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Optical Nuclear Spin Detection In Diamond And Varifocal Metasurface Optics, Maxwell D. Aiello

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

This dissertation presents two experimental investigations at the intersection of quantum sensing and precision optical instrumentation. The primary project demonstrates optically detected nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of ¹³C nuclear spins in diamond, using state-selective Landau-Zener transitions under microwave frequency sweeping to bidirectionally transfer spin polarization between nitrogen-vacancy (NV) electron spins and remote ¹³C nuclear spins. This enables optical polarization and readout of large ensembles of polarized nuclear spins at low magnetic fields and room temperature, with spin dephasing times limited by longitudinal relaxation of nearby NV electron spins. The secondary project reports the design, fabrication, and characterization of …

Sexual Violence By Government Security Forces: Leaders, Institutions, And Culture, Margaret Avera

Political Science ETDs

I assess how the interaction between leader preferences, regime type, and agent personal motives impacts patterns of sexual violence. I ask, “Why do some government security forces perpetrate sexual violence while others do not?” and “How does the interaction between leader motives and institutions impact victimization patterns?” I found that police corruption was correlated with sexual violence by government security forces, but military corruption was not. My findings indicate the importance of moving beyond a conflict scope and distinguishing between different types of state security actors. In addition, I use natural language processing methods to collect disaggregated allegation data to …

Acute And Chronic Oral Administration Of Cannabidiol-Dominant Cannabis Products: Sex- And Formulation-Dependent Effects On Anxiety-Like Behavioral Patterns In Rats, Carlos R. Maestas-Olguin

Psychology ETDs

Interest in the anxiolytic-like effects of cannabidiol (CBD), the non-intoxicating phytocannabinoid found within the genus, Cannabis, has grown significantly in recent years. However, preclinical investigations of CBD’s anxiolytic potential often elect to forgo translationally relevant models that maximize external validity in favor of greater internal and mechanistic validity. As a result, the effects of relatively low dose (< 3mg/kg) oral CBD administration on anxiety-like behaviors are not yet fully characterized. The present studies examined the impact of two orally delivered CBD-dominant cannabis products – a “full-spectrum” formulation derived from the whole plant and a CBD isolate derived from the same chemovar – on innate defensive behaviors exhibited by adult male and female rats in various tests of anxiety. Results indicated that acute and chronic low dose oral CBD administration attenuated anxiety-like behavior in rats, regardless of sex or formulation. These findings extend the growing corpus of literature describing anxiolytic-like effects of CBD.

Corazones Urbanos: Literary Cartographies And Southwest Cities In The Mexican American Spatial Imaginary, Jorge A. Hernández Jr.

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

Corazones Urbanos: Literary Cartographies and Southwest Cities in the Mexican American Spatial Imaginary examines how Mexican American writers from Tucson, San Antonio, and Albuquerque narrate, critique, and reimagine urban space across the U.S. Southwest in the twentieth century. Integrating literary studies, cultural geography, urban history, and critical regionalism, the project analyzes responses to racialized development, urban renewal, and gentrification that have displaced Mexican American communities from historic downtowns. Moving beyond borderlands and transnational models, it advances a critically regional approach attentive to local histories, municipal policies, and community pressures shaping urban life. Through close readings of creative and nonfiction texts …

The Environmental Cost Of Artificial Intelligence, Ava G. O'Connor

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper addresses the increasingly innovative and evolving world of artificial intelligence. As artificial intelligence becomes more integrated within global economies and infrastructures, its  environmental and economic impact has grown significantly, but still remains understudied in the conversation surrounding societal advancement and growth. This thesis delves into the history and development of artificial intelligence, AI's integration into modern life, Big Tech jumping to get ahead of AI development through investment, the cost of artificial intelligence, and the ethical and environmental implications of increasing artificial intelligence usage. Using multiple case studies, this thesis deeply explores the emergence of artificial intelligence as …

Examining Associations Between Socioecological Factors And Addiction Cycle Domains In Separate Community And Treatment- Seeking Samples, Kara Link

Psychology ETDs

The Addictions Neuroclinical Assessment (ANA) is a multimodal clinical assessment framework designed to capture the heterogeneity of addictive disorders and inform personalized treatment. The ANA is grounded in three neurofunctional domains aligned with the Koob and LeMoal addiction cycle stages: incentive salience (IS; binge/intoxication), negative emotionality (NE; withdrawal/negative affect), and executive function (EF; preoccupation/anticipation). In addition to these primary domains, the ANA also proposes ancillary assessment domains thought to be related to these neurofunctional domains. However, the ANA developers do not provide a rationale for including these ancillary measures in the framework nor hypothesize about their relevance to the ANA …

A Characterization Of Fat Acceptance Across Identities In A College Sample, Brynn Liabraaten

Psychology ETDs

Weight stigma is a class of discrimination in which those who are of higher weight face biases and discrimination. This can lead to worse outcomes ranging from poor mental health to societal barriers. Fat acceptance is the idea that all people, regardless of weight, deserve respect and equal treatment. The study of fat acceptance is in its infancy in the field of psychology, and there is little research addressing what kinds of people may be more or less fat accepting. The present study utilized a college sample to create a characterization of which intersecting identities and characteristics may correlate with …

Predictors Of Opposite-Sex Antipathy, Mikayla R. Poe

Psychology ETDs

Evolutionary pressures have shaped men’s and women’s motivations to cooperate and compete with one another. Sexual conflict is generated in natural conditions but may be exacerbated by features of the modern world. The current study recruited participants from Prolific to respond to a Qualtrics survey (n = 812) to investigate the correlates of opposite-sex distrust/antipathy using the newly developed Opposite Sex Antipathy (OSA) scale, which is the first of its kind to allow cross-sex comparisons. Men and women’s antipathy for each other was predicted by perceptions that the opposite sex was of lower value to society, more harmful experiences …

Continuous Polygenic Trait Evolution Under Brownian Motion With Gaussian Mixture Models, Mary S. Hopkins

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Gaussian mixed-models (GMMs) show promise as a tool for modeling polygenic trait evolution for multiple taxa with established phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs). When phenotypic traits are influenced by more than one gene, neither a gene tree nor a species tree may be completely adequate to model specific cross-taxa dependencies. In such cases common solutions include using trees inferred from concatenated DNA sequences [35, 95] and consensus gene trees [35]. The GMM-based model, first proposed by Jiang in 2017 [55] allows traits to evolve on more than one tree with distinct topologies. This approach provides a framework for trait evolutionary modeling …

Through A Pueblo Lens: Sovereignty, Ethics, And Research In Tribal Communities, Elaine Suazo-Miller

Public Administration ETDs

This thesis explores the intersection of tribal sovereignty, ethical research conduct, and data ownership through an auto-ethnographic examination of my experience seeking research approval with the Pueblo of Santa Clara Tribal Council. Using the Pueblo’s protocols and decision-making processes as a lens, the study highlights how sovereignty is practiced in daily governance and how it shapes relationships between Indigenous communities and academic institutions. Three themes frame the analysis: (1) tribal sovereignty and building trust, (2) ethical research conduct and navigating the research process, and (3) data ownership, sensitivity, and sharing results. Each theme connects personal experience to key literature in …

Al-Manfiyun Exiliados: Voices Of The Lebanese Diaspora In Mexican Literature, Mia Del Rosario

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This thesis explores two key works of Mexican literature published in the late 20^th century in terms of their cultural relevance in the Mexican literary sphere. The novels En el verano, la tierra by Carlos Martínez Assad and Las hojas muertas by Bárbara Jacobs center around the infrequently-explored identities of Lebanese immigrants to Mexico and their Mexican-born descendants through a sociocultural lens, discussing their identity negotiation in the context of 20^th-century Mexico, which was in the process of redefining its national identity after the Mexican Revolution. During this time, people of ethnicities that did not fall into …

Dental Hygienists' Views On Salivary Diagnostics, Julie Justice

Dental Hygiene ETDs

This study assessed dental hygienists’ views on salivary diagnostic testing in the United States, including awareness, utilization, perceived barriers, and whether years of experience, clinical setting, or education level influenced these views. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to collect data via an 18-item email survey distributed through the American Dental Hygienists’ Association’s mailing list. Eligible participants were licensed dental hygienists currently practicing in the United States. The survey included demographic items and Likert-scale questions on knowledge, clinical use, perceived value, and limitations of salivary diagnostic testing. Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequency distributions and Spearman correlations. Despite …

Evaluation Of Intracavity Electromagnetic Field Probes And Sources: Implications For Shielding Effectiveness, Joseph Anthony Ferreri

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

To measure the electric field in a reverberant cavity, a small, minimally invasive probe is required. Common solutions include electrically small surface mounted monopole antennas, B-dots, and D-dots. To obtain an accurate field measurement with a particular probe, it is necessary to characterize it to compensate for its ability to convert electric field into voltage which requires a gauge factor known as effective height. The characterization process is straight forward in open space on a ground plane but requires more insight when in situ in a reverberant cavity. This work adapts ground plane probe characterization methods for cavity measurements, facilitating …

Quantifying Co2 And Ch4 Fluxes In A Semi-Arid Floodplain: Assessing Spatial And Temporal Drivers, Miles E. Kelsey

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Rivers transport sediment and carbon across Earth’s surface, and their floodplains can store carbon over decades to millennia, making them important to terrestrial carbon management. While soil carbon can persist long term, it may be released as greenhouse gases through processes like methanogenesis and heterotrophic respiration. Environmental controls on these fluxes remain poorly constrained across floodplains in different climate and geomorphic setting, but especially in semi-arid systems where measurements are limited. To address this gap, we quantified CO₂ and CH₄ fluxes along the Middle Rio Grande (New Mexico, USA) using 227 chamber measurements collected May to November 2025 at three …

Tiktok And The Brain: Neuropsychological Correlates Of Short-Form Video Consumption, Caty Enders

Psychology ETDs

Short-form video platforms like TikTok have quickly become the fastest growing segment of social media, thanks to powerful algorithms serving up personalized content driven by large quantities of user data. This study investigates the neuropsychological correlates of digital media use, with a particular focus on TikTok and smartphone screen time among young adults. Combining correlational analyses and an experimental design (n = 49; n = 44 included in final sample), we examined the relationship between digital media use and cognitive and emotional functioning across multiple domains. Objective measures of digital media consumption (daily average screen time and time on TikTok) …

Identity, Sexuality, And Gender: Perspectives From Self-Identified Sexually Fluid People, Mattilyn Wiseman

Psychology ETDs

Research on sexual fluidity has relied on categorical, gender-based measurement frameworks that prioritize quantifying change over exploring the lived experience of sexually fluid people. This study employed Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to qualitatively and ideographically explore how self-identified sexually fluid people made sense of their own sexual identity, gender (more broadly), and attraction as it relates or does not relate to gender. Three participants completed structured interviews with open-ended questions. Participants unanimously made sense of identity as a self-constructed journey and tied to their social realities. Participants’ lived experiences of their own gender identities informed their sense-making of gender more …

Clarifying The Illusory Truth Effect: The Role Of Truth Status And Source Memory, Kamille Koger

Psychology ETDs

The present study investigated whether repetition increases perceived truth even for information explicitly known to be false and how repetition effects interact with source memory. Participants (N = 102) completed two sessions (exposure and test) one week apart. During exposure, they rated the truth of trivia statements presented three times each. Half were explicitly labeled as "true" or "false" (known condition) and half were unlabeled (ambiguous condition). In the test phase, participants judged the truth of all previously seen statements and an equal number of new statements, followed by source memory judgments. Results showed a classic illusory truth effect (ITE) …

[De/Re]Construct: On The Communion Of Nature And The Divine, Rhiannon E. Kuns

Honors Projects

Closely intertwined with my personal journey of faith and spirituality, [De/Re]construct has been a place to consider questions that repeat over and over. Each time I ask, I get a different answer. These questions are not new, but the idea that I can change my answer is. This project has been the place to map my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs using the familiar. The trees, the colors and the places are known to me; so is my creative process, the planning, sketching, and painting. I am using the regular to grapple with the unanswerable.

[De/Re]construct has evolved drastically since I …

Guide For Empowering Audio Recording, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

This guide has 6 links that lead to very informational materials.

Empowering Audio Recording: Academic Supporting Views, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

This paper aims to demonstrate, drawing on findings from cognitive science, educational psychology, and creativity research, the proposition that incorporating voice recording into daily intellectual production activities can substantially enhance individual intellectual productivity.

One of the greatest challenges facing contemporary knowledge workers and learners is the asymmetry between the difficulty of securing uninterrupted time for thinking, on the one hand, and the latent abundance of fragmented “half-released” time in daily life—during commutes, household chores, exercise, waiting, and the like—on the other. This study proposes a methodology for resolving this asymmetry through recording technology.

As the conceptual framework of the paper, …

An Analytical Framework For Quantifying Urban And Community Resilience To Natural Hazards From Cell-Phone Gps-Location And Traffic-Flow Data, Georgios Chatzikyriakidis

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Urban areas are increasingly exposed to natural hazards while accommodating a growing share of the global population, yet a consistent science-based framework for quantifying urban and community resilience remains lacking. This dissertation develops a physics-based analytical framework grounded in statistical mechanics and the quantitative theory of Brownian motion. A city is conceptualized as a complex medium in which citizens move analogously to Brownian particles within a viscoelastic environment, influenced by socioeconomic interactions and infrastructure functionality.

A central premise is that urban resilience, interpreted as engineering resilience (an outcome), can be quantified through a single metric: the mean-square displacement MSD=⟨r²(t)⟩, of …

Inherited By “Merit”: What Caste Carries Across The Indian American Diaspora, Aarushi V. Jaiswal

English Undergraduate Distinction Projects

This project traces the rhetorical formation termed “meritocratic nationalism,” a political vocabulary that makes national belonging conditional on moralized merit, converting structural advantage into the language of individual character. Meritocratic nationalism is traced across three political figures whose rhetoric represents successive moments in a single ideological trajectory. Reading Narendra Modi’s 2014 and 2018 Independence Day addresses and his 2014 Madison Square Garden speech to the Indian American diaspora as the formation’s originating texts, this project argues that Modi’s recurring moral tetrad of conduct, values, traditions, and ability translated the structurally concentrated advantages of India’s upper-caste professional class into a universalist …

Rural Minds In Modern Politics: Kinship Networks And Voting Patterns: A Comparative Analysis Of Appalachia And Rural Spain, 1986–2024, Alyce Sarah Blow

Senior Theses

This paper examines how rural identity, kinship networks, and community relationships shape voting behavior through a comparative analysis of rural regions in the United States and Spain. With a base structure on sociological and political research on rural development and the rural–urban political divide, this study explores how social trust, family reputation, and community ties influence electoral support in rural communities. Using electoral data from national archives and the Global Elections Database, the analysis focuses on voting patterns from 1986 to 2024 in two rural U.S. congressional districts, West Virginia’s 2nd and Pennsylvania’s 9th, and two rural regions in Spain: …

How Regime Change In Syria Will Alter The Balance Of Power In The Middle East, Sebastian Victor Oprea

Senior Theses

Regime change often results in a state undergoing a drastic change of governance, largely due to dissatisfaction with the previous ruling government. It has been argued by international relations theorists like John Mearsheimer, that the motivation in a state’s action is derived from fear, power maximization, or self-interest. In the case of Syria, both the Ba’athist regime and the post-Assad governments are motivated by self-interest, which is reflected in their respective conduct of foreign policy. This thesis uses a cumulative methodological approach combined with ethnographic research to understand how the political and social changes in Syria influenced the change in …

Migrant Mobility Across Necropolitical Territories Of Violence: Los Zetas/Cartel Del Noreste, Alondra Danixa Gonzalez

Senior Theses

This thesis examines migrant mobility across northeastern Mexico as a process shaped by organized crime and necropolitical violence, with a focus on the evolution of Los Zetas and their successor, Cartel del Noreste [CDN]. Based on Achille Mbembe's concept of necropolitics, along with Sayak Valencia's theory of gore capitalism and Melissa W. Wright's notion of disposable bodies, this paper identifies cartel-controlled border regions as necropolitical spaces where migrants are exposed to death and exploitation. Using a qualitative, testimony-based methodology, this paper incorporates three first-person family narratives of border crossing alongside documented cases of mass violence in Tamaulipas and Coahuila, including …

Imperial Continuities Beneath A Post-Colonial Pretense: Uncovering The Economic Foundations And Covert Objectives Of Operation Ajax, Fatimah Waqas

Senior Theses

Economic self-determination, that is, the right of a state to protect its national resources and direct its own growth, remains a topic of contention and struggle for numerous countries in the Global South. These nations’ attempts at advancing their economic self-determination are often exploited and sabotaged by industrial Western powers, notably the United States, which frequently employs covert operations and media propaganda to disguise its economic and imperial pursuits in developing, resource-rich nations. The case of Iran during the early 1950s is especially exemplary, as the nationalization of oil under Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh presented a direct conflict with U.S. …

Sayyid Qutb: Political Philosophy And The Global Decline Of Jihadist Legitimacy, Jorge A. Ferrara

Senior Theses

Historically and culturally, the meaning behind political philosophies has been misappropriated to serve new ideological aims, and understanding how contexts have changed is essential to contemporary debates surrounding militant jihadist ideology. Sayyid Qutb, a political philosopher in Egypt during the mid-twentieth century, whose political philosophy, which sought moral, spiritual, and societal reform in Egypt under Gamal ‘Abd-Nasser’s regime, has been classified as the philosopher of Islamic terror. In this thesis, I argue that Sayyid Qutb’s political philosophy has been misappropriated into a politicized and militant jihad ideology through successive reinterpretations by militant jihadist leaders, and that this misappropriation is evidence …

Kenyan Foreign Policy In The Multipolar World, Maryclaire Mcadams

Senior Theses

In April 2025, in a speech to university students in Beijing, China, Kenyan President William Ruto announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Kenya and China are not merely trade partners. We are co-architects of a new world order.” The speech was a bold departure from Ruto’s announcement just a year earlier that Kenya would officially achieve Major Non-NATO Ally status with the United States. The stark contrast in public statements from Kenya’s president within just a few months signals a shift in the international order. A system that once compelled states like Kenya to bandwagon with the United States now allows them …

Rewriting The Podium: An Evaluation Of The Court Of Arbitration For Sport’S Efficacy Through Olympic Medal Disputes, Sarah E. Smith

Senior Theses

International sport holds unique power and opportunity to unite the global population around a common entity. Large-scale international sporting events such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup maintain influence and importance across cultures and societies, and offer the world the opportunity to celebrate the tenacity, hard work and willpower of their fellow citizens. At the same time, they also provide the space for all of the world’s nations to engage with one another peacefully and constructively to build relations that extend far beyond the boundaries of a single competition. Therefore, an area of society which holds such clear …

An Exploration Of Oman’S Global Identity: Framework For Looking Beyond Colonial Narratives, Kailee G. Pierce

Senior Theses

This paper explores how Oman’s global identity has been historically constructed through religion and tribe rather than solely through modern state institutions or colonial encounters. Challenging eurocentric approaches to International relations, it argues that Oman’s global identity reflects long standing patterns of tribal, religious, and political authority that predates British, and even Portuguese involvement. Focusing on the Nabhani Dynasty, this paper demonstrates that political authority in Oman was never actually a rigid divide of a religious interior and secular coast; these geographical boundaries did not hinder these strong foundational identity forces that moved throughout different global ports and the Omani …