Revolution, Regime Change, and Rosewater: The United States’ Role in the Arab Spring

This thesis seeks to determine which international relations theory best explains the United States involvement in the Arab Spring, and to ascertain if the goals set by those theories were met. Through the literature, I determine that two theories offer reasonable yet competing explanations of US involvement, and that these theories are first, defensive realism, and second, democratic peace theory. I employ the analytic method of pattern matching to compare each theory against the empirical record. In my analysis, I match empirical data from five affected countries to determine the strategic importance to the United States of the outcome of the revolutions, and American efforts to promote democracy in the states. Ultimately, I conclude that both of these theories offer a reasonably accurate explanation of US involvement in the events of the Arab Spring, but that defensive realism matches US goals more closely

Indigenous Language Revitalization: Success, Sustainability, and the Future of Human Culture

This thesis looks at different styles of Indigenous language revitalization programs and seeks to delineate the three most successful characteristics seen across differing designs in an effort to promote the presence of these characteristics in existing programs. The literature analyzed outlines three main schools of thought: first, that language-based education is the most effective program design, second, that language-based education is only effective if it is directed and driven by the community it serves, and third, that culture-based education is the most effective design. The data rejects the idea that one design is superior to another, and instead presents three characteristics of successful programs no matter the design: first, that it is community-driven, second, that culture-based education is present in the curriculum design, and third, that the program has connections and partnerships with outside organizations. Overall, the author seeks to promote language revitalization programs and add to the existing research in the field about the most effective way to teach endangered languages and save them from extinction

An Investigation of the Influence of Instructional Coaching on Retention of Mathematics Teachers

In 2007, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported in their 2004-2005 Teacher Follow-up Survey that nearly 20% of U.S. teachers leave the profession after their first year of teaching and almost 30% leave after the fourth year of teaching. These percentages are even greater for mathematics teachers. Using symbolic interactionism, adult learning, and partnership as a theoretical framework, this ethnographic case study investigated and examined the factors that influenced second-career mathematics teachers to remain in the teaching profession and their experiences with instructional coaching. The following guiding research question and sub-questions were pursued in the study: Why have four second-career mathematics teachers remained in their role for 5 or more years? What are the teachers’ experiences with instructional coaching? How would they describe coaching? Which aspects of coaching do the teachers find least and most beneficial? How would you improve the coaching program? A purposeful sampling was used in the selection of participants. The four participants were African-American mathematics teachers; three women and one man. The participants are second-career teachers, and they all have been coached. The research is based on data collected from teacher narratives, participant observation, photo elicitation, and focus groups. Data were analyzed and categorized as follows: making a difference in a student’s life, teacher resiliency, job satisfaction, and support. Data analysis showed evidence of all four factors of retention for one or more of the participants, although the factors have varying degrees of influence

Meat Industry Performance and Organisational Form

The purpose of this report is to review the contemporary history of the meat packing industry and particularly the role of cooperatives and investor-owned firms in its development. The report that follows is divided into three parts. Part One reports briefly the contemporary history of the meat industry, Part Two looks at the changing structure and performance of this industry, Part Three assesses the evolution and performance of the now-large cooperative processor PPCS, and Part Four reviews the evolution of the now-investor firm AFFCO

Meat Industry Performance and Organisational Form

The purpose of this report is to review the contemporary history of the meat packing industry and particularly the role of cooperatives and investor-owned firms in its development. The report that follows is divided into three parts. Part One reports briefly the contemporary history of the meat industry Part Two looks at the changing structure and performance of this industry Part Three assesses the evolution and performance of the now-large cooperative processor PPCS and Part Four reviews the evolution of the now-investor firm AFFCO

The Effectiveness of Physical Therapy Interventions for a Six-Year-Old Boy with Monosomy 18p

The purpose of this case report is to explain the utilization and effectiveness of physical therapy interventions for improving gross motor abilities in a six-year-old boy diagnosed with Monosomy 18p.https://soar.usa.edu/flsaspring2018/1000/thumbnail.jp

Dual Band Electrodes in Generator-Collector Mode: Simultaneous Measurement of Two Species

A computational model for the simulation of a double band collector-generator experiment is applied to the situation where two electrochemical reactions occur concurrently. It is shown that chronoamperometric measurements can be used to take advantage of differences in diffusion coefficients to measure the concentrations of both electroactive species simultaneously, by measuring the time at which the collection efficiency reaches a specific value. The separation of the electrodes is shown to not affect the sensitivity of the method (in terms of percentage changes in the measured time to reach the specified collection efficiency), but wider gaps can provide a greater range of (larger) absolute values of this characteristic time. It is also shown that measuring the time taken to reach smaller collection efficiencies can allow for the detection of smaller amounts of whichever species diffuses faster. The case of a system containing both ascorbic acid and opamine in water is used to exemplify the method, and it is shown that mole fractions of ascorbic acid between 0.055 and 0.96 can, in principle, be accurately measured.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figure

Genome sequences of 12 bacterial isolates obtained from the urine of pregnant women

The presence of bacteria in urine can pose significant risks during pregnancy. However, there are few reference genome strains for many common urinary bacteria. We isolated 12 urinary strains of Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Citrobacter, Gardnerella, and Lactobacillus. These strains and their genomes are now available to the research community

Genome sequences of 14 Firmicutes strains isolated from the human vagina

Research on vaginal infections is currently limited by a lack of available fully sequenced bacterial reference strains. Here, we present strains (now available through BEI Resources) and genome sequences for a set of 14 vaginal isolates from the phylum Firmicutes. These genome sequences provide a valuable resource for future research in understanding the role of Gram-positive bacteria in vaginal health and disease