Digital Commons Network^™

“My Pain Was Never More Valuable Than His Potential”: A Rhetorical Thematic Analysis Of Gaslighting Within Sexual Abuse Cases, Makayla Roller

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines gaslighting within three prominent sexual abuse cases—Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, and Larry Nassar—uncovered during the #MeToo movement, to better understand the rhetorical function of gaslighting. Using a combination of rhetorical thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis, a feminist lens, and a gaslighting schema, this study identifies the rhetorical tactics, gendered discourse, and power-laden discourse deployed to gaslight victims and the public. I argue that gaslighting must be examined through a rhetorical lens, as discourse is the mechanism through which gaslighting operates, shaping perceptions of truth, credibility, and power. By highlighting how language is weaponized to deny, distort, and …

Warriors Of Faith Vs Passive Men: Gender Binarism And Performance In Evangelical Christian Masculinity, Alexander Koch

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis examines communications and reflections of self (gendered and religious) in Midwest Evangelical Christian men. The focus was on how these groups perform their gender and religion with each other, and the tactics that were used to reinforce an acceptable notion of masculinity. Drawing upon literature on gender and masculinity studies, feminist philosophy, and hierarchical systems, my project aimed to analyze acceptable gender performance pushed by patriarchal gender norms and evangelical Christian groups. I incorporated multiple settings in my ethnographic study across the Midwest. Methods included semi-structured interviews and participant-observation of men’s conferences and Christian men’s groups, while reflecting …

Converting Cover Crop Biomass To Biogas And Volatile Fatty Acids, Tuba Yasmin Lubna

Theses and Dissertations

Cover crops are commonly used for their environmental benefits, including improved soil health and reduced soil erosion. However, there is limited use for the aboveground biomass, except for oilseed crops. The objectives of this study were to (1) characterize the selected winter cover crop biomass at three growth stages, (2) evaluate the biogas and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) yield, and (3) examine the concurrent alkali pretreatment and ensiling effects on biogas yield. Wild pennycress, golden pennycress, CoverCress^TM, annual ryegrass, cereal rye, pea, and clover biomass were harvested at three growth stages. Results showed that biogas yield increased with …

Genetic Relative-Finder Services: A Qualitative Study Of Consumer Experiences, Sarah A. Sciba

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Genetic genealogy is an emergent topic in sociology. To date, over 41 million individuals worldwide have tested with the top four direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTCGT) companies: AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritageDNA (Glynn 2022). These tests provide consumers with ethnicity estimates, a list of DNA cousin matches, or both. Despite the popularity of DTCGT, there is a lack of data on consumer experiences with genetic relative-finder services (GRF) in the sociological literature. Methodology: I conducted exploratory, qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews with eight adult women who have used GRF. I gathered data about their motivations for participation …

Budget For The Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2025, University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Budget for the Fiscal Year

No abstract provided.

[In] Transformation President's Impact Report, Bryant University

Bryant University Communications and Press

The 2025 President's Impact Report highlights Bryant University’s continued excellence in higher education, from its top-tier rankings and dynamic campus life to its hands-on learning experiences and strategic partnerships. Strong financial foundations and visionary leadership solidify its position as an innovative and forward-thinking institution. IN the Lead Bryant's international rankings and thought leadership in prestigious publications reinforce its position as a leader in higher education.

Annual Report, 2024-2025, University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville. College Of Engineering

College of Engineering Annual Report

No abstract provided.

From Bitcoin To Courtrooms: The Evolution Of Blockchain Technology And Its Applications, Isabelle Cruz

Wyoming Law Review

Blockchain’s tamper-proof, distributed, and decentralized design has gained popularity during a period of rising cybercrime and data vulnerability. People revere blockchain for its potential to revolutionize various industries and criticize it for its association with unethical and illicit activities. Despite challenges and misconceptions surrounding its prior uses, blockchain technology has continued progressing—offering promising solutions for enhancing data security, transparency, and accountability. This Comment examines the evolution of blockchain technology, its applications, and how it can improve efficiency and enhance public trust in the judicial system. After outlining blockchain technology’s modest beginnings, this Comment theorizes several applications for blockchain in the …

I3@Usd Fall 2025, University Of San Diego

I3@USD: Magazine for Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering

02 | Honoring the Shiley Legacy
06 | Enhanced Spaces, Brighter Futures
07 | Remembering Ned McMahon
10 | Toreros Who Broke the Mold
14 | A Collective Effort
16 | An Electrifying Career
17 | News Briefs
18 | Faculty Achievements
19 | Chuck Bane: In Memoriam
20 | Alumni Notes
24 | 2025 Showcase Innovators
25 | Career Outcomes
26 | The Accidental Engineer
27 | Class of 2025

Force Of Nature (2024) By Ann E. Burg, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Middle Grades Books

Rachel Carson launched the modern environmental movement with books that combined detailed observations of the natural world, scientific research, and philosophical reflection on humanity’s relationship with nature — all conveyed in poetic language. Ann E. Burg’s fictional biography-in-verse Force of Nature shows how these habits of observation, questioning, reflection, and expression began in Carson’s childhood, and invites readers to follow her lines of inquiry. Can we provide for human well-being without sacrificing the well-being of non-human life? Can we provide for the well-being of certain human populations without sacrificing the well-being of others? Can we indulge our wonder about, and …

René Dubos: An Annotated Bibliography, Carol L. Moberg

René Dubos: An Annotated Bibliography

René Dubos (1901–1982), a prominent 20th century scientist, humanist, and philosopher, was a prolific author. Affiliated for more than 50 years with The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research/The Rockefeller University, his studies ranged from antibiotics and the role of bacteria in human diseases to formulating broad ecological and environmental questions affecting human health and disease. His seminal writings explore a lifelong belief that a living organism—whether microbe, human being, society, or the Earth itself—could be understood only through its relationships with everything else.

This comprehensive bibliography of more than a thousand works by René Dubos includes brief annotations for each …

Germline Genetic Modulator Of Cancer Metastasis, Wenbin Mei

Student Theses and Dissertations

Metastasis formation is the most critical determinant of cancer survival outcome. Identifying patients at risk for metastatic relapse facilitates clinical decision and the use of appropriate adjuvant therapy, thus having a profound impact on patient survival. A central dogma in cancer is that during tumorigenesis, cancer cells acquire somatic mutations that regulate metastatic likelihood during evolution of the primary tumor. However, despite extensive tumor sequencing efforts, such causal somatic metastasis driver mutations have not been found, limiting the discovery of biomarkers, mechanisms and drug targets of cancer metastasis. In this thesis, I report a germline genetic driver of breast cancer …

Sequential Transcriptional Gates In The Thalamo-Cortical Circuit Coordinate Memory Consolidation, Andrea Terceros

Student Theses and Dissertations

How are memories maintained over weeks, months or even years? The molecular mechanisms that enable memories to persist over long time-scales remain poorly understood. As a point of entry, recent work in our lab revealed that beyond the hippocampus, where memories are initially formed over hours/days, the thalamo-cortical circuit is important for the gradual stabilization of memories over weeks/months. In this thesis, I aimed to reveal the molecular mechanisms operating in the thalamo-cortical circuit that may be responsible for extending memory time-scales. I began by developing a virtual reality-based behavioral paradigm where, by varying the frequency of learned associations, mice …

Recording Cellular Interactions In Germinal Centers And Beyond, Sandra Nakandakari-Higa

Student Theses and Dissertations

In multicellular organisms, each cell has a distinct identity characterized by unique transcriptional and chromatin accessibility profiles. However, to truly understand the organization and function of such systems, it is not enough to merely characterize individual components; we must also investigate how these components interact and communicate through direct cellular interactions. This is especially true in the immune system, where cell-cell interactions are fundamental. For instance, the priming of antigen-specific T cells relies on their selective engagement with antigen-presenting cells (APCs) displaying the T cell's cognate antigen, distinguishing them from a pool of non-specific counterparts. Similarly, the production of antibodies …

Modulation Of The Crispr-Cas9 Immune Response, Hyejin Kim

Student Theses and Dissertations

Bacteria face an onslaught of ever-changing viral (phage) invaders. Bacteria and phages are locked into an evolutionary arms race where both must continually adapt to survive. In response, bacteria have developed numerous immune systems to protect themselves, including CRISPR-Cas. CRISPR-Cas systems provide adaptive immunity through the acquisition of short DNA sequences from invading phages, known as spacers. Spacers are inserted into the CRISPR locus and serve as templates for the transcription of guides used by RNA-guided nucleases to recognize complementary sequences of the invaders and start the CRISPR immune response. CRISPR-Cas systems need to acquire enough spacers to mount an …

The Evolution Of Ribosome Assembly: Making Ribosomes In The Mitochondria, Chloe Burnside

Student Theses and Dissertations

Mitochondrial ribosomes (mitoribosomes) synthesize proteins encoded within the mitochondrial genome that are assembled into oxidative phosphorylation complexes. As such, the biogenesis of mitoribosomes is essential for ATP production and cellular metabolism. Despite significant progress in elucidating the structures of mature mitoribosomes, a comprehensive understanding of their assembly pathways remains elusive. This thesis presents the first structural characterization of assembly intermediates of the mitochondrial small subunit (mtSSU) in eukaryotes. To gain mechanistic insight into the process of SSU assembly in the mitochondria, I set out to enrich and characterize intermediates of SSU assembly in the mitochondria of S. cerevisiae. By employing …

Making Molecular Movies: Using Single-Molecule Techniques To Unveil Hidden Features Of Protein-Chromatin Interactions, Gabriella N. L. Chua

Student Theses and Dissertations

Beyond the genetic code embedded within a sequence of DNA, the physical features of the double helix as a semi-flexible polymer is a critical dimension that regulates the function of every DNA-binding protein that exists. These proteins can assemble, translocate, and change conformation while bound to DNA and can even alter its physical state, which are often crucial to their physiological roles in the cell. Eukaryotic genomic DNA is also packaged into units called nucleosomes, which offer another layer of physical regulation for proteins operating on chromatin. Previously, tracking these protein behaviors on DNA and chromatin had been technically challenging, …

The Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Nomadic Behavior In The Clonal Raider Ant, Ooceraea Biroi, Dennis Octavio Melendez

Student Theses and Dissertations

Nest relocation is integral to the lives of many social insects. Army ants have taken this behavior to the extreme, with many species relocating an entire colony of over 100,000 ants plus brood almost daily. Despite its prevalence, the question of how army ant colonies emigrate has been debated for many decades, and still awaits a definitive answer because conducting well-controlled field experiments with their massive and aggressive colonies is challenging. In ants, the Dorylinae subfamily has given rise to most known army ants. Therefore, performing experiments in non-army ant dorylines that can be maintained in a laboratory setting presents …

Serotonin-Mediated Sickness Behavior, Audrey Harnagel

Student Theses and Dissertations

Serotonin is an ancient and powerful neuromodulator that regulates diverse processes from fundamental physiology to complex emotions. Due to the many functions of serotonin distributed throughout the body and brain, governing principles of serotonin signaling have remained elusive. There is particular interest in how serotonin modulates internal states given that serotonin dysregulation is a feature of many psychiatric diseases. In this thesis, I use the simplified serotonergic system of C. elegans to explore how serotonin governs the internal state of sickness. In addition to activating the immune system and remodeling physiology, pathogenic infection results in adaptive behavioral changes that promote …

Towards Models Mesoscale Chromatin Structure And Radiative Dna Damage Via Computational Simulation, Devany Walsh West

Student Theses and Dissertations

The spatial organization of chromatin fiber at the level of several nucleosomes–the mesoscale–is an area of active study. Recent results have shown that it differs between functional states, affects higher orders of chromosome organization, and is likely involved in transcriptional control. However, the heterogeneity of nucleosome positioning and histone variant composition in cells as well as the high density of chromatin in situ make the mesoscale difficult to study. Recent methodological advances have made it possible to derive nucleosome-resolution three-dimensional contact information directly from cells. We therefore sought to develop a structural inference tool for inferring mesoscale chromatin structures consistent …

Gpcr To Channel Communication In A Membrane Signaling Pathway, Yuxi Zhang

Student Theses and Dissertations

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) regulate a variety of downstream effector proteins, making them essential for many physiological processes. For example, in the heart, the activation of beta-adrenergic receptors (βARs) and the stimulatory G protein (Gαs) leads to the opening of downstream hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide–gated (HCN) channels, resulting in an accelerated heart rate. In contrast, activation of M2 muscarinic receptors (M2Rs) and the inhibitory G protein (Gαi) opens G protein-gated inward rectifier K⁺ (GIRK) channels, slowing the heart rate. In addition to the Gαs and Gαi pathways, there is also the Gαq signaling pathway. In this pathway, activation of Gq-coupled GPCRs can …

Recovering From Dormancy: Fixation Of Csm6-Inducing Spacers In The Bacterial Population, Amanda K. Shilton

Student Theses and Dissertations

Organisms from every kingdom of life constantly need to contend with their parasites to survive and reproduce. Bacteriophages (phages) are the viruses that infect bacteria and often outnumber them in most ecological niches. As a result, prokaryotes have evolved a myriad of defense systems to restrict the propagation of phages as well as other parasitic mobile genetic elements such as plasmids. Genetic loci known as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and their associated cas genes serve as one such defense system in both bacteria and archaea. A hallmark of CRISPR immunity is its adaptive nature in which memories …

Replicative Senescence Is Atm-Driven, Reversible, And Delayed By Reduced Atm Activity At Low Oxygen, Alexander James Stuart

Student Theses and Dissertations

Somatic human cells have a limited proliferative capacity, dividing a certain number of times before entering a predictable proliferative arrest. Telomeres become shorter with every division until a few become 'critically-short' and activate the DNA Damage Response (DDR), thereby inducing this replicative senescence. However, the nature of the activated DDR is unclear. ATM kinase activation at critically short telomeres has been implicated in the induction of senescence, suggesting that the shortest telomeres lack su]icient TRF2 to repress ATM signaling. However, ATM-deficient cells also undergo replicative senescence, raising the question of POT1 deficiency and subsequent ATR signaling. Moreover, low oxygen culture …

Mechanisms And Evolution Of Mitoribosomal Small Subunit Biogenesis, Nathan Harper

Student Theses and Dissertations

The ribosome is the macromolecular machine responsible for all protein synthesis in the cell and is one of the ancient molecular machines involved in the transfer of genetic information to functional molecules. The ribosome is made up of two conserved ribonucleoprotein complexes: the large subunit, responsible for peptide bond synthesis, and the small subunit, responsible for interrogating the match between mRNA codon and tRNA anti-codon. The assembly of the ribosome is a complex process which is tightly controlled to generate functional subunits which exhibit high translational accuracy and processivity. During ribosome biogenesis, ribosomal proteins and a multitude of additional assembly …

Neuromast Optogenetics Reveals Rules Of Spatial Encoding In The Zebrafish Lateral Line, Nicolas Velez-Angel

Student Theses and Dissertations

For animals to respond effectively to their environment, their sensory circuits must learn to distinguish between similar patterns of sensory information. A lingering question in neuroscience is how neuronal circuits achieve this performance. In this study, I use the posterior lateral line (pLL) of larval zebrafish to address this question. In the wild, the pLL must differentiate among a variety of hydrodynamic stimuli. However, understanding how fish distinguish between different water-flow stimuli has been challenging due to difficulties in stimulating individual neuromasts. To tackle this, I introduce a novel method in this thesis that combines single-neuromast optogenetics with whole-brain calcium …

Decoding Dynamic Gene Regulation In Hair Cell Development And Regeneration, Caleb C. Reagor

Student Theses and Dissertations

Identifying the causal interactions between genes and their proteins during the differentiation of specialized cells such as mechanosensory hair cells in vertebrates' inner ears and fishes' lateral lines requires an accurate description of the time-lagged relationships between transcription factors and their target genes. Here I describe Depicting Lagged Causality (DELAY), a convolutional neural network for the inference of gene-regulatory relationships across pseudotime-ordered single-cell trajectories. I first show that combining supervised deep learning with joint probability matrices of pseudotime-lagged trajectories allows the neural network to overcome important limitations of ordinary Granger causality-based methods, for example, the inability to infer cyclic …

Molecular And Metabolic Regulation Of Gastrointestinal Cancer Metastasis, Norihiro Yamaguchi

Student Theses and Dissertations

Most of the cancer related mortality caused by metastatic disease rather than primary tumor growth. More than 80% of gastrointestinal cancers initially metastasize to the liver first. While the prognosis of early-stage cancers is improving, a significant proportion of patients have metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis leading to poor survival outcomes. I focused on colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer, the second and third leading causes of cancer related death in the United States, due to the lack of molecularly targeted therapies available for these cancers. Moreover, understanding the pathophysiological basis of gastrointestinal cancer liver metastasis is of great …

Citizen’S Rare Plant Watch, Nora Dunkirk, Gabriel Campbell, Kris Freitag

Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank and Plant Conservation Program

Rare species data for plants is lacking, hindering land management decisions and conservation outcomes. With Citizen's Rare Plant Watch, we empower citizen scientists to provide the “eyes on the ground” and collect data needed for conservation decision making in Oregon.

Seedlings Of Pacific Northwest Plants: A Photographic Guide, Gabriel E. Campbell-Martinez, Roxy Olsson

Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank and Plant Conservation Program

This document presents a visual, non-technical field guide of native and exotic/invasive seedlings that grow wild in the Pacific Northwest. It contains over 550 taxa representing a broad range of families and ecosystems, focusing on species that occur in Oregon and Washington. Species were selected to reflect ecological importance, frequency of occurrence, and relevance to land management, restoration, and conservation. It is intended for a broad audience, including restoration practitioners, land managers, botanists, ecologists, students, naturalists, and others interested in identifying plants at early life stages.

Comparative Analysis Of Machine Learning Models For Glioblastoma Survival., Muna Awel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains one of the most lethal brain tumors, necessitating improved survival prediction models that integrate clinical and molecular data. This study develops a comprehensive machine learning pipeline leveraging TCGA-derived multi-omics datasets to predict binary survival outcomes. The framework integrates four classifiers Logistic Regression, Random Forest, XGBoost, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) and includes rigorous preprocessing with MCAR testing, KNN imputation, feature scaling, and hyperparameter optimization via GridSearchCV. SMOTE was applied to mitigate class imbalance and enhance model robustness for minority survival classes. Comparative performance analyses revealed Random Forest and XGBoost as top performers, achieving the highest recall …