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Parenthood And Sleep In A Population-Based Sample Of Older Adults
No full textWhile many studies have examined parenthood\u27s health impacts on younger adults, less is known about these effects in adults over 50, particularly regarding different aspects of the parent-child relationship (e.g., number of children, geographic proximity, frequency/nature of contact) are differentially associated with health. This study evaluates longitudinal associations between parenthood and sleep among adults aged \u3e50 using data from the 2016 and 2018 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. We used linear regression to examine associations between aspects of parenthood and sleep, controlling for demographics, health status, and baseline sleep. Negative interactions with children were associated with lower sleep scores (B = -0.03, 95% CI: -0.05, -0.01, p = \u3c0.01) . While there was no association between frequency of email communication and sleep among married individuals, communicating with children via email less than once a month was associated with lower sleep scores among those who were unmarried (b = -0.07, SE = 0.04, p = 0.047) or living with a partner (B = -0.34, 95% CI: -0.71, -0.03, p = 0.04). While there was no association between proximity to children and sleep among those with some college education, those with less than a high school education who lived more than 10 miles from their children had lower sleep scores than those who either lived with their children (b = -0.35, SE = 0.18, p = 0.048) or lived within 10 miles of non-residential children (b = -0.37, SE = 0.17, p = 0.03). Given known associations between sleep and health, it is important to understand associations between aspects of parenthood and sleep among adults over 50. This study provides insights for healthcare professionals to promote healthy aging and improve this population\u27s overall quality of life
Immune Mechanisms In Ovarian Cancer Initiation And Progression: Implications For Early Detection And Novel Therapies.
No full textThe 5-year survival rate for high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is barely 30% because most patients are diagnosed late, and the cancer typically recurs even after initial successful treatment. Therefore, early detection and effective therapies to prevent (or at least, significantly delay) cancer recurrence are the two major unmet needs in HGSOC management. Although emerging evidence has now confirmed the Fallopian tubes as the site of origin of HGSOC, the exact mechanisms which underlie the early transformation of normal Fallopian tube into precursors of HGSOC, and their eventual progression to invasive and recurrent carcinoma are not fully understood. In this dissertation, we sought to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying ovarian cancer initiation and progression to help us identify novel early detection biomarkers and therapeutic targets for HGSOC. By performing spatial transcriptomic studies on normal and malignantly transformed Fallopian tube epithelium, we identified loss of Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF) as a critical event during early malignant transformation of the Fallopian tube epithelium. Additionally, we observed the enrichment of inflammatory processes in the stroma of transformed Fallopian tube, underscoring the importance of dysregulated immune processes during ovarian cancer initiation and progression. Subsequently, we showed that successful chemotherapy reverses immunologic tolerance to cancer cells, re-establishing immune surveillance and anti-tumoral immune response in long-term responders compared to early recurrence patients. Overall, this dissertation lays important foundation for future work to facilitate development of effective early detection tests, improved patient stratification, and novel therapies to someday improve patient outcomes from this lethal malignancy
African Restorative Justice Philosophy: Practicing The Ubuntu Paradigm In The Composition Classroom
No full textAs the field of rhetoric and composition studies grapples with problematic institutional paradigms militating against its growth, changes taking place in the field mean that opportunity is created for a more equitable, inclusive, and diversified composition classroom. Questions of diversity, equity and inclusion have led me to investigate the composition classroom to identify and decenter structural systems of white mainstream literacy and language practices as a way of encouraging and building on the prior literacy practices of not just minority students, but all categories of students. In my dissertation research, I propose the practice of ubuntu as a way of teaching and assessing students to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. Ubuntu loosely translates as “Humanity to others” or “I am because you are.” As a rhetorical practice, the adoption of ubuntu in the composition classroom will foster bonds of cooperation and respect for the literacy practices of all students, an action that will go a long way to help in the fight against racism and its systemic manifestations of white hegemonic practices, key among which is white mainstream literacy and languaging. Drawing on critical race theory, textual ethnography, participatory action research, counter storytelling, and translingualism, I argue that writing should be a community practice, one that recognizes the uniqueness of each individual student by remediating the long-held notion that standard edited American English is the only medium through which students’ writing can be assessed and improved
Genotype-Environment Interactions For Non-Coding Variants In Disease And Evolution
No full textNoncoding variants contribute to the regulation of gene expression, largely by disrupting regulatory sequences. Both genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) have highlighted the importance of studying noncoding regulatory variants, as many GWAS variants are noncoding, and eQTLs directly regulate gene expression. These findings increase our understanding of human health and molecular mechanisms respectively; however we do not fully understand the complexities of gene regulation and their relation to complex disease. GWAS and eQTLs largely ignore contexts that could impact gene regulatory activity, such as environmental stimuli. Explicitly considering environmental context can uncover regulatory gene-environment interactions, where allelic effects are not observed in one environment, but are observed in a different environment, making the gene regulatory activity context-dependent. Furthermore, these gene-environment interactions have important phenotypic consequences and underlie variation in complex traits. Thus, gene-environment interactions are a crucial area of study, as results may uncover important information regarding human health and evolution.In chapter 2 I utilized a massively parallel reporter assay to identify genotype-environment interactions (GxE) in vascular endothelial cells exposed to caffeine. This work demonstrates that we can elucidate potential mechanisms explaining the inter-individual response to caffeine and its implications for cardiovascular health. In chapter 3 I investigated the role of BPA and phthalate exposure related to cardiovascular health. This work demonstrates that these ubiquitous plastic contaminants alter gene expression in vascular endothelial cells. In chapter 4 I investigated the role of GxE in human evolution by identifying instances of GxE for Neanderthal-introgressed and fixed variants. This work found differences in the gene regulatory activity of these fixed and introgressed variants and expands on the evolutionary implications of this finding. This work also identifies GxE for adaptively introgressed variants, contributing to the field by identifying sun exposure as a potential selective pressure as humans migrated out of Africa. Altogether, my PhD research demonstrates the importance of considering environmental context when studying gene regulatory activity and the downstream effects of genotype-environment interactions on human health and evolution
The Effects Of Student-Teacher Relationships Between Black Women And Their Black Adolescent Girls On Adult Outcomes
No full textABSTRACT THE EFFECTS OF STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BLACK WOMEN AND THEIR BLACK ADOLESCENT GIRLS ON ADULT OUTCOMES
by
MCKEA COOPER-MILLER
May 2025
Advisor: Dr. Rema VassarMajor: Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Degree: Doctor of Education This qualitative research aimed to study the lives of Black girls who were taught by Black women educators. This study explores the mentorship experiences between Black women teachers and Black girls, examining how these relationships influenced their long-term success. Through kitchen table conversations and narrative analysis, this study highlighted how Black women teachers foster emotional resilience, academic achievement, community development, and overall well-being. This study revealed an emerging framework built on cultural pride, guidance, consistency, and life skills development, which all result in viable elements that contributed to the success of Black girls into adulthood. The results revealed that Black girls deeply value the lessons and support received from their Black women teachers, recognizing their lasting effectiveness. Similarly, Black women educators reflected on their classroom practices, often unaware at the time of the profound, lifelong effects they would have on their students. This study underscores the importance of mimicking these mentorship practices to serve as a foundation for improving academic and personal outcomes for Black girls today
The “i” Exists: An Exploration Of Intersex Students’ Experiences And Persistence Factors Throughout Their Collegiate Journey
No full textProgress has been made in society’s recognition of the diversity of human identities, with a particular focus on acknowledging the rights and experiences of transgender and non-binary individuals. However, intersex individuals continue to be largely overlooked in scholarly research and within the general population leading to a significant gap in existing literature. Intersex individuals are born with sex characteristics that deviate from the established medical and social standards for male and female bodies. Individuals with intersex variations exhibit diversity in terms of their bodies, sexes, as well as sexual gender identities (Carpenter, 2016). Today there are over 40 different intersex variations and this number is continuously growing. These variations may become known prenatally, at birth, during puberty, in later stages of life, or may remain undetectable (Sterling, 2021). Intersex advocates have been committed to the fundamental goals of fighting for the rights to bodily autonomy and self-determination and striving to eliminate stigma. There is a growing recognition of the need to center intersex voices in academic research, advocacy, and policymaking. The shift is motivated by a broader understanding within academia that gender and sex are complex, diverse, and challenging binary definitions. Bridging this gap is essential to creating a more inclusive higher education environment that embraces the diversity of human experiences. This abstract emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing the unique challenges faced by intersex individuals within the broader framework of diversity and inclusion in higher education. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the educational experiences of intersex people during their undergraduate years, structural supports that encourage persistence among intersex students, and barriers to persistence that intersex students face in higher education. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with current and former intersex college students.
INDEX WORDS: College Environment, Higher Education, Intersectionality Theory, Intersex, Self-Identity, Well-Being
Impersonal Sexuality And Men\u27s Sexual Aggression Against Casual And Committed Partners
No full textResearch on the etiology of sexual aggression often uses the Confluence Model (Malamuth et al., 1991; 2021). One central risk factor, impersonal sexuality, refers to a self-oriented, detached approach to sex. Many studies use casual sex proclivity as a proxy for impersonal sex (Abbey et al., 2011; Pegram et al., 2018; Yucel et al., 2023), which fails to explain the widespread perpetration within committed, long-term couples. Two studies address this limitation by testing a novel measure for impersonal sexuality, the Self-Focused Sexuality scale, hypothesized to be an invariant and significant predictor of sexual aggression for single and committed men.Study 1 (N = 288) provided initial evidence for the Self-Focused Sexuality scale’s validity and structure with 288 men in an online sample. The 11-item scale demonstrated good reliability (α = .88), and items loaded onto a single factor. In Study 2 (N = 431), a one-factor model showed poor fit while a two-factor model revealed two possible subscales, Selfishness and Non-Intimacy. Though fit improved with two factors, the model fit was much worse for single than committed men, demonstrating a lack of measurement invariance. Finally, regressions compared Self-Focused Sexuality and casual sex proclivity as predictors of sexual aggression, with the latter predicting single but not committed men’s aggression while Self-Focused Sexuality predicted both. These findings suggest that impersonal sexuality remains an important predictor of sexual aggression and future work should revise the scale to assess if it can better capture impersonal sex for men in committed relationships
Playing Through Music History: The Contextualizing Function Of Western Historical Music In Fantasy Role-Playing Video Games
No full textThis thesis focuses on the presence of Western historical music in contemporary video games. Through a combination of music-theoretical analysis, iconography, and Peircean semiotics, the author demonstrates that the nondiegetic soundtracks of fantasy role-playing video games utilize elements of major style periods in music history—including the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras—to enhance existing representations of time and place in their visual environments. This phenomenon is particularly apparent in three games, which serve as case studies: Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), and Elden Ring (2022). Ultimately, the project contributes research to both ludomusicology and historical musicology, as it reveals that historical music serves an essential contextualizing function in role-playing video games and, by extension, that those same games can be sites of productive discussions about archetypal genres and styes from a wide range of periods throughout Western music history
Using Neuromodulation To Investigate Potential Treatment Pathways Associated With Stress And Substance Use In Opioid Use Disorder
No full textStress exposure may lead to negative physical and psychological responses. Stress can be particularly problematic for people trying to recover from opioid use disorder (OUD) because it impairs executive function and increases craving and likelihood of relapse. Research shows that acute stressors increase drug-seeking behavior; however, the mechanisms by which stress impacts behavior are not fully understood. Moreover, there are no FDA-approved medications to reduce effects of stress on cognitive function, and current OUD treatments do not effectively address stress. Neuromodulation with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a promising tool for developing a deeper understanding of mechanisms relating stress to drug-related outcomes. The Competing Neurobehavioral Decisions System theory posits that persons with SUDs may have hyperactive limbic reward circuitry and hypoactive executive control circuitry. This theory supports using rTMS to target limbic reward (via mPFC) or executive control (via dlPFC) circuitry to modulate drug-seeking. Although the theoretical framework indicates both dlPFC and mPFC could serve as potential targets, we chose the mPFC because it is associated with the hyperactive limbic activity that is theorized to be associated with stress-induced dysfunction; furthermore, the majority of research thus far has focused on the dlPFC so there are minimal data looking at effects of NIBS of the mPFC. We examined the effects of a psychological stressor in conjunction with inhibitory (1Hz) mPFC vs. sham rTMS in participants with OUD in treatment with either methadone or buprenorphine. The central aim is to investigate how inhibition of theoretically overactive limbic circuits via inhibitory rTMS of the mPFC would alter stress-induced executive dysfunction, emotion dysregulation, and drug-seeking. We aimed to address this knowledge gap through guided imagery stressors paired with 10 sessions of active mPFC rTMS vs. sham (within subjects). Stress-induced dysfunction was indexed with carefully selected cognitive (e.g., executive function), affective (e.g., emotional arousal), and behavioral (e.g., opioid seeking) measures pre- and post-rTMS. To confirm changes are associated with altered neural activity in the targeted regions, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) during key tasks. We hypothesized that stressors would increase executive dysfunction, emotion dysregulation, and drug-seeking, and we theorize that rTMS mPFC inhibition will decrease limbic activation, which in turn could translate to changes in craving and drug-seeking. Sample size was limited for these initial analyses, so discussion is focused on effect sizes and predicted outcomes rather than statistical significance. Initial results indicated that psychological stress resulted in impaired executive functioning, increased anxiety, decreased mood, and increased drug motivation and craving in people with OUD. These findings were also associated with an increase in objective cardiovascular and salivary markers of sympathetic nervous system activation. Initial results also indicated that inhibitory rTMS of the mPFC as associated with a decrease in stress-induced executive dysfunction, negative mood, and drug motivation and craving. Conversely, it appears as though rTMS negatively impacts anxiety, resulting in an increase in anxiety symptoms immediately post stressor after active rTMS only. Physiological measures suggest that rTMS preferentially impacted noradrenergic activity, contrary to expectations, and it may have increased noradrenergic tone in response to stressor. It is possible that these physiological symptoms of NE activity might have played a role in the apparent increase in subjective anxiety post-active rTMS. Our findings provide important insights into the ways key neural networks contribute to drug-seeking and other associated dysfunctions in people with SUDs. Furthermore, they suggest that at least some of the mechanisms by which the mPFC affects EF, emotional arousal, and drug motivation are distinct from those affected by the stress response. The differential effects of active rTMS on sympathetic activation and drug motivation highlight the complex activity of the mPFC and the importance of considering each neural region within the context of the whole brain. This is not the first study to highlight potential divergent effects within the mPFC; it underscores the importance of developing clear rTMS protocols based on understood mechanisms, and it highlights the risks of imprecise targeting methodology. The results of this and similar studies can provide key insights into future interventions for people with SUDs
The Role Of Protocadherin Γ-C4 In Neuronal Survival And Self-Avoidance In The Mouse Retina
No full textCell adhesion molecules (CAMs) play a variety of crucial roles in neural circuit formation, with the g-protocadherin family emerging as key regulators during neuronal development. This family of proteins consists of 22 highly related isoforms that form diverse recognition complexes through promiscuous cis-multimerization and homophilic trans-interactions, via their six cadherin like extracellular domains. While g-Pcdhs are known to regulate many aspects of neuronal devel-opment including neuronal survival, synapse formation and dendritic patterning, the specific con-tributions of individual isoforms are poorly understood. Recently, the gC4 isoform has been identi-fied as uniquely essential for postnatal viability and interneuron survival in mice. This study inves-tigates the molecular mechanism through which gC4 regulates neuronal survival as well as dendrit-ic self-avoidance in the retina. We hypothesize that: 1) gC4’s unique protein sequence makes it nec-essary and sufficient for promoting neuronal survival in the mouse retina, 2) gC4 alone cannot support dendritic self-avoidance in starburst amacrine cells, and 3) gC4 interacts with specific bind-ing partners to promote neuronal survival. Using mouse lines with reduced g-Pcdh diversity in-cluding a gC4 knockout (PcdhgC4KO) and gC4-only expressing (Pcdhg1R1/1R1 ) mutants as well as a novel C4-GFP transgenic mouse, we examine the isoform specific requirements of these develop-mental processes. Our findings demonstrate that loss of gC4 alone is sufficient for amacrine cell apoptosis in the retina, without the contribution of any other g-Pcdh isoform. We were able to iden-tify that the variable cytoplasmic domain (VCD) of gC4 was both necessary and sufficient to res-cue apoptosis in PcdhgC4KO retina culture in vitro, and the extracellular cadherin and intracellular constant domains are not required for this function. We next used C4-GFP transgenic retinas at P10, during the period of developmental apoptosis, to identify candidate protein interactors of gC4 involved in apoptosis. Dendritic self-avoidance in starburst amacrine cells of the retina failed when gC4 alone is expressed in Pcdhg1R1/1R1 mutants. However, cell spacing of AC and RGC is undis-turbed in these mutants, indicating that isoform diversity is dispensable for proper neuronal spacing in the retina