The endangered Hawaiian Duck (koloa maoli; Anas wyvilliana), a non-migratory and island-endemic species, experienced a significant population decline during the twentieth century due to factors such as habitat loss, overharvest, introduced mammalian predators, and hybridization with introduced feral Mallards (A. platyrhynchos). A key objective for Hawaiian Duck recovery is to...
In this work, we consider a convexity splitting scheme for a coupled phase field and energy equation, a modification of Stefan problem. The Stefan problem is a free boundary value problem that models the temperature in a homogeneous multiphase medium. Each phase is modeled using a heat diffusion parabolic partial...
This thesis presents the results of a formal evaluation of a new AOGCM, GENMOM, demonstrating its ability to simulate present-day climate and ENSO dynamics. The model is applied to simulate climate for the Last Glacial Maximum, deglacial, and Holocene time periods. The model output is evaluated against the best available...
Radiative feedbacks associated with changes in water vapor, temperature, surface albedo and clouds remain a major source of uncertainty in our understanding of climate's response to anthropogenic forcing. In this dissertation climate model data is used to investigate variations in feedbacks that result from changing CO₂ forcing and the time...
Biomass burning impacts vegetation dynamics, biogeochemical cycling, atmospheric chemistry, and climate, with sometimes deleterious socio-economic impacts. Under future climate projections it is often expected that the risk of wildfires will increase. Our ability to predict the magnitude and geographic pattern of future fire impacts rests on our ability to model...
Pornography remains one of the most controversial topics in our culture. Politicians, religious groups, and special interest organizations tend to focus on the ‘effects’ pornography has on those who consume it, and fear that pornography is a threat to public health. The general discourse surrounding pornography is that men produce...
This thesis explores the gendered histories of slavery through the concept of haunting in two neo-slave narrative novels: Toni Morrison’s A Mercy and Octavia Butler’s Kindred. I offer readings of these texts through slavery’s geographic and temporal implications, in order to argue that the logics of antiblackness remain a fundamental...
In this thesis, I examine composition scholarship on the intersections of religious faith and writing pedagogy over the past twenty years, tracing the origins of compositionists' discomfort with religion and focusing on pedagogical approaches for working with religiously-committed students. In particular, I emphasize the way in which these approaches are...
Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) were not recognized as a family of enzymes until the 1990s but are now known to be the dominant peroxidases in most organisms. Here, the history and fundamental properties of peroxiredoxins are briefly reviewed, with a special focus on describing how an exquisitely tunable balance between fully folded...