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“But Is It Worth The Maintenance?”: Exploring The Ways Adolescent Preservice Teachers Develop Teaching Identities And Implement Pedagogical Practices, Tiffany Hamm May 2024

“But Is It Worth The Maintenance?”: Exploring The Ways Adolescent Preservice Teachers Develop Teaching Identities And Implement Pedagogical Practices, Tiffany Hamm

Dissertations - ALL

The climate crisis is an environmental issue that affects people of all walks of life but has disproportionate effects on those living in impoverished communities. The climate crisis therefore is not only an issue of environmental justice, but also social justice. However, incorporating environmental issues within education has typically been left to science classrooms. Teaching for environmental social justice, however, has the potential to extend beyond science content and science classrooms, and instead be incorporated in content across all academic disciplines. This dissertation is a teaching experiment that explored the ways adolescent preservice teachers from various disciplines develop their teaching …


The Phenomenon Of The Singleton Educator: Exploring Art Teachers Experiences As Singleton Teachers In Rural Communities, Mary Arlene Podsiedlik May 2024

The Phenomenon Of The Singleton Educator: Exploring Art Teachers Experiences As Singleton Teachers In Rural Communities, Mary Arlene Podsiedlik

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation documents the storied experiences of seven singleton art educators teaching in small rural school districts in the Central New York region. Participants shared their stories of working as lone art content teachers and the rewards and challenges of being a singleton educator. This phenomenological research study identifies the characteristics of the singleton phenomenon as experienced by those who live and work in this environment. Enlisting a narrative research approach of shared meaning making and phenomenological design, participants described their stories of singleton-ness through a three-interview process of data collection and group panel discussion. Participants identified several characteristics of …


Standard Rodent Diets Differentially Impact Alcohol Consumption, Preference, And Gut Microbiome Diversity, Aline Zaparte, Evan Dore, Selby White, Franciely Paliarin, Cameron Gabriel, Katherine Copenhaver, Samhita Basavanhalli, Emily Garcia, Rishith Vaddavalli, Meng Luo, Christopher M. Taylor, David Allen Welsh, Rajani Maiya May 2024

Standard Rodent Diets Differentially Impact Alcohol Consumption, Preference, And Gut Microbiome Diversity, Aline Zaparte, Evan Dore, Selby White, Franciely Paliarin, Cameron Gabriel, Katherine Copenhaver, Samhita Basavanhalli, Emily Garcia, Rishith Vaddavalli, Meng Luo, Christopher M. Taylor, David Allen Welsh, Rajani Maiya

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a complex and widespread disease with limited pharmacotherapies. Preclinical animal models of AUD use a variety of voluntary alcohol consumption procedures to recapitulate different phases of AUD, including binge alcohol consumption and dependence. However, voluntary alcohol consumption in mice is widely variable, making it difficult to reproduce results across labs. Accumulating evidence indicates that different brands of commercially available rodent chow can profoundly influence alcohol intake. In this study, we investigated the effects of three commercially available and widely used rodent diet formulations on alcohol consumption and preference in C57BL/6 J mice using the 24 …


Curing Bodies With Bodies: Renyao (Human-Derived Drugs) In Late Imperial China, Erqi Cheng May 2024

Curing Bodies With Bodies: Renyao (Human-Derived Drugs) In Late Imperial China, Erqi Cheng

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explores the philosophical and socioeconomic context of late imperial Chinese pharmacology and medical therapies from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It examines the rise of human-derived drugs (renyao) in the sixteenth century and their subsequent decline in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, influenced by a complex interplay of changes in social mores, urban tastes, commercial publishing, and philosophical ideologies. By drawing from a diverse range of sources including bencao (materia medica) works, formularies, Daoist texts, government documents, biji (belles lettres), novels, collected verses, and local gazetteers, the dissertation argues that Chinese medical culture in the Ming …


Revelations Of Mary Shelley: Death, Immortality, And The Creator-Creature Relationship In Frankenstein, Yuqing Liu May 2024

Revelations Of Mary Shelley: Death, Immortality, And The Creator-Creature Relationship In Frankenstein, Yuqing Liu

Theses - ALL

This thesis aims to explore the cultural, and societal backgrounds, and interpersonal relationships that influenced Mary Shelley in crafting Frankenstein, and to understand how these elements are mirrored in the novel. It endeavors to examine the linkage between the intentions that authors embed within their works and the realm of reality. Analyzing Shelley's inspirations and motives through the prism of her social context and personal connections, this thesis delves into the Romantic and Gothic literary traits manifested in Frankenstein. Through this inquiry, a creative work inspired by Frankenstein was developed, intending to serve as a vessel for reflection on philosophical …


Building A Cinematic World For Queer: Ways Of Winking Back At Barbie (2023), Diana Durk May 2024

Building A Cinematic World For Queer: Ways Of Winking Back At Barbie (2023), Diana Durk

Theses - ALL

This essay examines Reddit commentary of the new Barbie film that gave a space for some audience members to connect themselves to the film through queering its plot and characters. Through Reddit commentary, users explored the character design and how characters perform identity within this film and how it relates to their own experiences of gender and identity. This essay excavates how gender identity is communicated within popular culture and the need to queer a film to create one’s own representation. Through the importance of understanding the harm of a binary lens and how the binary gaze creates a stereotypical …


Mental Health Problems Of The Firstborn Children In China, Jianye Zou May 2024

Mental Health Problems Of The Firstborn Children In China, Jianye Zou

Theses - ALL

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the negative psychological impact that first-born children experience when facing the impending arrival of younger siblings in their families and the factors of these problems in China. In addition, this thesis helps the children prepare for the process of fitting in the new family structure via relevant artworks. Based on the unique situation, such as the only-child policy and culture of Chinese society, this thesis analyzes the factors affecting first-born children during the transition from being an only child to having siblings during the arrival of a second child within the family. …


Nehiyaw Two Spirit Creation Stories: Re-Mapping Home, Desire, And Indigenous Education Through The Body, Ionah M. Elaine Scully May 2024

Nehiyaw Two Spirit Creation Stories: Re-Mapping Home, Desire, And Indigenous Education Through The Body, Ionah M. Elaine Scully

Dissertations - ALL

Creation is an ongoing process and Indigenous stories are meant to reflect this never-ending process of creation, sharing stories that grow with context and to impart teachings appropriate to context. Michel First Nation (MFN) and related Nehiyaw (Cree) nation’s creation stories, largely written about by white/settler scholars, narrate histories that extol the virtues of cis-straight men while rendering cis-straight women to the sidelines and Two Spirit/Indigiqueer (2S) people absent. Facing the highest rates of violence of any demographic (Martin et. al., 2019), 2S people are under threat of becoming ancestors before they are elders passing down knowledge. Uncovering 2S creation …


Multi-Scale Analysis Of The Structure-Mechanics Relationship Of Mycelium-Based Bio-Composites, Libin Yang May 2024

Multi-Scale Analysis Of The Structure-Mechanics Relationship Of Mycelium-Based Bio-Composites, Libin Yang

Dissertations - ALL

The construction industry faces significant challenges due to the environmental impact of traditional materials like steel and concrete, whose production is energy-intensive and contributes to environmental pollution. This issue is exacerbated by the growing global demand for construction materials, driven by an increasing population. Concurrently, the agricultural and wood industrial sectors produce vast byproducts, such as straw, husk, coir, sawdust, and wood chips. They are often considered as wastes and disposed of through methods like burning. Such a reckless treatment releases greenhouse gases that further lead to environmental degradation. Mycelium, the vegetative part of fungi, presents a natural, promising solution …


Fate, Composition And Formation Of Unknown N-Nitrosamines In Wastewater And Wastewater-Impacted Waters, Changcheng Pu May 2024

Fate, Composition And Formation Of Unknown N-Nitrosamines In Wastewater And Wastewater-Impacted Waters, Changcheng Pu

Dissertations - ALL

N-Nitrosamines form as byproducts during oxidative water treatment or occur as impurities in consumer and industrial products. N-Nitrosamines and their precursors pose significant concerns for water utilities exploiting wastewater-impacted water supplies, as many N-nitrosamines are potential human carcinogens and have genotoxicity. To date, research on N-nitrosamines in environmental engineering has primarily focused on the occurrence, sources, formation, and control of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in the broad context of drinking water and wastewater treatment. However, NDMA and the few other N-nitrosamines of current interest only constitute a fraction of the larger pool of total N-nitrosamines (TONO) in source waters and wastewater, while …


Under The Skin Of Us: The Unfailing Narrative Potential Of Beauty And The Beast, Xiaoyue Lu May 2024

Under The Skin Of Us: The Unfailing Narrative Potential Of Beauty And The Beast, Xiaoyue Lu

Theses - ALL

This thesis represents an initial exploration into the reasons behind the enduring creative vitality of the Beauty and the Beast motif among creators. It offers a forward-looking perspective on the untapped narrative potential of this motif, based on an analysis of the evolution of character archetypes and derivative works, primarily in film, over time. The thesis begins by tracing the evolution of Beauty and the Beast from its earliest fairy tales to subsequent major film adaptations. It then examines why Belle and the Beast, as characters, have continued to captivate audiences and readers across changing eras, setting them apart from …


Beyond The Brush: How Women Artists Navigate Communication And Creativity Amidst The Rise Of Ai, Carrie Welch May 2024

Beyond The Brush: How Women Artists Navigate Communication And Creativity Amidst The Rise Of Ai, Carrie Welch

Theses - ALL

Women artists who use physical paints, canvases, charcoal, and pencils to create their work represent a marginalized group in the art world who may be perceived as distanced or removed from artificial intelligence (AI). While AI, art, feminist aesthetics, and media representation are each areas of rich research, they have not yet been brought together. As art itself is reconsidered alongside the rise of AI, this study conducted 20 in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with women artists to understand the implications of choosing to incorporate AI into their work, changes to their artistic processes, adjustments to their communications about their work, …


Discarded And Forgotten, Declan J. Yert May 2024

Discarded And Forgotten, Declan J. Yert

Theses - ALL

This thesis serves as written documentation of the processes, outcomes, and the conceptual nature of my sculptural practice. I consider and question our set definitions towards the natural world and human-built environments. Using emerging lexicons that serve as a starting point for defining instances of synthetic materials merging with organic ecosystems, I draw from locations, scientific research, individual observations, and human-built environments that have produced or influenced the objects and materials I use in my everyday life and art practice. Vocabulary and language surrounding the excess of objects and materials in natural environments are interrogated and subverted to reflect acts …


Information Structure By Phase: An Analysis Of Rural Palestinian Arabic, Mahmoud Alawneh May 2024

Information Structure By Phase: An Analysis Of Rural Palestinian Arabic, Mahmoud Alawneh

Theses - ALL

This thesis analyzes how the information-structural constituents topic and contrastive focus are syntactically encoded in Rural Palestinian Arabic. In doing so, two original proposals are argued for. First, the syntactic encodement of information-structure is recursive and domain-bound. That is, the same information-structural movements are repeatedly available within multiple domains that differ incrementally from one another in terms of locality: they are available at DP, PP, vP, AspectP, FinP, and ForceP. Second, I argue that, at least in Rural Palestinian Arabic, the information structure literature and the phase theory literature essentially describe the same phenomena, with the central argument being that …


Nrf2 Regulates Basal Gluathione Production In Astrocytes, Jiali He May 2024

Nrf2 Regulates Basal Gluathione Production In Astrocytes, Jiali He

Theses - ALL

In the central nervous system, astrocytes are the primary source of glutathione (GSH), an important and abundant non-protein thiol antioxidant. GSH biosynthesis takes place in the cytosol and involves two sequential steps, the first catalyzed by glutamate cysteine ligase (GCL) and the subsequent by glutathione synthetase (GSS). The process relies heavily on the availability of cysteine, which is obtained through the action of the glutamate/cystine antiporter, System xc-. This transporter imports cystine into the cells, where it is rapidly reduced to cysteine intracellularly for GSH synthesis. Furthermore, the multidrug resistance protein 1 (Mrp1) facilitates the export of GSH from astrocytes …


Transcriptional And Environmental Regulation Of A Putative Xylan Biosynthesis Gene, Ptrparvus2 In Poplar, Dan Wang May 2024

Transcriptional And Environmental Regulation Of A Putative Xylan Biosynthesis Gene, Ptrparvus2 In Poplar, Dan Wang

Dissertations - ALL

Secondary cell wall (SCW) biosynthesis plays a crucial role in plant development and biomass production, with implications for various industries, including biofuels and forestry. Understanding the regulatory mechanisms governing SCW formation is essential for manipulating plant cell wall composition and properties to improve biomass yield and quality. In this study, we investigated the regulatory mechanisms controlling SCW biosynthesis in poplar, focusing on the transcriptional regulation of PtrPARVUS2, a putative gene involved in SCW formation. The regulatory mechanisms governing SCW biosynthesis in poplar were investigated, with a focus on the transcriptional regulation of PtrPARVUS2. Bioinformatic analysis of the PtrPARVUS2 promoter revealed …


Past And Future Predictions Of Climate Change And Urbanization Effects On The Carbon, Nitrogen, And Water Dynamics In Northeastern Forest Ecosystems, Linghui Meng May 2024

Past And Future Predictions Of Climate Change And Urbanization Effects On The Carbon, Nitrogen, And Water Dynamics In Northeastern Forest Ecosystems, Linghui Meng

Dissertations - ALL

Human activities have significantly influenced the structure and function of forest ecosystems in the northeastern US. Urbanization directly reduces forest area and alters forest functions. Forest growth, health, and function can also be affected by climate change, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, and air pollution including ground-level ozone (O3) and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. Critical questions for research and environmental management are: How will urbanization, climate change, and air pollution interact to influence the function of forest ecosystems, and how will changes in these environmental drivers alter the function of forests in the future? In this dissertation, I simulate the …


Critical Evaluation And Recommendations Of Methods To Visualize Uncertainty In Static Image Maps Of Climate Change Model Outputs, Matthew Arsenault May 2024

Critical Evaluation And Recommendations Of Methods To Visualize Uncertainty In Static Image Maps Of Climate Change Model Outputs, Matthew Arsenault

Dissertations - ALL

This research presents an evaluation of the methods that can be used to visualize uncertainty in static image maps of climate change model outputs. Visualizing uncertainty can be traced back to the early days of cartography, scientific visualization, and information visualization. For decades, visualizations of uncertainty have been the focus of disparate research fields and multiple techniques have been proposed. However, critical evaluation of these approaches has not received the same level of consideration. This study identifies the current state of research for representing uncertainty on static maps and applies those methods to geospatial visualizations of climate change. Existing research …


Becoming And Unbecoming "Girl:" Understanding A Gendered Life Through Lessons Learned As A "Horse Girl", Katie Stone May 2024

Becoming And Unbecoming "Girl:" Understanding A Gendered Life Through Lessons Learned As A "Horse Girl", Katie Stone

Theses - ALL

This thesis dissects the experience of gender in public and private spaces utilizing lessons gathered as a “horse girl.” The concept and experience of being “woman” is navigated through various value systems drawn from Indigenous philosophies, government treaties, the queer experience, the history of the cowboy, familial story-telling, and personal life accounts. The Americanized, Western worldview of gender is analyzed and critiqued. This research discusses the implications the era of “Manifest Destiny” had on the colonization of land, bodies, and ultimately the contemporary idea of identity. I employ the cowboy as a vessel for translating these histories and identities. Our …


Ace Invisibilities: Asexual Social Identity Through Podcasting And Digital Media, Kyle Kreye Webster May 2024

Ace Invisibilities: Asexual Social Identity Through Podcasting And Digital Media, Kyle Kreye Webster

Dissertations - ALL

Asexuality is a growing topic of sexuality and media scholarship as representations and expressions of asexual identity have seen a small but significant rise in traditional and digital media throughout the 21st century. However, much of the existing media and scholarship has focused on the definition and self-identification of asexuality. This emphasis has lead to a research gap in the consideration of asexual social identity and its expression in media spaces. To address this gap, this textual analysis study examined the content and social media fan reception of the asexual conversation and interview podcast Sounds Fake But Okay through the …


Effects Of Immune-Checkpoint Inhibitors On Atherosclerosis During Lipid Lowering, Burak Talip Cilhoroz May 2024

Effects Of Immune-Checkpoint Inhibitors On Atherosclerosis During Lipid Lowering, Burak Talip Cilhoroz

Dissertations - ALL

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) confer potent antitumor benefits, thereby improving the prognosis of many patients with cancer. PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors are the most commonly used ICIs in a clinical setting. Treatment with PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors may exacerbate atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the large arteries characterized by lipid accumulation. Most cancer patients, particularly those with lung cancer, present with subclinical/preexisting atherosclerosis, which is typically treated with lipid lowering strategies (e.g., low cholesterol diet) concurrently with their cancer treatment, such as ICIs. However, the concomitant use of lipid lowering and ICIs in clinical practice has not yet been …


Investigation Of Hydropathy Of Proteins, Lipid-Modified Proteins, And Self-Defensive Biomaterials, Jingjing Ji May 2024

Investigation Of Hydropathy Of Proteins, Lipid-Modified Proteins, And Self-Defensive Biomaterials, Jingjing Ji

Dissertations - ALL

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations serve as crucial tools for unraveling the underlying physical principles governing the structure and functionality of biological macromolecules. Experimental techniques provide valuable results, but sometimes it is quite difficult to explain phenomena at atomic and molecular levels. MD simulations investigate physical motion of atoms and molecules over microsecond time scale and compute the equilibrium properties. In this work, I investigated the hydropathy of proteins, lipid-modified proteins, and self-defensive biomaterials with atomistic MD simulations and coarse-grained (CG) MD simulations. The method, Protocol for Assigning a Residue's Character on a Hydropathy (PARCH) scale, is developed to characterize and …


A Molecular Toolbox To Study Dopamine And Serotonin Receptors For The Development Of Improved Therapeutics, Emma Joanna Doukmak May 2024

A Molecular Toolbox To Study Dopamine And Serotonin Receptors For The Development Of Improved Therapeutics, Emma Joanna Doukmak

Dissertations - ALL

Dopaminergic and serotonergic signaling pathways are involved in numerous biological processes including behavior, mood regulation, and cognition. Dysfunction in these pathways can lead to neurological and mental health disorders, which are often treated with drugs targeting the dopamine and serotonin receptors. However, many of these drugs, along with those targeting other G protein couple receptors (GPCRs), suffer a lack of target specificity, leading to nonspecific binding and therefore side effects. In recent years, new advances in chemical biological techniques, including affinity-based protein profiling (ABPP) and optogenetics, have further elucidated the structure and function of GPCRs, which can in turn aid …


Initiated Reading: Occult Hermeneutics In Helena Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled, Diana Brown May 2024

Initiated Reading: Occult Hermeneutics In Helena Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled, Diana Brown

Dissertations - ALL

In this dissertation, I argue that Theosophical Society co-founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s first major work, Isis Unveiled (1877), describes an occult hermeneutic of myth based on the privileging of intuition, theorized especially in Neoplatonic terms, and premised on a tripartite spirit-soul-body constitution of the human being. Her hermeneutic also privileges initiation, construed as experiential gnosis often produced by ritual, and she opposes both intuition and initiation to reason and empiricism. Theorizing global myths as allegories revealing elements of a universal religion, or secret doctrine, traceable to India, she brings together an esotericism premised on a combination of Indian religion and …


Women Doctoral Students In Computer Science: Nevertheless, They Persist, Shannon L. Mccoy-Hayes Edd May 2024

Women Doctoral Students In Computer Science: Nevertheless, They Persist, Shannon L. Mccoy-Hayes Edd

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Throughout millennia systemic restrictions have prevented women from full participation in science. Even now, with science ubiquitous to life as we know it, double standards impact women’s access and equal participation in STEM. Computer science (CS) is one STEM field where women remain significantly underrepresented in both academia and the workforce, yet despite decades worth of semi-annual reporting, there is still no consensus as to why. A survey was deployed to twenty-nine institutions inviting women doctoral students in CS to participate in personal interviews. Six women from different institutions at different stages of their programs responded. Qualitative interviews using phenomenological …


Defects And Deformation In Passive And Active Structural Glasses, Julia Ann Giannini May 2024

Defects And Deformation In Passive And Active Structural Glasses, Julia Ann Giannini

Dissertations - ALL

Glasses and disordered granular media represent a class of materials that are quite familiar to us, from the glass in windows and phone screens, to piles of fruits, grains, and sand. Further, living and active systems such as cellular tissues, collections of robots, and even human crowds behave as disordered solids when they are gathered at high enough densities. Despite their ubiquity, there are still many behaviors of these amorphous systems that lack a full understanding. Contrasting crystalline solids, the thermodynamic, vibrational, energetic, and mechanical properties of glasses are not well-characterized by solid state theory. In the case of active …


Homomeric Tight Junction Strand Assembly Of Claudin Proteins, Patrick Matthew Marsch May 2024

Homomeric Tight Junction Strand Assembly Of Claudin Proteins, Patrick Matthew Marsch

Dissertations - ALL

Tight junctions, a form of cell junction, are utilized throughout the animal kingdom in one way or another. Tasked with facilitating a critical blockade between toxins and vital tissues while also allowing small crucial molecules to pass, the tight junction provides an important line of defense against disease. To build this barrier, various proteins with self-assemble within a cell membrane to then zipper with another cell membrane. The strand-like architecture and size & charge selective pore channels created within the barrier are chiefly governed by the claudin family of proteins. Without claudins present, the tight junction cannot form, and toxic …


"When The Water Stops But The Bills Never Do”: Contentious Water Politics And Collective Action In El Salvador, Claudia Isabel Diaz-Combs May 2024

"When The Water Stops But The Bills Never Do”: Contentious Water Politics And Collective Action In El Salvador, Claudia Isabel Diaz-Combs

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explores the water crisis in El Salvador, a small Central American country surrounded by abundant freshwater resources that is nonetheless plagued with chronic water shortages, contaminated drinking water, and expensive water bills. For nearly two decades, competing groups pursued water legislation intended to address these multi-faceted issues. Finally, in December 2021, President Nayib Bukele codified the Law of Water Resources, bringing the protracted struggle to a conclusion. Yet a few years later, water issues persist, and no one is satisfied with the policy. I approach this issue through the perspective of five different social groups: the environmental movement, …


The Power Of Science Is Collaboration: Understanding The Knowledge Sharing Practices Of Rare Disease Non-Profit Organizations In Regard To Repurposing Sirolimus, Ania Korsunska May 2024

The Power Of Science Is Collaboration: Understanding The Knowledge Sharing Practices Of Rare Disease Non-Profit Organizations In Regard To Repurposing Sirolimus, Ania Korsunska

Dissertations - ALL

Purpose: This dissertation investigates the knowledge sharing practices and inefficiencies among Rare Disease Nonprofit Organizations (RDNPs) engaged in drug repurposing efforts, particularly focusing on the drug sirolimus. The goals of this research are to provide an understanding of the knowledge-sharing practices and challenges for RDNPs and to contribute to the academic discourse in knowledge sharing theory by applying it to a unique and practical use case. The motivation behind this research stems from the pivotal role RDNPs play in the rare disease treatment landscape. Given the limited financial incentives for pharmaceutical companies to invest in rare disease treatments, RDNPs are …


Second Reaction: Letters To A Prisoner, Polly Parkinson May 2024

Second Reaction: Letters To A Prisoner, Polly Parkinson

Teacher Education and Leadership Student Research

This article reviews Letters to a Prisoner by Jacques Goldstyn, first published in France in 2015--a picture book without words that tells the story of a peaceful protestor who is imprisoned.