A novel hypothesis of optic nerve tethering, which represents a possible cause of primary open-angle glaucoma with normal intraocular pressure, has been motivated by magnetic resonance imaging studies performed in multiple eccentric gaze positions. To evaluate the hypothesis, this thesis reviews the basic anatomical structures of the eye, explores the biomechanical characteristics of ocular tissues, and observes and simulates the phenomenon of optic nerve tethering during adducting eye rotation. While there are many different secondary forms of glaucoma, this thesis mainly considers a pressure-independent contribution to primary open-angle glaucoma. Chapter 1 explains the current state of the glaucoma population, which is steadily increasing every year, and points out what may be a systematic narrowness in thinking in ophthalmology, which emphasizes intraocular pressure as the only known treatment of primary open-angle glaucoma. In Chapter 2, the function, principle, and structure of the ocular globe and optic nerve are briefly reviewed, and the mechanical characteristics of the bilayered optic nerve sheath are explored in depth. In Chapter 3, the mechanical properties of human ocular tissues, which are essential for understanding the biomechanical behavior of the ocular globe, are characterized through uniaxial micro-tensile testing. As an extended study, tensile experiments with and without preconditioning are performed on human ocular tissues to test the necessity for this preconditioning. In addition to the tensile testing, an opto-mechanical correlation between birefringence and tangent modulus of the ocular tissue is discussed as a possible non-invasive method of characterizing tissue. Chapter 4 introduces the hypothesis of optic nerve tethering and summarizes observations from related previous imaging studies. The finite element analysis used in this paper predicts deformation of the optic nerve head and surrounding tissues due to traction by the optic nerve during adduction. After demonstrating the simulation of optic nerve tethering, the thesis explains the pathological connection between optic nerve tethering and normal tension glaucoma. Lastly, chapter 5 concludes and suggests possible treatments for optic nerve tethering in adduction that might be applied if and when the hypothesis is confirmed in the future.

Neoliberalism, as an ideology that valorizes and institutionalizes market-based freedom and individual entrepreneurship, derives from the logic of highly advanced capitalism, and thus must be understood in relation to the material conditions of our capitalist economy. One such material condition is space. However, the intersection of space and neoliberalism is yet to be explored in detail within the field of applied linguistics. This lacuna impedes our understanding of the social and geographical embeddedness of language, in particular the dialectic between language learning and political economy. The key question we address in this paper is: how are trajectories of language learning under the neoliberal economy shaped in spatial terms? Through looking at two cases—the re-invention of the countryside village of Yangshuo as the biggest English corner in China and the Korean phenomena of jogi yuhak [early study abroad]—we argue 1) that a heightened awareness of the link between language learning, space, and mobility will allow us to explore the material constraints and inequalities of language learning with greater sensitivity, and 2) that a focus on the spatial grounding of language learning can allow applied linguistics to make a unique contribution to the critique of neoliberalism.

Since the late 1990s, early study abroad (ESA) in English-speaking countries has been a popular educational strategy for pre-university Korean students to acquire important language skills such as global English, which is imagined to help them prepare for the competition in global educational and occupational market. However, as ESA, commonly known as jogi yuhak, became a prominent educational strategy among Korean middle class Korean, the destination for Korean Study Abroad began to diversify, showing significant increase of Korean Study Abroad in non-Western countries. For instance, Singapore has emerged as a new site for ESA, due to its multilingual environment which facilitates the learning of global language of English as well as additional languages such as Mandarin. What, then, are the implications of such diversification of ESA for the goals of and beliefs about study abroad? This paper aims to answer this question by examining the language learning practices and ideologies for three Korean ESA families in Singapore, based on participant observation and interview data drawn from a 2.5-year ethnographic study.

The parents we studied anticipated that the multilingual competence gained in Singapore, including that of English, Mandarin, and Korean, will lead their children to become truly global elites. For them, Singapore's multilingualism facilitates acquisition of linguistic resources valued in the global market, providing the children with global flexibility and enabling them to freely cross linguistic as well as national boundaries for further success. Yet, they also raised questions about the possibilities of achieving such global and flexible identities as they face various material and social constraints in study abroad. We analyze such investments in language learning in terms of the shifting ways and tensions of how language is conceptualized in the global economy (Heller 2007), particularly how linguistic diversity comes to be understood as measurable value, rather than a socially grounded condition of language use (Urciuoli 2015). Based on this discussion, we consider how the diversification of ESA gets incorporated into discourse of symbolic and cultural capital accumulation despite the opportunities such diversification opens up for greater intercultural understanding.

Wappo is an indigenous language, generally regarded as a language isolate, which was once spoken in the Russian River Valley, just north of San Francisco, California. This reference grammar is based on the speech of Laura Fish Somersal, its last fluent speaker, who died in 1990, and represents the most extensive data and grammatical research ever done on this language. The grammar focuses on morphosyntax, particularly nominal, verbal, and clausal structures and clause combining patterns, from a functional/typological perspective.