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Psychotherapy Outcomes Of Sexual Minority College Students: A Comparison Of Religiously-Affiliated And Non-Religiously Affiliated U.S. Universities, Elise Burton Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This study compares U.S. university counseling center therapy outcomes of Sexual Minority (SM) students who attend religiously-affiliated compared to SM peers who attend non religiously-affiliated institutions. Using archival data from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH), we examined psychotherapy outcomes of 4257 SM student clients.We analyzed pre-treatment symptoms and post-treatment outcomes based on differences in Distress Index (DI) scores. We used the reliable change index (RCI) to separate outcomes into four groups based on the change in distress index level: no change, deteriorating, reliably improved, recovered from pre-treatment to post-treatment. Our participants (n = 4257) attended 34 religiously and …

"A Ghostly Roll Of Drums Remorselessly Beat The Measure Of Life": Mrs. Ramsay's Mediation Of Time And Memory In Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, Kirsten Walker Burningham

Theses and Dissertations

Virginia Woolf declares she was "obsessed" with her mother's presence. Though Julia Stephen died when Woolf was only thirteen, Woolf spent years negotiating her mother's astonishing influence, culminating in her novel To the Lighthouse. How does one square Woolf's obsession with her Victorian mother considering Woolf's progressive and feminist ideologies? I argue that Mrs. Ramsay--and by extension Julia Stephen--mediated time for their children as a byproduct of their role as maternal caregivers. This mediation is presented as an atmospheric quality or ambience as well as an intervention between subjective experiences and objective measures of time. The measurement and psychology of …

Improving Hpv Vaccination Rates In A Pediatric Group: A Pilot Project, Jason Warhurst, Karlen Beth Luthy, Michael S. Robinson

Student Works

Background: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. HPV vaccines are both safe and effective, providing long-lasting protection. Some organizations recommend the HPV vaccine should be initiated at age 9 years.

Specific Aims: The purpose of this pilot project was to improve HPV vaccination rates by 10% in patients ages 9-10 years at a large pediatric group. This purpose was accomplished through pediatric healthcare provider (HCP) education.

Methods: A quantitative and open-response questionnaire was used to determine HCPs’ confidence levels regarding the HPV vaccine at baseline. HCPs attended one evidence-based …

Lingampally, Mackenzie Anne Jaggi

Theses and Dissertations

Lingampally is a multigenerational family story that follows a single mother, Amulya Goli, as she navigates raising Vasanth, her self-assured, reckless son, in the Christian faith in a small village in Hyderabad, India. Absent a father figure, Vasanth struggles to know himself and embrace his manhood. In a tumultuous series of events, Amulya's past indiscretions return demanding justice, and she must sacrifice all that she loves to ensure her family's future. She secures the funds that allow Vasanth, his wife Boomika, and their sons Nikki and Hari to emigrate to Plymouth, England in the winter of 2001 to start a …

Memories In Stone: Family History Research In The Western Pyrenees, Paul Woodbury

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

I stood in a small grove of trees, which afforded a respite from the misty rain. Streams of fog crept along the valley walls and covered the village of Aydius in foamy white waves. I admired the engravings decorating the lchante household- the heartfelt expression of a peasant farmer and shepherd. I would never have imagined that my internship and study abroad would culminate here, reading my ancestor's memoirs chiseled in stone. Yet here I was, thousands of miles from home, alone in a foreign country, away from the pristine comfort of the regional archives, reading Joseph lchante's legacy carved …

Automating Verification Of Bpmn Workflow Functional Correctness Using Model Checking, Bryce Mckay Pierson

Theses and Dissertations

Many critical systems industry-wide demand fail-safe process execution. Many of these systems are beginning to use low-code or no-code (LC/NC) solutions to their problems. Mechanisms for verifying the integrity of LC/NC solutions are extremely limited in comparison to traditional code. One solution exhaustively searches the execution state space for undesirable behavior, but it requires expertise in model checking and extensive manual labor. Additionally, error output from that method is exclusively text-based and demands time and familiarity to comprehend. We introduce a tool for automating model checking of LC/NC solutions. Participation in the automation process requires very little knowledge of the …

Mineral Matter Behavior During The Combustion Of Biomass And Coal Blends And Its Effect On Particulate Matter Emission, Ash Deposition, And Sulfur Dioxide Emission, Rajarshi Roy

Theses and Dissertations

Combustion of coal is one of the primary sources of electricity generation worldwide today. Coal contains different chemicals that cause particulate matter(PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. These are health hazards and are responsible for deteriorating the ambient air quality. Particulate matter also forms ash deposits inside the coal combustor, which in turn decreases the energy efficiency of the power plants. Using biomass as a fuel in these utility boilers can potentially reduce the problems of particulate matter emissions and ash deposition, and can significantly reduce the SO2 emissions. However, biomass needs to be pretreated to make its properties similar …

Sagefire: An Agent-Based Model Of Heat Dynamics In Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystems During A Fire Event, Samuel Joseph Knuth

Theses and Dissertations

Context: The Great Basin in the western US features arid to semi-arid climates and sagebrush steppe ecosystems. Increased fire frequency can negatively impact these ecosystems by promoting invasive species. Agent-based modeling is a valuable tool to study fire dynamics in sagebrush steppe ecosystems, offering insights in management strategies and ecosystem resilience. Objectives: We developed SageFire, an agent-based model, to simulate heat dynamics influenced by shrub cover during fires in the Great Basin. Our objectives were to accurately classify ground cover types, incorporate classified imagery into a simulation model, and accurately visualize fire intensity based on the spatial arrangement of the …

Spatial Distribution Of Soil Nutrients And Properties As A Function Of Vegetation Distribution, Fire, And Rodent Activity, Nathan O. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Fires are becoming larger and more frequent in the deserts of North America, driven largely by the expansion of invasive annual grasses. Rodent consumers can curb invasive grass expansion through plant herbivory, but the top-down effects of this pressure on soil resources are understudied. In shrub dominated deserts, islands of fertility under shrub canopies are surrounded by nutrient poor interspace soils that dictate patterns of vegetative growth. Little is known of how top-down controls from rodents and fire may interact with fertile island topography. These studies explore the effects of fire, rodent activity, and fertile island topography on plant available …

Head Tail Open: Open Tailed Classification Of Imbalanced Document Data, Chetan Joshi

Theses and Dissertations

Deep learning models for scanned document image classification and form understand- ing have made significant progress in the last few years. High accuracy can be achieved by a model with the help of copious amounts of labelled training data for closed-world classification. However, very little work has been done in the domain of fine-grained and head-tailed(class imbalance with some classes having high numbers of data points and some having a low number of data points) open-world classification for documents. Our proposed method achieves a better classification results than the baseline of the head-tail-novel/open dataset. Our techniques include separating the head-tail …

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The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Elmer: The Shepherd Statesman, Cathy Hulse

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Plato quoted Socrates when he said that "The unexamined life is not worth living," He referred to self-examination for the purpose of self-improvement. In a broader sense, it is also important to study the lives of others to identify ways to improve ourselves. Life is a shared experience no matter where or in what era our individual paths lie. Today's society is often fascinated by extreme heroics or infamous people. It gives unbalanced attention to glamorous, athletic, or wealthy celebrities. Despite this trend, valuable wisdom can be learned from the lives of common folks.

E Afua Mai Mauga Manuia O Nu'u: Conservation From Mountains To Reefs In Tropical Pacific Islands, Tavailau T. Segi

Theses and Dissertations

Soil erosion is the main exacerbating threat to climate change impacts in tropical Pacific islands, particularly to steep and mountainous volcanic islands. The morphological features (steep and mountainous), short distance from ridge to reef, frequent storm events, extended raining season, and accelerating developments from growing populations pose serious threats to terrestrial and marine resources. Perhaps the most threatening part is the high dependency of their human populations on the land and ocean for food supplies, supporting national economies, and sustaining culture and human well-being. Locals, governments, and non-governmental organization projects are underway to improve protection and management of natural resources …

Phosphorus Soprtion Experiments: Impacts On Water Column Phosphate Concentrations In Utah Lake, Rebecca Layne Butters

Theses and Dissertations

Utah Lake, located in north-central Utah, USA, is a freshwater lake with a large surface area, shallow depth, and phosphorus-rich sediment with significant water-sediment interaction. These factors cause unique phosphorus behavior relative to other lake ecosystems, governed by sediment-water interactions. We hypothesize that benthic sediments and suspended solids act, by sorption processes, to maintain water column P concentrations that are largely insensitive to P inflows. We conducted a Phosphorus Addition Experiment to characterize sorbed P fluxes in the lake. Our experimental procedure included bench-scale laboratory experiments testing Utah Lake water and sediment with dilute and augmented P levels, as well …

Acceptable Things, Janaya Lucile Tanner

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis is a collection of short stories which explore motherhood through the lens of science fiction. The stories take place in various settings and landscapes in imagined future for humanity and are set within the frame of a sentient space station speaking to her daughter. The stories explore ideas of pregnancy, access to maternal care, and relationships between mothers and daughters. Environmental concerns and the link between maternal bodies and natural landscapes are prominent throughout the collection. Ultimately, these stories ask and seek to explore the question of what motherhood can mean, how our relationships to our parents and …

Development Of A Molten Salt Reactor Design And Design Framework For Overall Reactor Performance Prediction And Optimization, Andrew William Larsen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation introduces a novel approach to nuclear reactor design, emphasizing molten salt reactors (MSRs) to address the global need for safer, more efficient, and sustainable energy sources. It confronts the inherent challenges of nuclear fission reactors--proliferation risks, cost efficiency, waste management, and passive accident prevention--by developing an innovative MSR model and a machine learning (ML)-based optimization framework. The molten salt microreactor (MSMR), devised by researchers at Brigham Young University, utilizes thermally conductive plates for efficient heat dissipation during operational anomalies, ensuring safety within operational limits. This design was rigorously tested using STARCCM+ for fluid dynamics modeling and RELAP5-3D for …

The Role Of Caloric Intake On Achilles Tendon Health In Pre-Professional Ballet Dancers, Annie G. Smedley

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Achilles tendinopathy is a common and debilitating condition among female ballet dancers due to the large repetitive loading forces placed on their Achilles tendons during rehearsals and performances. Tendon health problems in females are exacerbated by a lack of understanding about how energy availability influences tendons. Ballet dancers, as aesthetic athletes, are vulnerable to low energy availability and can enter a spectrum disorder, relative energy deficiency in sport, that consists of low energy availability (with or without disordered eating), menstrual cycle dysfunction, and low bone mineral density (BMD). Aims: 1) To investigate the relationship between insufficient caloric intake and …

Catchment Water Storage Mediates River Flow Sensitivity To Climate Change, Brian Charles Brown

Theses and Dissertations

As patterns of precipitation and evapotranspiration change, human water security and aquatic ecosystem health depend on understanding how catchment characteristics interact with climate to control river flow. We tested factors that mediate sensitivity of river flow to fluctuations in climate using a set of 1,148 data-rich, climate diverse catchments in various parts of the world from 2001-2020. We extrapolated these results to an additional 2,012 catchments with sparser data. Using features such as vegetation, land use, hydrology, and local climate, we found that catchments with high aridity to runoff ratios (Fuh's parameter) had 380% higher runoff sensitivity to fluctuations in …

A Study Of Art Education Strategies For Remote Learning During The Pandemic, Stephanie Cook

Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of COVID-19, educators had to adjust their curriculum and pedagogies to create an environment of learning while their students couldn't come into the classroom. As teachers and students alike adapted to this new distance learning, they encountered many obstacles which made it difficult to teach and to learn compared to what they were used to in a traditional in-person classroom setting. This thesis document compiles my research about the advantages and disadvantages of remote learning before, during, and post-pandemic. The research component of this project consists of the commentary of four art educators who share what they …

Collaboration Of Board Certified Behavior Analysts And Special Education Teachers In Transition, Amelia Ruth Spencer

Theses and Dissertations

Transitions occur at many points in a child's educational journey. For children with disabilities, these changes in routine, service providers, and setting may be especially difficult and result in problem behavior. Special education teachers are expected to facilitate a smooth transition from one setting to another, teaching appropriate skills and addressing problem behavior as it arises. Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), who have an expertise in problem behavior and skill generalization, are currently under-utilized in schools and could work collaboratively with special education teachers and other stakeholders to make it easier for students with disabilities experiencing a school transition. As …

Perceptions Of Violent Content And Their Relationships On Aggressive Behavior: The Effects Of Implicit Beliefs On Aggression In Relation To Video Content, Logan Mccombs

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research shows that consuming violent media can lead to increased aggression in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Several other factors also contribute to such behaviors but have not been thoroughly studied including implicit beliefs about aggression in relation to media content. This two-part study consists of (1) an exploratory iterated principal-factor method to create an implicit belief measure about consuming violent media in conjunction with correlational analyses and (2) between subjects hierarchical linear regression models to determine what effects implicit beliefs have on subsequent aggression after participants view either a violent of nonviolent video, while controlling for violent media consumption …

The Influence Of Religious And Political Discrepancies On Parent-Adolescent Social Cohesion, Emily De Schweinitz Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

American youth are leaving organized religion at historical levels. Given that religious and political similarity (consensual solidarity) tends to strengthen affectual solidarity (emotional connection) in parent-adolescent dyads, decreasing adolescent religiousness and increasing political disagreements may threaten family social cohesion. However, during adolescence, youth empathy skills tend to increase and adolescents’ conflict with their parents tends to eventually subside. Based on principles outlined in intergenerational family solidarity theory, I hypothesized that adolescent empathy skills and authoritative parenting style would buffer the negative relational effects of religious and political discrepancies within the parent-adolescent relationship. I used Waves 2-4 (referred to as Times …

The Role Of Instructors In Fostering A Sense Of Belonging For Native Hawaiian And Pacific Islander University Students, Kehaulani Oleole Malzl

Theses and Dissertations

An alarmingly high level of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) college students in the United States end up dropping out of secondary education institutions. One important predictor of academic success and retention at the secondary level is student sense of school belonging. This thesis explores NHPI college students' perceptions of how their university instructors foster or undermine their sense of school belonging. A snowball sample of 97 NHPI students participated in 18 focus groups that included students from various islands and ethnicities in Oceania who were attending one U.S. university in the Pacific Rim. Focus group data were transcribed …

Spatiotemporal Variation In Regeneration And Herbivory In Stable And Seral Aspen Stands, Sterling Burgess Kerr

Theses and Dissertations

Aspen forests are strongly influenced by disturbances like fire and ungulate herbivory, which can impact plant community composition and succession. Human activities alter these disturbances, affecting their timing, extent, and severity. Chapter 1 explores the effects of large-scale prescribed fire and mechanical thinning treatments on aspen regeneration and vulnerability to ungulate herbivory. Results show that while aspen regeneration was hindered by chronic ungulate herbivory in untreated areas, mechanical thinning and prescribed fire stimulated aspen regeneration. However, mechanically thinned plots were vulnerable to ungulate herbivory, with only prescribed fire having reduced browsing. Chapter 2 investigates herbivory patterns and recruitment across stable …

Associations Between Young Children's Problematic Media Use And Physiological Regulation -- Does Temperament Act As A Mediator?, Noah Alexander Chojnacki

Theses and Dissertations

Given the ubiquity of media use, especially among young children, the current study examines the impact of problematic media use (PMU) on children's (N = 418, M age = 53.62 months, SD = 3.38 months, M and SD are taken from the full sample of 418 children) physiological functioning. With previous studies reporting relations between media use, temperament, and physiological regulation, it was hypothesized that children with greater levels of PMU would have lower levels of baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; a measure of physiological regulatory capacity). It is further hypothesized that, higher levels of negative affect, and lower levels …

Exploring How To Reduce Ethnocentrism Through Critical Analysis Of Foreign News Reports In Foreign Language Learning, Rosemarie Jensen Bybee

Theses and Dissertations

In today's globalized world, more interaction exists among people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is essential to be open-minded about cultural diversity to prevent speculative assumptions about others and to be able to interact positively with various people--one approach to addressing this problem might be through language teaching and learning. This exploratory study focused on critically analyzing foreign news reports to improve students' understanding of other cultures and reduce possible ethnocentric views. Results from the revised Generalized Ethnocentrism (GENE) scale pre-post survey indicate a slight decrease in students' ethnocentrism scores from the beginning to the end of the semester. Also, …

Association Between Handgrip Strength And Muscle Mass In Children 6 To 10 Years Old, Samantha Velázquez Villalobos

Theses and Dissertations

Measuring body composition in children is important due to the rise of childhood obesity and changes that occur during pre-pubertal years. Sarcopenia, defined as a muscle mass loss and function, is increasingly recognized in pediatric populations, particularly in childhood obesity. Therefore, it is necessary to have measurements which not only provide an overall picture of body composition, but that can distinguish between muscle and fat mass. Methods of body composition such as Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) provide accurate assessments of body composition, but they are resource-intensive and impractical for routine monitoring in clinical or community settings. To address this, …

Therapeutic Benefits Of Psychedelics: Effectiveness For Addiction Treatment, Mental Health Issues, And End-Of-Life Care, Emma Roberts

Student Works

As more research is done, psychedelics are increasingly recognized as a viable option for addiction treatment, mental health issues, and end-of-life care. Studies have hit roadblocks in the past due to the stigma surrounding psychedelics that formed in the 1960s. Since then, regulations have loosened, and psychedelic therapy has become a possible alternative for those who do not find their current treatments effective (Al-Harbi, 2012, as cited in Gardner, 2019; Gardner, 2019). Psychedelics can help individuals abstain from addictions (Sharma et al., 2023). Additionally, psychedelics can be a viable treatment for mental illnesses (Nygart et al., 2022) and can be …

Exploring Mesolimbic Circuitry Modulation By Opiates, Interleukin-10, And Psychostimulants, Joakim W. Ronström

Theses and Dissertations

The mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and projects to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and other areas including the basolateral amygdala (BLA), prefrontal cortex, and the hippocampus. Drug use induces reward and leads to dysregulation in these brain areas and eventually to substance use disorders (SUDs). Chapter 1 introduces the mesolimbic DA system and its relationship to drug use and their relevance to each chapter. Chapter 2 explores opioid effects on BLA circuitry which is known to play a role in the emotional response including anxiety and stress in SUDs. We showed that morphine induced …

The Embodied Experience Of Adult Educators, Heather Drew Francis

Theses and Dissertations

This interview study investigates the embodied experiences of adult educators, exploring how they perceive and utilize bodily knowledge in their instructional practice. Through interviews and observations with five adult educators, the study highlights challenges in articulating the role of physical experiences in teaching. The study reveals four major themes: (a) participants perceive or approach instruction as a performance, engaging with various performance tools like voice, sound, proximity, and posture to impact content delivery and classroom management; (b) bodily knowledge informs the educator's improvisational skills as they receive sensory input and adapt to student and environmental cues during teaching; (c) while …