Digital Commons Network^™

The Capabilities Approach To Metaphysical Personhood, Mohnish Shah

CMC Senior Theses

It is accepted that humans are persons, but what does this mean? Society equates personhood with legal rights, moral worth, and metaphysical status. But exactly what makes us persons and distinguishes us from non-persons? What does our conception of this distinction and the value and rights we grant to persons but not to non-persons say about the type of creature that we are?

Many philosophers have tried to define metaphysical personhood. However, this thesis argues that current accounts of metaphysical personhood are inadequate. Next, this thesis borrows and modifies Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach to human dignity in order to construct …

Il Contrapasso Nell’Inferno Di Dante Alighieri: Un’Analisi Del Contrapasso Attraverso Francesca Da Rimini, Conte Ugolino, E Lucifero, Liv Allegra Baker

CMC Senior Theses

In his Divina Commedia, Dante Alighieri uses the contrapasso as an instrument to administer justice to the sinners in Inferno. The law of the contrapasso mandates that the punishments inflicted upon the sinners in Inferno respect the nature of the sins that they committed on earth. In Dante’s afterlife, the contrapasso is the means to fulfill the sinners’ ultimate destinies, as determined by their terrestrial choices and actions. Though he explicitly uses the term contrapasso only once, the poet invites its application in every circle of the Inferno. This thesis explores the law of the contrapasso in …

Determining The Antibacterial Activity And Mode Of Action Of Tirandamycin, Hailey Bouchard

CMC Senior Theses

Tirandamycin is a small molecule natural product that has been isolated from various species of marine and terrestrial Streptomyces. The natural product has shown antibacterial activity against an array of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, showing promise as a pharmaceutical drug. Tirandamycin has 14 known derivatives, many of which have been created synthetically. Some of its derivatives are particularly potent against the high-risk bacteria vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. However, the antibacterial potency of these derivatives has not been tested systematically leading to the possibility of discovering more potent …

Women With High Functioning Asd: Relationships And Sexual Health, Isabelle Taylor

CMC Senior Theses

Women with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are disproportionately less represented in research in comparison to their male counterparts. Some propose that this is as a result of more men having ASD and therefore the diagnostic criteria being further indicative of their gender, but regardless, it remains apparent that the need for supporting women with Autism Spectrum Disorder is just as crucial (Kreiser & White, 2014). For both genders, though, deficits in social skills and the presence of repetitive and restrictive behaviors often lend themselves to conduct seen as inappropriate or awkward within the neurotypical dating world (Hodges et …

Toward Automated Region Detection & Parcellation Of Rat Brain Tissue Images, Alexandro Arnal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

People who analyze images of biological tissue often rely on segmentation of structures as a preliminary step. In particular, laboratories studying the rat brain manually delineate brain regions to position scientific findings on a brain atlas to propose hypotheses about the rat brain, and ultimately, the human brain. Our work intersects with the preliminary step of delineating regions in images of brain tissue via computational methods.

We investigate pixel-wise classification or segmentation of brain regions using ten histological images of brain tissue sections stained for Nissl substance, and two deep learning models: U-Net and Tile2Vec. Our goal is to assess …

Towards A New Cholx Consciousness: The Visual Rhetorics Of Cholx Artistas As A Method For Social Justice Movements, Elvira Carrizal-Dukes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation study examines the Cholx subculture through the artwork of Chola artistas Paola Rascón and Vicko Alvarez Vega. Growing up, I interacted easily with Cholos and Cholas, but I also knew that in society there was an overall negative idea of Cholos and Cholas. My research advances Cholx consciousness as a method for social movements through the examination of the visual and written rhetorics by Chola artistas. For my dissertation study, I have drawn on theoretical frameworks from Chicana Feminism, Latino Critical Theory, and Social Justice Rhetorics as discussed by Dolores Delgado Bernal, Kendall Leon, Tara Yosso, Daniel Solórzano, …

Ketamine Pre-Exposure Does Not Influence Later-Life Responses To Reward-Related Stimuli In Female C57bl/6 Mice, Israel Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Preclinical work indicates that exposure to traditional antidepressant medications, in adolescent and adult female subjects, alters reward-related behavior later in life. In recent years, the anesthetic ketamine (KET), now used as a fast-acting antidepressant, has shown promising therapeutic efficacy for the management of depression. However, the potential long-term behavioral consequences of KET exposure across development have not been thoroughly assessed. Thus, to address this issue, we examined if KET exposure, during adolescence or early adulthood, results in enduring alterations in responsivity to the rewarding properties of sucrose and cocaine later in life. Specifically, female C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to …

A Comparison Of Data-Driven And Process-Based Modeling For Nutrient Estimation In A Eutrophic Reservoir, Yohtaro Kobayashi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As land use around bodies of water changes, the need to model the body of water increases. Models help to educate, understand, and predict the state of water. Process-based models are commonly used in modelling bodies of water, but there are challenges with these kinds of models. They require data which can be difficult for certain communities to obtain due to logistics or cost, are computationally intensive, technically complicated, and require calibration. In contrast, a data-driven model simply connect relationships from the data, are not as computationally intensive nor technically complicated, and do not require calibration. This research compared a …

An Analysis And Representation In An Atlas Reference Space Of Putative Appositions From Neurons Expressing Alpha-Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormone With Neurons Expressing Hypocretin/Orexin Or Melanin-Concentrating Hormone, Vanessa Inez Navarro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The hypothalamus is a brain structure at the center of a variety of regulatory functions that have been explored by scientists and clinicians for almost a century. Among these functions, metabolic regulation and the control of appetitive behaviors have been fields of intensive research. Some of the major neural substrates involved in the hypothalamic control of feeding and the regulation of metabolic state include neuronal populations that express the neuropeptides alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (αMSH), melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) and hypocretin/orexin (H/O). αMSH has been characterized in part as an anorexigenic peptide, while MCH and H/O have been characterized as having orexigenic …

Validity Of A Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Device For Analyzing Field Dust Wipe Samples For Lead, Alexander Boakye Obeng

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background and Significance. Interior dust lead loadings on floors and windowsills are reliable predictors of a child’s blood lead level and an important predictor in “clearance testing” of residences. The traditional method of determining dust lead levels on surfaces is to send dust wipe samples to a laboratory for analysis. These laboratory analyses are expensive and analysis reports typically take up to 2 weeks to complete. The portable X-ray fluorescence device has been touted as a technique that can provide fast, accurate, and precise results regarding the presence of dust lead hazards in residences but needs to be further evaluated …

Distributions Of Axons Immunoreactive For Alpha-Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone And Neurons Immunoreactive For Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase In The Hypothalamus Of The Adult Male Rat: An Analysis Of Interactions And Their Representation In An Atlas Reference Space, Eduardo Peru

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the present study, we have provided two sets of high spatial-resolution maps for neuronal populations containing the immunoreactive presence of the key feeding-related peptides hypocretin/orexin (H/O), alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (αMSH) and the nitric oxide-producing enzyme, neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). These were mapped across the mediolateral and dorsoventral extents of the hypothalamus in the Swanson rat brain atlas, from levels 23–30. The first set of these maps are of the chemoarchitectural distributions for each of the neuronal populations mentioned, which are novel in two ways. First, they were generated across multiple animals to serve as the basis for probability …

Effects Of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation On Insulin Sensitivity And Glycemic Control: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Michael James Sanchez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is an effective method to induce involuntary muscle contraction, particularly for populations that are more prone to physical incapacities and metabolic disease.

Purpose: To evaluate existing evidence to determine the effectiveness of NMES on glycemic control and insulin sensitivity.

Methods: Electronic search consisted of MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and Web of science to identify existing original research studies that investigated the effects of NMES on glycemic control and insulin sensitivity in humans. Studies that met inclusion criteria for the systematic review were then considered for meta-analysis if the studies were designed as …

Elucidating The Regulatory Mechanisms For The Cholesterol Catabolic Pathway Transcriptional Repressor Kstr Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Chenoa D. Arico

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is a bacterium that has been able to establish itself throughout evolution and is currently still an ever present threat resulting in approximately 2 million deaths per year worldwide. The ability for Mtb to utilize cholesterol as a carbon source is maintained through transcriptional regulation mechanisms not fully understood. The Rv3574 gene codes for the self-regulated TetR-like transcriptional repressor KstR that controls the expression of large clusters of cholesterol catabolic genes in Mtb. This study aims to provide insights on the regulatory mechanisms of cholesterol catabolism, which could be used as therapeutic target to treat and control …

Love, The Other And The City: Critical Analysis Of The Ethics Of Alterity In A Capitalist Society, Juan Luis Cabrera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Loving for Levinas is a desubjectivation. The one who loves is the one who does not resist the call of the Other. He who loves, according to Levinas, recognizes in the face of the migrant, the orphan, the widow, and the poor, as an inescapable responsibility. However, is this desubjectivation a possibility in capitalist cities? Capitalism is the consequence of a philosophical heritage founded in the totality of the same. Philosophy understood as “love of wisdom” places man in a position of control towards everything that surrounds him, the Other included. Everything belongs to the subject that knows the reality …

Shadows Of Yesterday, Marlene Liotti

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The year is 2020, but here we are still living in a male dominated society. We remain constantly reminded and surrounded by the mentality that certain activities and career choices are better suited for men over women. We even endure these depictions in literature, on the big screen, and on television. Action films, war movies and novels, and crime dramas show the protagonists and supporting characters as males. There are rare occasions where you may find a female actress or literary character protagonist, and when this happens, she is not depicted with the same strength, knowledge, respect, or importance. She …

Discovery Of Glycan-Based Biomarkers For Cutaneous Leishmaniasis And Chagas Disease By Reversed Immunoglycomics, Alba Lucia Montoya

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Protozoa are the causative agents of a number of diseases that affect humans and mammalian animals. Several forms of leishmaniasis are caused by different Leishmania species (Leishmania spp.), while Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). These members of the Trypanosomatidae family have characteristic glycoconjugates broadly distributed on their cell surfaces, which can be useful for diagnosis and follow-up of chemotherapy for the diseases.

Leishmania spp. expresses an “exotic” surface glycocalyx mainly composed of a number of glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins, a complex lipophosphoglycan (LPG) and a family of low-molecular mass glycoinositol-phospholipids (GIPLs), some of them …

An Autoethnography Of A Non-Traditional Student Veteran A Journey Of Transition To The Present, Ruben Paquian

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

There is a lack of research on career military student veterans in higher education. I use a layered-account autoethnographic approach (Adams et al., 2011) to recount my experience as a career military student veteran. Having spent 30-years in uniform, I felt that my perspectives could help both student veterans and career military student veterans traverse through the world of higher education while providing staff and faculty a better understanding of how career military veterans see the world. In general, veterans have difficulty trying to keep their military identity separate from their student identity. Military identities are more engrained in veterans …

El Impacto Del Covid 19 En La Industria Maquiladora Y La Nueva Normalidad, Daniela Salas Molina

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Given the current pandemic facing the entire world in 2020, this study focuses on how workers in the maquiladora industry in Ciudad Juárez were affected by this virus. This work seeks to respond to what was the impact of COVID 19 in the maquiladora industry and how workers and their families were affected? And what role did workers play in requesting protection and what measures did companies implement to protect their employees? The interest of Chihuahua and Mexico is that the maquiladora industry returns to normal as soon as possible and its production levels increase, the United States puts pressure …

A Comprehensive And Modular Robotic Control Framework For Model-Less Control Law Development Using Reinforcement Learning For Soft Robotics, Charles Sullivan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Soft robotics is a growing field in robotics research. Heavily inspired by biological systems, these robots are made of softer, non-linear, materials such as elastomers and are actuated using several novel methods, from fluidic actuation channels to shape changing materials such as electro-active polymers. Highly non-linear materials make modeling difficult, and sensors are still an area of active research. These issues have rendered typical control and modeling techniques often inadequate for soft robotics. Reinforcement learning is a branch of machine learning that focuses on model-less control by mapping states to actions that maximize a specific reward signal. Reinforcement learning has …

Sex Differences In The Mechanisms That Modulate The Neurochemical Effects Of Nicotine, Kevin Uribe

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prior behavioral studies in our laboratory revealed that overexpression of the stress peptide, corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF), in the mesocorticolimbic reward pathway enhanced the reinforcing effects of nicotine. The latter effect was greater in female versus male rats, suggesting that females are uniquely susceptible to the effects of stress on nicotine reinforcement. The goal of this dissertation was to examine the neurochemical mechanisms by which overexpression of CRF in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a terminal region of the mesocorticolimbic pathway, modulates the behavioral effects of nicotine. Specifically, we examined whether nicotine-induced dopamine levels are altered by CRF overexpression via excitatory (glutamate) …

Planty For The People: A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach To Healthy, Plant-Based Food Access In The Border Region, Marina Villegas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Access to food is an issue for many across the U.S., especially in low-income and high minority areas (Gallinar, et al., 2017). The border region of El Paso, Texas has several designated areas without access to supermarkets where residents may purchase food within a walking or short driving distance (HFAC, 2010). Researchers have linked food insecurity to nutritionally inadequate diets, which are shown to lead to obesity or other disorders like heart disease, diabetes, etc. (Marks, 2015; Craig and Mangels, 2009; Bartolotto, 2013). Food insecurity leads to an array of issues down the line that negatively affects not only health …

Impact Of Cryptococcus Neoformans Polysaccharide Capsule On Astrocytes, Yeon Hwa Woo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cryptococcus neoformans is a neurotropic, opportunistic, encapsulated, yeast-like fungus that causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis in both healthy and immunocompromised individuals. C. neoformans infects 1,000,000 people and causes 210,000 deaths worldwide annually, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. The polysaccharide capsule of C. neoformans is the fungus major virulent factor. Glucuronoxylomannan (GXM), the main component of the capsule is abundantly released into brain tissue during C. neoformans infection, causing immunosuppressive defects in the host. C. neoformans is inhaled from the environment, disseminate via bloodstream, and crosses the blood brain barrier (BBB) to cause cryptococcal meningoencephalitis (CM). Although CM causes significant mortality in HIV/AIDS patients, …

Border Crossing On Sacred Grounds: An Indigenized Decolonized Educational Research Paradigm For Use In Contemporary Globalized Schooling Systems, Estella Valles

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Presented in this work is an adapted quantitative research paradigm for use in the field of education, specifically designed for work with Indigenous/marginalized populations coined "Diachronic Research Methodology" (DRM). The model is grounded in a post-positivist, decolonization-model, that is embedded in feminist and critical race theory. DRM is presented as a counter-approach to the traditional empiricist, research methods; a process which, historically, has allowed for a limited and biased understanding of Indigenous/marginalized populations. DRM challenges Western epistemologies and worldviews which have promoted the idea of one-grand-narrative for all humans, a view argued as beyond problematic and unethical, particularly for Indigenous …

The Effect Of Waterpipe/Hookah On Platelet Function And The Impact Of Inhibition Of Gβγ Subunits On Hemostasis And Thrombogenesis, Ahmed Alarabi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abstract (Hookah)

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD’s) is a major public health problem. Among CVD’s risk factors, tobacco smoking is considered the single most preventable cause of death, with thrombosis being the main mechanism of CVD’s mortality in smokers. While tobacco smoking has been on the decline, the use of waterpipe/hookah has been rising, mainly due to the perception that they are “less harmful” than regular cigarettes. Strikingly, there are few studies on the negative effects of waterpipes on the cardiovascular system, and none regarding their direct contribution to thrombus formation. We employed a waterpipe whole-body exposure protocol that mimics real‐life human …

Does The Type Of Housing A Child Lives In Predict Blood Lead Level?, Elizabeth Alvarado Navarro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background and Significance: Childhood lead exposure continues to be a global health problem that can compromise children's long-term health. Identifying factors that predict which children may be at the highest risk of exposure is a strategy that could help focus child lead surveillance. Lead is a natural element found in small amounts in the earth's crust and has been widely used in industry and consumer products since the time of the Romans. Lead, however, is highly toxic for humans and serves no biological purpose in the human body. There is substantial evidence that, even at the lowest levels of exposure, …

Assessment Of Hydraulic And Structural Behavior Of Inundated Pavements, Mojtaba Asadi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Severe flooding events have increasingly inundated the transportation infrastructure, including road networks, across the world and the Unites States. Such extreme events induce significant ingress of water into the pavement layers, which in turn leads to structural defects due to the reduction of the shear strength and resilient moduli of the soil layers, asphalt stripping in flexible pavements, pumping effect in rigid pavements, migration of fines into drainable layers, and swelling of expansive soils. Consequently, premature pavement failure may take place that can impose unforeseen maintenance/rehabilitation costs to highway agencies. Although some experimental research studies have been conducted to assess …

Abstraction Techniques In Security Games With Underlying Network Structure, Anjon Basak

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In a multi-agent system, multiple intelligent agents interact with each other in an environment to achieve their objectives. They can do this because they know which actions are available to them and which actions they prefer to take in a particular situation. The job of game theory is to analyze the interactions of the intelligent agents by different solution techniques and provide analysis such as predicting outcomes or recommending courses of action to specific players. To do so game theory works with a model of real-world scenarios which helps us to make a better decision in our already complex daily …

Association Of A Repetitive Manual Task On Inflammatory Biomarker Expression, Heart Rate Variability And Rating Of Perceived Exertion, Daniel Conde

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) as a group of disorders involving muscles, tendons, and nerves. The WMSDs symptoms are considered the most common occupational disease, causing limitations in daily activities. Even though there is an association between repetitive manual tasks involving short work cycles, force demanding tasks, and the development of WMSDs, the specific cause of the physiological changes over a long period of time is a cause of debate. The study of mechanisms underlying the physiological changes is essential for the early detection, diagnosis, and appropriate management of WMSDs.

Insulin Restores The Neurochemical Effects Of Nicotine In The Mesolimbic Pathway Of Diabetic Rats, Bryan Cruz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examined whether insulin modulates the neurochemical effects of nicotine in the mesolimbic pathway of diabetic rats. Rats received vehicle or streptozotocin (STZ) to induce hypoinsulinemia. A subset of STZ-treated rats was implanted with insulin pellets that rapidly normalized glucose levels. Two-weeks later, dialysis probes were implanted into the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and ipsilateral ventral tegmental area (VTA). The next day, dialysate samples were collected during baseline and then following systemic administration of nicotine. Samples were also collected following intra-VTA administration of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)A receptor antagonist, bicuculline. Dopamine, acetylcholine (ACh), GABA, and glutamate levels were assessed using …

To Or Through The Skin: A Rational Design Of Transdermal Drug Delivery, Isaac Giovanni Deaguero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The skin is the largest organ in the body and plays many crucial roles through diverse functions ranging from protection, temperature regulation, energy storage via fat deposits, and is used to communicate with our surroundings. Various methods have been attempted to deliver drugs to target areas of the skin in effective dosages by a variety of means with limited success. Recently, advances in transdermal drug delivery have offered avenues previously unattainable through conventional means. Some of these new delivery methods have been reviewed, explored and offer promising results with the potential to carve a new avenue in the way therapeutic …