Effects of Dietary Thiamine and Magnesium on Lake Trout with Induced Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS)

Multiple stressors contribute to Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) in salmonid fisheries and its effects on the Great Lakes region, but the factors responsible for the variation of EMS are not clearly understood. EMS is as a characteristic embryonic mortality that affects the offspring of salmonines, and its impact on lake trout has significantly reduced natural recruitment. In this study, adult individuals were collected from Lake Michigan and their progeny were fed experimental diets containing different concentrations of thiamine and magnesium. A protocol was used to stain cartilage and bone separately for the histology portion. An image processing program was used to determine the percentage of bone and cartilage that was present in each head digitized. Color histograms were produced for each fish and determined the percentage of bone and cartilage proportions for each sample. The seventeen fish samples used were divided into two categories. The first category consisted of nine fish that were collected after the ninth week of the feeding experiment which were all fed commercial diet, and the second category was composed of all seventeen fish with commercial and experimental diets. For the first category, correlations were seen when comparing overall fish weight to percentage of bone and cartilage. This suggests that as the fish increased in size, they portrayed more advanced ossification and less cartilage was remaining. However, correlations between the differing diets and ossification were difficult to determine in the second category due to unevenly distributed samples.No embarg

Eco-Anxiety: A Discourse Analysis of Media Representations of the School Strike for Climate Movement

This item is only available electronically.Introduction: Eco-anxiety has been described as worry (heightened concern), which may encompass various types and degrees of distress (physical and/or psychological) about the present environment/climatic crisis, and the future state of the health of ecosystems. Aims: The main objective of the study was to analyse how the youth climate change movement was constructed by the newspaper press in Australia, with respect to both eco-anxiety and climate change. At present, there has been no discursive research that has examined how youth climate change protesters are represented in the Australian media by newspaper publication. Methodology: This study used Wetherell’s approach to critical discourse analysis to identify rhetorical strategies, repertoires and modes of argumentation. A search was conducted from NewsBank and from eight main Australian newspapers websites focusing on articles published during 2018 - 2019. A subsample of nine extracts from 100 opinion/commentary newspaper articles were utilised to illustrate the main recurring themes found in in the data set. Results: The findings suggest that articles published by News Corp (e.g. The Australian) gave negative portrayals of the School Strike for Climate movement, while Nine Entertainment Co. (e.g. Sydney Morning Herald) generally framed the school strikes positively, including all regional newspapers irrespective of the media outlet. Conclusions: The ongoing existential threat of climate change will ensure that eco-anxiety is an ongoing problem, so further research will need to investigate its longer-term significance, as well as public and media representations of the school strikers.Thesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 202

The Beneficial and Consequential Effects of Study Abroad Programs

The millennial generation exists in one of the most dynamic eras in terms of global communications, exchange and commerce. Millennial Americans are also known more for pushing their language, religions, and customs rather than integrating with other cultures. Global citizenship centers on an individual’s cultural awareness and tolerance––something American schools alone cannot provide. Study abroad programs can bridge this gap and make enculturation fully tangible. Study abroad programs have become increasingly more accessible to students, allowing them to gain a cultural perspective through direct immersion and experience. Both beneficial and consequential effects of study abroad programs will be addressed in this paper in order to identify what the advantages of these programs are, what needs to be altered or improved, and what is currently being done to fix the issues to make students’ time overseas the most constructive

Supporting Tomorrow’s Innovators: Effective Collaborative Strategies for Transforming MLIS Coursework into Valuable Career Experience

Presented at the Virginia Library Association Annual Meeting, October 22-24, 2023, Chantilly, VA

Gender Representation and Occupational Portrayals in Primetime Television

This study examined gender representation and occupational portrayals on primetime television, in order to determine if gender-role stereotypes are still present throughout programming, and what progress, if any, has been made in comparison to previous studies. A content analysis was done on primetime programming airing during the fall of 2013 on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and the CW, and analyzed gender, major and minor character, genre, occupation, and marital status. The findings of this study reveal that women are still underrepresented on-screen, as well as in prestigious occupations, especially when compared to their real world representation. This study also examined the five broadcast networks individually and found gender representation and occupational portrayal differences between the networks, revealing which networks have made progress towards equal and accurate representation, and which have not. The results of this content analysis suggest that stereotypical representations of men and women are still frequent on primetime television. Furthermore, these findings were examined in relation to Social cognitive theory to determine the potential effect these portrayals could be having on viewers’ gender role beliefs. While some improvements have been made in comparison to previous studies, progress still needs to be made among all primetime programming to represent female characters in a wide variety of occupations and roles that are more consistent with reality

EXAMINING ADMINITRATORS\u27 DISCIPLINARY PHILOSOPHIES: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL

In the 40th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes toward the Public Schools, Americans rated discipline as the second largest problem facing public education (Bushaw & Gallup, 2008). This poses a substantial problem for administrators as they strive to employ school reform policies, address public demands and meet the needs of contemporary students. A review of literature revealed a large body of research which examines disciplinary practice; however, it also showcased a literary gap regarding administrative disciplinary philosophies. This multiple case study highlights disciplinary philosophies possessed by five secondary school administrators. Analysis included utilizing the Administrator Discipline Facilitation Continuum; an adapted discipline continuum developed to analyze administrator disciplinary philosophies. The versatility of the continuum is discussed, as well as implications for its use and future development

The effects of vegetation on island geomorphology in the Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana

textUnderstanding how deltas build and maintain themselves is critical to predicting how they will respond to perturbations such as sea level rise. This is especially an issue of interest in coastal Louisiana, where land loss is exacerbated due to subsidence and decreased sediment supply. Feedbacks between ecology and geomorphology have been well documented in tidal environments, but the role of vegetation in delta morphodynamics is not well understood. This study investigates spatial and temporal correlations between vegetation succession and sediment accumulation at the Wax Lake Delta in Louisiana. I established a 2500 m long transect along the western levee of Pintail Island, capturing the full range of island elevations and the transition from bare sediment to herbaceous plants and trees. Shallow (50-100 cm deep) sediment cores taken along this transect were analyzed for particle size, organic matter content, and bulk density, and dated using ²¹⁰Pb. The resulting sedimentation rates and composition trends over time were compared to remote sensing-based analyses of temporal changes in island topography and flooding frequency derived from historical Landsat images. We found that the topography of Pintail Island has developed from a non-systematic arrangement of elevations to a discrete set of levees and intra-island platforms with distinct vegetation types, designated as high marsh, low marsh, and mudflat habitat. This elevation zonation is consistent with alternative stable state theory as so far applied to tidal salt marsh systems. At all but the youngest sampling site, sediment cores showed a significant decrease in organic matter content and a significant increase in grain size with depth. The total organic matter contribution to vertical growth was not sufficient to account for all the elevation change required to achieve the differentiation from low marsh to high marsh deduced from the time-lapse Landsat imagery analysis. Mineral sediment accumulation rates suggested that elevation growth was accelerating or holding steady over time, in contrast to theory suggesting rates should slow as elevation increases. These results provide an empirical foundation for future mechanistic models linking mineral sedimentation, organic sedimentation, vegetation succession, elevation change, and flood frequency in the delta.Geological Science

Development and Life Cycle Assessment of Advanced-Concept III-V Multijunction Photovoltaics

III-V semiconductors make for highly efficient solar cells, but are expensive to manufacture. However, there are many mechanisms for improving III-V photovoltaics in order to make them more competitive with other photovoltaic (PV) technologies. One possible method is to design cells for high efficiency under concentrated sunlight, effectively trading expensive III-V material for cheaper materials such as glass lenses. Another approach is to reduce the amount of III-V material necessary for the same power output, which can be achieved by removing the substrate and installing a reflector on the back of the cell, while also adding quantum structures to the cell to permit absorption of a greater portion of the solar spectrum. Regarding the first approach, this dissertation focused on the development of an InAlAsSb material for a mulitjunction design with the potential of achieving 52.8% efficiency under 500 suns. First, development of a single-junction InAlAs cell lattice-matched to InP was executed as a preliminary step. The InAlAs cell design was optimized via simulation, then grown via metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) and fabricated resulting in 17.9% efficiency under 1-sun AM1.5, which was unprecedented for the InAlAs material. Identical InAlAs cells were grown using alternative MOVPE precursors to study the effects of necessary precursors for InAlAsSb. Fits to experimental device results showed longer lifetimes when grown with the alternative aluminum precursor. InAlAsSb grown using these alternative precursors targeted a 1.8 eV bandgap required for the multijunction design. Ultimately, InAlAsSb material with the desired bandgap was confirmed by photoreflectance spectroscopy. For the second approach, this dissertation studied the integration of InAs quantum dots (QDs) in a GaAs solar cell in conjunction a back surface reflector (BSR). A quantum dot solar cell (QDSC) with a BSR has the potential to increase short-circuit current by 2.5 mA/cm2 and also increase open-circuit voltage due to photon recycling. In this study, multiple textured BSRs were fabricated by growing inverted QDSCs on epitaxial lift-off templates and then texturing the rear surface before removing the device from the substrate. Identical cells with a flat BSR served as controls. Optimization of inverted QDSC growth conditions was also performed via a cell design study. Device results showed increased open-circuit voltage with increasing optical path length, and the greatest improvement in sub-band current over a flat BSR control device was 40%. In the final chapter, a life cycle assessment (LCA) of these technologies was performed to identify the hypothetical optimum at which energy investments in cell performance (such as the two described above) no longer correspond to improvements in the overall life cycle performance of the PV system. Four cell designs with sequentially increasing efficiencies were compared using a functional unit of 1 kWp. The first is a commercially available and has been studied in previous LCAs. The second is the design containing InAlAsSb mentioned above. The third represents the most material-intensive option, which bonds two substrates to create a five-junction cell. The fourth is a six-junction cell that uses a metamorphic grade between subcells and represents the most energy-intensive option. A thorough literature review of existing LCAs of high-concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) systems was performed, which obviated the need for data on the manufacture of MOVPE precursors and substrates. LCAs for the most common III-V substrate (GaAs) and precursors were executed prior to conducting the HCPV system LCA, due to the absence of detailed information on the life cycle impacts of these compounds in literature. Ultimately, both the cumulative energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions of the HCPV system decreased proportionally with increasing cell efficiency, even for the most energy and material-intensive cell designs. It was found that the substrates and precursors corresponded to less than 2% of system impacts. This implies that current mechanisms to increase cell efficiency are environmentally viable in HCPV applications without the need for material reduction, and would make III-V HCPV more environmentally competitive with dominant silicon PV technologies