Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Spanish/History (dual)

This thesis uses soup discourse as a vehicle to explore dimensions of class and hierarchies of taste in Mexican cookbooks and newspapers from 1830-1920. It contrasts soups with classic European roots, such as sopa de pan (bread soup), with New World soups, such as sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup) and chilaquiles (toasted tortillas in a soupy sauce made from chiles). I adopt a multi-disciplinary approach, combining quantitative methods in the digital humanities with qualitative techniques in history and literature. To produce this analysis, I draw from Pierre Bourdieu's work on distinction and social capital, Max Weber's ideas about modernization and rationalization, and Charles Tilly's notions of categorical inequality. Results demonstrate that soup plays a part in a complex drama of inclusion and exclusion as people socially construct themselves in print and culinary practice. Elites attempted to define respectable soups by what ingredients they used, and how they prepared, served, and consumed soup. Yet, at the same time, certain soups seemed to defy hierarchical categorization, and that is where this story begins.

Committee: Amílcar Challú (Committee Co-Chair); Francisco Cabanillas (Committee Co-Chair); Amy Robinson (Committee Member); Timothy Messer-Kruse (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Latin American History

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2008, Chemistry

The formation of the first transition metal complexes of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) by ændash;fele and Wanzlick in 1968 and the discovery of the first stable and isolable free carbenes by Arduengo in 1991 fostered the growth of this fundamental area of chemical research. Currently, NHCs and their metal complexes are intensely studied for applications such as catalysis and most recently their pharmaceutical properties. The latter has shown promising results and thus will be the primary focus of this dissertation. In general, this dissertation will provide a description of the synthesis and antimicrobial properties of a novel class of silver NHC complexes derived from 4,5-dichloroimidazole and a comparison of its enhanced stability in relation to other silver NHCs synthesized in our laboratory. Chapter 1, the introduction, provides an overview of the medicinal applications of various metal NHC complexes including silver, gold, ruthenium, rhodium, and palladium. This follows a necessary discussion of the known properties of the metals including antimicrobial, antitumor, toxicity, resistance and proposed mechanisms of action. Chapter 2, discusses the synthesis, properties, and antimicrobial activity of a silver(I) acetate NHC complex derived from 4,5-dichloroimidazole with enhanced stability. This discussion is coupled with a comparison to two other structurally similar complexes lacking similar enhanced stability properties. Chapter 3 will provide a detailed account of the stability of the silver NHC complex reported in chapter 2 in various forms of aqueous media formulations including D2O, 0.9% NaCl/D2O, and broth/D2O mixtures utilizing NMR spectral techniques. Chapter 4 will focus on the synthesis of a silver NHC complex bearing a lipophilic substituent, its incorporation into L-tyrosine polyphosphate (LTP) nanospheres, and its in vivo antimicrobial efficacy when delivered to mice inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Chapter 5 is devoted to the synthesis and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wiley Youngs (Advisor); Claire Tessier (Advisor) Subjects: Chemistry

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2007, Chemical Engineering

Facing the current energy crisis, people try to find alternative energy sources. Certain microbes can ferment soluble sugars to ethanol, which is a well known biofuel. Cellulosic biomass is the most abundant renewable resource. Cellulose can be broken down to soluble sugars by the cellulase enzymes produced only by some microbes. The combination of the above two processes, i.e., break-down of cellulose to sugars and conversion of sugars to ethanol, represents a major approach of solving the energy crisis through renewable biological processes. One of the bottle necks of this approach is the relatively high production cost of cellulase. In this research, the main task was to develop a separation process for cellulase using cost-effective and environment-friendly foam-based techniques. First, the foaming properties of the fermentation broth of Trichoderma reesei RUT C-30 were investigated. The experiment results showed that cellulase was not the dominant substance that caused the foaming of the fermentation broth, although the increase of cellulase concentration in the fermentation process appeared to parallel the increase in foaming tendency. Cellulase concentration was found to be only a weakly positive factor contributing to the foaming whereas the presence of cells and solid cellulose powders had negative effects on foaming. The cell wall was found to be hydrophobic according to the study conducted to observe the cells partition between hydrophobic (organic solvent: n- hexadecane) phase and hydrophilic (aqueous) phase. The finding of hydrophobic cell wall was consistent with the observation that the cells would come out with foam in the foaming study. To prevent the cell from being foamed out of the fermentor during the foaming process intended for cellulase collection, the cell immobilization in small (3mm*3mm*3mm) pieces of polyurethane (PU) foams with different porosity and pore size was also investigated. With some of the PU foam materials, the cells could be (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lu-kwang Ju (Advisor) Subjects: Engineering, Chemical