In this dissertation I examine the conceptions of opinion (<italic>doxa</italic>}), knowledge (<italic>gnosis</italic>), and understanding (<italic>episteme</italic>) that are presented by the character Socrates in Plato's <italic>Meno</italic> and <italic>Republic</italic>. A central claim I make, and one that sets my interpretation apart from…

This dissertation investigates "geological" literature in the 19th century, and aims to describe a poetics of the earth sciences. Focusing on the work of Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868), whose literary experiments translate and transform scientific knowledge, the dissertation argues that the…

This dissertation focuses on the specific strategies by which authors of the travel writing genre seize narrative agency. Throughout its centuries-long history, the genre of travel writing has offered multiple generations of authors a means by which to convey observations…

Over the course of the twentieth century, how were real estate developers and architects involved in transforming their own professional practices and the built form of American cities? My dissertation uses historical, architectural, and urban analysis to show how real…

In healthy cells, cytochrome c (cyt c) acts as an electron transport protein peripherally bound to the inner mitochondrial membrane lipid cardiolipin, but it has an important role in apoptosis - upon apoptotic stimuli, it is released from the mitochondria…

Michel Foucault, Thomas Mann, and more recently, Sven-Olov Wallenstein have argued that the modern European hospital of the early twentieth century acted as a research laboratory for a new way of governing human populations. This dissertation studies a subsequent phase…

This dissertation studies nonlinear panel data models with multiple fixed effects. The first two chapters consider the adaptability of estimation methods for nonlinear panel data models to multiple fixed effects. The first chapter investigates whether existing methods can be modified…

Howler monkeys (Alouatta sp.) use loud call vocalizations for both intra-group
and intergroup communication (Oliveira & Ades, 2004; Whitehead, 1989; da Cunha
& Byrne, 2006; Holzmann, 2012). While much of the literature focuses on the effect
of loud call vocalizations…

Network-based modeling of complex systems with emergent behavior is increasingly being employed across different disciplines. Much of the focus in such efforts has been on detailed, "microscopic" modeling, in which the dynamics is described in terms of the individual nodes…

Despite earlier evidence to the contrary, recent inquiries appear to reach a consensus that the poor
pay more for food. However, these studies utilize samples drawn on the basis of prior
knowledge of unfair pricing strategies, proximity of volunteer surveyors,…