing hypotheses (problem individuals, regional population saturation, limited food supply) that relate to underlying processes of human-grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) conflict, using data from British Columbia, Canada, between 1960–2014. We found most support for the limited food supply hypothesis: in bear populations that feed on spawning salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), the annual number of bears/km2killed due to conflicts with humans increased by an average of 20% (6–32% [95% CI]) for each 50% decrease in annual salmon biomass. Furthermore, we found that across all bear populations (with or without access to salmon), 81% of attacks on humans and 82% of conflict kills occurred after the approximate onset of hyperphagia (July 1st), a period of intense caloric demand. Contrary to practices by many management agencies, conflict frequency was not reduced by hunting or removal of problem individuals. Our finding that a marine resource affects terrestrial conflict suggests that evidence-based policy for reducing harm to wildlife and humans requires not only insight into ultimate drivers of conflict, but also management that spans ecosystem and jurisdictional boundaries