Digital Commons Network^™

Parent And Guardian: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Sexual And Gender Minority-Affirming Caregivers, Kelly Marie Davis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies consistently demonstrate that sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth experience mental health disparities when compared to their heterosexual, cisgender peers due to identity-based stressors (Meyer, 2003). Given the startling rates at which this population experiences mental health challenges, there has been an ever-increasing focus on prevention and intervention efforts to promote resilience and well-being among SGM youth. Over the past several decades, scholars studying resilience in development have identified the importance of effective caregiving in buffering against adversity. However, little is known about the specific practices that caregivers of SGM youth might employ to strengthen their relationships and to …

Neurological Evidence For The Contextindependent Multisensorial Semantics Of Ideophones In Pastaza Kichwa: An Fnirs Study In The Ecuadorian Amazon, Dan Dewey, Jeffrey J. Green, Janis Nuckolls, Auna Nygaard, Tod D. Swanson

Faculty Publications

Ideophones – imitative words using the stream of speech to simulate/depict the rise and fall of sensory perceptions and emotions and temporal experiences of completiveness, instantaneousness, and repetitiveness – have been characterized as semantically empty and context dependent. The research reported here tested a simple schematic for the semantic categories of Pastaza Kichwa ideophones by tracking neurological responses to ideophones categorized as VISUAL, MOTION, and SOUND. Seventeen native speakers of Pastaza Kichwa listened to audio clips of ideophones extracted from sentential contexts. Subjects’ neural activity was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results demonstrate that these posited semantic categories activate areas …

Agriculture Against The Wall: Barriers And Opportunities For Agroecological Transitions In California’S Industrial Agricultural Landscapes, Estelí Jiménez-Soto, Madeleine Fairbairn, Joji Muramoto, Carol Shennan

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Agroecology emphasizes a shift from low diversity, high chemical input farming to more biodiverse agroecosystems cultivated in conjunction with natural ecosystem processes and embedded in socially just relationships. Yet achieving such agroecological transitions presents enormous challenges in industrial agricultural landscapes dominated by consolidation and overproduction. We examine both the challenges and the opportunities for agroecological transition in one particular industrial agricultural context: the fumigant-dependent strawberry production of California’s Central Coast. We do so by exploring adoption of Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD), an agroecological alternative to fumigation which has shown considerable promise but has been historically underutilized. Building on previously identified …

Mangroves Of The Warm Temperate Northwest Atlantic, Daniel A. Friess, Ena L. Suárez, Anna R. Armitage, Cheryl Doughty, Laura C. Feher, Ilka C. Feller, Alejandro Fierro, Kara R. Radabaugh, Lorae T. Simpson, William C. V Vervaeke, Carlos Zamora-Tovar

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The ‘Mangroves of the Warm Temperate Northwest Atlantic’ province is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of Carolinian and Northern Gulf of Mexico. The biota is characterized by 3 species of mangroves: Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa, and Rhizophora mangle, and 1 mangrove associate Conocarpus erectus, though not all species are equally distributed throughout the province. Mangroves in this province cross the USA and Mexico and are quite unique, as they exist at the latitudinal range limit of the mangrove ecosystem. The majority of mangroves in this province are …

Integrating Remote Sensing With Ground-Based Observations To Quantify The Effects Of An Extreme Freeze Event On Black Mangroves (Avicennia Germinans) At The Landscape Scale, Melinda Martinez, Michael J. Osland, James B. Grace, Nicholas M. Enwright, Camille L. Stagg, Camille L. Stagg, Simen Kaalstad, Gordon H. Anderson, Elena A. Flores, Alejandro Fierro-Cabo

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Climate change is altering the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Quantifying ecosystem responses to extreme events at the landscape scale is critical for understanding and responding to climate-driven change but is constrained by limited data availability. Here, we integrated remote sensing with ground-based observations to quantify landscape-scale vegetation damage from an extreme climatic event. We used ground- and satellite-based black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) leaf damage data from the northern Gulf of Mexico (USA and Mexico) to examine the effects of an extreme freeze in a region where black mangroves are expanding their range. The February 2021 …

Managing Inter-Organizational Trust And Risk Perceptions In Transboundary Fisheries Governance Networks, Evelyn Roozee, Dongkyu Kim, Antonia Sohns, Jasper R. De Vries, Owen Temby, Gordon M. Hickey

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Transboundary fishery management represents a significant governance challenge that requires ongoing inter-organizational communication, collaboration, and collective action to ensure sustainability. Previous research suggests that different dimensions of perceived risk, trust, and control interact in complex ways to affect inter-organizational collaborative performance, providing an administrative ‘architecture’ that enables partners to share resources, engage in teamwork, resolve conflict, and coordinate tasks and responsibilities while also allaying their concerns about the alliance. However, the extent to which different control mechanisms influence trust and mitigate the perceived risks of collaboration between the diverse organizations involved in transboundary fisheries management remains unclear. This paper presents …

State Of Utah, Plaintiff/Appellee, V. Jared Lynn Talbert, Defendant/Appellant.: Brief Of Appellant

Utah Appeals Court Briefs

Appeal from two counts of object rape, first -degree felonies; two counts of forcible sodomy, first-degree felonies; and two counts of forcible sexual abuse, second-degree felonies, in the Fourth Judicial District, Utah County, the Honorable Kraig Powell presiding

State Of Utah, Plaintiff/Appellee, V. Jared Lynn Talbert, Defendant/Appellant.: Brief Of Appellee

Utah Appeals Court Briefs

Appeal from two counts of object rape, first -degree felonies; two counts of forcible sodomy, first-degree felonies; and two counts of forcible sexual abuse, second-degree felonies, in the Fourth Judicial District, Utah County, the Honorable Kraig Powell presiding

State Of Utah, Plaintiff / Appellee, V. Raymond Shay Defendant / Appellant.: Appellant’S Opening Brief

Utah Appeals Court Briefs

On appeal from the Third Judicial District Court, Salt Lake County,

Neoclassical Production, Scarcity Of Skills And Pareto Distributions, Armando R. Lopez-Velasco

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

The distribution of top earnings follows a “power-law”: the top tail of the distribution is thick relative to other distributions and is approximately Pareto-distributed. There are different mechanisms proposed in the literature that yield Pareto distributions and power-laws. This paper shows that a simple general equilibrium model where aggregate production is assumed of the constant-elasticity-of-substitution (CES) type over multiple labor inputs generates distributions in earnings and wages that follow power-laws. The finding is very general as the distribution of the skill-types is irrelevant for the shape parameter (the Pareto exponent) of the power-law. The model displays a tight relationship between …

Morphometry Of The Superior Ophthalmic Vein Unaffected By Dilating Factors, Farida Mehrhoff, Melissa Zolnierz, Alla Barry, Shelby Kuhnert, Mary Kilmer, Dmitry E. Tsyplakov, Robert Hillard

Faculty and Staff Publications

Context:
Data on the superior ophthalmic vein (SOV) dilation captivate the attention of neurologists as an early sign of several neurovascular disease manifestations, but measurements vary widely in publications.

Aims:
This study attempts to shed light on disparate data and develop more stringent criteria for determining the dilation of these veins.

Settings and Design:
To this end, 44 orbits of 25 formalin-embalmed human cadavers without risk factors for SOV dilation were dissected.

Materials and Methods:
The SOV branching pattern and length were photographed, and multiple segments were analyzed microscopically, histologically, and statistically.

Statistical Analysis Used:
Simple descriptive statistics as well …

Opioid Use Disorder In Missouri: An Evidence-Based, Public Health-Oriented Approach, Benjamin Grin

Faculty and Staff Publications

Opioid use disorder (OUD) represents a growing public health crisis in Missouri and nationwide. Reversing the trend of rising OUD-associated morbidity and mortality will require implementing evidence-based approaches grounded in public health principles. Key evidence-based interventions include medications for opioid use disorder, naloxone distribution, overdose education, and syringe services programs. The increasing presence of fentanyl and xylazine in the drug supply represent new challenges to the OUD crisis in Missouri. Optimal implementation of evidence-based interventions will require action at the individual physician, community, and state policy level.

Mitigating Risk: Predicting H5n1 Avian Influenza Spread With An Empirical Model Of Bird Movement, Fiona Mcduie, Cory T. Overton, Austen A. Lorenz, Elliott L. Matchett, Andrea L. Mott, Desmond A. Mackell, Joshua T. Ackerman, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Vijay P. Patil, Diann J. Prosser, John Y. Takekawa, Dennis L. Orthmeyer, Maurice E. Pitesky, Samuel L. Díaz-Muñoz, Brock M. Riggs, Joseph Gendreau, Eric T. Reed, Mark J. Petrie, Chris K. Williams

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Understanding timing and distribution of virus spread is critical to global commercial and wildlife biosecurity management. A highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIv) global panzootic, affecting 600 bird and mammal species globally and over 83 million birds across North America (December 2023), poses a serious global threat to animals and public health. We combined a large, long-term waterfowl GPS tracking dataset (16 species) with on-ground disease surveillance data (county-level HPAIv detections) to create a novel empirical model that evaluated spatiotemporal exposure and predicted future spread and potential arrival of HPAIv via GPS tracked migratory waterfowl through 2022. Our model was …

Developing A Strategy For Synergy Between Home And Church To Increase Youth Engagement And Faith Formation At Barriere Adventist Church, Timoteus Nagy

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

There was no intentional synergistic relationship between the home and the church at the Barriere Adventist Church. As a result, church leaders often expressed discouragement when they saw teens become disengaged with church and spirituality. They suggested that the root problem of this symptom was the lack of cooperation between the two faith-forming institutions in keeping young people engaged and growing in their faith. As a pastor, I saw this deficiency and our urgent need for change.

Method

A six-month action research strategy was designed and delivered at the Barriere Adventist Church. Twenty members from every generational cohort were …

To Assimilate And Nurture Newly Baptized Members In The 9 Mile Seventh-Day Adventist Church Through An Intergenerational Approach, John Gunua Nebare

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The 9 Mile Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the biggest churches in the city Port Moresby. It has been discovered that many young people and some adults who were baptized into the 9 Mile SDA Church in the last ten years no longer attend church. According to overall General Conference statistics, 9 Mile SDA Church’s local conference has been losing members over the last ten years.

Method

The research was conducted using the established research protocols. Three types of research were conducted: focus groups involving both active and non-active members; a major research survey of one hundred people …

Volo Foundation Lecture: Science, Free Speech, And Public Choice, Bret Stephens

FIU Law Review

In an era where science, free speech, and public choice clash, the historical unity between these pillars, as envisioned by America's founding fathers, is obscured. Examining Thomas Jefferson's reverence for Bacon, Locke, and Newton, reveals a past where reason and freedom intertwined. However, contemporary challenges, epitomized by the pandemic response, illustrate a divergence. Amidst censorship and expert dominance, the vital role of public scrutiny emerges. Acknowledging the fallibility of experts and embracing free speech as essential for reasoned discourse becomes imperative. To restore the balance, humility from scientific institutions, a renewed appreciation for free speech, and public courage are necessary …

Tarnished Gold: The Endangered Species Act At 50, Jonathan H. Adler

FIU Law Review

The ESA is arguably the most powerful and stringent federal environmental law on the books. Yet for all of the Act’s force and ambition, it is unclear how much the law has done much to achieve its central purpose: the conservation of endangered species. The law has been slow to recover listed species and has fostered conflict over land use and scientific determinations that frustrate cooperative conservation efforts. The Article aims to take stock of the ESA’s success and failures during its first fifty years, particularly with regard the conservation of species habitat on private land. While the Act authorizes …

Granting Rights To Rivers In The Shadow Of Extractivism, Helena Alviar Garcia

FIU Law Review

In Colombia, the Atrato River, situated in the region of Chocó, was granted rights in a 2016 ruling. More than ten other rivers have been granted rights in the following years. This judicial intervention has been influenced by other jurisdictions where rights have been granted to rivers like New Zealand and India. The article situates itself within this trend by providing a more granular, local context. In particular, the goal is to foreground the structural characteristics—specifically the historical, economic, and social centrality of extractivism—within which granting rights to nature takes place. The final objective will be to explore the possibilities …

The Influence Of The Spanish Legal System And Socialist Legal Systems On Cuban Civil Law, María Elena Cobas Cobiella

FIU Law Review

The essay “The influence of the Spanish legal system and socialist legal systems on Cuban civil law” fulfills an old desire to analyze how the current Cuban civil law has been shaped. The work addresses the influence of the law of the former socialist countries and Spanish law in the configuration of current Cuban civil law.

The Spree Of Principles And The Abuses Of The Balancing Doctrine In Brazil, Ronaldo Porto Macedo

FIU Law Review

This article delves into the nuanced distinction between principles and rules in legal discourse, emphasizing their differing grammatical functions. While acknowledging the necessity of principles in legal reasoning, it cautions against their unchecked proliferation, exemplified by the Ellwanger case. The analysis underscores the importance of contextual understanding in discerning between principles and policies, advocating for a philosophical-political reflective approach. It critiques the overreliance on balancing-proportionality as a universal method, warning against its potential for dogmatic reduction and infringement on fundamental rights like freedom of expression. Ultimately, it calls for a balanced, reflective interpretation of principles to mitigate the risks inherent …

Endogenous Glucocorticoid Signaling Is Required For Normal Macrophage Response To H. Pylori Infection, Stuti Khadka

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Gastric cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, affecting millions of people. H. pylori is the strongest risk factor for gastric cancer, with about 90% of the cases strongly associated with H. pylori infection. Half of the world's population is infected with this bacterium. However, only a small subset of the infected population (1-3 %) go on to develop gastric cancer. Diagnosis of the disease at an early stage is the biggest challenge because of the widespread prevalence of H. pylori infection and a long asymptomatic phase before the advanced stages. Patients are left with limited treatment …

Dynamic Exchange-Correlation Functional For Bandgap Optimization: Reparametrization And Machine Learning, Viviana Faride Dovale Farelo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores predicting the physical properties of solids using first-principles methods, with a focus on Density Functional Theory (DFT). DFT uses the electronic density within a material to predict its properties, simplifying the treatment of electron-electron interactions and allowing the study of realistic systems with a balanced treatment between accuracy and computational efficiency. Additionally, machine learning (ML) is employed to create correlations between some physical properties of solids and other properties or parameters that are more difficult to calculate.

The main problem addressed in this study is adjusting the parameters in the Strongly Constrained and Appropriately Normed (SCAN) semilocal …

A Balancing Act: Microrna Mediated Insect-Bacterial Homeostasis And The Tsetse Fly, Mason Hubbard Lee

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Microbial symbioses are ubiquitous across all kingdoms of life with broad and diverse impacts on the evolution of species. The sum of all microbes living in, on, or otherwise in close association with a host form the microbiota. In some cases, the development of a stable microbial association seems to have been necessary for the specialization of diet, as can be observed in numerous insect species, especially wood-eating, sap-feeding, and blood-feeding organisms. For the medically and economically tsetse fly (family Glossinidae), the mutualistic bacteria Wigglesworthia glossinidia is required for proper reproduction and supplementation of nutrients that the fly does not …

The Additionality Double Standard, James Salzman, David A. Weisbach

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Carbon offsets are widely criticized for lacking additionality. The public debate, how- ever, has failed to recognize that the problem of additionality goes far beyond offsets. It arises any time the government subsidizes an activity. Programs with longer histories than offsets and far more money at stake offer valuable lessons for managing lack of additionality in offsets. The article sets out the current efforts to prove offset additionality, explains why major gov- ernment programs present comparable additionality challenges, and show why other programs’ problems of additionality are perceived as significantly different than those for offsets. We examine the toolkit used …

Property Moves: Assembling Service Streams, Lee Anne Fennell

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

In this essay, I consider how we might retrofit property rights to meet modern urban and environmental challenges, which have foundationally rewritten property’s job description. The way forward requires attending to the beneficial services that resources provide, and to the central role of assembly (and reassembly) in generating and sustaining those service streams. To that end, I catalog a repertoire of “property moves” aimed at the moving target of resource optimization. While these moves can be pursued in limited ways within our current property framework, pursuing them in concert at scale requires ownership that is built for ongoing reconfiguration. I …

The Function Of Protein Glutamylation In Vision, Rawaa Aljammal

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Posttranslational glutamylation of protein has emerged as a novel candidate for cellular integrity. In a dynamic process, Tubulin Tyrosine Ligase Like proteins (TTLLs) introduce glutamate groups to their substrates, while Cytosolic Carboxypeptidases members (CCP1-CCP6) remove these glutamate groups. The outcome of this interplay is a wide range of substrates; each is glutamylated to a level crucial for its function.

Protein glutamylation is particularly abundant in neurons and in the axoneme of cilia and flagella. This distribution, along with the correlation between imbalanced glutamylation levels and compromised cellular functions, underscores the significance of protein glutamylation in maintaining cellular viability. However, the …

A Mixed Methods Approach To Evaluation And Modeling Of Ergonomic Stressors Due To Mass Decedent Handling, Vaishakhi Suresh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Work-related injuries, illnesses, and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) significantly impact the U.S. healthcare industry, leading to lost working days, high medical costs, and increased turnover rates among healthcare workers (HCWs). Increased physical and mental health risks due to the handling of deceased during COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues. While the ergonomic risks of patient handling are well-studied, limited research exists on the ergonomic risks of manual handling of the deceased. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to explore the challenges associated with decedent handling so that effective safety interventions to reduce the risk of injury and mental distress …

An Observational Census Of Post-Merger Galaxies And Supermassive Black Hole Pair Evolution, Gregory Walsh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Massive galaxy mergers are a fundamental consequence of the dynamic evolution of the Universe and play a central role in the evolution of galaxies. Because all massive galaxies harbor a central supermassive black hole (SMBH; M ≥ 10⁶ M_⊙), studying these merging systems with electromagnetic (EM) techniques constrains galaxy evolution models and provides a systematic means to examine the astrophysical mechanisms that facilitate the growth of SMBHs. These growing SMBHs are observable across the EM spectrum as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Massive galaxy mergers are a natural formation mechanism for an SMBH pair, eventually evolving into an …

Light Wavelength Modulates Search Behavior Performance In Zebrafish, Matthew Reid Waalkes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Long-term internal states drive many behaviors in animals. Zebrafish is a common vertebrate model conducive to finding the neural coding to these behaviors. In the Horstick lab, the larval zebrafish light search behavior is central to our research. This behavior, which is the locomotor response to the loss of light in larval zebrafish, is controlled by multiple neural populations that drive different internal states. The sensory neurons initially responsible for this behavior are photosensitive due to the expression of light-absorbing proteins called opsins. Opsins vary in the ranges of wavelengths of light that they absorb, and are expressed in distinct …

Reconstructing Δ14c Production Events Using Tree Rings: Does Tree Physiology Affect Estimates Of Atmospheric Δ14c?, Meagan Rory Walker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Cosmic rays and solar energetic particles (SEP) bombard the Earth’s geomagnetic field, posing a threat to satellites, space stations, and human space exploration. These rays and particles also produce radiocarbon (¹⁴C) in Earth’s atmosphere, thus records of past ¹⁴C concentration in the atmosphere may be indicative of past cosmic and solar activity. Rapid increases in the concentration of atmospheric radiocarbon ¹⁴C, (Miyake events) first identified in tree rings, are thought to be a result of solar eruptive activity triggering the release of solar energetic particles, though the precise nature of past events remains unresolved. The first …