Digital Commons Network^™

Brics Currency And Dollar Hegemony: Passing Of The Torch?, Sami Tomaihi

Dissertations and Theses

The dawn of the 21st century has brought with it tremendous uncertainty with regard to the nature of global dominance. As doubts concerning the United States’ viability as a hegemon emerge, questions about how new powers may come to prominence circle (Rapayane, 2020). The BRICS bloc -- consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, respectively -- is a collection of regional powers in the developing world that have engaged in a series of high-profile collaborations together in the ostensible interest of increasing global advocacy within the developing world (Kubayi, 2022). One radical means that has been proposed within …

Parasympathethic Nervous Activity And Social Exclusion In Borderline Personality Disorder, Rebecca E. Barnes

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

The experience of being excluded is universally unpleasant. However, for individuals that suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), the experience of social exclusion, or ostracism can be unbearable (Bortolla, et al., 2019). While there is a significant amount of research on physiological reactivity in BPD, no studies adequately connect the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) responses of people with BPD to social exclusion which is critical to understand as the inability of the PNS of individuals with BPD to adapt to stressors may be a contributing factor to the elevated rate of suicide and suicide attempts in this clinical population …

Motherhood In Crisis: A Qualitative Study Of First-Time Mothers Diagnosed With Breast Cancer, Tamzin M. Baker

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this study is to explore the psychological impact of pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC) on a first-time mother’s identity. What effects does life-threatening illness have on the development of maternal identity and connection? This question was explored with a sample of six mothers via semi-structured interview and self-report measure with the aim to shed light on a scarcely studied phenomenon that is predicted to affect a greater number of mothers in the future. These research questions were explored through Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith et al., 2009) resulting in group experiential themes and three theoretical constructs: (1) a …

Teach Them How To Say Goodbye: Student Therapist Termination At A Psychodynamic Training Clinic, Michael Ferrara

Dissertations and Theses

Termination is arguably one of the most important aspects of psychotherapy, however, the research into training for termination is sparse. Further, student therapists report that their training for termination provided little guidance, instruction, or acknowledgment of clinical realities around treatment endings. Using a semi-structured interview with a sample of 11 student therapists at a psychodynamic training clinic, this study explored experiences of termination and the preparation for those endings. Qualitative thematic analysis indicated that this group of student therapists did not experience shared and structured termination training but did not feel they were unprepared for the endings with their patients. …

Identity-Focused Therapist Self-Disclosure In Matched Sexual/Gender Minority Dyads: A Longitudinal Therapy Process-Outcome Study, Brian Thomas Neff

Dissertations and Theses

Therapist self-disclosure (TSD) is a controversial clinical intervention whose benefits and drawbacks remain contested. Notably, no prior research has differentiated explicitly between self-disclosures related to the therapist’s core identities and those peripheral to identity, and qualitative studies suggest that identity-focused therapist self-disclosure (TSD-I) may be beneficial when therapist and patient share at least one marginalized identity. LGBTQ+ people, who experience significant health disparities and utilize psychotherapy more than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts, could benefit particularly from TSD-I. The mental and physical health challenges facing LGBTQ+ individuals are predominantly explained through minority stress theory, which suggests that societal prejudice and …

Investigating The Roles Of Dapk, P53/Cep-1, And Mitochondrial Damage In Necrotic Neurodegeneration In C. Elegans, Anil Singh

Dissertations and Theses

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., with minority groups, suffering higher fatality rates. Stroke is caused by ischemia, where occlusion of blood supply to the brain results in neurodegeneration. Most of the damage is attributed to excitotoxicity, where an accumulation of the neurotransmitter glutamate in the synapse overstimulates postsynaptic neurons and ultimately leads to cell death (largely by necrosis). Stroke treatments are often ineffective, due to the delay between the onset of stroke and the delivery of effective treatment. To address this, we focus our study on putative later-acting mediators of excitotoxicity such as …

Synthesis Of Novel 5-Aryl 2’-Deoxyuridine And 2’-Deoxycytidine Analogues, Kevin E. Persaud

Dissertations and Theses

Briefly, the following report details a synthetic route to prepare 5-phenyl-2’-deoxycytidine analogues. This multistep synthesis began with silyl protection of the 3’- and 5’-hydroxyl groups of 5-iodo-2’-deoxyuridine. Next, the installation of a phenyl ring at the C5 position of the nucleobase via a Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction, yielding 5-phenyl-2’-deoxyuridine (5-PdU). After that, modification of the obtained 5-PdU at the C4 position was performed with benzotriazole-1-yl-oxy-tris-(dimethylamino)-phosphonium hexafluorophosphate (BOP, a peptide-coupling agent) and a base (cesium carbonate) to activate the amide group of the uridine nucleobase for subsequent displacement with a variety of amines. Modification of the C4 position resulted in protected 5-phenyl-2’-deoxycytidine …

Character Strengths In Applied Behavior Analysis And The Treatment Of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study, Michael G. Johansen

Dissertations and Theses

Diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have continued to rise. Individuals diagnosed with ASD may display a range of deficits in social communication, behaviors, and symptoms that limit everyday functioning. Among the treatments for ASD, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is typically the earliest and longest intervention individuals with ASD are exposed to. Concerns have been raised over ABA being a compliance-based therapy which potentially produces prompt reliance, reinforcement dependency, and a lack of intrinsic motivation. In an attempt to address these concerns, this study aimed to assess the potential benefits of including the concept of character strengths from the field …

Mentalized Affectivity Among Adolescents In Wilderness Therapy: An Initial Exploration, William Holland

Dissertations and Theses

Mentalized affectivity (MA) blends emotion regulation and mentalization in a single construct that underlies psychopathology and is a target of psychotherapeutic intervention as a mechanism of change. Little research has investigated MA’s role in psychopathology and treatment for adolescents. Change in MA has yet to be investigated. Wilderness therapy is a non-traditional treatment model for “hard-to-reach” adolescents; its mechanisms of change have not been robustly researched. This study aims to investigate change in adolescents’ MA capacities over the course of wilderness therapy, in order to explore the role of MA components (Identifying, Processing, Expressing) in adolescent psychopathology; the relation between …

Making Sense Of The Space Between: A Qualitative Study Of Therapist’S Experience And Use Of Therapeutic Enactments, Paul Ballantyne Lafreniere

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to examine a particular category of technical challenge in therapy: enactments. Enactments, broadly defined, are moments or stretches of time in therapy where both the patient and therapist cannot put their conflicts into words, and instead act them out within the therapeutic milieu. These phenomena frequently elicit shame and guilt on the part of the therapist, and can prove detrimental to treatment. Equally, however, investigation of these moments within treatment can be of considerable clinical utility. In this qualitative phenomenological study, 6 therapists were interviewed about their experiences working with enactments in clinical practice. The strategies which …

The Role Of The Vibrio Cholerae Type Vi Secretion System During Kin Cell Interaction, Biofilm Formation And Priority Effects, Karen A. Castro

Dissertations and Theses

Vibrio cholerae’s Type VI secretion system (T6SS) is one of the arsenals used by the bacteria for its long-term survival in different environments, against a variety of opponents, and for its maintained pathogenicity in vulnerable regions of the world. Therefore, the more we understand about the activity of the T6SS, the closer we get to understanding its role in bacterial competition; inter-and-intra, and how this shapes a bacterial niche. Further, although the probiotic-like effect in the V. cholerae vaccine is described to work fast due to niche uptake hindering colonization of toxigenic strains, it is not yet clear if there …

The Character Of The Narrator: The Historiography Of Hernan Diaz's Trust And Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive, Sean Mcdonaugh

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Dostoyevsky And Wright On Becoming The Underground Man, Zain Alam

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the parallels between Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground and Richard Wright's The Man Who Lived Underground, focusing on their shared use of the "Underground Man" archetype to critique philosophical and societal structures. Dostoyevsky's Underground Man embodies the contradictions of Determinism and Rational Egoism in 19th-century Russia, exposing the flaws of these ideologies through satire. In contrast, Wright recontextualizes this character to address racial injustice in mid-20th-century America, using Fred Daniels' descent into a literal underground to highlight systemic oppression. By comparing these works, the thesis demonstrates how both authors utilize the underground as a metaphorical space …

Virginia Woolf & The Ontology Of The Swerve, Brandon Borcoman

Dissertations and Theses

This paper attempts to show how Lucretius' ontology of the swerve, or clinamen, influenced Virginia Woolf's writing. By using Gilles Deleuze, Michel Serres and likeminded theorists, the idea is to not only explicate Lucretian thought, but to also succinctly incorporate it into the Woolfian oeuvre.

America’S Enabler: How Colson Whitehead’S The Underground Railroad Contributes To Racial Inertia, Cherif Ba

Dissertations and Theses

Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad was met with near universal acclaim and enjoys regard as an important work which illustrates the difficulty and horror that was black life under chattel slavery. This essay argues that despite the work’s stated purpose, its ultimate, if unintended effect is to reify the current racial hierarchy. Drawing primarily from current events and an Afropessimist framework, I attempt to illustrate how this work, and others like it, occupy a specific space in the cultural zeitgeist bent to a specific purpose: obfuscating contemporary liberalism’s current transgressions from its past ones and maintaining a social stratum with …

From Bushwick To Portland: Bori Girls Of The Diaspora Revolutionizing The Puerto Rican Coming-Of-Age Narrative, Lily V. Alvarado

Dissertations and Theses

Trailblazing Puerto Rican women in the diaspora have challenged dominant imagery and fought against patriarchy, U.S. imperialism, and white supremacy through their writing. Writers like Esmeralda Santiago and Nicholasa Mohr have transformed the literary canon via the bildungsroman, highlighting the unique struggles of Boricua girlhood and proving that our stories matter. Two prominent female Boricua writers today, Elisabet Velasquez and Gabby Rivera, have raised the baton that has been passed down to them and revolutionized the Diasporican literary canon. In their respective texts, When We Make It: A Nuyorican Novel and Juliet Takes a Breath, Velasquez and Rivera highlight the …

An Excavation Of Margaret And Jerry Morgan: How The Architecture Of Black Liminal Spaces Shaped Antebellum Conflict Between Maryland And Pennsylvania, Felicia A. Appenteng

Dissertations and Theses

In the 1830s, Jerry and Margaret Morgan and their six children were living as a free Black family in rural Pennsylvania, one of a growing number of such families in a part of the state that bordered Maryland. Suddenly, their lives were violently disrupted in 1837 when a group of men from Maryland, led by Edward Prigg, entered into Pennsylvania to seize Margaret and the children so that they could be enslaved. Although the most dramatic, this was only the latest twist in the unusual lives of the Morgan family. Jerry Morgan was born into enslavement, gained his freedom, and …

Understanding The Impacts Of Extreme Weather On The Power Transmission Infrastructure: A Machine Learning Approach To Quantifying Risks And Enhancing Grid Resilience, Juan P. Montoya Rincon

Dissertations and Theses

This doctoral dissertation focuses on the resilience of power transmission infrastructure in tropical coastal environments, particularly in the face of extreme weather events such as hurricanes. The research is anchored on the case of the passage of Hurricane Maria in the Island of Puerto Rico in September of 2017 which caused the largest damage on the power infrastructure in US history. As such, the research investigates the interaction between extreme winds and power transmission infrastructure in complex terrain, aiming to quantify and predict power loss and damage to the infrastructure during such events. The study employs a comprehensive approach combining …

Divorce As A Growth Process: Marital Separation And Separation-Individuation In Adulthood, Anna Egleson

Dissertations and Theses

Research has focused on the negative effects that divorce has on divorcees, on children of divorced parents, and on society. Research has also shown however that many individuals who go through a divorce emerge happier, more content and satisfied with their choice, even though the process was a painful one. Despite this evidence, there is a gap in the research looking at positive, and growth-related experiences of those who have recently gone through a divorce. Theoretical arguments and clinical observations provide a foundation to support the idea that there is a relationship between separation-individuation in adulthood and the internal shifts …

Predatory Publishing And Global Scholarly Communications, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

redatory publishing is a complex problem that harms a broad array of stakeholders and concerns across the scholarly communications system. It shines a light on the inadequacies of scholarly assessment and related rewards systems, contributes to the marginalization of scholarship from less developed countries, and negatively impacts the acceptance of open access.   To fix what is broken in scholarly communications, academic librarians must act as both teachers and advocates and partner with other stakeholders who have the agency to change how scholarship is produced, assessed, and rewarded. Predatory Publishing and Global Scholarly Communications is a unique and comprehensive exploration of …

Ethical Use Of A.I Powered Academic Tools, Cherryle Brown

Open Educational Resources

Teach students how to use AI tools to enhance their research skills and information-gathering techniques.

Learning To Code With Github Copilot: A Resource For New Student Developers, Sarah Zelikovitz

Open Educational Resources

This resource provides a step-by-step guide for new student developers on using GitHub Copilot. It covers the process of signing up for GitHub's Educa􀀁on program, integra􀀁ng Copilot into two popular integrated development environments (IDEs), and using Copilot to generate, document, debug, and optimize code through prompt-based interactions. This guide empowers students to leverage AI-driven assistance in solving coding challenges. It also gives students an understanding of the limitations of AI, and how to use it safely and effectively.

Phenotypic Mismatch Between Suspects And Fillers But Not Phenotypic Bias Increases Eyewitness Identifications Of Black Suspects, Jennifer M. Jones, Jacqueline Katzman, Margaret Bull Kovera

Publications and Research

Despite converging evidence that people more closely associate the construct of criminality with Black people who exhibit a more African facial phenotype than Black people who express a more European phenotype, eyewitness researchers have largely ignored phenotypic bias as a potential contributor to the racial disparities in the criminal legal system. If this form of phenotypic bias extends to eyewitness identification tasks, eyewitnesses may be more likely to identify Black suspects with an African rather than European phenotype, regardless of their guilt status. Further, in cases where the witness’s description of the perpetrator does not contain phenotypic information, phenotypic mismatch …

Education And Religion In Shaping Support For Same-Sex Relations: Considering Differences Over Time And Across Geographical Areas, Amy Adamczyk, Ashely French

Publications and Research

Across the world, attitudes about same-sex relationships have become rapidly more supportive. While education is typically viewed as a liberalizing force, religious beliefs are often seen as restricting more tolerant perspectives and contributing to more conservative attitudes in general. Focusing on the United States this study examines the roles of religion and education, as individual and group properties, for understanding disapproval of same-sex relationships. Drawing on restricted information that makes it possible to identify where General Social Survey respondents lived, we find that graduating from college is associated with more support, but has less of an effect on Evangelicals and …

Revamping Email Communications: A Review Of Five Free Email Design Platforms, Karen Okamoto

Publications and Research

This article reviews five free online email design platforms that libraries can use to create visually appealing and engaging email newsletters and other email communications. The five platforms reviewed in this article – Beefree, Mosaico, Smore, Stripo, and Tabular – are assessed according to ease of use, the availability of pre-designed templates, and other features, such as the ability to add collaborators. This review begins with a summary of the library and marketing literature on email communications, including best practices, and ends with a brief overview of email marketing platforms and services.

Whiteness As The Standard: Shifting Ideologies, Race, And Social Context, Kelsey Swift

Publications and Research

In previous work, I have documented and analyzed the persistence of mainstream ideologies around ’standard’ and ’nonstandard’ American English in the adult ESOL classroom and their connection to linguistic racism and anti-Blackness. This study explores how these ideologies developed more broadly, employing elements of raciolinguistic genealogy and metapragmatics to analyze historical language scholarship. I find that while the linguistic features of ‘nonstandard’ English have remained remarkably consistent in the popular imagination, they became increasingly linked with Blackness, especially during and after white backlash to the Great Migration (and other cultural and political changes) in the mid-20th century. I argue that …

Photo-Induced Charge State Dynamics Of The Neutral And Negatively Charged Silicon Vacancy Centers In Room-Temperature Diamond, G. Garcia-Arellano, G. I. López-Morales, N. B. Manson, J. Flick, A. A. Wood, C. A. Meriles

Publications and Research

The silicon vacancy (SiV) center in diamond is drawing much attention due to its optical and spin properties, attractive for quantum information processing and sensing. Comparatively little is known, however, about the dynamics governing SiV charge state interconversion mainly due to challenges associated with generating, stabilizing, and characterizing all possible charge states, particularly at room temperature. Here, multi-color confocal microscopy and density functional theory are used to examine photo-induced SiV recombination — from neutral, to single-, to double-negatively charged — over a broad spectral window in chemical-vapor-deposition (CVD) diamond under ambient conditions. For the SiV⁰ to SiV^‒ transition, …

Radiation Pressure Induced Oscillations Of An Optically Levitating Mirror, Satyam Shekhar Jha, Tal Carmon, Fan Cheng, Lev Deych

Publications and Research

Optical Fabry–Perot cavity with a movable mirror is a paradigmatic optomechanical system. While usually the mirror is supported by a mechanical spring, it has been shown that it is possible to keep one of the mirrors in a stable equilibrium purely by optical levitation without any mechanical support. In this work, we expand previous studies of the nonlinear dynamics of such a system by demonstrating a possibility for mechanical parametric instability and the emergence of the “phonon laser” phenomenon.

It Is Normal: The Probability Distribution Of Temperature Extremes, Nir Y. Krakauer

Publications and Research

The probability of heat extremes is often estimated using the non-stationary generalized extreme value distribution (GEVD) applied to time series of annual maximum temperature. Here, this practice was assessed using a global sample of temperature time series, from reanalysis (both at the grid point and the region scale) as well as station observations. This assessment used forecast negative log-likelihood as the main performance measure, which is particularly sensitive to the most extreme heat waves. It was found that the computationally simpler normal distribution outperforms the GEVD in providing probabilistic year-ahead forecasts of temperature extremes. Given these findings, it is suggested …

Reflections On Williamson On Logic And Validity, Graham Priest

Publications and Research

Over many years now, Tim Williamson and I have engaged in debates over fundamental issues concerning logic. On some things, we have disagreed strongly; on others, we have agreed.