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Parakupa Vena - Fall From The Highest Point, Mariana Parisca Englert

Theses and Dissertations

This document is a collection of the ideas and research that drive my artistic practice. My research focuses on investigating the power structures, historical roots, and existential implications of the current Venezuelan economic crisis, one of the most drastic economic collapses of modern times. The ideological rifts created in the Cold War era created a deep anti-socialist sentiment that inhibits our ability to responsibly acknowledge global interdependence. I visualize collective belief systems that gain power from their proposed neutrality. I point to the existence of value beyond the parameters and measures of global capitalism that encourage dependence. I see the …

It’S Funny Because It’S True: The Transmission Of Explicit And Implicit Racism In Internet Memes, Tabitha Fairchild

Theses and Dissertations

Video games are traditionally seen as the domain of heteronormative white males. The purpose of this study is to explore how racism is transmitted and reproduced within digital communities, and how humor is being used to frame racist discourse in virtual spaces. Digitally, internet memes are widely used rhetorical vehicles, reaching large and broad audiences. The roles these artifacts play in the reproduction and transmission of racist ideology is often obfuscated by the perception that internet memes are "just jokes." This study analyzes internet memes collected from 16 months of communication between members of Discord servers that self-identify as communities …

Investigation Into The Reaction Profile Of A Bioinspired Nickel Complex, Denver Heitger

Theses and Dissertations

Metal complexes that can activate natural oxidants like H₂O₂ and O₂ have become a key research topic in many labs in hope of mimicking nature, by generating a bioinspired complex that can perform unique chemistry through green processes. To prepare the perfect catalyst, this has lead scientists to explore numerous avenues, including the use of both natural and artificial oxidants, to tease apart the reaction pathway taking place. A ligand system dear to the Lucas Lab (13-DOB) has been metalated with nickel, a cheap and earth abundant transition metal. Our bioinspired metal-(di)oxygen adducts can be formed …

Comparing Coastal Storm Impact To Decadal Change In Barrier Island Ecosystems, Philip A. Tuley

Theses and Dissertations

Highly dynamic coastal systems respond to disturbance events with a combination of topographic and vegetative changes. Sea level rise impacts on barrier islands have been quantified, but storm effects on vegetation are limited. Here we quantified barrier island vegetation change in response to an isolated storm event and compared to long-term periods. We hypothesized that disturbance-resisting areas with high woody vegetation cover and/or high foredune elevation would experience minimal transitions after a storm event, whereas disturbance-reinforcing areas with low vegetation cover and low foredune elevation would experience greater transitions between ecosystem states after a storm event. Patterns of dissonance were …

A Story About A Girl With Snakes For Hair, Kate M. Turner

Theses and Dissertations

My work is autobiographical. I use various art making processes to create a visual archive of my life. By abstracting these memories and experiences, I can examine how culture works surrounding issues of identity. This is my story.

The Program, Aaron Douglas Estrada

Theses and Dissertations

In my work, I explore the engineering of identity and socioeconomics that are programed into Black and Brown communities. I refer to this as “The Program”. The Program validates, breaks, codes, and critiques the system that divided us. The Program is identifying with the struggle of growing up in a system that is programmed to see you fail. So if you get caught up in that system it’s a natural death within the program. But you can break and make your own program. If you stick to the program.

The paper's use of language is coded. Text has been written …

Predators And Principles: Think Tank Influence, Media Visibility, And Political Partisanship, Timothy Beryl Bland

Theses and Dissertations

By some measures, the major U.S. political parties have become more extreme in their political positions in recent decades, and scholars have raised concerns about whether the policy expertise provided by today’s think tanks has become similarly partisan and polarized. Furthermore, there is a perception that certain overtly partisan and highly visible think tanks wield considerable and growing influence over the policy platforms of the major U.S. parties, using their media presence to shape public and policymaker views of particular issues. Using publicly accessible tax, media, and congressional data, my proposed study assesses the extent to which media visibility and …

A Meta-Analysis Investigating The Correlation Between Treatment Integrity And Youth Client Outcomes, Ruben G. Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The relation between treatment integrity and youth client outcomes in psychosocial treatment research has implications for therapist training, study design, and study interpretation. Despite work done in this area, this relation remains unclear. The aim of the current study was to meta-analyze and describe characteristics of investigations of integrity and outcome in youth.

Method and Analytic Plan: A total of N = 30 studies were identified. Conceptual and methodological factors were coded. Pearson’s r represented the magnitude of the integrity-outcome correlation. Robust variance estimation was used to account for dependency of within-study effect sizes. Two models were run with …

Biophysical Characterization Of Mphr(A) And A Novel Clarithromycin Selective Mphr(A), Megan R. Reed

Theses and Dissertations

Transcription factor, MphR(A), can be used in the aid for new antibiotic discovery in the form of biosensors. This dissertation discusses the role of MphA in our biosensors as well as the a newly discovered MphR(A) variant with specificity to the semi-synthetic clarithromycin.

I See God Everywhere, Jason Wright

Theses and Dissertations

I would like to share with you how I was able to shed my suffering skin for a life beyond my wildest dreams. My work is about the letting go, my work is about altering perception, my work is about exploring the depths of one’s psyche. My experience is there in every atom of my output and is there for the taking.

Blaise Pascal said “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” I am not well-read in the works of Pascal, I became aware of this quote through HBO’s hit period drama …

Why We Use A New Currency: The Role Of Trust And Control In Explaining The Perception And Usage Of Bitcoin, Joseph B. Walton

Theses and Dissertations

Social media, e-commerce, global peer-to-peer technologies, and the near ubiquity of computers and smartphones allow people to interact, trust, and exchange value across traditional socio-economic control boundaries and over significant distances. Since the creation in 2008 of a new cryptographic currency system called Bitcoin, a financial technology market sector of about 250 billion USD has rapidly emerged, raising questions about the nature of currency in society and whether new types of non-national money are warranted and viable. This debate has pitted heterodox economic interests against orthodox economic interests while it has rekindled interest in theories that view money as a …

The Impact Of Aging And Mechanical Injury On Alveolar Epithelial And Macrophage Responses In Acute Lung Injury And Inflammation, Michael S. Valentine

Theses and Dissertations

Patients with severe lung pathologies, such as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), often require mechanical ventilation as a clinical intervention; however, this procedure frequently exacerbates the original pulmonary issue and produces an exaggerated inflammatory response that potentially leads to sepsis, multisystem organ failure, and mortality. This acute lung injury (ALI) condition has been termed Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury (VILI). Alveolar overdistension, cyclic atelectasis, and biotrauma are the primary injury mechanisms in VILI that lead to the loss of alveolar barrier integrity and pulmonary inflammation. Stress and strains during mechanical ventilation are believed to initiate alveolar epithelial mechanotransduction signaling mechanisms that contribute …

How Many Licks, Ashley Goodwin

Theses and Dissertations

Arts communities are currently reevaluating and restructuring power dynamics within their systems to accommodate a broader range of experience and subjectivity. However, the forces of control are still largely dictated by a broader patriarchal culture. This complicated, tangled dynamic is the focus of my research. Female artists who make work about men or about patriarchy more generally, are consistently subjected to its influence as the dominant cultural experience—the invisible “truth” that everything either is, or acts in reaction to its position. In reality, patriarchy is no longer gender specific. I will be addressing my relationship to it as well as …

Epigenetic Regulation Of Drug Metabolizing Enzymes In Normal Aging, Mohamad M. Kronfol

Theses and Dissertations

Geriatric populations are at a higher risk for adverse drug reactions (ADRs). This may be partly due to changes in drug metabolism in old age, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Prior research in humans and mice has shown age-associated changes to the expression of several genes involved in drug metabolism. Furthermore, studies of human blood showed that epigenetic regulation of genes encoding drug metabolizing enzymes change with age. However, it is unknown if genes in the liver are similarly affected. Therefore, we hypothesize that genes encoding drug metabolizing enzymes may show differential epigenetic regulation in the liver with …

Probing Vibrational Wave Packets In Organophoshorous Molecules Using Femtosecond Time-Resolved Mass Spectrometry (Ftrms), Derrick Ampadu Boateng

Theses and Dissertations

The study of organophosphorus and nitroaromatic compounds is essential due to their suitability as models for understanding the dynamics of radiation induce damage to DNA sugar-phosphate backbone, and the detection of chemical warfare agents as well as nitroaromatic explosives (such as TNT). The ultrafast dynamics of these polyatomic radicals were studied using femtosecond time-resolved mass spectrometry (FTRMS), a versatile method that is capable of monitoring the ultrafast dynamics of rapid dissociation in the gas phase after the removal of an electron. The method uses a technique called pump-probe, which makes use of two time-delayed laser pulses. In this work, the …

3-D Homology Modeling Of Organic Anion Transporters (Oats): Defining The Biochemical Basis For Oat-Substrate Interactions, Christopher Jay

Theses and Dissertations

A goal in the drug development process, as indicated by the FDA, is to evaluate a drug’s ADME profile, as potential drug interactions could exist, leading to adverse drug reactions or loss of efficacy. Transport proteins, specifically organic anion transporters (OATs) are involved in the absorption, distribution, and elimination of small, negatively charged compounds. Although there is an exhaustive list of structurally diverse organic anions which interact with OATs, interactions at a molecular level are still shrouded in mystery particularly due to the lack of a solved crystal structure. Therefore, in silico homology models (hOAT1, 2, 3) were generated using …

Invariance And Invertibility In Deep Neural Networks, Han Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Machine learning is concerned with computer systems that learn from data instead of being explicitly programmed to solve a particular task. One of the main approaches behind recent advances in machine learning involves neural networks with a large number of layers, often referred to as deep learning. In this dissertation, we study how to equip deep neural networks with two useful properties: invariance and invertibility. The first part of our work is focused on constructing neural networks that are invariant to certain transformations in the input, that is, some outputs of the network stay the same even if the input …

Signaling Mechanism Responsible For 5-Ht2a Receptor Tolerance To Psychedelic Induced Head-Twitch Behavior In Mice, Audrey R. Mcmurtrie

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in psychedelic compounds stemming from their promising use as therapeutic agents and research tools that can be used to treat and study several neuropsychiatric disorders. Psychedelics have proven useful in a broad range of these diseases - they serve as models for psychosis in schizophrenia but have also had promising results in treating major depressive disorder, anxiety, and other common disorders. Decreased stigmatization surrounding psychedelics has further increased their use in research and clinical settings. In light of these trends and the promising nature of their use, a thorough understanding of …

Role Of Clic4 And The Synaptic Transcriptome In The Behavioral And Molecular Neurobiology Of Ethanol, Rory M. Weston

Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a prevalent neuropsychiatric disease with profound health, social, and economic consequences. With an estimated 50% heritability, identifying genes that engender risk and contribute to the underlying neurobiological mechanisms represents an important first step in developing effective treatments. Gene expression studies are an important source of candidate genes for studying AUD, providing windows into the molecular machinery engaged by the brain in response to ethanol. Published studies have identified chloride intracellular channel 4 (Clic4) as an ethanol-regulated gene in brain capable of modulating sensitivity to sedation in multiple species. The functions of Clic4 are …

Robert Cowley: Living Free During Slavery In Eighteenth-Century Richmond, Virginia, Ana F. Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the life of Robert Cowley, a formerly enslaved man living free during slavery in eighteenth-century Richmond, Virginia. The first chapter examines Cowley’s enslaved life through the records of others. The data collectors and historians of early America did not intend to capture the truth of Black people’s American experiences, except as defined their enslavement--people in service to the wealth-building capacity of the nation. Yet the lives of Black people who lived in proximity to prominent whites can be glimpsed in a variety of records and writings from account books to deeds, from private letters to newspaper advertisements. …

The Impact Of Registered Apprenticeships On The Middle-Skills Gap In Virginia, Yolanda Macklin Crewe

Theses and Dissertations

The skills gap debate has raged among scholars and policymakers for the last few decades. The key questions are whether the gap exists, the extent of the gap and how to minimize the gap. Of particular concern is a skills gap for middle-skills occupations. Since 2014, the federal government has invested over $500 million in registered apprenticeships as a strategy to address the skills gap. Likewise, Virginia has invested over $7.5 million and implemented policies such as VA Executive Order 49 (EO49), to expand registered apprenticeships as a workforce strategy to diminish the skills gap.

The goal of this research …

Language-Supportive Strategies And Their Associations With Child Language Outcomes During Instructional Time, Erin S. Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I conducted a correlational study that examined the frequency of educator-delivered language-supportive strategies during instructional time in public Kindergarten classrooms. Additionally, I explored the association between educators’ use of language-supportive strategies and child language outcomes. To index child language, I assessed a sample of 96 children from 10 different classrooms on standardized measures of expressive and receptive language. I recruited 10 educators to participate in the present study and assessed their use of language-supportive strategies during instructional time in the classroom through transcription and coding of audio recordings. The educators completed demographic forms for themselves as well …

Measuring The Impact Of Perceptions Towards Performance-Based Cash Rewards On Performance In Federal Agencies: Testing The Role Of Public Service Motivation As A Causal Chain, Layla F. Alanazi

Theses and Dissertations

Significant research has demonstrated how public service motivation (PSM) predicts individual outcomes, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and choice of employment sector. Other research has demonstrated how PSM serves as an outcome variable. Between these two strands of PSM research, there is a knowledge gap concerning how PSM acts as a mediator. This study contributes to the growing literature on PSM by proposing and testing a causal model that estimates the direct effect of perceptions towards performance-based cash rewards on performance as well as their indirect effect through their influence on PSM, which then influences individual and organizational performance. …

Novel Bayesian Techniques For Dose Response Data, Faten Alamri

Theses and Dissertations

All forms of life are being exposed to different levels of harmful chemicals that can cause various and serious side effects. Toxicological experiments enable researchers to test these chemicals on animal to determine their major effects. Although optimal and acceptable dose levels have been investigated, researchers continue to strive to minimize side effects and the chemical dosages. Dose-response models and other benchmark approaches play a role in determining the acceptable exposure levels of hazardous chemicals. Parametric techniques, used to determine the tolerable dosages, utilizing ANOVA and non-linear regression models are well represented in the literature. We determined the benchmark dose …

Psychological Effects Of Reading: The Role Of Nostalgia In Re-Reading Favorite Books, Margaret A. Kneuer

Theses and Dissertations

There are many positive outcomes from feeling nostalgic, including reductions in loneliness and greater meaning and social connectedness. My primary research goal was to investigate whether I could trigger feelings of nostalgia from re-reading an old favorite book, and whether this elicited nostalgia would increase feelings of connectedness and meaning in life and reduce loneliness. I designed a two-study package (one correlational study and one experiment) to assess re-reading novels. Trait nostalgia was positively associated with enjoyment of re-reading books (Study 1). Re-reading a favorite novel, relative to reading a new novel or a set of newspaper articles, elicited nostalgia. …

Novel Duel Mtor Inhibitors/Ampk Activators Improve Therapeutic Efficacy Of Doxorubicin And Ameliorate Its Associated Cardiotoxicity In Mice, Sahak Eric Hovsepian

Theses and Dissertations

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particularly aggressive subset of breast cancer that has a molecular expression profile which lacks the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (ER), and human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2). No targeted treatment options currently exist for TNBC, unlike other types of breast cancer, and therefore survival rates are far lower for these patients. The current treatment for TNBC is systemic anthracycline chemotherapy, typically doxorubicin (DOX), which has great clinical efficacy in increasing survival. However, DOX induces a dose-dependent progressive cardiomyopathy, which can present years and up to decades after the last treatment. This …

A Microlongitudinal Study Of Menopause Symptoms And Problematic Eating In Midlife Women, Dana R. Schreiber

Theses and Dissertations

Women in midlife are at risk for engagement in problematic eating behavior which is associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes. Despite this risk, little is known about precipitating factors that may increase risk in this population. One specific, yet unstudied, factor that may increase risk for problematic eating in midlife women is menopause, which is characterized by distinct symptomatology (e.g., vasomotor symptoms, negative mood, sleep). The purpose of the current study was to investigate the associations among psychological, behavioral, and social symptoms of menopause and problematic eating behavior in midlife women using both retrospective and prospective methodologies. As …

Effects Of Gestational Ozone Exposure On Privileged Placental And Brain Barrier Integrity, Alexander I. Hamm

Theses and Dissertations

Ambient outdoor ozone, a common of component of photochemical smog and urban air pollution, is linked to various neurological and vascular pathologies. Its immediate reaction with lung surfactant after inhalation results in complete reactivity of the gas, with no active ozone passing into circulation. This indicates the presence of secondary and tertiary mediators in ozone-related systemic pathologies after pulmonary insult. In vasculature, ozone exposure is associated with an acute hypertensive phenotype apparent at least 24 hours after dose, such as experienced on a hot summer afternoon in a large metropolitan area like Los Angeles or Mexico City. However, the effects …

An Integrated Exploration Of The Contextual, Relational, And Individual Factors That Impact High School Completion Among African Americans, Lesley B. Winchester

Theses and Dissertations

African American students are consistently reported as having among the lowest high school graduation rates when compared to other races (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). While many studies have sought to explore the potential risks of high school dropout, the intention of this study is to examine the factors that support the exemplary resilience of those students who do complete high school. The present study adopts the framework of García Coll et al.’s, (1996) integrative model of developmental competencies in minority children, as it seeks to identity whether and how contextual (spiritual, educational, cultural); relational (caregiver psychological and physical …

Mef2-Bound Genes May Influence Ethanol Sedation In Drosophila Melanogaster, Katlyn M. Myers

Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a global health issue that affects millions of people every year. This disorder has serious negative mental and physical consequences. Currently, treatment options for this disorder are largely limited to psychological therapy, with very few medications available to treat it. Being able to identify the environmental and genetic components that influence AUD can help improve diagnosis and treatment options. Previous studies in humans have shown a link between initial sensitivity and risk for alcohol abuse. Our laboratory uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study the genetic and environmental components of alcohol-related behaviors. Previous lab …