Digital Commons Network^™

Evidence Of Competitive Release Following Overstory Mortality In A Semi-Arid Piñon-Juniper Woodland, Corrie D. Gonzalez

Biology ETDs

Extreme temperatures and severe drought events have led to widespread tree mortality worldwide. In semi-arid regions of the Southwest United States, these events pose a significant threat to piñon-juniper (PJ) woodlands. We studied the effects of piñon and juniper mortality on the growth and physiology of existing saplings in PJ woodlands by analyzing water status, photosynthetic activity, and tissue chemistry to gain insights into these impacts. Juniper saplings exhibited improved water status and water use efficiency in response to overstory mortality, whereas piñon saplings did not. Additionally, both piñon and juniper saplings exhibited increased photosynthetic rates, increased photosynthetic capacity, and …

Thermoregulation In Nocturnal Volant Endotherms Occupying Hot Deserts, William A. Talbot

Biology ETDs

The study of thermoregulation is of growing concern in this era of rapid climate change. Earlier studies such as those pioneered by Scholander and Bartholomew directed focus toward the study of endotherm survival in conditions of cold weather adversity. As techniques evolved in the measurement of parameters quantifying thermoregulation, metabolism and energy allocation, the standardization procedures has increased the comparability of data from diverse taxa. We can now search historical records and current research for explanations to the changes in the distribution, migration, extirpation or survival of animal and plant populations through time. It is increasingly common to observe dramatic …

Resolving The Paradox Of Polyploidy: Underexplored Facets Of Polyploid Plants, Benjamin P. Gerstner

Biology ETDs

Polyploidy, or whole genome duplication, is a common phenomenon in plants, but the establishment and persistence of mixed-ploidy populations remains a paradox. This dissertation explores factors that contribute to the persistence and establishment of mixed-ploidy populations in nature. The first chapter investigates the role of unreduced gametes in neopolyploid establishment and finds that variability in their formation rate can have a significant impact on polyploid establishment and persistence. The second chapter searches for evidence of soil microbes exhibiting ploidy-specificity, a pre-condition for microbe-mediated niche differentiation, a possible stabilizing mechanism contributing to ploidy coexistence. Finally, the third chapter tests for microbe-mediated …

Investigation Of Orthohantavirus Genetics In Rodent Reservoirs And Clinical Samples, Samuel Melvin Goodfellow

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Orthohantaviruses are negative-sense, single stranded RNA viruses with trisegmented genomes that can cause severe disease in humans and are carried by several host reservoirs throughout the world. In the United States, Sin Nombre orthohantavirus (SNV) is the primary cause of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) with a fatality rate of ~36% and the highest cases occuring in the southwest region. The primary SNV host reservoir is thought to be the western deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, however it has been shown that other rodents can carry different orthohantaviruses. We designed a pan-orthohantavirus detection tool to survey several small mammal populations throughout New …

High P-T Single Crystal Elasticity Of Zircon And Its Implications For Determining Metamorphic P-T Conditions In Nature, Arlacee Luu

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Understanding the natural petrologic and tectonic processes, such as slab subduction, requires accurate determination of the pressure (P) and temperature (T) conditions of these processes. Recent development of elastic thermobarometry based on the difference between the elastic evolution of mineral inclusions and their host minerals allows constraining the formation P-T conditions of the inclusion/host system without assuming thermodynamic equilibrium, which is typically needed for the widely used chemistry-based thermobarometry in metamorphic petrology. However, the reliability of elastic thermobarometry heavily depends on the accurate determination of the high P-T single-crystal elastic properties of relevant minerals. In this study, we performed the …

Testing The Niche Center Hypothesis In The Fossil Record Of Atlantic Bivalves, Rhiannon Z. Nolan

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Paleoecological analyses of six shallow marine bivalves were conducted to test the Abundant Center Hypothesis using data from the fossil record of the Pleistocene through modern day. This hypothesis predicts the highest abundance of a species is at the center of the geographic or environmental range, decreasing toward the edges. In geographic space, distances to a centerline within a geographic range were variably correlated with population abundances, and some species displayed a sharp drop-off in abundance as distance increased. In environmental space, bivalve species showed moderate correlations between abundance and centrality when measured using cumulative data across the last 2.8 …

Seismic Shadow Zone Investigation In The Upper Magma Reservoir Of The Yellowstone Caldera, Sarah Nolt-Caraway

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

This study investigates whether the Yellowstone Caldera has enough melt to mute S-waves, creating a seismic shadow zone. Using a dense nodal deployment of ~650 stations, 7-9 earthquakes during the nodal deployment, and 21 broadband stations with 3,000-4,000 events per station; amplitude and noise maps, seismograms, and automatic phase picks probabilities from a deep learning model were analyzed to assess the potential role of melt, crustal attenuation, and noise in affecting body waves, particularly S-phases. The results are inconclusive, with unclear evidence whether observed amplitude decay is normal signal decay due to distance, noise-related, melt, or from scattering and intrinsic …

Weathering, Erosion, And Dust Accumulation At Stoneman Lake, Arizona, Usa: Timescales And Drivers Of Geomorphic Activity Across The Southwest, Spencer Staley, Peter J. Fawcett, R. Scott Anderson, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Vera Markgraf, Erik T. Brown, Matthew E. Kirby

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Lengthy and well-dated terrestrial records of the Quaternary Period with the appropriate proxies show how the critical zone responds to environmental change. In southwestern North America, resolving the many effects of aridity through time provides crucial context for addressing contemporary climate issues. However, arid conditions are generally non-conducive to paleo-record preservation, causing knowledge gaps during relevant climatic episodes. An ~80 m-long sediment core (STL14) from Stoneman Lake contains a continuous archive of conditions from local to regional scale since the early Pleistocene (~1.3 Ma) and is, therefore, a unique and immensely valuable scientific resource. STL is situated in a montane …

Slavery And Architecture Across The Mediterranean, John Behnken

History ETDs

Enslaved people as architectural material, found in the cultural examples of the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Hagia Sophia, provide a lens from which scholars can re-envision the historical narrative. The scholarship surrounding the development and transition of the Great Mosque of Cordoba from a mosque to a church, elicits new research into what medieval people thought about race, race-making, and cultural ownership. The conceptions of race are evident through the medieval paradigms of enslavement. Who could and could not become enslaved establish social, cultural, and phenotypic classifications which in turn become race. The work of scholars such as …

Examining The Measurement Invariance Of The Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory Among Hispanic And Non-Hispanic White College Women, Christina Nicole Gillezeau

Psychology ETDs

I examined whether the Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R) was invariant between Hispanic/Latina and Non-Hispanic White (NHW) undergraduate women. I performed confirmatory factor analysis to assess model fit and used increasingly restrictive models to test invariance. I included 208 Hispanic/Latina women and 190 NHW women. The CFI and RMSEA model fit statistics (CFI=0.98, RMSEA=0.06 (90% confidence interval=0.04-0.08, p-value=0.16) showed that the model fit well. I constrained factor loadings to be equal in both groups to test metric invariance. I observed non-significant differences in model fit (deltaX² (9)=88.67, p>0.95, deltaCFI=0.003, deltaRMSEA=-0.011). I also constrained intercepts to be equal to …

Witchy Politics: Witches And Witchcraft As Political Tropes From Malleus Malleficarum (1487) To Les Sorcières De La République (2016) And The Mercies (2020), Mallaury Joëlle Marie Gauthier

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

The focus of this thesis are two recent novels featuring witches: Chloé Delaume’s Les Sorcières de la République(The Witches of the Republic, 2016) and Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Mercies (2020). The first is a futuristic dystopia set in 2062, during the witch trial of the Sibyl of Cumae. The second is a work of historical fiction based on witch trial records and set in seventeenth-century Finnmark (Norway). Both are feminist novels, and both emphasize the political valence of the witch as a gendered figure. This figure emerged from the misogyny of early modern demonology but acquired its contemporary contours …

The Impacts Of Transfer Learning For Ungulate Recognition At Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Michael Gurule

Geography ETDs

As camera traps have grown in popularity, their utilization has expanded to numerous fields, including wildlife research, conservation, and ecological studies. The information gathered using this equipment gives researchers a precise and comprehensive understanding about the activities of animals in their natural environments. For this type of data to be useful, camera trap images must be labeled so that the species in the images can be classified and counted. This has typically been done by teams of researchers and volunteers, and it can be said that the process is at best time-consuming. With recent developments in deep learning, the process …

Projecting Vegetation Condition And Fire Risk In Southern California, Westin K. Guthrie

Geography ETDs

In the western US, relationships between fire, vegetation, climate, and urban areas are dynamic and evolving. This work used a forest landscape model, LANDIS-II, informed by future climate scenarios and projections of urban expansion to understand wildfire interactions within projected Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas. This simulation showed that in both 2050 and 2100 +93% of the WUI in southern California experienced fire. Future work needs to be done in parametrizing forest biomass to ensure the validity of projections. Additionally, increasing each climate scenario model's replicates will create more accurate projections.

An Investigation Into How The Intense Nature Of Youth Sport Participation Influences Women’S Collegiate Basketball Player’S Experiences Of Burnout, Hana M. Adent

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

One area of athlete well-being garnering increasing attention is athletes’ experience of burnout (Gould & Whitley, 2009). According to Coakley (1992), burnout is a social phenomenon grounded in a set of social relations through which young athletes become disempowered in their sport participation that can lead to fatigue and dropout. Therefore, efforts to reduce athletes’ likelihood of experiencing burnout are important. Often overlooked in the college athlete literature are the experiences of college athletes in youth sport. Yet almost all college athletes participate in competitive youth sport. Therefore, in seeking to further our understanding of college athletes’ burnout experience, it …

An Intersectional Grounded Theory Study Examining Identity Exploration For Former Student-Athletes Against The Backdrop Of 2020, Crystle M. Dorsey

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

The purpose of this study was to understand how student-athletes explored and made meaning of their intersecting identities through identity-focused curriculum against the backdrop of 2020. With intersectionality as a theoretical framework, this study examines how axes of oppression influenced the process of identity exploration for student-athletes. Guided by constructivism and critical theory as its epistemological foundations, this constructivist grounded theory study included three guiding research questions alluding to the how, what and why student-athletes explored their identities in 2020. The outcome of this study was an intersectional grounded theory detailing how student-athletes explore and make meaning of their intersecting …

The Influence Of Custodial Grandparental Figures’ Cultural Backgrounds On Their Grandchildren’S Educational Outcomes: A Systematic Review, Gabriela B. Gonzalez

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Researchers have continuously explored the multiple ways in which grandparents affect their grandchildren’s environments, inside and outside of their homes. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in literature that regards custodial relationships between grandparents and grandchildren, pathways to custodial relationships and how these affect the grandparent’s methods of raising their grandchildren. Multiple researchers have analyzed educational attainment and progress of custodial grandchildren. This analysis focused on exploring existing data that considered how individuals with the mentioned custodial arrangements also possess diverse cultural backgrounds as their circumstance, and how both of these factors might affect children’s educational outcomes.

Throughout this …

Examining The Relationship Between Teacher Candidate Characteristics And Teacher Workforce Entry, Amy Korzekwa

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This study aims to look for relationships between the characteristics and experiences of teacher candidates while in the program and their subsequent workforce entry after leaving the program. A hierarchical logistic regression was conducted on five blocks of variables: demographics, entry academic variables, program academic variables, completion variables, and experience variables, with employment in a New Mexico public school as the dependent variable. The rate of completers working in NM public schools was much higher than expected, 73% compared to 55%. Only the block of completion variables was significantly related to entering the workforce. A few individual variables were also …

Si Solo Nos Dan Esta Oportunidad: Stories Of Transnational Students In An Intercultural Secondary Program In Santa Fe De La Laguna, Michoacán, México., Minea Armijo, Minea Armijo Romero

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The research aimed to explore the long-term effects of intercultural bilingual programs on Indigenous bilingual students residing in transnational communities. Employing a phenomenological research design, this qualitative study incorporated interviews, focus groups, classroom observations, and artifact analysis. Specifically, it investigated an intercultural education program at the secondary level and its influence on transnational students, their families, and the teachers at the Preparatoria Indígena Intercultural de Santa Fe de la Laguna in Michoacán, México. This research contributes to the growing field of bilingual education research in México by examining the interconnections between transnationalism and Bilingual Intercultural models of education, thus proposing …

“That Felt Weird”: International Graduate Students’ Emerging Critical Awareness Of Their Experiences With Microaggression, Romaisha Rahman

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to uncover and understand international graduate students’ experiences with microaggressions that stem from native speaker fallacy; microaggressions are the subtle discriminatory behaviors executed toward marginalized groups and native speaker fallacy is the false belief that only some “native” English speakers are effective teachers and users of the language. Put simply, this research aimed at unveiling the subtle language-based discriminations that international graduate students experience in their day-to-day lives in U.S. educational settings. To collect data for the study, the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) was utilized. CIT is a method that allows the …

A Comparison Of Fixed Versus Moving Eulerian Meshes For 1-D Radiative Shock Problems, Dylan Weatherred

Nuclear Engineering ETDs

Testing codes used to solve the radiation-hydrodynamics equations requires the use of radiative shock problems. These problems contain stiff shocks and test the coupling of the material motion and the energy exchange between the radiation and material. However, these problems are difficult to solve due to large differences in time scale between radiation and material equations, resolving shocks, and modeling radiation and material interactions. This thesis will look to solve radiative shock problems in 1-D using the Eulerian formulation on fixed and moving meshes. The moving mesh method proposed takes advantage of the more simple Eulerian formulation of the radiation …

Banding Together: Law Versus People Power In The United States, Benjamin E. Douglas

New Mexico Law Review

To become a democratic society, the United States must respect the people’s right to associate. This does not sound like a radical principle—freedom of association is part of the First Amendment—but realizing this freedom requires serious changes in existing policy. State and federal laws obstruct the ability of people to band together to shape the type of society that they wish to live in. People face severe restrictions impeding their right to form and direct value-based, powerbuilding, membership-driven organizations. I begin with an examination of the democracy deficit in this country, explored in three dimensions. First, when there are conflicts …

Long In The Tooth: The Commodification Of Teeth, Land, And Character; Resistance To British Oral Culture In Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, And The Americas 1770-1900, Emma B. Mincks

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation is about teeth- rather, how they are portrayed in British colonial discourses of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and their development as a commodified material object associated with purity, lands, and visceral emotionality. What do teeth specifically, and orality more generally, mean to eighteenth and nineteenth-century readers in relation to the logics of white possession? How did objectified subjects react to and respond to the affective tension created by this objectification? Teeth are represented in relation to feminine purity throughout British writing from at least the 1600’s. However, between 1770-1900, teeth gain additional cultural meanings, most …

Synthetic Biology Enabled Modification Of Bone Cells And Impact On Bone Mineral Resorption, Dulce C. Hayes

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Development of a cell culture based bone model can contribute to biomedical research by producing a reproducible model system that mimics a bone remodeling disorder and reduces the use of animals in research studies. Synthetic biology was used to engineer osteoblast cell lines to alter a key protein in the RANKL pathway in efforts to control the bone remodeling process. Osteoblast cell lines, K7M2 and MC3T3-E1 Subclone 4 were engineered to express osteoprotegerin (OPG) and inhibit OPG expression, respectively. The upregulation of OPG expression was confirmed with Real Time PCR and Quantikine® Immunoassay. To identify the functionality of the engineered …

Determining The Existence And Regulation Of Microlipophagy In Primary Brown And White Adipocytes, Sara C. Arenas De Leon

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Lipids are one of life’s four main macromolecules and provide essential functions to cells.

The degradation of lipid droplets and mobilization of lipids occurs through lipolysis. Emerging evidence demonstrates evidence of a selective form of autophagy in lipolysis. The process of microlipophagy has only recently been described, and many features of its regulation are still poorly understood. Our recent study showed that inhibiting mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) pathway by depletion of Raptor in adipocytes led to an influx of lysosomes and accumulation of lipid droplets within lysosome. Here, we expand on these previous findings. We were able …

High-Power Laser Cooling And Temperature-Dependent Fluorescence Studies Of Ytterbium Doped Silica, Brian Topper

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Experimental observation of optical refrigeration using ytterbium doped silica glass in recent years has created a new solution for heat mitigation in high-power laser systems, nonlinear fiber experiments, integrated photonics, and precision metrology. Current efforts of different groups focus on compositional optimization, fiber fabrication, and investigating how much silica can be cooled with a laser. At the start of this work, the best effort in laser cooling ytterbium doped silica saw cooling by 6 K from room temperature. This dissertation follows the experimental efforts that culminated in the increase of this initial record by one order of magnitude. Comprehensive spectroscopic …

Super-Resolution Microscopy With Color Centers In Diamond, Forrest A. Hubert

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

This dissertation explores the development and application of diamond color centers, specifically the silicon-vacancy (SiV) and nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, in super-resolution microscopy and magnetic imaging techniques. It demonstrates the potential of SiV centers as photostable fluorophores in stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, with a resolution of approximately 90 nm. The research also presents a method for nanoscale magnetic microscopy using NV centers by combining charge state depletion (CSD) microscopy with optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) to image magnetic fields produced by 30 nm iron-oxide nanoparticles. The individual magnetic feature width reaches ~100 nm while resolving magnetic field patterns from nanoparticles …

Sociolinguistics Of Saudi Vision 2030: Paradigm Shift Through English Faculty’S Perspectives Of Translanguaging At A Saudi University., Naif Masrahi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Many educational systems around the world insist on applying an English Only Policy (EOP) when teaching the English language at universities without addressing their contextual needs. In Saudi Arabia, this problem leads to reduced satisfaction among faculty regarding students’ English level (Alharbi & Alqefari, 2022; Alkhairy, 2013; Alqahtani, 2020; Alsaawi, 2019; Alshammari, 2022; Altale & Alta’ani, 2019; Alzahrani, 2019; Elyas & Picard, 2010). However, the new educational transformation promised by Saudi Vision 2030 (2016) supports the Arabic language as a mother tongue for Saudis, English as an important language, and the teaching of critical thinking to respond to current global …

Effects Of Acute And Chronic Gut Injury On Secretory Lineage Differentiation, Roger Atanga

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Acute and chronic injury to the gut has several detrimental consequences. However, dysregulation of secretory lineage cells is a common observation. To model acute gut injury, we use non-fissile uranium bearing dust (UBD), an environmental toxicant prevalent in communities adjacent abandoned uranium mines, majority of which are located in the Southwestern United States. Repeated exposure to environmental toxins and heavy metals has been obscurely linked to intestinal inflammation, increased susceptibility to pathogen-induced diseases, and higher incidences of colorectal cancer. However, there is no molecular evidence that non-fissile uranium can cause damage to the intestinal epithelia. Human colonoids exposed to UBD …

A Nomination For The Oliver La Farge House To The Historic Santa Fe Foundation’S Register Of Properties Worthy Of Preservation, Hayden D-L Mcafee

Architecture and Planning ETDs

647 Old Santa Fe Trail is a traditional one-story adobe house in the territorial style. Constructed in 1867, it has a long history and has played a significant role in the development of Santa Fe. Sitting on the original path of the Santa Fe Trail and later Route 66, it has witnessed over 150 years of history both outside and within its doors. It was occupied by the Pulitzer Prize winning author and respected anthropologist Oliver La Farge from 1947-1963. La Farge was an important figure in the Santa Fe community, most recognized for his novels and activism, advocating for …

Heterochiral Dna Nanotechnology For Biomedical Applications, Tracy L. Mallette

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

In the past 30 years, there have been major advancements on how to treat and diagnose disease because of the improvement and increase in accessibility of sequencing technology. Nucleic acid-based therapeutics can manipulate protein expression. Likewise, pathogens can be identified and detected with single nucleotide specificity. However, the underlying oligonucleotide technology requires protection against natural defense systems that have evolved to destroy foreign nucleic acids. Many chemical modifications that can protect nucleotides also have significant cytotoxic side effects and must be carefully designed into the strands. A novel way to protect against nuclease-mediated degradation is through the use of mirror-image, …