pdf

This paper will examine the significance of blindness in Oedipus Rex, King Lear, and Jane Eyre. In each of these canonical works, the character presents a moral infringement and consequently is castigated through the loss of sight. For Oedipus and Rochester this is a sexual transgression while for Gloucester, blindness is a reflection of his ignorance of his son’s duplicity. This literary commonality implements vision loss as a punishment for immorality. Yet, from this loss of sight also stems transcendence. Paradoxically, in losing their sight, the characters garner a greater sensory awareness and prophetic insight as Oedipus sees his future and Rochester experiences a telepathic exchange with Jane. This paper will also examine the portrayals of blind characters and how they reflect historic shifts in society’s conceptualization of the disabled community.

The inherent matrix study within numerical analysis has evolved into a seemingly finite exploration of row arrangements, transpositions and basic operations of addition, subtraction and multiplication. However, with the formulaic structure of Microsoft Excel, is there not an extended possibility that complex matrix operations and functions can be easily solved using the rows and columns of excel along with their respective formulae? The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to transfer matrix numerical information onto Microsoft Excel, and by applying appropriate excel functions (e.g. =MMULT for matrix multiplication) find the operational solution. As a corollary to the application of matrices using Microsoft Excel, other applications of matrices such as numerical analysis of the calculator, and balancing chemical equation will also be included to provide a more in-depth view of matrices.

The Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Florida is devoted to the rescue and rehabilitation of injured or sick sea turtles along the east coast of South Florida. In this study, data on illnesses, injuries, and patient mortality of sea turtles brought into the Loggerhead Marinelife Center were analyzed based on patient records from 2011 to 2016. The goal of this thesis is to make an assessment of the different anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic factors that have affected sea turtles in South Florida for the past six years. In addition, this thesis aims to understand the correlation between the different types of stresses and mortality rates in patients.

Trees in urban landscapes provide ecosystem services that increase air quality, remove various air pollutants, and reduce storm water run-off. This study focuses on the urban forestry of Florida Atlantic University’s campus in Jupiter, Florida. By collecting various data from each tree and using ArcGIS and the US Forest Service’s analysis tool, “i-Tree”, the 1,556 trees on the Jupiter campus were mapped and an estimate of their structural and dollar values was calculated.
Ninety-one percent (91%) of campus trees were in “excellent” condition, thus providing significant annual uptake of pollutants such as carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds. Calculations also estimate that these trees annually store 245,232 kg of carbon, sequester 21,645 kg of atmospheric carbon, and have a structural value of $2,289,186.

In health care cases involving children, people are still vulnerable to religious persecution
in this country, particularly in the State of Florida, because the public officials responsible for
securing and enforcing the laws tend to lend the prestige of their offices to advance the private and
special interests of themselves and others at the expense of minority groups. Following a literary
review of the laws that provide for the free exercise of religion nationally and in the State of
Florida, I apply case law to a hypothetical case, based on true facts concerning parents who are
African American, Jehovah's Witness and Muslim, who refused certain medical treatment for their
minor child according to their beliefs to show how public officials can abuse their powers and
neglect their duties and substantially burden the free exercise of religion by minority groups and
address possible remedies.

Novel antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are commonly tested using rats and mice as model systems. These animals, however, require a great deal of time, money, and lab space to maintain. In contrast, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) potentially can provide a faster, and less expensive model system for testing AEDs. C. elegans are simple to maintain and have a very short generation time, allowing high throughput assays to screen for new AEDs. For my thesis research, I used C. elegans to test FDA approved AEDs. My tests support the contention that C. elegans can be a useful model system for AED discovery.

Each June, surveys are conducted at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in order to monitor the population status of the Florida Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens), the only avian species endemic to the state of Florida. These birds are limited to the rare oak scrub community, a habitat that is under constant threat due to human development. Florida Scrub-Jays are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act and all of Florida’s populations are in decline. Jonathan Dickinson State Park organizes surveys that collect vital information about the species to better understand how to conserve the fire-dependent oak scrub that they inhabit. The results of this study indicate that efforts to restore the scrub habitat through prescribed burning have been successful at JDSP since the population of Florida Scrub-Jays has stabilized and the birds have dispersed into new areas of the park.

My research was used to determine if religiously-motivated criminal offenders should be held culpable and how offenders should be punished in a court of law. Some who commit religiously motivated crimes do not do so of their own volition (e.g., those born into a cult), some are not legally competent to stand trial, and some qualify to claim insanity by both legal and psychological standards. Psychological and social pressures exerted by cults (e.g., deindividuation) can interfere with moral and legal reasoning of the offender. I argue that only those individuals with awareness of the legality of their actions and ability to freely choose their actions should be held culpable for religiously-motivated crimes.

The legacy of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and its implications have
stipulated a major point of contention in contemporary Spanish society. While the
historical accuracies of the war had been silenced during General Francisco Franco’s
dictatorship (1939-75), the exhumation of mass graves in recent years has revived a
general interest in rescuing the historical memory of those who lost the war. Accordingly,
in 2007, the Historical Memory Law (“Ley de la memoria histórica”) was passed.
However, while there are many Spaniards who strongly support the recovering of the
historical memory of this tragic period in Spain, there are others who find it unnecessary
to reopen old wounds. This historical episode of the Spanish Civil War remains a
stringent controversy in today’s Spanish society. Through observing both historical and
present-day rationales, this research project analyzes how the contending political
ideologies in Spain today (“las dos Españas”) are rooted in its past conflict.

Gopher tortoise populations, declining due to habitat fragmentation and degradation, are in need of revised management practices that take into account the individual site’s needs and limitations. The site of concern in this research is the Greenway in Jupiter, FL, which is suffering habitat degradation due to overgrowth driven by a lack of controlled burns or alternative management methods on site. A simple econometric model is developed characterizing the effects of environmental factors that influence the occupancy of burrows by gopher tortoises. A greater understanding of environmental factors affecting gopher tortoise habitat will allow land management practices to best meet the needs of this keystone species at the Greenway nature area.