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Shaping Beauty, Claiming Authenticity: Gender, Work, And Immigration Experiences Of Low-Wage South Asian Immigrant Women Workers, Soulit Chacko

Dissertations

Based on in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews and participant observations in immigrant women run beauty salon, this dissertation illuminates the lived experiences of low-wage, majority Muslim, immigrant women from Pakistan and India. The study brings attention to the experiences of low-wage work and answers three central questions: (a) How is race, class, and gender reproduced within the ethnic beauty salon?; (b) How do immigrant women working in the ethnic beauty salon self-identify themselves through the work they do?; and finally (c) How does the beliefs, ideas, and practices within the beauty salon space shape how women present themselves as immigrants and …

The Situational Context Of Safety Culture From The Perspective Of Medical-Surgical Staff Nurses And Nurse Leaders In A Hospital, Lisa Harton

Dissertations

People enter into healthcare facilities to maintain or restore health; however, often times those seeking health are harmed during the process by avoidable medical errors. Since the Institute of Medicine report on patient harm, safety culture continues to be the largest barrier in realizing safer patient care. Staff nurses' comprise the largest component of the health care workforce in hospitals and consistently have the lowest perceptions of a safety culture. Leaders who play a key role in creating and sustaining a safety culture consistently have the most favorable perception of safety culture. The development of a safety culture and safer …

Human Isocitrate Dehydrogenase Enzymes, Joseph Valentein Roman

Dissertations

Mammals have three forms of isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) that each catalyze the oxidative decarboxylation of isocitrate forming alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG), carbon dioxide and reduced pyridine nucleotide. The intra-mitochondrial, citric acid cycle enzyme is ICDH III that exists as a hetero tetramer and uses NAD+ as a substrate. ICDH I and ICDH II are both dimeric enzymes that reside in the cytosol and use NADP+. While, the precise function of the cytosolic ICDHs is not known, active site variants of both ICDH I and II cause a variety of cancers. The R132H variant of ICDH1 is one of the most common alterations. …

Electron Transfer Of Shewanella Oneidensis Mr-1 At Clay-Modified Ito Electrode, Reem Faez Alshehri

Dissertations

Various strategies have been established to enhance the extracellular electron transfer and energy output capability of microbial fuel cells, with the majority being aimed at anode modification. The anode has a significant impact on the electricity generation performance of MFCs because it is in direct contact with the microorganisms. The materials of the anode should be favorable for the bacterial cell and capable to facilitate the electron transfer. Developing of an electrode using low-cost and effective materials assists to enhance the bacterial cell attachment and extracellular electron transfer. This provides a significant improvement in MFC performance. In this study, clay …

Parenting Capacity And Meaning Making Among Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Johanna Engler Barry

Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation used a feminist methodology to explore parenting capacity and meaning making among a purposive sample of 16 female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). The two research questions that guided this work centered on how women's exposure to IPV during both childhood and adulthood impacted parenting capacity. All participants for this dissertation experienced IPV during childhood as well as adulthood, and had at least one school-aged child. Participants completed semi-structured in-person interviews during which they were asked a series of questions about their experiences with IPV during childhood and adulthood as well as questions about their parenting …

Making Moral Judgment More Responsive Via Constraints On Moral Beliefs, Principles, And Convictions, David Bukenhofer

Dissertations

A moral judgment is the conclusion of a psychological process, and a moral belief is thecognitive content resulting from it. Some experiences constrain the moral beliefs, principles, and convictions from which moral judgments are causally formed. If these experiences are associated with an underlying belief, principle, or conviction, they add context to it. Acquiring new contextual information through experience prompts reflection, which leads to the development of new morally relevant reasons. I hold that moral beliefs, principles, and convictions typically are involved in the formation of moral judgments, and that moral judgments typically are formed on the basis of moral …

Changing Concepts Of Merit In China's Education System: An Oral Historical Research Of Teachers In Key Schools, Yao Chen

Dissertations

This study examines teachers' views of meritocracy and how their conceptions and views influence their everyday practices in schools with regard to producing, recognizing, and awarding individual merit in China's key schools. This study uses a qualitative methodology, especially oral history interviews. It shows that the meaning of merit has changed over time, depending on cultural and institutional contexts during China's transition from Mao's age to the present. Thirteen teachers, who have been working in the education system of China since the early 1980s, and who have worked as teachers in China's key (magnet/elite) schools (including higher education institutions), were …

Cellular And Molecular Mechanism Underlying Alcohol Inhibition Of Bone Fracture Healing, Jonathan Michael Eby

Dissertations

Alcohol consumption is associated with increased risk taking and injuries leading to bone fracture. During bone fracture repair mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) located at the site of injury differentiate into chondrocytes and osteoblasts to form a fracture callus. While most fractures heal without complication, studies show that alcohol abuse can lead to delayed fracture healing and fracture callus formation in both people and animals. Despite what is known about alcohol consumption in pre-injury pathologies like osteopenia and osteoporosis, the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which alcohol consumption inhibits fracture callus formation following orthopaedic injury remain to be elucidated. Here, we …

A Poetics Of Violence: Representations Of Violence As Storytelling And World-Building Tools Of The Theater, Richard Gilbert

Dissertations

This dissertation explores how representations of violence do dramaturgical work in theatrical production. Playwrights write scenes of violence, and directors and designers stage them, with specific dramaturgical goals in mind. The project of this work is to develop a theoretical framework for understanding how productions use representations of violence. Ideally, that framework will be of use both to critics seeking to analyze productions with violence and to practitioners who want to more consciously shape their own use of violence.

Representations of violence create a sudden change in the audience's affective experience of the fictional world. I call that sudden change …

Humanity In The Classroom: An Exploration Of Race In Teacher Behavior And Interaction With Students, Briellen Elizabeth Griffin

Dissertations

The hyper-surveillance of Black students has been well documented by educators and researchers across disciplines and reflects an increase in calls for research that examines the reproduction of racial inequality in educational spaces. To contend with the presence of antiblackness in the classroom is fundamentally about recognizing the humanity of Black students and interrogating the ways that they are dehumanized by racialized structures and social interactions. To examine antiblackness and humanity in the classroom, I conducted a critical collaborative case study with six teachers from an elementary school in a diverse Midwestern school district. I engaged BlackCrit Theory to examine …

Reducing Inequality And Poverty In Latin America: Conditional Cash Transfer Programs In Chile, Colombia, And Mexico, Jorge Humberto Guzman Gonzalez

Dissertations

Latin America is the most unequal region across the globe. Inequality has increased the election of populist leaders and has resulted in massive social movements and protests in the region. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 2000s, a process of inequality reduction started in the majority of the countries. Since the end of the 1990s, a large number of Latin American countries were the world pioneers developing Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs), to put money in the hands of the poor with the conditions of school attendance and nutritional check-ups for their children. Most of the studies have analyzed the effectiveness …

Estrogen Regulation Of Mir-9-5p And Mir-9-3p Stability And Localization In The Aging Female Brain, Chun Kim

Dissertations

In females, levels of estrogens fluctuate across the lifespan and rapidly decline during menopause. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been introduced as a clinical alternative to replenish systemic levels of 17β-estradiol (E2), the primary estrogen in circulation. However, studies from the Women's Health Initiative revealed a critical period immediately following the onset of menopause where HRT is efficacious. Here, we identified the differential regulation of miRNAs, small non-coding RNAs that inhibit translation, as a potential mechanism for this temporal switch in estrogen action. Specifically, early - but not late - E2 administration following ovariectomy in a rat model of menopause …

Determining The Genetic And Phenotypic Profile Of Cord Blood Derived T Regulatory Cells And The Effect Of Calcitriol On Immune Suppression, Anya Nikolai-Yogerst

Dissertations

Recent outbreaks in vertically transmitted viruses, such as Zika virus and HIV, have rejuvenated interest in fetal and neonatal immune tolerance. Babies are susceptible to vertically transmitted viruses because fetal and neonatal immune systems are considered to be immune-privileged and will tolerate antigens presented to them by their mother. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of this tolerance is important to design effective treatments for infected mothers to protect their offspring. Here, I define a novel Treg, a type of T cell that mediates tolerance, named bidirectional T cells (BiT), found in human umbilical cord blood (UCB). These cells are induced by …

Factors Associated With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy And Quality Of Life Among Type 2 Diabetes Patients In Saudi Arabia, Awatef Ibraheem

Dissertations

Evidence has suggested that diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is associated with decreased quality of life (QoL) and impaired physical and emotional health. About 82% of the diabetic population in Saudi Arabia show signs of DPN. However, it is under-recognized and undertreated. Further, DPN is linked to several clinical and metabolic risk factors. However, there is minimal evidence from Saudi Arabia on the impact of DPN on the individual's QoL. The aims of this current study were to (1) examine the impact of DPN symptoms on functioning, health perception, and QoL and (2) explore the biologic and individual factors associated with …

Victims Of Child Sex Trafficking: Are U.S. Pediatricians Ready To Identify, Assess, Treat And Protect Them?, Bidisha Sinha

Dissertations

The trafficking of children for commercial sexual exploitation is a gross violation of human rights and a global, public health issue that is rapidly growing and prevalent. Due to the clandestine nature of this crime and the general lack of public knowledge about it, identifying and protecting victims of child sex trafficking (CST) is fraught with challenges. Therefore, it is imperative that healthcare professionals - often the only professionals with whom CST victims come in contact while in captivity - are properly educated and trained on this topic. A literature review reveals there is little knowledge about pediatricians' education and …

Modernism's Legacies: Forms, Feelings, And Figures, Shelby Sleevi

Dissertations

My dissertation, entitled "Modernism's Legacies: Forms, Feelings, and Figures," explores American modernism's legacies within contemporary fiction, not only as a set of aesthetic trends but also as a looming and influential mythos. Whether the practices and concerns of early twentieth-century literary modernism are evoked through obvious allusion, explicit reference, or strong resonance on the level of narrative, the contemporary texts in my discussion together attest to modernism's continued influence on and relevance for our current era. Tracing the legacies of William Faulkner, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, and Vladimir Nabokov in the contemporary fictions of Edward P. Jones, Julie Otsuka, George …

The Flexible Impact Of Affective States On Group Decision-Making And Ideational Creativity, Young-Jae Yoon

Dissertations

Positive and negative affect are often thought to influence the cognitive performance of individuals and groups via their effects on two different dimensions of cognitive processing style: heuristic vs. systematic processing, and global vs. local attentional focus. Recently, research has suggested that the effects of affective states on the analytic and creative performance of individuals depend on the relative dominance of heuristic vs. systematic processing (for analytic performance) and of a global vs. local attentional focus (for creative performance) just prior to the affect's arousal (Huntsinger, Isbell, & Clore, 2014; Huntsinger & Ray, 2016). Extending this individual-level evidence to small …

Postconviction Innocence Review In The Age Of Progressive Prosecution, Elizabeth H. Webster

Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Article examines how prosecutors adopt legal standards, how they evaluate both forensic and non-forensic new evidence of innocence, and how and when they acknowledge innocence—all in the context of the highly discretionary postconviction arena.

The Role Of Rewards Leaders In Corporate Social Responsibility And Sustainability, Dow Scott, Ewa Beck-Krala, Katarzyna Klmkewicz

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Findings From Two Decades Of Total Rewards Research: What Worldatwork Members Have Taught Us, Tom Mcmullen, Dow Scott

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Fiona J. Griffiths, Nuns’ Priests’ Tales: Men And Salvation In Medieval Women’S Religious Life, Tanya Stabler Miller

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This work is a review of the book Nuns’ Priests’ Tales: Men and Salvation in Medieval Women’s Religious Life, written by Fiona J. Griffiths.

Climate Change And Global Security, Nathan Jones, John P. Sullivan

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And Hybrid Warfare Strategies, Chad M. Briggs

Journal of Strategic Security

Concepts of hybrid warfare and climate security are contested on their own, and are rarely considered as connected in planning for future security risks. Yet climate change presents new hazards for national security, and opportunities for those looking to foment instability and uncertainty in traditional institutions. This article examines the connections between climate change risks and hybrid war strategies, and focuses on concepts of resilience targeting, information warfare, and geoengineering, illustrating that ‘full spectrum’ analyses of security are necessary in developing future security strategies.

Climate Change, Environmental Terrorism, Eco-Terrorism And Emerging Threats, Paola Andrea Spadaro

Journal of Strategic Security

The footprint of human advancement has accelerated a climate variability with no precedents, further driving devastating natural and social events. The decrease in basic resources like water, has already been identified as a driver of violent conflicts, which have given way to the strengthening of terrorist organizations that used the environment as a tool of coercion. The damage caused to the earth’s ecosystem has additionally raised a wave of defensive activism that was initially considered as eco-terrorism. While the original eco-movements had not induced fatalities, recent extremist organizations are showing a more violent anti-progress and pro-environment agenda. Added to these, …

Climate Change, Water Scarcity, And The Potential For Interstate Conflict In South Asia, Michael T. Klare

Journal of Strategic Security

Ever since American security analysts began to consider the impact of global warming on international security, water has been viewed as an especially critical factor. In many parts of the developing world, water supplies are already insufficient to meet societal requirements, and, by shrinking these supplies further, climate change will cause widespread hardship, unrest, and conflict. But exactly what role water plays in this equation has been the subject of considerable reassessment over time. When analysts first examined warming’s impacts, they largely assumed that climate-related water scarcities would most likely provoke conflict within nations; only later did analysts look closely …

Environmental Crime In Transnational Context: Global Issues In Green Criminology. By Toine Spapens, Rob White, & Wim Huisman. New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2016., William Dittmann, Ph.D.

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Between Five Eyes: 50 Years Of Intelligence Sharing By Anthony R. Wells. Havertown, Pa: Casemate Publishers. 2020., Mark T. Peters Ii

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Notes From The Field: Culturally Adapted Research Methods For South Asian Participants, Erum Agha, Abha Rai

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

South Asian immigrants form one of the largest immigrant groups in the United States. However, they remain understudied despite their large presence in the country. They are often lumped with other Asians or classified under the category "other" in national studies, which leads to a limited knowledge about this group. To address this methodological challenge, a representative multi-site sample of South Asian participants must be recruited to participate in research studies so their unique issues can be studied appropriately. This paper discusses best practices and culturally responsive ways of conducting ethical research with this unique population and delineates specific recruitment, …

Your Goals And You - Don’T Let Your Goals Get (To) You …. Before You Can Get To Them!, Shweta Singh

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

What is the one thing you can count on as far as goals are concerned? Not one thing but many things and secondly- your goals are similar to goals of many people around the world, who (interestingly enough) have really nothing in common with you. And finally- that is because how we decide our goals, has very little to do with what is inside us and more about the surrounding influences.

Just lean back and think about how much you are taught and selectively exposed to - by way of opinions, ideas, thoughts about what an ideal life is? Who …

Narrative Readings Of The Religious Authorities In John: A Response To Urban C. Von Wahlde, Christopher W. Skinner

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The third fascicle of New Testament Studies in 2017 contained an article by Urban C. von Wahlde in which he critiqued contemporary narrative readings of the religious authorities in the Fourth Gospel. In this article, I respond to some of his claims by (1) pointing out specific concerns he has overlooked, and (2) providing a counterpoint to some of his broad claims about contemporary narrative-critical readings of the Fourth Gospel.