Browsing by Subject "composition"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    The Effect of Sulfate Contamination of Water on Wild Rice Nutrient Composition
    (2023-02) Johnson, Katelyn
    Sulfate contamination of waters where wild rice grows threatens its survival. Toxic levels of sulfate affect growth and development, which leads to reductions of natural stands. Research shows that when sulfate is reduced to sulfide, it interacts with iron in sediment to precipitate iron-sulfide. Iron-sulfide plaques accumulate on wild rice roots, which inhibits nutrient uptake from soil. This study examined changes in wild rice nutrient composition by analyzing rice samples grown in low-sulfate and high-sulfate waters under natural and experimental conditions. Samples collected from experimental mesocosms included “low-sulfate’ controls (10 mg/L SO4) and “high-sulfate” amended (300 mg/L SO4). Natural site samples collected from two bodies of water surrounding the Great Lakes Region; Big Rice Lake (“low-sulfate” non-detect) and Sand River (“high-sulfate” > 46.2 mg/L SO4), respectively. We measured antioxidant capacity, plant secondary metabolites, total starch, and mineral content, including mercury, of eight wild rice samples. Wild rice exposed to sulfate in natural and controlled environments had decreased seed sizes and weight. Reductions in seed size appeared due to a reduced amount of starch, as starch content and seed size were highly correlated. Certain trace minerals were reduced to a greater degree than the reduction in seed size, particularly iron, copper, and zinc. Since iron and copper are both required for starch synthesis, and copper deficiency increases synthesis of starch-degrading enzymes, deficiencies of copper and iron may be responsible for the reduced starch content of the wild rice seeds, thus producing a smaller seed size.
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    The Effects of Integrated Chemical Catalysis and Reductive Pretreatment on Hydrothermal Liquefaction Derived Bio-oil Yield, Composition, and Stability
    (2018-07) Peterson, Glen
    Bio-oil is a viscous mixture of aldehydes, ketones, etc. It can be used for various applications such as chemicals or fuels. However, due to its acidic nature, bio-oil is unstable. Integrated chemical catalysis (ICC) and reductive pretreatment (RP) hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of the biomass feedstock (corn stover and hybrid poplar) were performed in an effort to stabilize the resultant bio-oil. In ICC trials, acidic, basic, and reductive solutions were added to the HTL chamber. RP trials were completed separately. Yield, composition, and stability analysis were conducted using fractionation and GC-MS techniques. Phase distribution was relatively unaffected by varying ICC treatments. Acidic ICC increased furan derivative relative abundance in the bio-oil, while alkaline ICC and RPs decreased furan content. RPs increased double bonded γ-carbon compounds such as eugenol. RPs and alkaline ICC trials increased bio-oil pH and subsequently bio-oil stability, whereas acidic ICC lowered bio-oil pH and destabilized the product.
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    “Let’s Play!”: A Multiple Case Study of Tertiary Music Methods Courses Designed to Foster Creativity
    (2022-03) Buzza, Timothy
    Abstract“Let’s Play!”: A Multiple Case Study of Tertiary Methods Courses Designed to Foster Creativity By Timothy David Buzza School music offered in the traditional, large ensemble model can be a wonderful method of learning for some students; however, there are shortcomings in the model. In many school music programs, the lack of student creativity and democratic teaching practices do not fully serve the creative and educational needs of the students within those ensembles and often alienate other student musicians not participating in school music who learn, create, and perform music differently than the methods often employed in band, choir, and orchestra. How might a change in focus from one of re-creation to one of original, student-driven, musical creation, expand the learning and skills of those ensemble students already involved and provide more authentic music-learning opportunities in school for the vernacular musicians left out of traditional curricula and pedagogy? Are there professors in music education departments at the college level that understand these shortcomings and are preparing their preservice and graduate teachers to use student-generated, musical creativity to improve musicianship and inclusion? Are these courses effective in impacting teaching practices of their recent graduates who have come through and are often going to large ensemble-based programs? With the ambition of informing my own teaching practice and that of the field of music teacher preparedness at the undergraduate and graduate level, this multiple case study examines the philosophies, curricula, and pedagogy of three, tertiary, creativity- 2 based music methods courses and their described impact of recent graduates on their use of student musical creativity in their K12 teaching practice. The main research questions of this study are listed below: • How do three music-teacher educators, who specifically teach creativity- based methods courses, prepare preservice and graduate teachers to address the limitations of the large-ensemble model and foster creative musical thinking in students? • How do recent graduates from these specific courses describe the impact of creativity-based tertiary coursework on their current K-12 teaching? All the professors in the study shared the goals of opening their students’ minds to the educational and empowering opportunities that creativity provides in the music classroom through fun, hands-on compositional activities; to grant “permission” to step away from conservatory-based, top down teaching practices and embrace open-ended outcomes and democratic teaching practice; and to use in their own practice, an asset- model philosophy – calling on their own musical gifts and interests and those of their students in planning curricula and pedagogy. The recent graduates interviewed for this study described these creativity-based courses as impactful. All had their eyes opened to the educational and empowering potential of student creativity in musical classrooms. All incorporated elements of creativity and assets-model philosophy into their teaching practices; however, the context seemed to impact the extent of which student creativity was implemented. Those teaching in a general music setting developed and taught more creativity-based units than did those teaching in a large ensemble setting. 3 There are several educational philosophies and teaching strategies from these participating professors’ courses that teachers of music teachers could incorporate into their own practice if they wished to empower their own preservice and graduate teachers to employ student creativity for skills, empowerment, and inclusion.
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    Voice in Composition Theory and Practice: The Epideictic Function of Metaphor in Radical Writing Pedagogies
    (2017-01) Mussack, Brigitte
    In this dissertation, I develop a theoretical framework, based in understandings of epideictic theory, metaphor, and metonymy, to systematically investigate the metaphor of voice across representative expressivist, critical and feminist, and poststructuralist texts. This investigation focuses on the epideictic function that voice plays in such radical writing theory and demonstrates how voice celebrates and strengthens adherence to shared values in order to create communion with a reader and to move that reader toward the action of adopting a novel approach to understanding writing. In Chapters 2, 3, and 4, I identify the core value of power, which is celebrated across divergent theoretical texts and which is both strengthened and deconstructed through the use of the metaphor of voice. Although power is consistently celebrated, each major conversation conceptualizes power very differently, challenging various notions of individual agency and structural limitations to enacting power through writing. As voice works to celebrate and reconceptualize power across these conversations, it also displaces and introduces various other values, such as nature, authenticity, and multiplicity. At the same time, voice functions metonymically and, thus, various values attached to a written text are also attached to the writer. I argue that viewing voice through the lens of epideictic rhetoric can both shed light on the metaphor’s controversy and can provide a material, linguistic focus for a conversation about embedded values that inform theory and practice in the field of composition.