Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Error-Related Processing In Incarcerated Adolescents With Elevated Psychopathic Traits, James M. Maurer

Psychology ETDs

Adult psychopathic offenders show an increased propensity towards violence, impulsivity, and recidivism. For a subsample of youth with elevated psychopathic traits, the disorder appears to remain stable throughout development. Such youth represent a particularly severe subgroup characterized by their extreme behavioral problems and comparable neurocognitive deficits as their adult counterparts, including perseveration deficits. Here, we investigated error-related processing using two distinct neuroimaging methodologies in response-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in two samples of incarcerated juvenile male offenders who performed a response inhibition Go/NoGo task. Adolescent psychopathic traits were assessed using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth …

Abrupt Ocean Anoxia During The Late Ordovician Mass Extinction Detected Using Uranium Isotopes Of Marine Carbonates, Rickey Bartlett, Maya Elrick, Yemane Asmerom, Viorel Atudorei

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Ordovician witnessed an explosion in marine biodiversity punctuated by the first of the ‘big-5’ Phanerozoic mass extinctions, the Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME). The LOME consists of two discrete pulses occurring at the beginning and end of the Hirnantian. Lithologic and geochemical evidence suggests widespread marine anoxia triggered the second LOME pulse; however, most of these redox proxies record local bottom water or porewater conditions rather than global seawater conditions. To evaluate global redox trends, we utilize uranium (U) isotopes and trace element geochemistry of marine carbonates as a global marine redox proxy.

Bulk carbonate samples were collected from …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Application Of Monosized Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle-Supported Lipid Bilayers For Targeted Therapeutic Delivery To Individual Cells, Paul Durfee

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSNP) supported-lipid bilayers, termed ‘protocells,’ represent a potentially transformative class of therapeutic and theranostic delivery vehicles. The field of targeted drug delivery poses considerable challenges that cannot be addressed with a single ‘magic bullet’. Consequently, the protocell has been designed as a modular platform composed of interchangeable biocompatible components. The mesoporous silica core can have variable size and shape to direct biodistribution and controlled pore size and surface chemistry to accommodate diverse cargos. The encapsulating supported lipid bilayer can be modified with targeting and trafficking ligands as well as polyethylene glycol (PEG) to effect selective binding, endosomal …

From Recovery To Discovery: Ethnic American Science Fiction And (Re)Creating The Future, Daoine S. Bachran

English Language and Literature ETDs

My project assesses how science fiction by writers of color challenges the scientific racism embedded in genetics, nuclear development, digital technology, and molecular biology, demonstrating how these fields are deployed disproportionately against people of color. By contextualizing current scientific development with its often overlooked history and exposing the full life cycle of scientific practices and technological changes, ethnic science fiction authors challenge science’s purported objectivity and make room for alternative scientific methods steeped in Indigenous epistemologies. The first chapter argues that genetics is deployed disproportionally against black Americans, from the pseudo-scientific racial classifications of the nineteenth century and earlier through …

Performance Of A1c Versus Ogtt For The Diagnosis Of Prediabetes In A Community-Based Screening, Jenny E. Camacho, Vallabh O. Shah, Ronald Schrader, Craig S. Wong, Mark R. Burge

Pediatrics Research and Scholarship

OBJECTIVE: Reliable identification of individuals at risk for developing diabetes is critical to instituting preventative strategies. Studies suggest that the accuracy of using hemoglobin A1c as a sole diagnostic criterion for diabetes may be variable across different ethnic groups. We postulate that there will be lack of concordance between A1c and the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) for diagnosing prediabetes across Hispanic and non-Hispanic white (NHW) populations.

METHODS: A total of 218 asymptomatic adults at risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) were assessed with A1c and OGTT for the diagnosis of prediabetes. Glucose homeostasis status was assigned as no diabetes …

Molecular Tetrapods For Optoelectronic Applications, Jianzhong Yang

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Most conjugated molecules including polymers and small molecules applied in organic solar cells (OSCs) have linear structures containing multiple aromatic groups connected in series. However, unfavorable film forming ability and grain boundaries both originated from high crystallinity of linear small molecules are detrimental to device performances. Thus, among multi-dimensional structures, tetrapodal molecules are especially interesting owing to their unique ability to mutually interlock, which prevents dislodging and provides high structural stabilities. Such molecular design can also increase absorption cross-sections and provide more extensively percolating pathways for charge transport, making such molecular tetrapods promising in OSCs applications. In my dissertation, I …

Csp And “Omics” Technology Applied On Versatile And Intelligent Portable Platform For Modeling Complex Bio-Medical Data, Florentin Smarandache, Luige Vladareanu, Mihaiela Iliescu, Hongbo Wang, Feng Yongfei, Victor Vladareanu

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper presents relevant aspects of the idea of using the digital medicine in cancer, so that to shape a viable strategy for creating and implementing an interactive digital platform, NEO-VIP, that should be the basic support to design the strategy for integration of basic, clinical and environmental research on neoplasia progression to cancer. The two main components of the VIPRO Platform are represented by the workstation “Engineering Station” for CPS (Cyber Physical System) and “omics” technology and by the “Graphical Station” for the development of a virtual mechatronic system environment and virtual reality for system components' motion. The NEO-VIP …

Sleep As An Evolved Behavior: Ecological Opportunity Costs And Sleep Optimization, Gandhi Yetish

Anthropology ETDs

Sleep problems afflict millions world-over. Treating this has been difficult because there is no consensus definition for “normal” sleep. People can vary in their personal sleep need, but the determinants of variation in sleep duration are largely unknown, as is the criteria to determine how much variation is normal. Given that most diurnal mammals (including primates) appear to sleep from sunset to sunrise, the leading explanation for sleep pathology in the post-industrial world has been that electronics, especially light illuminating devices, substantially reduce sleep duration. This assertion has heretofore only been tested experimentally. This research aims to resolve this issue …

E. Coli Removal By Pleurotus Ostreatus Mycofilter In Simulated Wet Environmental Pond, Savannah E. Martinez

Civil Engineering ETDs

Stormwater runoff has been referred to as the water quality issue of the day. Contamination of surface waters is an environmental concern for both human and ecosystem health. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, it is a common practice to pond stormwater runoff before it is released into the Rio Grande. Ponding stormwater works as a best management practice (BMP) to help remove floatable debris and contaminants. Mycofiltration is a BMP that has recently been introduced into the stormwater quality community. Mycofiltration is the use of fungal mycelium as a natural mitigation approach to stormwater pollution. Mycofiltration has been proven to reduce …

October 11, 2016 Finance & Facilities (F&F) Committee Meeting, Evp For Administration

Finance and Facilities Committee

Documents related to the October 11, 2016 Board of Regents' Finance and Facilities Committee Meeting. (Agenda, Minutes, eBook, Notice)

Contesting Liberalism, Refusing Death: A Biopolitical Critique Of Navajo History, Melanie K. Yazzie

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation considers the pivotal role that liberalism, particularly as it is expressed and enforced through post-livestock reduction era logics of tribal economic development, plays in advancing a relentless and violent form of U.S. settler colonialism bent on the elimination of Navajo life. I use Michel Foucault’s framework of biopolitics as a theory of history to unlock, identify, and interpret what brought Navajo life into the realm of explicit calculation in Navajo political formations. I use the terms ‘experimental liberalism’ and ‘extractive liberalism’ to frame the two primary biopolitical formations I see at work in this period of Navajo history. …

Applied Photoproperties Of Phenylene Ethynylenes, Patrick L. Donabedian

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Light-absorbing molecules can be used as powerful tools to perturb and understand biological systems by fluorescence, sensitization, or photochemical reactions. A thorough understanding of the delivery of dyes to specific biochemical targets and the processes that control the fate of excited-state energy is needed to engineer useful technology out of organic photochemistry. This thesis presents four projects investigating different aspects of pathogen destruction and biochemical sensing in a variety of systems, using the properties of p-phenylene ethynylenes (PEs), an especially flexible and well-studied class of conjugated molecules. Of particular relevance, some PEs are found to be effective dyes for amyloid …

Development And Implementation Of High Fidelity Human Models For The Investigation Of Blast And Non-Penetrating Projectile Impact, Candice F. Cooper

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Military operations abroad have highlighted the effects of several types of physical traumas including traumatic brain injury and behind armor blunt trauma. While previous approaches toward understanding and mitigating trauma caused by blast or blunt impact relied upon physical testing of animal subjects, post mortem human subjects, or human tissue surrogates, recent advances in computational capability have spurred a growing area of research in computational investigations into wound injury and its mitigation. The development of high-fidelity human torso and head-neck-torso models are presented here. These models are employed in blast and non-penetrating projectile impact simulations in order to demonstrate the …

Latin American Studies 2016 Apr Self-Study & Documents, University Of New Mexico

UNM Academic Program Review

UNM Latin American Studies APR self-study report, review team report, response report, and initial action plan for Fall 2016, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission.

Predictions Of Ponderosa Pine Resiliency To Climate Change In The Cebolla Canyon Watershed, New Mexico, Breana N. Chavez

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

This project was designed to understand the potential impacts of climate change on soil moisture and the resiliency of ponderosa pine in the forested region of the Cebolla Canyon watershed (Cebolla), located in eastern New Mexico. Much of the watershed is administered as public domain land by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This project aims to help BLM managers understand how climate change is projected to impact ponderosa pine seedling establishment and mature ponderosa pine productivity in Cebolla.

Current and potential future soil moisture regimes in Cebolla were simulated on three hills using HYDRUS-1D. The soil moisture regimes …

From Norway With Love: A Study Of Oxytocin, Social Bonding, And Life-History Trade-Offs, Nicholas Grebe

Psychology ETDs

Oxytocin (OT) is a mammalian neuropeptide hormone that has been extensively studied in the field of obstetrics and mother-infant bonding. More recently, animal and human studies have suggested that OT might also have important functions within sexual pair-bonds. While some have advanced the perspective that OT is a ‘bonding’, ‘cuddle’, or ‘trust’ hormone, a number of opposing findings cast doubt on such interpretations. Several research groups have attempted to address this so-called ‘paradox’. I propose a different type of framework that attempts to address this paradox, but perhaps more importantly, also aims to provide additional explanatory power regarding the functions …

In Vivo Spect/Ct Molecular Imaging Of Lfa-1 In Atherosclerotic Inflammatory Development With Radiolabeled Danbirt, Roberto Ivan Mota Alvidrez

Pharmaceutical Sciences ETDs

The objective of this thesis project is to assess inflammatory leukocyte presence and accumulation in vascular atherosclerotic plaque using [111In] In-DANBIRT as a non-invasive diagnostic imaging tool. ApoE-/-mice were fed either normal or high fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks. Sprague Dawley male rats were exposed to filtered air and ozone for 4 hours. SPECT/CT imaging was performed at baseline, 4 and 8 weeks. 3D autoradiography was performed after 8 weeks. Leukocyte isolation methods were performed for neutrophil and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) separations post-incubation with [68Ga] Ga-DANBIRT and [111In] In-DANBIRT. Whole blood isolation correlated these findings showing increased …

From At-Risk To Scholar: Transformational Learning Among Undergraduate Researchers', Dayra Fallad-Mendoza

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

How do undergraduate research programs act as effective agents of perspective transformation among underrepresented students? El Puente Fellows is an undergraduate research program that provides a space where underrepresented students are transformed. Its structure is designed to counter the negative Master Narrative at play for first generation, low income, and minority students in higher education. This study looked at the extent to which perspective transformative experiences were at play and guided students to greater academic, personal and professional goals in El Puente. Participants reported to be empowered as a result of the program and have higher levels of self-confidence regarding …

Finding The Self In Tension: The Importance Of Play For Embodied Consciousness In Post-Kantian Philosophical Anthropology And Psychology, Jaime Thomas Denison

Philosophy ETDs

My dissertation looks at how four figures in the German philosophical tradition employ a similar concept of play in their models of the Ich', often translated as 'Self', as they explore the complexities of establishing a unity within embodied consciousness. These four figures are: Friedrich Schiller, F.W.J. Schelling, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. I situate this concept of play within the contemporary debate of the interdisciplinary field of play studies, showing that what emerges is a theory of play that avoids marginalizing it to children and leisure, but rather recognizes it as a state of consciousness that provides a semblance …

Incorporating Alternative Sources Of Reinforcement Through Online Cra Goal Setting And The Effect On Substance Use In College Students, Shirley Mae Crotwell

Psychology ETDs

Emerging adulthood is a transition period where many college students choose to engage in high-risk substance use (e.g., binge drinking). This choice to misuse substances occurs during a developmental period when students are faced with an increased responsibility to structure and manage their time across multiple personal (and potentially competing) goals. The current study approached the problem of college drinking by using two procedures from the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA). Rating current happiness and coupling it with goal setting was evaluated as a potential means of increasing substance-free reinforcement that could compete with (i.e., reduce) alcohol use. Males and females …

A Randomized Clinical Trial Of A Brief Motivational Intervention For Incarcerated Drinkers, Mandy Owens

Psychology ETDs

Almost half of convicted jail inmates have an alcohol use disorder and many are released to environments that put them in contact with network members and cues that make them more likely to relapse on alcohol or drugs. Given the high-risk period immediately following release, the purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of a brief motivational intervention administered just prior to release to increase substance use treatment entry and attendance, decrease alcohol and drug use, and change social networks for inmates with alcohol use disorders. Forty adult male inmates were consented into the study and randomized to …

Minority Adolescent Health: A Factor Analytic Approach Towards Conceptualizing Health Behaviors And Resilience Constructs From The New Mexico Youth Risk Resiliency Survey, Jeremiah Simmons

Psychology ETDs

Current researchers in the adolescent health field are beginning to argue that the descriptive knowledge base of adolescent health lacks a strong conceptual base and may be inadequate to sufficiently inform a comprehensive assessment of adolescent health behaviors. This study aimed to build upon the conceptual base by integrating a descriptive epidemiologic study (2013 New Mexico Youth Risk Resilience Survey) with psychological theory and factor analytic methodologies to better understand the relationship between health behaviors and resilience factors. This study replicated a previously identified four-factor health behavior structure and an expanded six-factor health behavior structure across a racially/ethnically diverse sample. …

Associations Among Sexual Victimization Experiences, Coping Strategies, And Psychopathology In Heterosexual And Sexual Minority Women, Gabriela Lopez

Psychology ETDs

This study examined the associations among sexual minority status, adult sexual victimization, childhood experiences of abuse and neglect, coping strategies, and psychopathology in womens sexual assault experiences. One hundred and seventy-seven women (n = 177) were recruited via the Internet to complete an online study asking them about their most distressing/severe sexual victimization experience. Non-parametric tests were used to examine associations among the variables. There were significant associations between sexual minority status and both victimization severity and sexual revictimization, with sexual minority status being associated with higher levels of victimization severity and a higher likelihood of being revictimized. There were …

Measurement Invariance Of The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (Ede-Q) In A College Sample Of Non-Hispanic White And Hispanic Women, Kelsey Serier

Psychology ETDs

Objective: Rates of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders have increased in racial and ethnic minority groups, and yet the validity of various commonly-used eating disorder instruments has not been established in these populations. The primary goal of this study was to test the measurement invariance of one such measure, the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), across a non-clinical sample of non-Hispanic white and Hispanic undergraduate women. Secondary goals of this study were to determine the factor structure of the EDE-Q in this sample, provide information on EDE-Q norms in a non-clinical sample of Hispanic undergraduate women, and examine the effect …

Assessing Drought-Induced Change In A Pi\Xd1on-Juniper Woodland With Landsat: A Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis Approach, William Brewer

Geography ETDs

Piñon-juniper communities exist on mid-elevation mountain ranges throughout the southwestern United States. Drought adapted, these species have lived with climatic stochasticity since the end of the Pleistocene. However, increasing temperatures and drought within the last two decades have stressed this community beyond its adaptive limits. With increased drought-induced stress, piñon show greater vulnerability to die-off than juniper. Widespread piñon die-off occurred during 2002-2004 from extreme drought in northern New Mexico with minimal juniper die-off. This study quantified the differential piñon and juniper mortality during the 2010-2013 drought at a site in central New Mexico by performing multiple endmember spectral mixture …

"Crimes Against The Order Of The Family, Public Morality, And Decency": Sexual Violence And Jurisprudence In Coahuila, Mexico, 1871-1931, Sandra Elizabeth Lara

History ETDs

This study focuses on how institutions, the law, and litigants of sexual crimes interpreted estupro (seduction/deflowering), rape, and incest crimes in the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila during 1871-1931. The dissertation explores the diverse ways that liberal legislation proved disadvantageous to women and especially young girls. By taking a regional approach, I examine the role that Coahuila's courtroom practices and laws had on the adjudication of sexual crimes. I argue that despite the liberal lawmakers' intents to modernize criminal law, women and children were not protected from sexual predators. During the study's period, two pieces of national legislation that governed …

Belize’S Chiquibul Forest Under Threat From Illegal Timber Loggers, Louisa Reynolds

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

My Brother, My Slave: The Social And Cultural Role Of Slavery Among The Navajo, Neil Dodge

History ETDs

This thesis concerns the lives of captives taken by the Navajo people during the 1846-1863-time period in New Mexico. The goals of this work are two-fold: First, to expand upon the available literature regarding the captivity experience of people taken in raids or conflict and to explain those captives roles within a Navajo context. The second goal addresses the need for more study of American Indian practices regarding slavery, particularly through the use of American Indian oral tradition and stories. This has been accomplished through the use of a comparative slavery analysis with another global indigenous culture. Further, through the …

"Basically Intelligent:" The Blind, Intelligence, And Gender In Argentina, 1880-1939, Rebecca Ann Ellis

History ETDs

My dissertation examines the links between disability, intellectuality, labor and gender in Argentina between 1887 and 1939. It demonstrates how intellectual capacity and education created distinctions between the blind and other disabled populations. Those distinctions helped organizations for the blind acquire private and public resources for projects designed to make the blind independent through occupational training. However, the same arguments that aided organizations drove debates over the definition of independence for the blind. Sighted activists believed education would diminish the dependency of the blind on their families and social services through the sale of small crafts. Blind leaders believed that …

Everything Is Drag: The Politics Of Performing Beautiful Women In Cold War Chile, Carson Emily Morris

History ETDs

This dissertation examines productions, consumption, and performances of female bodies, genders, and sexualities in Chile under changing Cold War political regimes from 1950-1990. Drawing on deconstructionist and performance approaches, I consider the multiple, changing ways Cold War Chilean cisgender and transgender women performed their femininity as part of racialized nationalist projects, analyzing laws and government documents, contemporary print media, television, film, literature, cabaret and theater performances, and oral histories and testimonies of female, queer, and transgender Chileans, including cabaret artists and nightclub owners. My focus on nonreproductive sexuality tells a new story of women in Latin America, of queerness in …