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Ribbon Schur Functors, Keller Vandebogert

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We investigate a generalization of the classical notion of a Schur functor associated to a ribbon diagram. These functors are defined with respect to an arbitrary algebra, and in the case that the underlying algebra is the symmetric/exterior algebra, we recover the classical definition of Schur/Weyl functors, respectively. In general, we construct a family of 3-term complexes categorifying the classical concatenation/nearconcatenation identity for symmetric functions, and one of our main results is that the exactness of these 3-term complexes is equivalent to the Koszul property of the underlying algebra A. We further generalize these ribbon Schur functors to the notion …

Where Does The Money Go? Three Essays On Intergovernmental Transfers, Spending, And Poverty In Indonesia, Jacobus Cd Rijoly

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Indonesia allocates substantial intergovernmental transfers to local governments; nonetheless, the decrease in poverty remains limited. This dissertation posits that the binding constraint is institutional, specifically the regulations and incentives that dictate the extent to which funds are allocated from the government to designated programs. Institutional pass-through refers to the fraction of a transfer that is allocated to a program expenditure. The three essays integrate estimation, budget composition evidence, and a formal model to explain both modest average effects and heterogeneity across regions and programs.

The first essay evaluates the impact of transfers on provincial poverty from 2001 to 2022 by …

Daily Anxiety And Dual Use Of Cigarettes And Vaping Products: Disparities By Sex, Race, And Ethnicity In U.S. Adults, Maggie K. Richardson, Delvon T. Mattingly, Osayande Agbonlahor, Alison C. Mcleish, Joy L. Hart, Kandi L. Walker

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective:

Despite a decline in cigarette use, the dual use of cigarettes and electronic vaping products (EVPs) is a concerning pattern of nicotine consumption in the United States. Anxiety, a risk factor for tobacco use, may contribute to dual-use patterns; however, the association between daily anxiety symptoms and dual use of cigarettes and EVPs is not known. This study investigated associations between daily anxiety symptoms and dual cigarette and EVP use overall and by sex, race, and ethnicity.

Method:

Data are from the 2020–2022 National Health Interview Survey (n = 83,544). Multinomial logistic regression models, adjusted for sociodemographic factors, …

Sonic Photovoice And Critical Literacy: Listening To And Sounding What Is Me, What Is Not Me, And What Is Between, Alexander Chadwell

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This study examined sonic photovoice, a sound-based arts research method, as a tool for developing critical literacy in middle and high school students. Participants found and recorded sounds related to three categories, “what is me,” “what is not me,” and “what is between,” composed a sound collage using the sounds, and reflected on the experience. Framed by 4EA cognition, participatory sensemaking, and relational and everyday aesthetics, the study explored how listening and sounding shaped students’ conceptions of self and reality. Data from recordings, journals, and interviews suggest that the sonic engagement can foster relational, emergent understandings of self and …

Regulation Of Human Dna Mismatch Repair, Breanna Knicely

Theses and Dissertations--Toxicology and Cancer Biology

The DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway identifies and corrects misincorporations that arise during DNA replication. MMR is a pathway that is critical for maintaining genomic stability. Mutations within the MMR pathway, both germline and somatic, lead to the development of cancer. There are a variety of mechanisms that regulate the MMR pathway including protein-protein interactions, DNA damage response, and post-translational modifications. In this study, we aim to dive deeper into each of these mechanisms to obtain novel information regarding the mechanisms and regulation of human DNA MMR. In this study we generated hExo1 constructs mutating Exo1’s interactions with MSH2 and …

The Paradox Of Survival: Gendered Food Insecurity, Labor Inequalities, And Coping Strategies During The 2023/4 Drought In Eastern Ethiopia, Meron E. Lemma

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In drought-prone regions of Eastern Ethiopia, recurring droughts profoundly reshape everyday life in ways that deepen existing gendered inequalities. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Fedis district, including semi-structured interviews with women, project implementers, and government officials, as well as group discussions with community members, this study explores how women experience, navigate, and resist the gendered impacts of drought. By attending to the sociopolitical dynamics of drought and the development interventions that accompany it, I analyze how these forces restructure labor, land, food systems, and authority in ways that reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities. Women’s coping strategies, ranging from begging and …

Commercial Attention Spaces: A Century Of Discourses, Measurements, And Models Of Attention In The Construction Of U.S. Advertising Markets, Jacob Saindon

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

A vast assemblage of networked devices populate our everyday spaces. Concomitant with the increasing ubiquity of media devices are advertisements. Indeed, many networked devices, specifically the “free-to-use” software applications, websites, or platforms displayed through them, are advertising-dependent. An assortment of firms within the commercial media industry—brands, agencies, publishers, vendors—work in concert to sustain a market for advertising. The core operation of the commercial media industry, I argue, is the production and exchange of attention as an economic object. In this study, I approach the production of attention and the framing of its markets as spatial processes. The continued growth of …

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Depression And Subjective Cognitive Decline By Gender: A Moderated Mediation Analysis, Monique J. Brown, Darlingtina K. Esiaka, Jaya Viswanathan

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Studies assessing depression as a mediating factor between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and subjective cognitive decline (SCD) are lacking. Therefore, the aims of this study were to: (1) determine the mediating role of depression in the association between ACEs and SCD; and (2) assess the moderating role of gender. Data were obtained from the 2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Study (BRFSS) survey (N = 38,600). Crude and adjusted path analyses were used to determine the mediating role of depression between ACEs and SCD. Adjusted analyses controlled for sociodemographic confounders. ACEs were positively associated with depression (B = 0.129, p …

Examining The Relationship Between Racial, Ethnic, And Economic Residential Segregation And Cigarette Smoking Among A Nationally Representative Sample Of Young Adults, Shyanika W. Rose, Mary Kay Rayens, Mona Azadi, Elexis C. Kierstead, Amanda Y. Kong, Kimberly Horn

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Introduction

Predominantly Black, Hispanic or Latino, and lower-income communities are overexposed to tobacco. This study investigated the relationship between cigarette smoking and racial/ethnic and economic segregation using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE). Aims and Methods

A nationally representative sample of 4091 (aged 18–34 years) was surveyed between September and October 2016. We calculated census-tract population estimates to form ICE measures for ethnicity, race, income, ethnicity and income, and race and income. Quintiles were determined, with Quintile 1 (Q1) representing the most Hispanic/Latino, Black, and lowest-income neighborhoods and Q5 representing the most non-Hispanic/Latino, White, and highest-income neighborhoods. State …

Using Llms To Model Arguments In U.S. Supreme Court Briefs: Preliminary Report, Heng Zheng, Dexter Williams, Bertram Ludäscher

Information Science Faculty Publications

Supreme Court briefs can impact the decision-making of Supreme Court cases. We show how to represent the briefs for a U.S. Supreme Court case as a formal argument model that relies on the briefs’ existing structure. We explore how to generate argument models with large language models (LLMs) by using them to identify attacks between arguments.

Bilirubin Hepatic And Intestinal Transport And Catabolism: Physiology, Pathophysiology, And Benefits, Zachary A. Kipp, Sally N. Pauss, Genesee J. Martinez, Terry D. Hinds, Jr., Wang-Hsin Lee

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Bilirubin, a metabolite derived from heme degradation, has traditionally been regarded as a waste product and a marker of liver injury. However, increasing evidence suggests that bilirubin also functions as a hormone, and reduced levels are associated with metabolic dysfunction. Studies have shown a strong association between low circulating bilirubin levels and an increased risk of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease. To advance bilirubin-based treatment strategies, it is essential to elucidate the mechanisms underlying bilirubin transport and metabolism. Therefore, we provide an in-depth discussion of bilirubin production and its subsequent fates, with a particular focus on the transport between the …

Impact Of Fast Advancement And Early Fortification Of Enteral Feedings In Preterm Infants, A Retrospective, Observational Study., Enrique Gomez-Pomar, Holly Clarke, Jamie Adams

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

UNLABELLED: We aimed to evaluate the outcomes and growth of preterm infants at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that focuses on early initiation, fast advancement, and early fortification of enteral feeds.

METHODS: Retrospective study conducted at a community hospital level III NICU. Extensive feeding data and outcomes were collected by utilizing a NutritionIQ software application, NICUtrition®. Infants born between 26- and 34-weeks gestational age were included, whereas infants with congenital defects, deceased or with incomplete data were excluded. Frequency and descriptive statistical analysis were conducted using chi-square and Fisher's exact test. Unadjusted odds ratios were computed for categorical variables and …

Pro-Government Militias And Political Instability: The Consequences Of Outsourced Regime Security, Ben J.A. Leo

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

The state is often conceptualized as an entity with a monopoly over the use of force within some set borders. Yet, more and more frequently, states allow or deliberately create friendly non-state military organizations. Five-hundred and four of these groups, known as Pro-Government Militias (PGMs), were observed between 1981 and 2014 and were present in a little more than thirty percent of country-years in that timeframe (Carey et al. 2022). Moreover, while some groups are relatively small and weak, many constitute a considerable military force within their country and beyond. For example, the Xinjiang Construction Corps in China, which maintains …

Environmental And Behavioral Determinants Of Congenital Defects: An Ecologic Study In Kentucky, Amelia G. Floyd

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Congenital defects are a significant contributor to infant morbidity and mortality. The multifactorial etiology of such defects presents complex challenges for public health. This ecologic study investigates the association between environmental and behavioral exposures and congenital defects rates at the county level in Kentucky from 2010 to 2019. The Kentucky Department for Public Health, Office of Vital Statistics, provided all relevant defect data. County-level exposure data was collected from multiple sources.

Descriptive and geospatial analyses revealed substantial geographic variability, with notable high defect rates in northeastern Kentucky. Negative binomial regression models identified behavioral and socioeconomic factors to be the strongest …

Nicorandil Treatment Improves Survival And Spatial Learning In Aged Granulin Knockout Mice, Dana M. Niedowicz, Wang-Xia Wang, Paresh Prajapati, Yu Zhong, Shuling X. Fister, Colin B. Rogers, Pradoldej Sompol, David K. Powell, Indumati Patel, Christopher M. Norris, Kathryn E. Saatman, Peter T. Nelson

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Mutations in the human granulin (GRN) gene are associated with multiple diseases, including dementia disorders such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE). We studied a Grn knockout (Grn-KO) mouse model in order to evaluate a potential therapeutic strategy for these diseases using nicorandil, a commercially available agonist for the ABCC9/Abcc9-encoded regulatory subunit of the “K⁺ATP” channel that is well-tolerated in humans. Aged (13 months) Grn-KO and wild-type (WT) mice were treated as controls or with nicorandil (15 mg/kg/day) in drinking water for 7 months, then tested for neurobehavioral …

Gilead: Municipal Liability For Punitive Damages Under The Fair Housing Act, Robert G. Schwemm

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The 1968 Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) has always been understood to apply to local governments, which have proved to be among the most frequent and significant violators of this law, especially in their opposition to housing of particular value to racial minorities and persons with disabilities. Yet not until the Second Circuit’s decision last year in Gilead Community Services, Inc. v. Town of Cromwell did an appellate court approve an FHA-based punitive-damage award against a municipality. Before Gilead, district courts had generally blocked such awards, applying § 1983’s immunities to protect local governments and their officials from the FHA’s …

How Grand Jury Secrecy And Bias Protects And Perpetuates Police-Suspect Impunity, Ilana M. Friedman

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article proceeds in four parts. Part I introduces the theoretical frameworks for various questions involving police-suspect grand juries, including the structure and function of contemporary grand juries, the law surrounding examinations into an officer’s use of force, modern prosecutorial influences, findings from social psychologists on the impacts of diversity on jury decision-making practices, and how police-suspect grand juries implicate unique political pressures.

Part II presents a description of original methods of data collection. To investigate this setting, forty-seven in-depth, semi-structured interviews with twenty-one respondents in five field sites around the country was conducted. Respondents included civilians and legal

professionals …

Deceptive Exploitation: Deepfakes, The Rights Of Publicity And Privacy, And Trademark Law, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article addresses the application of right of publicity, right of privacy, and trademark law to the problem of deepfakes. It will explore the routine and not so routine ways that personality and persona attributes are exploited in traditional privacy contexts and publicity contexts. It will also examine the use of First Amendment defenses in legal actions traditionally associated with the exploitation of celebrities, sports figures, and other persons under state law theories of name-image-likeness exploitation, as well as and federal trademark law theories of false endorsement and false designation of origin.

Part I provides an introduction and background to …

Networking Among The Human Capitalists: The Organizational Dynamics Of Change And Power In The Large Corporate Law Firm, Alan James Klugel

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Law firms are unique creatures. They are subject to market pressures as well as ethical obligations and professional norms. They are in direct competition with other organizations for both clients and the lawyers necessary to perform work for those clients. They are comprised of lawyers who are simultaneously cooperative and competitive with one another. They are neither hierarchy nor anarchy, neither a collection of independent actors nor an entity under which its employees are subsumed. Instead, they are organizations shaped and reshaped by their members; organized around shared goals, internal contestations and external constraints; and defined by the ties between …

History, Tradition, And Voter Registration, Joshua A. Douglas

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

History and tradition are dominating the Supreme Court, which has invoked history and tradition to curtail some rights, such as abortion, while using it to elevate other rights, such as the right to bear arms. Might history and tradition also cause the Court to strike down new restrictions on the right to vote, even if doing so would cut against the current Court’s narrow protection of voting rights? Disputes over voter registration restrictions will pose that very question. Many states have recently implemented onerous rules on voter registration, especially targeting third-party voter registration organizations. Congress is also debating the SAVE …

Gender Disparity In Social Security, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Facially neutral, the U.S. Social Security system structurally discriminates against women because it prefers those who successfully fulfill the traditional male breadwinner role rather than the traditional female caregiving role. Overall, women receive lower worker benefits, are much more likely to claim spouse and surviving spouse benefits, and are more dependent on Social Security for their retirement benefits than are men.

This Article assesses Social Security’s disparate treatment of women and how Social Security might be reformed to enhance benefits for women. It begins by providing a broad overview of Social Security benefits. It then discusses how women and couples …

The Migration Of Abolition Theory, Matthew Boaz

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article considers whether and how theories of abolition developed by criminal law scholars are transferrable to the realm of immigration enforcement. A key question is how abolitionist principles might be employed in support of critiques of the United States’ immigration regulatory regime in the same way that these principles have been deployed in denouncing racialized policing and an injurious, industrialized prison system.

This Article makes two contributions: First, it identifies and illuminates a methodology adopted by critical and decarceral criminal law scholars: (i) denouncing the harms of a structural system, (ii) identifying the normative justification(s) for this system, and …

A Scoring Approach For Evaluating And Ranking Complete Streets Projects, Eirini Stavropoulou

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Complete Streets is a vital strategy for developing an equitable transportation network that provides access to all users and transportation options to communities. A growing interest in this concept has been noted in the United States, with over 1,700 Complete Streets-related policies implemented nationwide. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has developed the “Complete Streets, Roads, and Highways Manual” and the “Complete Streets Policy” aiming to promote a safer and more inclusive transportation system statewide through Complete Streets implementation. A recent KYTC initiative was the development of a scorecard to systematically evaluate Complete Streets projects competing for funding. The scorecard is …

No Hope?: Queer Negativity, Afropessimism, And The Limits Of Futurity, Colton Barton

Theses and Dissertations--English

Since their inceptions, black and queer studies have sought to articulate the positions of “black” and “queer” within American social life—often converging on the goal of liberation. This thesis examines the intersection of two “negative” theoretical frameworks—Afropessimism and anti-social queer theory (or “queer negativity”)—to interrogate both the limits and generative potential of radical negativity. Though emerging from distinct intellectual traditions, these frameworks conceptualize blackness and queerness as constitutive negations—gaps within the dominant social order that render those so marked inassimilable to normative notions of humanity. While the convergences of these theories can be illuminating, their shared pessimism risks obscuring alternative …

Preserving Nature: Mapping Patriarchal And Imperial Control In Victorian Fiction, Hannah Schultz

Theses and Dissertations--English

In Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a group of fallen women see “themselves and surrounding nature forming an organism of which all the parts harmoniously and joyously interpenetrated each other” (65). As relational, boundary-dissolving, ecological subjects, these women are empowered above society’s judgment, made “sublime as the moon and stars” (65). By analyzing such representations of ecological relationality in Victorian fiction, my dissertation reveals new forms of agency for women and racialized others. While many ecofeminists have historically disavowed the nature-gender link as reinforcing the shared oppression of nature and marginalized groups, I depart from this standpoint, as …

Feeling And Experience In American Women's Writing From The First World War, Anika Jensen

Theses and Dissertations--English

This dissertation analyzes the political capacity of feeling in American women’s autobiographical and semi-autobiographical writing from and about their work during the First World War. Women produced emotionally complex accounts that resist easy categorization, and I argue that attending to feeling clarifies not only their emotional experiences with war work but their social and political projects. This dissertation closely examines portrayals and rhetorics of feeling, considering the intersections of gender, class, race, and labor in impacting how feelings are depicted, negotiated, and conveyed. While British women were more compelled to perform and convey feeling according to a rigid class system, …

"These Are The Concepts Of The Father": Proclus' Solution To Parmenides' Dilemma, Daniel J. Grifferty

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

This master’s thesis will attempt to solve a dilemma presented by Parmenides in Plato’s dialogue of the same name. This dilemma arises because the young Socrates suggests that the forms may be thoughts that come to be in the soul. Parmenides responds to this statement by attempting to force Socrates to admit that this can only lead to one of two outcomes: (1) each thing thinks because it is composed of thoughts or (2) each thing does not think, even though it is composed of thoughts. Both of these outcomes are unsatisfactory and do not provide a solid grounding for …

Multi-Scale Analysis Of Karst Aquifer Vulnerability To Climate Change And Contamination Processes, Shishir Sarker

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Karst aquifers represent some of the world’s most productive yet vulnerable groundwater systems, supplying freshwater to approximately 10% of the global population across 15% of Earth’s ice-free land surface. Their distinctive hydrological characteristics— including rapid recharge, preferential flow paths, and limited natural filtration— create unique vulnerabilities to both climate variability and contamination that pose significant challenges for sustainable water resource management. This dissertation presents a comprehensive multi-scale analysis of karst aquifer vulnerability through three interconnected studies that examine climate change impacts, microbial contamination dynamics, and contaminant transport processes across diverse geographic and hydrogeologic settings.

Chapter two investigates climate change impacts …

Lust, Labor, & Legitimacy: Visibility And Precarity In Platformed Sex Work, Sable J. Augustyn

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis examines the labor of platformed sex workers, positioning their experiences as a site for understanding the entanglement of multiple intersecting economies. Through qualitative interviews, it explores how sex workers navigate platform infrastructures, manage audience engagement, and contend with visibility as both an economic necessity and a site of risk. Drawing on theories of emotional labor, visibility labor, and platform governance, the project highlights how sex work on digital platforms is shaped by overlapping systems of economic extraction, technological constraint, and cultural regulation. Platformed sex work emerges here as a layered and context-specific practice—embedded within creator ecologies, attraction economies, …

Woke-Lahoma: Anti-Trans Ideology On The Frontlines, Sarah H. Fogel

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

The past decade (2015-2025) of American politics has been marked by a sharp rise in anti-trans politics. Indeed, during this period, anti-trans rhetoric and legislation have become central to American conservative politics more broadly. As the Republican party under Donald Trump works daily to remake the federal government in its image, studying the recent past of Republican-controlled states like Oklahoma offers a window into the future of anti-trans politics at the national scale. This thesis uses a mix of discourse analysis of anti-trans media and participant observation at 2SLGBTQ+ Pride events to analyze the ideological underpinnings of the present-day anti-trans …