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"Think Of The Situation In A Positive Light": A Look At Cognitive Reappraisal, Affective Reactivity And Health, Jessica Chloe Maras

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

How individuals regulate their emotions is critical for maintaining health and well-being. For example, reframing a stressful situation in a positive light, a form of cognitive reappraisal, is beneficial for health and well-being outcomes. However, it is currently unclear why this relationship exists. One potential mechanism could be how one emotionally reacts to stressors in daily life, termed affective reactivity. The current study examined longitudinal associations that spanned 20 years between cognitive reappraisal and health outcomes and subjective well-being and if affective reactivity mediated this relationship. Participants completed waves 1-3 of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Survey series …

Effects Of An Online Insomnia Intervention On Sleep And Alcohol Consumption, Justin Verlinden

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) and insomnia are highly comorbid, due in part to the use of alcohol as a sleep aid among individuals with insomnia. Initial studies have shown that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), the first-line treatment for insomnia, is moderately successful at improving both sleep and drinking outcomes in heavy drinkers with insomnia. However, CBT-I is expensive and not widely available. Online CBT-I could be a more accessible alternative. One online CBT-I program, Sleep Healthy Using the Internet (SHUTi), is especially promising due to its high efficacy in treating insomnia and its individualized and interactive platform. Here …

Examining The Impact Of Discrete And Contextual Stress Factors On Memory, Jillian Rae Silva-Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Stress is a complex and multifaceted process which is often not perceived as such. Therefore, given the unidimensional conceptualization of stress in previous research the current understanding of the associations between stress and memory are not well understood. This study investigates the association between stress and memory by capturing the complexity of stress through discrete and contextual stress factors. The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and geocoded indices (i.e., zip codes) of population density (i.e., urbanicity) and deprivation (socioeconomic disadvantage) in a large and diverse sample of U.S. participants (N = 8817) to examine the relationship between …

Predicting Sexual Offense Treatment Completion Through Specific Responsivity Factors, Blain Cameron Stumpf

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Sexual offending is a serious, harmful, and costly behavior that impacts the safety of a community (Barros et al., 2020; Peterson et al., 2017; Severson & Pettus-Davis, 2013). To improve community safety and reduce further harm, several specialized treatments have been developed to rehabilitate individuals convicted of a sexual offense (ICSO). Recent meta-analytic studies have suggested that specialized cognitive-behavioral treatments for ICSO do in fact lead to a reduction in sexual recidivism (Gannon et al., 2019; Harrison et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2016). To increase engagement with and completion of treatment programs, and subsequently to reduce the risk of …

Legal Issues In Tribal E-Commerce, Adam Crepelle

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Empirical Evidence On Robot Taxation: Literature Review And Technical Analysis, Bret N. Bogenschneider

American University Business Law Review

The literature on robot taxation has continued to expand since 2018 with numerous articles now referring to empirical evidence. The evidence presented in prior studies comprises abstract modeling and statistical pattern reviews with no statistically significant findings reported to date. Notably, one article is an advocacy piece by a tech lobbyist who at one point purchased priority Google results for the search "robot taxation." In some cases, technical errors are sufficient to reverse the stated results. Examples of error in empirical analyses include (i) motivated reasoning, such as the failure to model simpler or best explanations; (ii) lack of causal …

An Originalist Victory, J. Joel Alicea

Scholarly Articles

Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey are no more. Like Plessy v. Ferguson before them, Roe and Casey were constitutionally and morally indefensible from the day they were decided, yet they endured for generations, becoming the foundation of a mass political movement that did all it could to prevent their overruling. Thus, like the overruling of Plessy, the overruling of Roe and Casey was by no means inevitable; it was the result of a half-century of disciplined, persistent, and prudent political, legal, and religious effort. The victory in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was earned by …

Long Covid And Medical Gaslighting: Dismissal, Delayed Diagnosis, And Deferred Treatment, Larry Au, Cristian Capotescu, Gil Eyal, Gabrielle Finestone

Publications and Research

While we know a lot more about Long Covid today, patients who were infected with Covid-19 early on in the pandemic and developed Long Covid had to contend with medical professionals who lacked awareness of the potential for extended complications from Covid-19. Long Covid patients have responded by labeling their contentious interactions with medical professionals, organizations, and the broader medical system as “gaslighting.” We argue that the charge of medical gaslighting can be understood as a form of ontological politics. Not only do patients demand that their version of reality be recognized, but they also blame the experts who hold …

Creating An Interpretive Edition Of "Sage And Spirit", Michael Crowley

Publications and Research

This paper reports on a practice-based research project designed to create a critically edited score of Bob Weir’s Sage and Spirit for solo guitar. Since no score exists for the piece, potential performers must first go through the time-consuming process of transcription as a way to learn how it works. This may deter potential performers who are either unfamiliar with the Dead’s music or lack formal training to undertake this preliminary work. This project was designed as an attempt to bridge the gap between what musical information is available through published sources and the concerns of the music’s potential performers. …

Vicks In The Classroom: A Study On The Effects Of Teacher Cultural Awareness On Hispanic/Latinx Student Discipline, Arthur A. Maldonado

Dissertations

With the booming Hispanic/Latinx populations nationwide, particularly in the state of California, the disproportionate disciplining of this student population for minor infractions such as defiance is an issue that has persisted for many decades. Therefore, to better inform this phenomenon, a historical perspective and critical look into the cultural awareness of teachers was examined throughout this research. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the relationship between middle school teacher cultural awareness and the disciplining of Hispanic/Latinx students in the schools being studied. The findings in this study reveal cultural perceptions from teachers that current body of research …

Servicer's Duty To Respond Upon Receipt Of Borrower's Notice Of Error Concerning Its Management Of A Loan, Ilayna Guevrekian

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") makes sure that borrowers "are treated fairly by banks, lenders, and other financial institutions." The Department of Housing and Urban Development implemented Regulation X in 1975, which incorporated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act ("RESPA") and designated the CFPB with rule-making authority to ensure compliance under this Act. This congressional response "to [the] perceived abuses in real estate settlement process" attempted to "protect consumers from unnecessarily high settlement charges resulting from those abuses."

A qualified written request ("QWR") is written correspondence from the borrower to servicer, including the identity, name, and account of …

Subsequent Transferee’S Good Faith For Value Defense: The Second And Ninth Circuit’S Perspective, Alexa Schimp

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Under section 548(a)(1) of title 11 of the United States Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”), a trustee may “avoid any transfer . . . incurred by the debtor, that was made or incurred on or within 2 years before the date of the filing of the petition” if there is either an “actual intent” fraudulent transfer or a “constructive” fraudulent transfer. The trustee, however, may not recover if a subsequent transferee can satisfy the good faith for value defense and demonstrate that it “t[ook] for value . . . in good faith, and without knowledge of the voidability of the …

A Transformative Framework To Investigate The Influences Of Chineseness On Chinese International Students’ Learning Experiences On U.S. College Campuses, Wenjin Guo

Dissertations

This study applied a mixed-methods, social-justice approach to explore how Chinese international students interpret their success and/or challenges influenced by their Chinese forms of community cultural wealth in their academic learning at a predominately White Catholic university in the Midwest of the United States for over one year. I adopted a transformative paradigm to guide my study. Since the reviewed theoretical frameworks solely failed to form a profound comprehension of how Chineseness influenced Chinese international college students, I analyzed essential components of socio-cultural and critical race theories and created China as Method as the framework to guide my study.

This …

Things Of Beauty: Aesthetics For Environmental Education, Annie Schultz

Dissertations

As environmental crisis looms large, most agree that human reeducation is necessary in order to improve our relationship to the natural environment. Yet, there is currently no comprehensive interdisciplinary philosophy of education for environmental awareness. While there is writing in the field of philosophy of education on ecologizing education and literature which draws connections between aesthetic education and the appreciation of nature, there is little literature on the explicit ways in which aesthetic and art education can inform environmental justice initiatives. This dissertation examines aesthetic and art education’s relationship to the environment and how aesthetics can inform a moral relationship …

Things Of Beauty: Aesthetics For Environmental Education, Annie Schultz

Dissertations

As environmental crisis looms large, most agree that human reeducation is necessary in order to improve our relationship to the natural environment. Yet, there is currently no comprehensive interdisciplinary philosophy of education for environmental awareness. While there is writing in the field of philosophy of education on ecologizing education and literature which draws connections between aesthetic education and the appreciation of nature, there is little literature on the explicit ways in which aesthetic and art education can inform environmental justice initiatives. This dissertation examines aesthetic and art education’s relationship to the environment and how aesthetics can inform a moral relationship …

Comparison Of First-Time Neurocognitive Baseline Cognigram Assessments Between American And Brazilian Professional Bull Riding Athletes, Peter Wang

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the first-time neurocognitive concussion baseline outcomes, using the Cognigram assessment software, between American and Brazilian professional bull riders. The analysis was performed using the database provided by the Professional Bull Riding Association Sports Medicine staff. The Cognigram assessment measures and analyses four outcomes: Psychomotor Function, Attention, Learning, and Working Memory Speed. The study examined the test outcomes of 210 professional bull riders (150 American, 60 Brazilian). A one-way multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to determine if there a significant difference in the four assessment outcomes when comparing the country of …

Facing The Mass Exodus: Reconsidering The Moral Responsibilities For And Obligations Toward Large Numbers Of Refugees In An Age Of Global Crises, Muhammet Ali Asil

Dissertations

The global refugee crisis has revealed an essential moral question regarding helping the forcibly displaced persons in protracted refugee crises: how do we determine if our community has done “enough” for a particular refugee group? Different answers have been provided to this question. This dissertation takes up this question from a normative standpoint. It develops an ethics-based burden-sharing model, that is, a “meaning-based model,” as a method to determine our political communities’ moral duties toward different refugee groups in various refugee crises. The model challenges the conventional wisdom by claiming that not every community has the same moral obligations toward …

An Ethics Of Doctrinal Emergence: Reading Newman With Augustine And Contemporary Information Theory, Jeffrey John Campbell

Dissertations

Jeffrey J. CampbellLoyola University Chicago AN ETHICS OF DOCTRINAL EMERGENCE: READING NEWMAN WITH AUGUSTINE AND CONTEMPORARY INFORMATION THEORY The aim of this essay is to begin the process of a reconfiguration of the theological category of doctrinal development and to integrate an “emergent doctrinal ethics of belief” as an inextricable dimension of this category. Most scholarly writing on doctrinal development has taken place in the wake of the Enlightenment with its focus on epistemology, and doctrine is conceived of as “referencing” a quasi-metaphysical “res.” I attempt to “update” the guiding metaphors of doctrinal development with the goal of moving discussions …

An Interpretive Phenomenological Study Of Women’S Struggles, Hopes And Reasons For Participation In Professional Power-Based Community Organizing In Chicago, Mary Dungy-Akenji

Dissertations

Mary K. L. DungyLoyola University Chicago AN INTERPRETIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF WOMEN’S STRUGGLES, HOPES AND REASONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL POWER-BASED COMMUNITY ORGANIZING IN CHICAGO Professional power-based community organizing is a practice of grassroots change in which paid organizers guide community members as they band together to make demands on elite groups to redistribute resources (Bobo et. al, 2001; Sites et al., 2007). Conflict-based tactics may be utilized to demand structural improvements from key stakeholders, usually towards progressive political ends that build towards a more just society (Bobo et. al 2001; Wilkinson & D’Angelo, 2019). Community organizing has some roots …

Attempting Genetic Inference From Directional Asymmetry During Convergent Hindlimb Reduction In Squamates, Samantha Swank, Ethan Elazegui, Sophia Janidlo, Thomas J. Sanger, Michael A. Bell, Yoel E. Stuart

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Loss and reduction in paired appendages are common in vertebrate evolution. How often does such convergent evolution depend on similar developmental and genetic pathways? For example, many populations of the threespine stickleback and ninespine stickleback (Gasterosteidae) have independently evolved pelvic reduction, usually based on independent mutations that caused reduced Pitx1 expression. Reduced Pitx1 expression has also been implicated in pelvic reduction in manatees. Thus, hindlimb reduction stemming from reduced Pitx1 expression has arisen independently in groups that diverged tens to hundreds of millions of years ago, suggesting a potential for repeated use of Pitx1 across vertebrates. Notably, hindlimb reduction based …

Discordant Population Structure Among Rhizobium Divided Genomes And Their Legume Hosts, Alex B. Riley, Michael A. Grillo, Brendan Epstein, Peter Tiffin, Katy D. Heath

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Symbiosis often occurs between partners with distinct life history characteristics and dispersal mechanisms. Many bacterial symbionts have genomes comprising multiple replicons with distinct rates of evolution and horizontal transmission. Such differences might drive differences in population structure between hosts and symbionts and among the elements of the divided genomes of bacterial symbionts. These differences might, in turn, shape the evolution of symbiotic interactions and bacterial evolution. Here we use whole genome resequencing of a hierarchically structured sample of 191 strains of Sinorhizobium meliloti collected from 21 locations in southern Europe to characterize population structures of this bacterial symbiont, which forms …

Gut Dysbiosis In Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma Is Characterized By Shifts In Relative Abundances Of Specific Bacterial Taxa And Decreased Diversity In More Advanced Disease, Madeline J. Hooper, T.M. Lewitt, Y. Pang, F.L. Veon, G.E Chlipala, L. Feferman, S.J. Green, D. Sweeney, K.T. Bagnowski, Michael B. Burns, P.C. Seed, J. Choi, J. Guitart, X.A. Zhou

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Background Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) patients often suffer from recurrent skin infections and profound immune dysregulation in advanced disease. The gut microbiome has been recognized to influence cancers and cutaneous conditions; however, it has not yet been studied in CTCL.ObjectivesTo investigate the gut microbiome in patients with CTCL and in healthy controls.MethodsA case-control study was conducted between January 2019 and November 2020 at Northwestern’s busy multidisciplinary CTCL clinic (Chicago, Illinois, USA) utilizing 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing and bioinformatics analyses to characterize the microbiota present in fecal samples of CTCL patients (n = 38) and age-matched healthy controls (n …

Bias Mitigation For Toxicity Detection Via Sequential Decisions, Lu Cheng, Ahmadreza Mosallanezhad, Yasin N. Silva, Deborah Hall, Huan Liu

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Increased social media use has contributed to the greater prevalence of abusive, rude, and offensive textual comments. Machine learning models have been developed to detect toxic comments online, yet these models tend to show biases against users with marginalized or minority identities (e.g., females and African Americans). Established research in debiasing toxicity classifiers often (1) takes a static or batch approach, assuming that all information is available and then making a one-time decision; and (2) uses a generic strategy to mitigate different biases (e.g., gender and racial biases) that assumes the biases are independent of one another. However, in real …

Biocatalytic Intramolecular C−H Aminations Via Engineered Heme Proteins: Full Reaction Pathways And Axial Ligand Effects, Yang Wei, Melissa Conklin, Yong Zhang

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Engineered heme protein biocatalysts provide an efficient and sustainable approach to develop amine-containing compounds through C−H amination. A quantum chemical study to reveal the complete heme catalyzed intramolecular C−H amination pathway and protein axial ligand effect was reported, using reactions of an experimentally used arylsulfonylazide with hemes containing L=none, SH−, MeO−, and MeOH to simulate no axial ligand, negatively charged Cys and Ser ligands, and a neutral ligand for comparison. Nitrene formation was found as the overall rate-determining step (RDS) and the catalyst with Ser ligand has the best reactivity, consistent with experimental reports. Both RDS and non-RDS (nitrene transfer) …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Oxidative Stress-Induced Corneal Damage And The Use Of Antioxidants And Therapeutics, Anita Kirti Ghosh

Dissertations

Dry eye disease represents an urgent unmet clinical need. This dissertation explores the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of ocular surface disease in small and large animal models and provides feasibility for the development of antioxidants as novel therapeutics for dry eye disease. Dry eye disease affects 50 million Americans every year, and costs about $55 billion annually in the USA. The disease manifests as ocular irritation, burning, foreign body sensation, and blurry/cloudy vision. While it is widely accepted that oxidative stress plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of the disease, little is understood about the underlying molecular mechanisms. The purpose …

A Phenomenological Study Of Catholic Priests Working And Headteachers In Government - Funded Catholic Secondary Schools, Joseph Kaye

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the skills, behaviors and lived experience of priests who are headteachers in government-funded Catholic secondary schools in Butare Catholic diocese. This study might help the bishop and diocesan policy makers in identifying the type of formation, skills and behaviors priests need to be effective headteachers in Catholic schools. To achieve the purpose of this study, I used a phenomenological methodology to collect and analyze the data. The participants in this study are priests who are headteachers in government-funded Catholic secondary schools of Butare Catholic diocese. The major goals of …

Imagining Otherwise: Designing And Implementing A High School Writing Center, Sheldon Cale Krieger

Dissertations

This study explored the work of planning and opening a new high school writing center in a school with a student population predominantly of students of color. The action research study occurred over the first twelve weeks of the writing center opening to better understand how such work might begin to disrupt oppressive systems and structures inherent in the school site as well as education at large. The arts-based methodology included daily reflective journals, a series of four collages, and document analysis. The study utilized critical imagining as its theoretical framework by combining tenets of critical race theory (CRT) with …

Las Chingonas: An Ecological Approach To Latina Student Mothers’ Journey Through College, Emely Elizabeth Medina-Rodriguez

Dissertations

Women with children are one of the growing student sub-populations in higher education. However, the support student mothers receive in colleges and universities has been historically unreliable and their experiences in college have not been studied in depth. This is especially true for student mothers from minoritized backgrounds with differing racial, ethnic, sexual, gender, and ability identities. This research aims to understand the experiences Latina graduate student mothers from an ecological and critical perspective. Guided by Critical Human Ecology and Black Feminist Thought, eight open-ended interviews were conducted and analyzed. Themes and categories came out of the patterns in the …

Unlocking Desistance: The Role Of Executive Functioning In The Rehabilitation Of Correctional Populations, Danielle Nesi

Dissertations

In a secondary analysis of data collected by Fishbein and Sheppard (2006), the current study sought to explore the relationships among age, executive functioning and antisocial behavior (e.g., changes in institutional infractions, self-reported aggression and reactivity) among a sample of incarcerated men enrolled in a correctional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program between 2003 and 2005. Specifically, the current study examined whether baseline executive abilities predicted misconduct and whether this relationship was mediated by treatment engagement. The relationships among age, treatment engagement, and changes in executive functioning post-treatment were also considered. It was predicted that improvements in executive functioning would vary …

Leveraging Moral Foundations To Increase Covid-19 Vaccination, Cara Elizabeth Ray

Dissertations

Despite the vast majority of the eligible U.S. adult population being vaccinated against COVID-19, geographical clusters of unvaccinated individuals pose a substantial risk of outbreak. It is important to encourage as many individuals as possible to vaccinate against COVID-19 to reduce its spread and severity. Past research has identified endorsement of the purity and liberty moral foundations – intuitive domains of moral concern – as predictors of vaccine hesitancy and political conservatism, while conservatism is itself associated with vaccine hesitancy. Across two online surveys, I examined the effects of a message invoking the purity and liberty foundations as well as …