2016 UMKC Theses - Access Restricted to UMKC
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The items in this collection are theses that are available only to members of the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item Burning Houses: A Novel(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016) Thomas, Tassinda Joy; Terrell, WhitneyWhen Cat Byers’ mother dies and leaves her and her sister a surprise inheritance of 10 million dollars and 500 acres of oil land, a woman adrift must overcome her unresolved past and a mysterious stalker to discover the truth about her mother, her family and herself. What Cat uncovers is a secret that stretches from her own complex childhood in her hometown of Emporia, Kansas to the tiny town of Greensburg, Kansas, the setting of her mother’s nightmarish upbringing---a piece of family history that has been hidden for more than thirty years. In Emporia, people still whisper about her father’s death in a fire and her mother’s subsequent breakdown and wonder if Cat has inherited her mother’s mental instability. In Greensburg, people still gossip about the fire that destroyed the LTF ranch and killed Cat’s grandparents—grandparents she never knew existed until she read the contents of her mother’s will. Along the way Cat struggles with her sister, Emmylou, and her desire to leave the past in the past and fights to resolve her feelings for her ex-boyfriend who reappears just when she needs an ally. This literary mystery novel follows Cat as she unravels the tangled story of her family’s past and discovers a strength she never knew she possessed.Item Permeable Reactive Concrete For Enhanced Heavy Metal Removal With Optimization Of Individual Components(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016) Holmes, Ryan Rodrick; Hart, Megan Leanore, 1976-Catastrophic release of heavy metals in Colorado, U.S or Minas Gerais, Brazil exposed the importance heavy metal contamination have on the surrounding peoples and environment. Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) are an effective method of remediation the use a reactive media to passively remove contaminates. This research primarily investigated the use of permeable reactive concrete (PRC), a new category of PRBs. In the initial phase, PRCs were made with high carbon or high sulfur fly ashes to ascertain the capabilities and determine a preliminary capacity for removal of lead, cadmium, and zinc. Secondly, aggregate sources for PRC were further studied to evaluate bulk compositional influences on removal, and indirectly, explore some fundamental mechanisms driving removal. Batch reactor testing was conducted to measure removal and leachability of metals over the range of typical field concentrations. Removal ranged from 30-100% and leach testing confirmed a high level of permanency for metals removed by the PRC matrix. Scanning electron microscopy was performed to inspect and qualitatively measure precipitates from solution and on the surface of fractured concrete pieces. A variety of multimodal, simultaneous, processes appear to cause removal of metals from solution. Cementitious materials play a large role in removal, especially fly ash with high carbon or sulfur, while aggregate does not. However, calcareous-sourced aggregate was shown to improve removal and increases permanency. Freundlich adsorption isotherms were generated for each mixture and indicated favorable sorption mechanisms for all PRC mixtures tested. An example remediation scenario, using these isotherms, was conducted on a historical mine tailings waste site in Joplin, Missouri. In this scenario high carbon and sulfur fly ash had the most economical removal, followed by aggregate alone, and lastly traditional portland cement PRC. These results suggest permeable reactive concrete to be a novel and effective remediation technique, especially when considering potential valorization of high sulfur or high carbon fly ash.Item Straight Jackets, and Other Escapes(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016) Weiss, Randall Joseph; Bar-Nadav, HadaraItem Ghost Fists(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016) Geminder, Emily Carlson; Hodgen, Christie, 1974-Ghosts animate the stories and essays of this collection in ways both bodied and disembodied—as loops, as refrains, as stories that can’t be outrun. Moving across time and space to consider collective memory in Cambodia, the language of schizophrenia, and the reverberations of violence, each piece circles the unsayable: the strange and uncanny forces it exerts on our daily lives and the ways we are possessed by the things we cannot say. If we are all captive to language, to narrative, this collection considers whether and how we disrupt our own stories, how we construct and deconstruct ourselves as we go, and the places where our stories collide.Item Creep City and Five Short Stories(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016) Cashill, Flannery; Hodgen, Christie, 1974-This collection includes one novella and five short stories, focused on young women and their formative experiences. These stories explore themes of sexuality, latent violence, changing technology and weird feelings. “Creep City” is a novella about a missing girl from the perspective of a classmate who does not care. “Lowlife” is a prologue to the same story. “Cast Party” examines relationships between adult men and their female students. “Field Trip” is an experimental story, set in the near future. “R.I.P. Lesley Gore” is a eulogy for an unlikely pop star, and “Kid Catalog” is another story about a missing girl.