Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Examination Of Discrimination And Social Bias Toward Interracial Relationships, Tarah Midy

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Although rates of approval toward interracial couples are increasing (Carroll, 2007), interracial couples report facing prejudice and discrimination including disapproval and ostracism from family, friends, and the general public (Carbone-Lopez, 2013; Martin, Campbell, Ueno, Fincham, 2013; Potter & Thomas, 2012; Troy, Lewis-Smith, Laurenceau, 2006). However, there is growing evidence as acceptance rates and challenges faced by couples vary (Pew Research Center, 2012, Golebiowska, 2007), that experiences are different for couples depending on the racial group and gender of both partners involved.

To better understand the experience of different interracial couples, I conducted two studies to examine the particular stressors they …

Association Between The Magnitude Of The Immune Response And Recurrent Major Depression Disorder In Humans And Depression-Like Behavior In Animals, Anastacia Kudinova

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

There is a growing body of evidence supporting the association between inflammation and major depressive disorder (MDD). One plausible mechanism for this association is sensitization of the immune response, possibly due to prior exposure to stressors. To investigate the validity of this hypothesis, a series of three complimentary cross-species studies was conducted. Study 1 examined the associations between circulating levels of inflammatory markers and in vitro immune reactivity with women’s history of recurrent MDD (rMDD) and their current symptoms of anhedonia. The potential moderating role of women’s history of childhood abuse was also examined. Study 2 and 3 focused on …

5-Httlpr, Drd4 Gene, College Students’ Psychological Characters And Academic Performance, Weiyi Guo

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study, “Genetic basis of Academic Performance,” is to evaluate associations between the 5-HTTLPR, the DRD4 gene, psychological characteristics including metacognition and depression, and academic performance as reflected in SAT scores. We discovered that participants with 2-repeat or 7-repeat alleles of the DRD4 gene have significantly lower scores on the Metacognition tests (P = 0.022) and two subclades of metacognition, “Cognitive Self-Consciousness” (P = 0.021) and “Need to Control Thoughts” (P = 0.040), as compared to those without 2-repeat or 7-repeat alleles. 7-repeat allele DRD4 gene carriers have significantly higher scores for alcohol use disorders than those …

Uncovering Hidden Fronts Of Africa’S Liberation Struggle: Black Power, Black Consciousness, And South Africa’S Armed Struggle, 1967-1985, Toivo Tukongeni Paul Wilson Asheeke

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Many scholars have argued the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM)’s principal contribution was as an intellectual/student movement, and its main shortcoming the limited degree of active political and military opposition it was able to offer the apartheid regime. My dissertation, ‘Uncovering Hidden Fronts of Africa’s Liberation Struggle: Black Power, Black Consciousness, and South Africa’s Armed Struggle, 1967–1985’, broadens our understanding of this movement and moment in South African history by unearthing the little known history of BCM’s unrelenting engagement with armed struggle as a form of resistance to apartheid rule during the 1970s and 1980s.

The first part of my dissertation …

The Role Of Criticality Of Gene Regulatory Networks On Emergent Properties Of Biological Systems, Hyobin Kim

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The relationship between criticality of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) and dynamics of GRNs at a single cell level has been vigorously studied. However, the relationship between the criticality of GRNs and properties of multicellular organisms at a higher level has not been fully explored. Here we aim at revealing potential roles of the criticality of GRNs at a multicellular and hierarchical level, using a random Boolean network as a GRN. We perform three studies. Firstly, we propose a GRN-based morphogenetic model, and delve into the role of the criticality of GRNs in morphogenesis at a multicellular level. Secondly, we include …

Changing Car Culture: A Case Study At Binghamton University, Daniella Madubuike

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Binghamton University has a parking problem fostered by the car culture of today. A change in car culture through the shift from single occupancy driving towards higher occupancy transit was identified as a possible solution. An online survey was used to acquire students' opinions and thoughts on the issue. Its 824 responses highlighted variables that were grouped into five overarching themes: Convenience, Quality of Transportation System, Satisfaction with Parking, Comfort with Carpooling, and Perceived Benefits and Drawbacks, which were analyzed under different qualitative and quantitative methods to test for their effect on car culture. Qualitative analysis was conducted using R …

Agricultural Revolutions In America’S Heartland: The Corn Belt And The Making Of American Capitalism, Benjamin J. Marley

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The family farm has been the foundation of America’s cheap food model. This research examines how cheap food from the Corn Belt was produced from 1840s to the late twentieth century. It investigates how the interrelationships between family farming, proletarianization-housewifization, and national and world markets configured and reconfigured. Utilizing a world-ecological framework, I argue that Illinois and Iowa, the heart of the Corn Belt, were the epicenter of two successive agricultural revolutions that fundamentally transformed world accumulation and world nature. The analysis is centered on the development of successive agricultural revolutions over the longue durée of capitalism, with the greatest …

Nowhere To Run: Measuring How Refugee Flows And Rights Shape Civil Conflict, Katherine Emma Felt

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

In civil wars, innocent civilians live in the shadow of violence and destruction. This can range from low-level violence to aggressive campaigns of shelling of urban areas and massacres of entire villages in rural settings. In some cases, civilians respond to this violence by fleeing from the conflict to find refuge in neighboring states; however, in other civil wars, civilians remain trapped in the conflict zone, creating humanitarian disasters. This dissertation argues that civilians will flee when they have a reasonable, safe place to seek refuge, but in the absence of a safe place to seek sanctuary, civilians have no …

Investigating The Effects And Mechanisms Of A Brief Savoring-Based Intervention In Partnered Individuals, Binghuang A. Wang

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Due to numerous barriers to mental health care access, there exists an extensive need for brief cost-effective interventions for couples. Savoring, which invites individuals to prolong and extend the positive aspect of their experiences, is a promising intervention candidate. Research on savoring has established savoring-based interventions to be efficacious at producing positive intra and interpersonal outcomes. The current investigation expands upon existing savoring research by examining the effects of savoring on an adult population in committed romantic relationships. We expect savoring to be better than control at improving intra and interpersonal outcomes. Furthermore, we aim to investigate intrapersonal factors as …

The Apotheosis Of The Green Revolution And The Throes Of Landless Peasant Women In Two Aegean Villages Of Turkey In The 1960s, Bengu Kurtege Sefer

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The debates on the historical processes of agrarian transition and the experiences of rural women in these processes have never lost their appeal for sociological study, although the studies have focused on the political economy of development and rural women in development in the 1960s and 1970s and have then shifted to microeconomics, power relations, and the formations ofsubjectivities since the 1980s. This thesis develops a framework, which helps analysis of the global and local processes of agrarian transition across gender and class lines in Turkey in the 1960s. In the existing literature, it was generally assumed that petty commodity …

Intra- And Inter-Personal Predictors Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder And Sexual Risk-Taking Behaviors, Seigie L. Kennedy

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Sexual risk-taking, while common in college culture, can increase the risk of sexual victimization. Nearly 20% of college women have been sexually assaulted (Krebs et al., 2009). Moreover, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been associated with sexual risk-taking (Johnson & Johnson, 2013). Self-esteem and social support are known to be related to PTSD and sexual risk-taking (Gullette & Lyons, 2006; Johnson & Johnson, 2013). This study aims to examine sexual victimization history, self-esteem, and social support as relative predictors of PTSD and sexual risk-taking using a sample of 229 female undergraduates. Results suggest that enhancing self-esteem, as opposed to bolstering …

Compliance With Imf Austerity: Labor Rights, Protest, And Repression, Brendan Skip Mark

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation explores the domestic consequences of International Monetary Fund (IMF) program lending. It argues that when governments implement austerity reforms attached to IMF loans it increases human rights violations and violence in borrower governments. A new measure of IMF compliance is developed and used to explore the consequences of IMF lending in the 21st century. Past research exploring IMF lending consequences has assumed compliance away. While IMF program lending is largely seen as a failure there is significant debate about the causes of failure. Human rights scholars have argued that austerity policies impose significant hardships on citizens in borrower …

Public Private Partnerships For Economic Development: Impacts On Shrinking Cities, Brenden M. Geraghty

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Over the last few decades in the United States, Public Private Partnerships have become essential devices to city development and redevelopment. This study examines the uses of Public Private Partnerships within the discipline of Economic Development. The cities researched are located in the Rust Belt region of the United States and their economies have experienced a drastic decline over the last half-century. This research reveals the economic impacts on these shrinking cities that have had programs and projects implemented through the agreements and workings of the public and private sectors. Several factors are analyzed to determine what constitutes the (un)successful …

The Art Of The Spearthrower: Understanding The Andean Estólica Through Iconography, Zachary R. Critchley

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Spearthrower devices held a role around the world as a primary weapon and tool before slowly falling out of favor in certain areas for other projectile weapons. While it is widely accepted that spearthrowers were used by the people of the ancient central Andes, comparatively little research has gone into the role that they had as weapons of war, hunting tools, and objects of ceremonial reverence. In addition, the Andes developed a unique style of spearthrower and have produced many examples of spearthrowers with exceptional craftsmanship, leading me to believe that these tools were given special reverence.

This thesis compiles …

Dangerous Delegation: Explaining The Rationales And Outcomes Of State Sponsorship Of Terrorism Through The Principal-Agent Framework, Jeremy M. Berkowitz

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

State sponsorship of terrorism, where a government deliberately provides resources and material support to a terrorist organization, is common in the international system. By conceptualizing state sponsorship as a relationship between a principal and agent, I develop a consistent theoretical model that explains why states pursue this foreign policy strategy, as well as how they rationally attempt to minimize the inherent risks of delegating to violent non-state actors. I test my model by using a novel dataset on sponsorship behaviors that improves on the range, detail, and temporality of previously used measurements. My dissertation is organized into three distinct papers, …

Effects Of Chemogenetic Inhibition Of Dopamine Transporter- Or A2a-Expressing Neurons On Spontaneous Activity And Motivation To Consume A Palatable Food Reward, James D. Wherry

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Dopamine (DA) transmission in the striatum influences the motivated pursuit of rewarding stimuli. Pharmacological and opto- and chemo-genetic studies have suggested that the release of DA onto D2+/A2A+-expressing striatopallidal neurons, plays a role in this process. To determine the potentially dissociable roles of DA-releasing ventral midbrain and striatopallidal neurons on motivational processes, we employed double transgenic mice that expressed inhibitory DREADDs—designer receptors that are activated only by otherwise inert ligands—only in dopamine transporter (DAT) or A2A adenosine receptor (A2A) expressing neurons, allowing us to transiently inhibit either DA-releasing neurons (DATcre/DREADD) or striatopallidal neurons (A2Acre/DREADD) during various tests. In the first …

Indigenous Pottery From Sonora, Mexico: Examining Typologies And Spatial Distribution, Hunter M. Claypatch

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

A wealth of archaeological surveys and excavations has been conducted in Sonora, Mexico within the past century. Despite the establishment of Centro INAH Sonora, and numerous binational projects, little attempt has been made to synthesize the state’s growing literature. This thesis provides the first detailed study of indigenous ceramics from Sonora, Mexico. Archaeological projects within Sonora have been bifurcated by nation-state boundaries and divergent academic schooling—both possessing their own distinct research goals and methodologies. On a pragmatic level, a synthesis of prehistoric and protohistoric Sonoran pottery is necessary to establish a methodological consensus for classifications and typologies. On a broader …

Utilitarian And Community Values In Mainstream And Alternative Health Care On Martha's Vineyard, Sandra D. Polleys-Bunch

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Problems endemic to Martha’s Vineyard’s health care system and community efforts to resolve them led to the this community study on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Such problems included Martha’s Vineyard’s sole hospital and nursing home’s declarations of bankruptcy in 1996, the fluctuation of quality of Vineyard health care organization relations with the community overall, the rate of uninsured that was two times that of Massachusetts overall, the Island’s isolation from mainland medical services, and its health care service scarcities. This ethnography focuses on utilitarian values to explain difficulties that Vineyarders experienced during their efforts to obtain health care and to improve …

Heritable Variation In Reward Sensitivity And Impulsive Cction And Choice In A Genetically Diverse Inbred Mouse Panel, Lauren S. Bailey

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Research in animal models and human subjects points towards reward sensitivity and impulsivity as being characteristics that predict greater positive subjective responses to stimulant drugs. The Collaborative Cross (CC) recombinant inbred mouse strains and their inbred founders are a powerful genetic reference panel that has potential as a tool for revealing genetic correlations. The CC/DO founder strains were used to examine the heritability of reward sensitivity and impulsivity traits. Founder strains were tested for activity in an open field, reward sensitivity, and reversal learning (impulsive action) or delay discounting (impulsive choice). Significant heritability for anticipatory responding within the reversal task, …

The Shape Of Diversity: A Morphometric Analysis Of Late Archaic Bifaces From Lamoka Lake, Samuel M. Bourcy

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The general assumption of Late Archaic peoples in the Northeast is that they were one homogeneous culture group, but through the study of Lamoka Lake bifaces found at the Lamoka Lake Site, as well as applying the concepts of community of practice, I have shown that tool shape variation could indicate distinct social groups. Using computer software to digitally outline bifaces I compared the shape of over 400 bifaces from Lamoka Lake and statistically analyzed their morphologies in order to provide material correlates of social diversity. Whether this morphological variation is representative of the conscious or unconscious design choices made …