This paper examines early modern climatology in order to analyze a correlation between weather, witchcraft, and their combined effects on Shakespeare's Macbeth. Contemporary climactic patterns including hailstorms, tempests, and other unusual phenomena drastically affected not only England but much of Europe. Religious and scientific texts of the period examined links between weather phenomena and witchcraft, suggesting that the weather afflictions were caused by witchcraft. Shakespeare incorporates this suggestion into Macbeth, as well, but takes the connection even further ; the witches in the play not only use their weather magic to afflict Scotland but also control the events of the play.

A crucial aspect of captive animal care is enrichment, ranging from simple additions of flora to complicated foraging puzzles. Enrichments are vital in creating an environment for animals that is similar to their wild habitat and eliciting natural behaviors. Enrichment is also used to inhibit unnatural or harmful behaviors, like pacing. Commonly, enrichment techniques are not scientifically tested, and the universality of enrichments is rarely scrutinized. This study explores the universality of a "Snak'n'Trim", a hollow ball 10 inches in diameter with a 1 inch opening for food items to be inserted into the ball. Four bears, (two male, two female) were observed for ten weeks, five in the summer and five in the winter. Daily observations were made during baseline and enrichment trials. Behavior frequency was calculated and results indicate a significant (p<.01) difference between baseline and enrichment trials, providing evidence for the efficacy of the Snak'n'Trim.

The felony-murder rule declares that if a death occurs during the commission of a felony, all persons involved in the felony will be held culpable for the death. The rule makes every person equally culpable for the death, regardless of his or her mental state and degree of involvement during the crime. Drawing on theories of punishment and scholarship on culpability, I argue that the felony-murder rule needs to be modified. Each person involved in the crime should not be held accountable for the actions of another, but should only be held responsible and culpable for their own intended actions.

This study assesses the philosophical underpinnings of endangered species protections focused on gopher tortoises in Florida. From 1993-2007, gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) were listed in Florida as a species of special concern. Land developers wanting to build on their habitats could apply for an incidental take permit, paying a fee that allowed tortoises to be 'entombed' in their burrows to die a slow death. In 2007, when gopher tortoise status was up-losted to 'threatened', a new policy ended the incidental take permit program. This study compares policy guidelines of the 1991 and 2007 gopher tortoise management plans and explores cases that deal with incidental take controversies. I will apply perspectives from environmental philosophy to my analysis to understand how policies attempt to balance economic goals with a mandate to protect species in peril.

Tea is a beverage consumed by individuals from a multitude of different cultures. It is often taken up with open arms and welcomed as a prominient compnent of cultures, diets, and daily social interactions. The value of tea is based as much on its physical cultures that enjoy tea interact with the beverage in different ways, I argue that tea has its own culture. From interviews with four informants, I found three dominant components of the tea culture that have swayed them to join : (1) tea can be a medium for social gatherings, (2) tea is beneficial to the mind and body, (3) people take the time to fully enjoy the experience. This thesis seeks to understand the value tea has for Floridian tea enthusiasts, the roots of the tea culture, and what it is about tea that has caused many to become "addicted".

The kinesin family of microtubule motors is divided into subfamilies based on structure and function. KIF9, founder of the Kinesin-9 family, has been found to interact with the GTPase Gem. Subsequent studies have shown that KIF9 is vital for flagellar movement and podosome regulation. Previous work has proposed KIF9 is required for microtubule organization as well as proper mitotic entry, progression and completion. In this study, I examined the function of KIF0 in mitotic progression using shRNA-mediated knockdown, and overexpression. In knockdown cells, I saw a significant delay in mitotic progression as well as an increase in multipolarity and multinuclearity, suggesting a failure of cytokinesis. Overexpression of KIF9 produced similar effects on mitotic progression, as well as a marked increase in chromosome distance during anaphase. Taken with previous results, my research indicated that KIF9 is required for normal mitotic progression and completion, possible via regulation of the contractile ring.

The issue of sexual exploitation of children occurs in various forms and across socio-economic, racial, and cultural classes. Children experience abuse at the hands of authority figures who are family members, friends, and sometimes strangers. The discussions on this social issue tell the stories of children who have experienced abuse along with the processes and outcomes that arise in providing assistance to help them cope with these unwanted experiences. Discourses in the fields of psychology, social work, medical sciences, and law have in their own unique style, taken different measures to highlight and address this social problem. However,there is remarkably little discussion held on the institutional changes that are required to stop this practice of child sexual abuse and public discourse and response is not reflective of the urgency required to address the issue. I argue that to address the issue of child sexual abuse requires addressing all the elements entrenched in the institutions of patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality that fosters and promotes the subjugation of women and children, which is a topic best addressed through feminist theory.

Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are being evaluated for the treatment of a broad array of diseases due to their ability to secrete a variety of therapeutically beneficial paracrine-acting factors. For example, MSC conditioned media (MSC-CM) has been shown to inhibit hypoxia-induced apoptosis in human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) via activation of the P13-AKT pathway. However, the factors secreted by MSCs responsible for this effect have yet to be identified. Recent studies have shown that the glycoprotein Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) activates the P13-AKT pathway by binding to the receptor disco-interacting protein (DIP2A) expressed on the surface of cells. Based on our data indicating that MSCs constitutively secrete high quantities of FSTL1, we hypothesize that this protein principally mediates the anti-apoptopic effect of MSC-CM on HAECs. Loss-of-function studies employing siRNA-mediated knockdown of the protein and neutralizing antibodies will be used to assess the role of FSTL1 in growth and survival of HAECs following exposure to hypoxic stress.

Shigeru Miyamoto's The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time pushed the boundaries of video game design in 1998 by introducting players to one of the first virtual worlds fully-rendered in three-dimensions. The shift from rendering game worlds in two-dimensions to rendering them in three-dimensions required the development of new techniques for constructing virtual worlds. This thesis focuses on the construction of the virtual realm in Ocarina of Time, particularly the ways by which players are presented with cosmology of the virtual world and the divine ordering of the races that dwell there. In addition, this thesis explores how the process of building the virtual worldof Hyrule is mimicked in the design of the game's individual levels, in terms of the spaces that players explore, the rules they are bound by, and the goals that they must reach while progressing through the central plot.

I begin by identifying right-libertarians as individuals who believe, foremost, that legislators should reduce the size of the national government. A number of right-libertarians support a Congressional tax reform proposal, the Fair Tax. This support is surprising because the bill is revenue neutral : it therefore does not directly address concerns over increasing Congressional spending or growth of government. Are right-libertarians sacrificing their principles for expediency or is there some other explanation? I argue right-libertarians mainly support the bill because they (1) believe Congress would abolish the IRS as soon as it went into effect, increasing citizens' privacy in the process ; and (2) view it as a gradual reform that would lead to further legislation intended to reduce the size of government.