2019 MU theses - Freely available online
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Item Pentiment(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Alexander-Barnes, Nessi; Boyer, Nathan"Pentiment is a project with two parts, the most recent manifestation of a set of goals and ideas surrounding representation and community engagement with which I continually engage. It’s first aspect is local: it is as an attempt to render myself visible, as a queer, nonbinary, tranmasculine, and neurodivergent person, through the cultivation of a mythology with which I can interface in a world hostile to the possibility of my existence and survival— mythology here indicating a set of conceptual lenses, narratives, and metaphors that explain and render the world legible. My particular myth system is lexical, derived from a wide range of cultural sources, from academic research into art and art history to arbitrary associations drawn from queered popular media texts; it forms a codex from which I develop characters and narrative allegories, which for the narrative component of the myth system, and with which I make sense of the world. Drawn instances of the mythological imagery so constructed is centered on every panel in Pentiment, but I do not disclose the codex, leaving them communicatively opaque, representative cultural objects for which the viewer may not have an intuitive system to translate and who thus comes to as an outsider, attempting to interface for something that was not made with their viewership in mind-- the way I interface with cultural objects made for mass audiences."--IntroductionItem Esquire magazine, presidential politics and hegemonic masculinity(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Littlejohn, Cary; Rowe, Jennifer (Jennifer Lynn)Esquire magazine is one of the premiere men's magazines in the U.S. and has a long history of reporting on U.S. presidential politics. This study seeks to extend the sociological and psychological concept of hegemonic masculinity to Esquire's feature writing between 1996 and 2016, seeking to determine to what extent, if any, the magazine uses characteristics of the hegemonic masculinity paradigm to frame articles about U.S. presidents and presidential candidates and to what extent, if any, the politician's political party affects the use of such framings.Item The impact of wood pellet manufacturing on United States southern timberlands(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Sudekum, Houston; Aguilar, Francisco X.Global wood pellet production grew from an estimated 1.7 million metric tons in 2000, to 35.4 million metric tons in 2018. U.S. mills established over this period account for a large share of new supply triggered by renewable energy targets set by the European Union (EU). There is concern over the potential impacts of exponential growth in wood pellet supply on US forests. We offer a systematic quantitative analysis to assess the effects of wood pellet production on forest conditions within wood pellet mill procurement areas. We rely on plot-level information from the US Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database to estimate changes in forest conditions (e.g. trees per hectare, carbon in trees, cubic-meter volume) between inventory years 2000 and 2017 across Southeastern US States. Using spatial analysis and panel-regression for samples of timberland plots we attempt to discern pellet production effects associated with pellet mill size and location. Propensity score matching was used as a resampling technique to select a subset of FIA plots to control for the non-random process of pellet mill sitting. Panel regression models controlled for various anthropogenic and natural factors to measure the net impact of wood pellet production on average plot-level forest conditions. Overall, we find increased carbon stocks and some evidence of increased removals associated with wood pellet production. This research will contribute to a growing body of knowledge related to the sustainability and future prospects of wood energy and wood pellets.Item Effects of late gestational copper, zinc, and manganese source and inclusion in beef cattle(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Stephenson, Emma Lucile; Meyer, AllisonA study was conducted to determine the effects of source and inclusion of Cu, Zn, and Mn during late gestation on cow and calf mineral status, fetal growth, and offspring immune function and pre-weaning performance. Cows received 1 of 4 treatment during late gestation: no additional Cu, Zn, and Mn (CON), inorganic trace minerals to supply 133% of recommendations (ITM), chelated trace minerals to supply 133% of recommendations (CTM), or both inorganic and chelated trace minerals to supply 100% of recommendations (RR). Cows fed CTM had greater post-calving liver Cu and colostrum yield and lactose. Gestational trace mineral treatment did not affect fetal growth; however, the inclusion of chelated Cu, Zn, and Mn in the maternal diet resulted in greater neonatal calf liver Cu. Calves born to cows fed RR tended to have less liver Mn than all other treatments. Calf plasma Zn was maintained from 0 to 48 h of age in ITM and CTM calves but decreased during that period in CON and RR. Calf serum immunoglobulins at 48 h of age were not affected by treatment. Also at 48 h of age, an ex vivo whole blood stimulation assay using Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists to determine immune responsiveness was utilized for a subset of calves. The inclusion of chelated trace mineral in the diet during late gestation resulted in greater mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin 1[beta] and 8, as well as inducible nitric oxide synthase, in calf whole blood when exposed to TLR agonists. In conclusion, gestational trace mineral supply did not alter fetal growth or passive transfer, but these data indicate that late gestational supply of chelated trace minerals improves cow and calf Cu status, neonatal calf Zn metabolism, and calf innate immune responsiveness to bacterial pathogens.Item Effects of local sequence on the formation of interstrand DNA cross-links derived from the reaction of an abasic site with a cytosine residue on the opposing strand(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Pierce, Luke Edward; Gates, Kent S. (Kent Stephen), 1962-DNA Interstrand Cross-Links are of special concern due to the difficulty of repair and cytotoxicity of cells associated with these lesions. Interstrand Cross-Links between abasic sites and native nucleobases has shown promise in recent years. A new type of Interstrand Cross-Link between an abasic site and a cytosine residue has shown capability of forming when placed under specific conditions. A mismatched cytosine residue demonstrated cross-linking capabilities up to 69% in acidic conditions. Mismatches on flanking base pairs also showed increased cross-linking capabilities. Cross-linking is also observed under human physiological conditions, demonstrating this lesion's capability of forming in vivo. Further work in this line of DNA chemistry may result in increased biological relevance and advances in understanding this type of DNA damage.