Digital Commons Network^™

"Not Trans Enough": A Qualitative Inquiry Of Non-Binary Individuals' Experiences Of Transphobia Within The Lgbtq+ Community, Alyssa Lombardi

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Transphobia has been well-documented to have detrimental impacts on the lives of transgender individuals. However, research typically has not focused on the experience of non-binary individuals, and particularly even less so on their experiences of within-group discrimination. This study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to understand both the experience and expression of transphobia toward non-binary people from within the LGBTQ+ community. Twelve interviews were conducted with six non-binary individuals ranging in age from 23 to 33. Each interview was analyzed and coded, resulting in four superordinate themes: The Experience of Enbyphobia, The Impact of Enbyphobia, The Expression of Enbyphobia, and The …

Developing Cellular Systems To Elucidate Rna Structural Dynamics Of Cag Expansion Transcripts In Spinocerebellar Ataxias, Victoria Demeo

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a diverse group of over 40 genetically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorders, many of which are caused by a trinucleotide CAG repeat expansion in the coding region of specific genes. These expansions lead to the production of polyglutamine (polyQ) tracts that interfere with normal protein function, triggering cellular dysfunction and contributing to disease pathogenesis. The most well-known of these SCAs, such as SCA1, SCA2, and SCA3, exhibit progressive neurodegeneration, yet the precise mechanisms through which these mutations cause disease remain poorly understood.

A significant challenge in studying CAG repeat expansion disorders lies in the complexity of the disease …

Androgen Regulation Of The Hpa Axis And Stress-Related Behaviors In Mice: The Role Of Crf And Crf Receptor 1, Krystyna Ann Rybka

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Mood disorders such as anxiety and depression are nearly twice as prevalent in women when compared to men, with potential contributing factors involving sex-dependent exposure to gonadal hormones and dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Androgen actions through androgen receptors (AR) or actions at estrogen receptors such as ERα, following the conversion of androgens to estradiol, have been shown to regulate stress-related behaviors as well as HPA axis responsiveness. Where androgen actions at AR appear to decrease the stress response and subsequent stress-related behaviors, actions at ERα seem to do the opposite and increase HPA axis reactivity. When the HPA …

Dishes Of Yesteryear: Memories, Stories, And Representations Of The Past Within Food Media, Diana Willis Bottomley

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In 1963, Julia Child revolutionized cooking television. Child’s The French Chef, which ran for ten years on the Boston public television station, WGBH, changed how American’s viewed, produced, and consumed food. And in the sixty years since Child’s debut, food media has grown in scope and popularity, increasingly altering how we communicate identity in and through food and foodways. In this dissertation, I examine the relation between food, media, and memory, with particular attention to: how the past moderates the connection between food and identity; how food media produce a sense of place integral to identity; and how food …

Body Image Development And Eating Disorder Risk In Young Children: What Do Parents Want To Know?, Anna Atchison

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Background: Body image concerns and other risk factors for disordered eating can emerge in early childhood, but no interventions specifically target these early risk factors to mitigate future eating disorder risk. This study sought to quantify parents' knowledge of factors influencing eating disorder risk in young children, their concerns about their children’s eating behaviors, and perceived need and preferences for a parent education intervention addressing these topics. Methods: Parents (52 mothers, 55 fathers) of children aged 2-6 completed measures of parental eating disorder symptoms and internalized weight bias and child eating behaviors. Open-ended questions explored parents’ concerns about their children’s …

The Effectiveness Of Cybersecurity Training, Courtney Knight

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This study seeks to answer the question of what kinds of cybersecurity training are effective by reviewing the existing literature, analyzing for gaps, and bridging the connection with known learning techniques. The research is exploratory in nature, and is inductive – intending to develop a theory. Additionally, this study seeks to offer a taxonomy of cybersecurity training methods to be evaluated.

This study did not include security operation center (SOC), cyber incident response teams (CIRTs), or other types of advanced cybersecurity professional training. This research specifically focuses on training to improve the average employee and population’s tactical cybersecurity skills.

Several …

Protecting Foreign Victims Of Trafficking In Iceland: An Interpretive Analysis Of Policy Efforts, Hlin Saethorsdottir

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Social justice and human rights are fundamental principles of social work. Today’s globalized world requires social workers to expand their local perspectives and to be alert to the negative sides of globalization, such as trafficking in person (TIP), which affects all countries around the world. TIP is a severe form of exploitation and a grave human rights violation (Jones et al., 2007). Iceland has been categorized as a transit and destination country for foreign victims who are mainly trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation (U.S. Department of State, 2016b).

Although much has been written on TIP, some scholars have pointed …

Structural Biology Of Diaphanous-1 And Its Role In Human Pathology, Gregory G. Theophall

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

DIAPH1 is diaphanous related formin which polymerizes actin into filaments and is important to cytoskeleton dynamics.[1, 2] The dysregulation and aberrant activation of DIAPH1 is known to cause deafness[3, 4] and clotting disorders,[5] and is recently implicated in the inflammatory responses associated with cardiovascular and diabetic pathology.[6-9] Despite this, activation of the full length structure and its regulation are poorly understood.[10-12] Therefore, the main objective of this dissertation is to explore the structural, autoinhibitory, and regulatory properties of DIAPH1 in the context of disease pathology. Herein, I show that DIAPH1 has a dynamic structure which is regulated through negative cooperativity, …

Stakeholders’ Participation In Pcaob Audit Standard Setting, Xiaoshuai Yang

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Lobbying is an integral part of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s standard-setting process. Although the PCAOB has been drafting auditing standards for over 20 years, there is still much to learn about how stakeholder behavior in submitting comment letters to the PCAOB varies by interest group, comment period (concept release, proposal, and reproposal), the stakeholder’s position on the proposal, arguments used, and emotional strategies. This paper examines PCAOB Docket 034, which proposed audit report reforms, including the auditor’s disclosure of critical audit matters (CAMs). There was strong stakeholder participation and conflicting opinions when this standard was under discussion. To …

Exploring Social Emotional Learning: Impact, Policy, And Effective Implementation, Rebekah Simmons

Honors Program Theses

Throughout my time in the education program here at the University of Northern Iowa, I have had the opportunity to witness many lessons surrounding Social Emotional Learning (SEL). This inspired me to want to do more research on the impacts of Social Emotional Learning relating to prosocial behavior and student learning, as well as how state and national legislation influences how Social Emotional Learning is taught within schools. The purpose of this thesis study is to explore the impacts of Social Emotional Learning within school settings and the legislation that influences it.

A Qualitative Case Study Of Montessori Approaches To Learning Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic In Iowa, Ellie Penick

Honors Program Theses

This research focused on the unique and innovative ways two Montessori Schools handled the pandemic in the context of Iowa’s COVID-19 regulations. Research focused on the state of Iowa due to its relevance and proximity to the researcher and its notably relaxed approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the purpose and scope of this study, research focused on two Montessori contexts within the state of Iowa. While this research is not representative of all Montessori schools in Iowa, it provides useful insight into the topic that can support further research on Montessori approaches to COVID-19.

The driving question behind this …

Mixed Quantum/Classical Calculations Of Rotationally Inelastic Scattering In The Co + Co System: A Comparison With Fully Quantum Results, Dulat Bostan, Bikramaditya Mandal, Carolin Joy, Michał Żółtowski, François Lique, Jérôme Loreau, Ernesto Quintas-Sánchez, Adrian Batista-Planas, Richard Dawes, Dmitri Babikov

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

An updated version of the CO + CO potential energy surface from [R. Dawes, X. G. Wang and T. Carrington, J. Phys. Chem. A 2013, 117, 7612] is presented, that incorporates an improved treatment of the asymptotic behavior. It is found that this new surface is only slightly different from the other popular PES available for this system in the literature [G. W. M. Vissers, P. E. S. Wormer and A. Van Der Avoird, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2003, 5, 4767]. The differences are quantified by expanding both surfaces over a set of analytic functions and comparing the behavior of …

Scattering In Extreme Environments: General Discussion, Dmitri Babikov

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Scattering At Condensed-Phase Surfaces: General Discussion, Dmitri Babikov

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Synthesis And Evaluation Of 5-(Heteroarylmethylene)Hydantoins As Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3Β Inhibitors, Nicholas O. Schneider, Keandra Gilreath, Daniel J. Burkett, Martin St. Maurice, William A. Donaldson

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) is a serine/threonine kinase which plays a center role in the phosphorylation of a wide variety of proteins, generally leading to their inactivation. As such, GSK-3 is viewed as a therapeutic target. An ever-increasing number of small organic molecule inhibitors of GSK-3 have been reported. Phenylmethylene hydantoins are known to exhibit a wide range of inhibitory activities including for GSK-3β. A family of fourteen 2-heterocycle substituted methylene hydantoins (14, 17–29) were prepared and evaluated for the inhibition of GSK-3β at 25 μM. The IC50 values of five of these compounds was determined; the two best inhibitors …

Efl Learners’ Participation In Primary Schools Of Coastal Areas In Bangladesh, Md. Abu Sufian, Professor Sayeedur Rahman Phd

The Qualitative Report

Despite numerous initiatives by both governmental and non-governmental organizations, primary level students’ skills in English language are still below the expected level in Bangladesh (Hamid & Honan, 2012; Sultana, 2010). Our study examined reasons behind the limited participation of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in primary level classrooms in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. To conduct the research, we followed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design (Creswell, 2014; Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Ivankova & Stick, 2007). We collected data from 37 male and 23 female students in grades four and five through questionnaire surveys and three focus group …

Methodological Challenges In Conducting Cross-Cultural/Language Research With Spanish Speakers: The Role Of The Researcher/Translator, Catherine Flores Ph.D.

The Qualitative Report

With the increase in global research, it is common for researchers to investigate topics in intercultural settings, both in their own home countries and abroad. Although findings from this research are prolific, rarely are detailed examples given or practical suggestions offered, particularly in relation to the role of the translator/researcher. The significant and often undervalued role of the translator/researcher in cross cultural/language qualitative research warrants methodological considerations at the onset and throughout the research. Nonetheless, few qualitative studies transparently report the process of how the translation findings were developed. This paper addresses this gap by examining a Latinx postgraduate student’s …

Paraprofessionals In A Special Education Setting: A Qualitative Exploration Of Their Perceptions, Chana S. Max, Keisha Mccoy-Dailey

The Qualitative Report

Paraprofessionals support teachers and students in the classroom. Their roles and responsibilities vary; however, their goal is always to improve student achievement. The purpose of the study was to fill a gap in the literature related to special education paraprofessionals’ perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs on the support and trainings they receive prior to and during their job as a paraprofessional for students in a special education setting. Generic qualitative methodology was used to capture the thoughts, experience, and perceptions of 42 paraprofessionals across the United States. Data collection included an eight-question online questionnaire. Results of the study revealed five patterns …

Disentangling Cyclic Causality: An Instance-Based Framework For Causal Discovery, Chase A. Yakaboski

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Correlation does not imply causation" is one of the fundamental principles taught in science, emphasizing that associations between variables do not necessarily indicate causality. Yet, over the past three decades, extensive research has begun to challenge this perspective by developing sophisticated methods to differentiate causal from correlative relationships. This research suggests that correlations often involve a blend of confounded and causal interactions, which, given certain assumptions, can be disentangled to uncover actionable insights and deepen our understanding of physical, biological, and societal systems.

Accurately discovering causal relationships from data amidst cyclic dynamics remains a challenging open problem in causality research. …

Consistent Monte Carlo Methods For Non-Linear Applications In Light Transport, Zackary T. Misso

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The study of light transport focuses on describing the propagation of light from emitters to sensors through accurately describing the interactions light can undergo with everything in between. Physically-based rendering is the process of applying the laws of light transport to formulate practical algorithms which simulate the flow of light for the purpose of synthesizing images of virtual environments.

Unfortunately, there are very few interesting scene configurations which can be computed analytically. Instead, modern solutions predominantly rely on Monte Carlo integration to stochastically estimate the transfer of light since the process is both unbiased and consistent. Meaning, it is expected …

Plasma Per-And Polyfluoroalkyl Substance (Pfas) Mixtures And Maternal Cardiometabolic Health, Yuting Wang

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Food is a common exposure pathway to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) but dietary factors related to PFAS concentrations in pregnant people have not been adequately evaluated. PFAS have been linked to the increased risk of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and adiposity. However, less is known regarding the effect of PFAS mixtures on blood pressure (BP) trajectories in normotensive pregnancies or weight retention postpartum. We used data from the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (NHBCS) to examine dietary intake and PFAS concentrations and associations of PFAS with BP trajectories and postpartum weight retention. PFAS concentrations were measured in plasma collected at …

Mitigating Safety Issues In Pre-Trained Language Models: A Model-Centric Approach Leveraging Interpretation Methods, Weicheng Ma

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Pre-trained language models (PLMs), like GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT, face various safety issues, including biased responses and a lack of alignment with users' backgrounds and expectations. These problems threaten their sociability and public application. Present strategies for addressing these safety concerns primarily involve data-driven approaches, requiring extensive human effort in data annotation and substantial training resources. Research indicates that the nature of these safety issues evolves over time, necessitating continual updates to data and model re-training—an approach that is both resource-intensive and time-consuming. This thesis introduces a novel, model-centric strategy for understanding and mitigating the safety issues of PLMs by …

Chromatin Regulation By Swi/Snf Remodelers In Somatic Stem Cell Maintenance And Transformation, Luke Thomas Deary

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Cell identity is defined by the epigenome, whereby chromatin regulators work in concert to promote gene expression programs that serve a cell’s specialized purpose. Mutations in chromatin regulators are amongst the most frequent drivers of human disease, underscoring the importance of understanding their activities in maintaining cell identity and tissue function. In particular, mutations in subunits of the evolutionarily conserved SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes drive diseases across human tissues in both development and adult tissue maintenance5. Three major SWI/SNF complexes exist: BAF, PBAF, and GBAF, which differ in their composition and genomic targeting but share an ATP-dependent catalytic activity to …

Investigating The Mechanisms For Priming And Maintaining Tumor Ag Specific Cd8+ T Cell Responses In The Context Of Cd4-Depletion, Delaney E. Ramirez

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Achieving durable, systemic CD8+ T cell responses against tumors is an imperative goal in treating cancer. However, suppressive cells, including Foxp3+CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are widely recognized to inhibit CD8+ T cell activity. For nearly two decades, anti-CD4 treatment has been used to eliminate Tregs and induces durable tumor antigen (Ag) specific CD8+ T cells, despite also depleting Foxp3-negative conventional CD4+ T (Tconv) cells. However, the underlying mechanism of anti-CD4 efficacy is not understood. In Chapter Three, we look beyond Treg depletion and investigate the potential contributions of other factors including homeostatic space, depletion of CD4+ APCs, and presence …

Scalable Methods For Resource-Constrained Adaptive Sampling, Kizito Masaba

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

As the global community confronts the pressing issues of climate change, the importance of environment monitoring cannot be overstated. This process is essential in identifying and tracking critical environmental trends to facilitate efficient and effective conservation efforts. Traditionally, scientists perform this task using hand-held, in-situ instruments. With the recent robot advancements, this task can be fully automated by applying multi-robot systems to a task referred to as multi-robot adaptive sampling. However, the cost of purchasing and operating robot systems for this application are still prohibitive due to various environmental, technological, and logistical constraints. Some of the outstanding constraints to the …

The Impacts Of Impurities And Stress State On Polycrystalline Ice Deformation And Investigations Into The Densification Of Polar Firn, Ayobami Oladapo Ogunmolasuyi

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Glacier ice cores are unparalleled natural archives of past climate, containing ancient air and impurities. Understanding glacier and ice sheet behavior and their impact on impurity records is crucial for interpreting ice core records. H₂SO₄ is particularly significant, as it provides the strongest evidence for the diffusion of chemical signals and decreases the strength of single crystals and polycrystals of ice. However, its effects on recrystallization, grain growth, and fabric development mechanisms, as well as the effects of grain boundaries on its post-depositional diffusion remain unclear.

This thesis investigates the effects of the microstructural location of H …

Estrogen Receptor (Er) Alpha Regulatory Mechanisms And Therapeutic Strategies In Er+ Breast Cancer, Bianca A. Romo

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Breast cancer is among the most frequently diagnosed cancers in the U.S. and is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortalities, second to lung cancer. Estrogen receptor alpha-positive (ER+) breast cancer accounts for 2/3 of diagnosed cases. Patients diagnosed with this subtype of breast cancer typically undergo endocrine therapy that aims to mitigate the growth-promoting effects of estrogen/ER. While therapies are effective, 1/3 of patients will experience recurrence. To begin addressing this drug-resistant patient population, we investigated potential drug targets involved in response to treatment.

Coregulators have been implicated in the regulation of ER transcriptional activity and subsequently affecting …

Using Thin Films Of Phase-Change Material For Active Tuning Of Terahertz Waves Scattering On Dielectric Cylinders, Atilla Ozgur Cakmak, Evrim Colak, Andriy E. Serebryannikov

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

The scattering of electromagnetic waves by isotropic dielectric cylinders can be dramatically modified by means of vanadium dioxide (VO₂) thin-film coatings. Efficient dynamic control of scattering is achieved due to the variations in material parameters realizable by means of external biasing. In this paper, we study the scattering of terahertz waves in a case where the coating shells are made of VO₂, a phase-change material, whose thin films may work rather as electromagnetic phase screens in the insulator material phase, but as lossy quasi-metallic components in the metallic material phase. The shells that uniformly cover the …

Biogenesis And Function Of Microglial Extracellular Vesicles In Neuroinflammation And Parkinson’S Disease, Karl E. Biggs

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Microglia are subject to chronic proteinaceous and environmental stress during the progression of prevalent neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Chronic stress can activate the NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) pattern recognition receptor resulting in the formation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, proinflammatory signaling, and pyroptotic cell death. A distinct subset of extracellular vesicles (EVs) are released from cells upon NLRP3 activation. We studied WT and Nlrp3^-/- primary microglia exposed to bacterial stimulating agents and alpha synuclein preformed fibrils (αsyn PFFs), which model Parkinson’s disease and associated synucleinopathies. We identified the NLRP3-dependent release of the endosome fate …

Democratic Accountability And Tax Enforcement, Joshua D. Blank, Leigh Osofsky

Faculty Publications

One of the most powerful charges that can be leveled against the IRS is that it is targeting taxpayers. Charges of political targeting have dogged the IRS for over a century, including in major controversies such as the alleged Tea Party auditing scandal in 2013. Commentators and scholars have long critiqued the IRS for focusing audit resources on some of the lowest-income Americans. And, most recently, a group of researchers estimated that the IRS audits Black taxpayers at a 2.9 to 4.7 times greater rate, as compared to non-Black taxpayers. In response, legislators demanded action, there was widespread public consternation, …