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Exploring the Relationship Between Psychological Flexibility and Trauma Symptom Severity
No full textPrevious studies have found an inverse relationship between psychological flexibility and trauma symptom severity. However, most of these studies utilized a measure of psychological inflexibility called the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II). This is problematic as the validity of the AAQ-II has recently come into question. In addition, there is a growing question regarding whether psychological flexibility and inflexibility are really opposing ends of the same spectrum, or if they are related, but distinct concepts. Therefore, there is a potential issue in using the AAQ-II, a measure of inflexibility, to measure flexibility. The present study aims to evaluate the relationship between psychological flexibility and trauma symptom severity using a more valid measure of flexibility, examine the mediating role that psychological flexibility and/or inflexibility may have in the relationship between type of trauma and trauma symptom severity, assess the convergent validity of the AAQ-II, and explore the relationship between psychological flexibility and inflexibility. Findings suggest that there is a relationship between psychological flexibility and trauma symptom severity, as well as between inflexibility and trauma symptom severity. In fact, inflexibility was found to mediate the relationship between type of trauma and trauma symptom severity, although flexibility did not mediate this relationship. Additionally, results support the convergent validity of the AAQ-II. Finally, results support weak convergent validity between psychological flexibility and inflexibility, although this should be further explored in future studies
Assessing Interatomic Potentials for Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Soybean Oil Pyrolysis
No full textThe world today relies on hydrocarbon combustion for many reasons, including its high energy density that provides ease of transportation. However, hydrocarbons sourced from fossil fuels are not expected to last forever. Biodiesel, a renewable alternative, has many attractive benefits but comes with other downsides. Biodiesel can gel in cold environments and may leave residue in an engine. Pyrolysis of biodiesel has shown promise in addressing these common detriments. Inducing pyrolysis on biodiesel feedstock (commonly soybean oil in the USA) would be an attractive option presuming it continues to produce fossil fuel analogs similar to biodiesel pyrolysis. Herein, Langevin molecular dynamics were employed to simulate the pyrolysis of 6400 soybean oil-based triglycerides (SOBTs). One hundred runs containing 64 triglycerides each were performed at 2000K for 10 picoseconds with 1 femtosecond timesteps. ANI-2x, a machine-learned interatomic potential, was used as the energy calculator. Bond breaking and forming events in each run were observed and analyzed. The results matched expectations from bond dissociation energy (BDE) values for oleic and linoleic acids (those with BDE data available)
Genie Duty
No full text“The Magic in My Writing” follows the writing, inspiration, and brainstorming for an excerpt of the novel Genie Duty. Genie Duty follows the protagonist, who is later renamed Jane, with her newfound genie companion, Gene. She is put on trial after using her final wish to wish for more genies, against the rules. Her sentence to serve as a genie “temporarily.” Together they strive to fight their genie punishment and get to the root of the origins of genie-kind. Scholarly influences of the work include Lubomír Doležel, Franz Kafka, John Gardner and Wolf Schmid, who describe the unique first-person narration choices, define the links between the human and genie worlds, and support a retelling of the genie mythos by concept of modern myth. Mythological words are split by different entities. The transfer of humans and genies to each world is unbalanced. The literary inspirations from Toni Morrison and Sapphire shape this first-person novel: A Mercy, by Morrison, with its multiple narrators, and Push, by Sapphire, with its stream-of-consciousness writing style. The strife of geniehood and its status as a punishment is crafted to parallel the treatment of Black people from the sixteenth century to present day and their struggles caused by slavery, the school-to-prison pipeline, over policing, and the fight for civil rights
Enhancing Workplace Climate and Learning Outcomes in ABA Services: Prosocial Approaches and PEAK Instruction With Autistic Learners
No full textThe practice of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) heavily relies on the relationship between high quality client services and the direct care staff who implement these services. This thesis combines two manuscripts which discuss the field of behavior analysis in terms of clinical approaches. The first chapter evaluated intervention outcomes of 55 autistic learners undergoing language and cognitive training guided by PEAK (Promoting Emergence of Advanced Knowledge System; Dixon, 2014) within ABA services. Pre-post analyses of performance on the PCA revealed significant increases in PCA scores following 6-months of intervention and consistent gains in scores occurred across all four PEAK modules. Results from a multiple regression analysis indicated that age at the onset of intervention and the total number of mastered programs were significant predictors of improvements on the PCA. Autism symptom severity and total treatment hours were not significant predictors of intervention outcomes in this sample. To support autistic learners and provide the necessary treatment fidelity, direct care staff must be equipped to implement services. The second chapter discusses the evaluation of a Prosocial intervention to support workplace climate and performance at multiple levels within an ABA clinic. Service providers in the field of applied behavior analysis often experience high rates of burnout, low job satisfaction, and high turnover rates, particularly when professional social support and psychological flexibility are less likely to occur. Prosocial (Atkins et al., 2018) is an approach to supporting organizations by promoting adaptive and flexible responding within groups by integrating elements of acceptance and commitment training (ACT) with Ostrom’s core design principles (CDPs) to guide collective action. Results of this study suggested that the use of prosocial frameworks support increases in each CDP as well as improvement in reported stress, burnout, and overall group cohesion
Civic Education for Civic Leadership: Renewing Faith in Democracy
No full textCivic education and civic leadership are at the forefront of renewing faith in democracy on our campuses and communities. There is an urgent need for higher education to return to its historical foundation to fulfill the mission of democracy by educating students for democratic citizenship (Harkavy, 2006). Effectively integrating curricular and co-curricular civic engagement involves a balanced approach that is “both political and non-political” (Ehrlich, 2000, p. vi) to guide students to identify core values, develop civic knowledge, and build civic leadership skills (Finley, 2011; Hurtado, 2019). Civic leadership is an integral student learning outcome embedded within civic engagement praxis, but few frameworks have been developed to integrate leadership growth into their programming and curricula (Kniffin & Sapra, 2021). To renew faith in democracy, a reorientation to engagement with the local community through civic leadership is the pathway to achieve measurable impact by guiding students from the classroom into the community. If higher education is to fulfill the mission of democracy, educators and campus leaders must become the guides who invite students into a story bigger than themselves. Building on King’s (1963) civic legacy and Musil’s (2009) Civic Learning Spiral, the author outlines a Strategic Leadership Impact Model that has resulted in student-led civic engagement capstone projects, community-based research, and sustainable civic partnerships. Whether in the classroom or in the community, undergraduate students must be equipped through civic curriculum, co-curriculm, and service learning programming to engage diverse perspectives and political viewpoints with civic curiosity to become effective civic leaders
Comparing in Vivo Dry Matter Digestibility vs in Vitro Dry Matter Digestibility
No full textThree yearling steers were used in a 2 X 3 incomplete Latin square design to determine In Vivo Dry Matter Digestibility of two forages, alfalfa (ALF) and mixed grass hay (GH) to determine the accuracy of In Vitro Dry Matter Digestibility (IVDMD) methods for determining the true dry matter digestibility (DMD). Forage samples were collected and digested In Vitro using the ANKOM DaisyII Incubator. Forage Fiber Analysis of the residue was used to determine true dry matter digestibility. There was significant interaction between treatment and period (P \u3c 0.05) for both In Vitro and In Vivo methods. When comparing the two methods there was a method by treatment interaction (p = 0.04). The In Vitro method yield higher estimates for both forages than the In Vivo method but the difference between In Vitro and In Vivo estimates was greater for the mixed grass hay
Water Quality of a Karstic Shallow Aquifer in Greene and Lawrence Counties, Missouri
No full textA water quality investigation in the Springfield Plateau aquifer of Greene and Lawrence counties, Missouri, was conducted. Water samples from eleven springs were collected at regular intervals during 2023 to determine major water quality parameters: total dissolved solids (TDS), alkalinity, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), sulfate (SO4), chloride (Cl) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N), along with per- and poly-fluorinated alkali substances (PFAS) from spring sediments. Nitrate-nitrogen was analyzed because of the importance for environmental health (e.g. to avoid eutrophication). Springs samples were separated by land use into urban and rural samples. In addition, Springfield Plateau water quality was compared with water quality (NO3-N and Na) from the Ozark aquifer water to evaluate leaking from shallow to deeper aquifer by faults or karstic conduits. The effect of precipitation on water quality was considered. All springs had low concentrations of anthropogenic contaminants (Na, SO4, and Cl). However, six springs presented NO3-N concentrations over 3 mg/L. Urban springs had higher concentrations of anthropogenic contaminants than rural springs. A moderate correlation was obtained between Na-Cl for urban (ρ =0.58) and rural springs (ρ =0.47). A moderate negative correlation was obtained for SO4-Na in urban springs (ρ =-0.42), and a positive correlation (ρ =0.54) for rural springs. Comparison between shallow and deep aquifer showed that faults and karst conduits do not represent a concern for pollution leaking. In addition, PFAS on sediments were not detected. This comprehensive data can be used as background for future studies, especially considering forthcoming changes in land use (urbanization) and climate patter
How Environmental Variation Affects Bumblebee Cognition and the Gut Microbiome
No full textThis master\u27s thesis examines the influence of environmental variables on cognitive processes in Bombus impatiens, focusing on the effects of ingested microbial communities on gut microbiota and their subsequent impact on associative color learning. The study implemented controlled feeding trials with isolated microbe species (Candida bombi, Metschnikowia reukaufii, Lactobacillus micheneri and a control with no microbes) to analyze shifts in gut microbial composition in foraging bees. Results indicated minor alterations in the microbial profiles of bees, yet no statistically significant correlation was found between these modifications and variations in learning or memory performance. Furthermore, the study assessed the impact of floral resource diversity on cognitive plasticity across three distinct field sites in (Republic, Willard, and Bolivar) in Southwest Missouri. Contrary to initial hypotheses, no direct relationship was observed between floral diversity and the learning or memory abilities of B. impatiens. These findings suggest that the expected cognitive benefits from environmental diversity may be more complex or subject to confounding variables not accounted for in this study. The research underscores the intricate interplay between gut microbiota, environmental inputs, and cognitive functions in pollinators, highlighting the need for further refined experimental methodologies
Women in Religious Leadership Roles
No full textThe experiences of women in leadership have been well studied in academia, but there remains a gap in the literature regarding and understanding of the experiences of women who are in religious leadership roles. I examined what challenges these women experience in their roles, and how they make sense of those challenges, using the constant comparative method of data analysis to analyze interviews with 12 women who have leadership roles within their protestant church or nonprofit organization. The results indicate that these individuals experience challenges that are consistent with past research on women in leadership. However, the results also illustrate that women utilize ideas of duty toward their work and reward from their work to describe their sensemaking strategies when dealing with those challenges, often through the use of religious language. These findings advance our knowledge of the lived experiences of women in religious leadership roles, and the ways in which they utilize religious language in their sensemaking strategies
Million-Year Melt-Presence in Mogollon-Datil Volcanic Field Rhyolites: Constraining the Histories of the Bursum Caldera Resurgent Domes
No full textThe Mogollon-Datil volcanic field which is located in southwestern New Mexico, is the result of punctuated volcanism and the transition between arc and rift magmatism. The resurgent domes within the 28 Ma Bursum caldera records the transition from rhyolitic to basaltic andesite volcanism that occurred between 27-26 Ma. Using a combination of new zircon U-Pb ages using chemical abrasion isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-ID-TIMS) with zircon U-Pb geochronology and trace element contents by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) and whole rock and mineral trace element contents and isotope geochemistry this study investigates the temporal and spatial relationship of the resurgent domes of the Bursum caldera. This study found that the Bloodgood Canyon Tuff (BCT), the caldera forming eruption, the Apache Spring Tuff (AST), the intra caldera fill, and the Fanney Rhyolite (FR), the main unit of the resurgent domes share crystallization ages of ~28.4 Ma show a continuous crystallization sequence from the same source reservoir. However, the whole rock geochemistry and stratigraphic analysis indicates that the AST erupted before the FR, where the source became more compositionally zoned over time, creating two end members of FR. Additionally, the Deadwood Gulch member of FR and the Rhyolite of Hay Canyon have ages significantly younger than the BCT, AST, and FR, and are sourced from a different reservoir. Geochemical analyses also suggest that the Deadwood Gulch member of the FR is made up of two distinct end members. A mixing model determined from Sr isotopes show the possible transition from ignimbrite eruptions to basaltic andesite eruptions, due to the continued injection of basalt into the source magma