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“When They Say ‘Queer,’ They Don’t Mean You”: A Foucauldian-Informed Thematic Discourse Analysis Of Bisexual+ Emerging Adults’ Use Of Fiction-Based Parasocial Relationships During Sexual Identity Construction
No full textDrawing from Foucauldian discourse analysis and narrative inquiry, this poststructural Foucauldian-informed thematic discourse analysis explored the ways bisexual+ emerging adults used fiction-based parasocial relationships during identity construction processes. Through interviews and journal reflections, five bisexual+ emerging adults were interviewed to recount their experiences connecting to media and forming parasocial relationships with fictional characters as they came to understand and construct their sexual identity. Through a dual-layered analysis process rooted in critical thematic analysis, individual participant narratives combined with a metanarrative constellation, the findings reflect the unique experiences of the participants while providing an exploration of cultural influences on identity construction and how parasocial relationships can abate those which have a negative influence, something particularly important given the regression in acceptance of queerness in the United States. Findings supported the conceptual framework which posited parasocial relationships function as both interpersonal and environmental factors for the participants in this study. Key findings include the use of parasocial relationships as sources of affirmation and sources of resistance and subversion as well as their use to build relationships in virtual spaces (fandoms) as well as in real life. With roots in media, communication, and fan studies as well as college student development theory research, this interdisciplinary work calls for further exploration into the role and functionality of media on emerging adults from a variety of perspectives as well as research that focuses on individual communities within the queer community instead of treating them like a monolith.EducationDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Lower Paraspinal Muscle Quality is Associated with Reduced Health Related Quality of Life During Cancer Treatment
No full textBackground: In breast cancer survivors, health related quality of life (HRQoL), including physical function, often declines during and after cancer treatment; however, it is uncertain if these declines are associated with skeletal muscle quality. Methods: Women (n=149, 50.3±10.7 years) diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer (PREVENT-WF-98213) completed PROMIS surveys to report HRQoL and its domains at baseline (prior to initiating cancer treatment), 6 months, and 24 months follow up. Paraspinal intermuscular fat (IMF) and skeletal muscle (SM) were determined by magnetic resonance imaging, and the IMF:SM ratio was calculated to estimate muscle quality. Analyses included linear mixed-effects models adjusting for study group (placebo/statin), age, race, and body mass index. Results: HRQoL declined from baseline to 6 months but returned to baseline levels by 24-months. The IMF:SM ratio increased from baseline through 24-months. Individuals with better muscle quality at baseline reported twice the decline in HRQoL from baseline to 6-months (mean difference [MD]= -0.12±0.03, p Conclusion: Individuals with better baseline muscle quality may experience greater declines in HRQoL during cancer treatment. Declines in muscle quality are associated with greater pain interference and worse physical function at 24 months follow-up. Improving or preventing declines in muscle quality may help support HRQoL in patients treated for BC.BiologyBachelors of Science (BS
Exploring How Policy Integration Facilitates Change Implementation At A Midsize Public Research University: A Case Study
No full textMost higher education institutions in the United States are bound to the triad’s regulations, but their methods for integrating external policies with internal ones are unstudied. Employing a single-case, embedded design, this qualitative study centers on a midsize public, research institution in the eastern United States to explore how one higher education institution navigated its policy environment. I proposed three questions, focusing on how academic units (AUs) and support units (SUs) worked together, how they integrated internal and external policies, and how participants experienced institutional change processes. Three frameworks guided this study: colleges and universities as systems, top-down and bottom-up implementation, and the processual policy (dis)integration framework. I used the latter to understand how AUs and SUs collaborated and integrated policies. AU and SU stakeholders formed three key partnerships (AU-AU, SU-SU, and AU-SU), which they relied on to work together. Within these partnerships, participants used various policy instruments to fuel change processes and protect boundaries between AUs and SUs. Engagement in institutional change processes was an enlightening introduction for stakeholders new to institutional change—who were usually AU representatives—and an opportunity for veterans to expand their knowledge about external expectations and higher education trends. The substantive change policy partnerships established the infrastructure of policy integration. Colleges and universities seeking to develop or reboot their institutional change policies should focus on who is involved in changes, how they work together, and the inherent role of these policy actors both within the units they represent and within the institution at large.EducationDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Exposure to sublethal concentrations of lead (Pb) affects ecologically relevant behaviors in house sparrows (Passer domesticus).
No full textGlobal contamination of environments with lead (Pb) poses threats to many ecosystems and populations. While exposure to Pb is toxic at high concentrations, recent literature has shown that lower concentrations can also cause sublethal, deleterious effects. However, there remains relatively little causal investigation of how exposure to lower concentrations of environmental Pb affects ecologically important behaviors. Behaviors often represent first-line responses of an organism and its internal physiological, molecular, and genetic responses to a changing environment. Hence, better understanding how behaviors are influenced by pollutants such as Pb generates crucial information on how species are coping with the effects of pollution more broadly. To better understand the effects of sublethal Pb on behavior, we chronically exposed adult wild-caught, captive house sparrows (Passer domesticus) to Pb-exposed drinking water and quantified a suite of behavioral outcomes: takeoff flight performance, activity in a novel environment, and in-hand struggling and breathing rate while being handled by an experimenter. Compared to controls (un-exposed drinking water), sparrows exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of Pb exhibited decreases in takeoff flight performance and reduced movements in a novel environment following 9–10 weeks of exposure. We interpret this suite of results to be consistent with Pb influencing fundamental neuro-muscular abilities, making it more difficult for exposed birds to mount faster movements and activities. It is likely that suppression of takeoff flight and reduced movements would increase the predation risk of similar birds in the wild; hence, we also conclude that the effects we observed could influence fitness outcomes for individuals and populations altering ecological interactions within more naturalistic settings
The Microalgae Community Structure Of Arctic Coastal Lagoons
No full textThe Arctic is rapidly changing, demonstrated through declines in sea ice extent and thickness, species range shifts, and permafrost melt, driven by Arctic surface air warming four times faster than the global average. Arctic lagoons, extremely productive habitats located at the land-sea interface, make up nearly half of Alaskan Arctic shorelines and are hotspots for coastal primary production. Microalgae in these systems form the base of a dynamic and complex food chain, and dictate carbon budgets, net ecosystem metabolism, and trophic transfer within these lagoons. The Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research program (BLE-LTER) collects dynamic long-term data on these understudied ecosystems at a series of lagoons along Alaska’s Beaufort Sea coast to address several knowledge gaps. This study leverages BLE-LTER data and sampling schemes to examine the microalgae community composition of ice-associated, pelagic, and benthic microalgae within these lagoons. We used high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) derived pigment data, verified against 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, to determine microalgae community structure. Clustering methods were used to determine natural grouping in the community composition of samples. Samples (n = 174) were collected from lagoons (n = 5) and rivers (n = 6) along the Beaufort Sea coast of Alaska, during the Ice Cover (~April), Break Up (~June), and Open Water (~August) periods of 2023, and Ice Cover in 2024, from all microalgae habitats. Ice-associated samples were not collected in Open Water, or at all stations during Break Up, due to lack of sea ice. We found that ice-associated and benthic microalgae communities remained stable in their community composition over space and time, and both methods agreed that these communities were dominated by diatoms. In contrast, phytoplankton communities varied both spatially and temporally through the identification of six unique clusters. The data showed that seasonality (temporal variations) and freshwater influence (spatial variation) were the primary distinction between clusters, but that Ice Cover and Open Water also had intraseasonal variations (spatial variation) in community structure that were likely due to differences in nutrient limitation and freshwater influence. The two methods agreed on general overarching trends in the data, although HPLC analyses greatly underestimated the contribution of dinoflagellates and chrysophytes, which were shown to be prevalent in all clusters through 18S analyses. This study demonstrates that Arctic lagoonal microalgae distinctly vary their community structure with the seasons, and that Arctic freshening under climate change may further shift community structure within the lagoons with continued climate change. Further, our work supports that for the best determination of microalgae communities, multiple methods (i.e., HPLC, 18S, microscopy) should be used, especially within understudied environments.Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceMaster of Science (M.Sc.
Automated Bug Report Management To Enhance Software Development
No full textBug report management is crucial yet challenging process that affects the efficiency of software development process. It involves reporting, triaging, detecting duplicates, assigning, localizing, fixing bugs, and thorough verification. The high volume and variety of bug reports complicate these tasks, highlighting the need for innovative solutions to improve the process and boost development efficiency. This dissertation explores the potential of automating the bug management process to optimize the effectiveness of software development and maintenance. It focuses on three key stages of bug management: reporting, assignment, and localization, presenting four innovative solutions for these phases. First, it discusses the challenges faced by developers due to poor-quality bug reports on GitHub, often lacking crucial details. To address this, the dissertation leverages machine learning to automatically analyze user-written bug reports, identifying key elements of the software system. It aims to automate bug report analysis and inform reporters to provide the missing information timely, thereby enhancing the quality of bug reports and aiding developers in bug triage and resolution. Second, the dissertation proposes an interactive bug reporting system for end-users, implemented as a task-oriented chatbot named \burt. This system guides users through the bug reporting process, offering real-time feedback on each element of a bug description and interactive suggestions to bridge the knowledge gap between end-users and developers. It is designed to make bug reporting more engaging and user-friendly while ensuring the generation of high-quality, informative reports. Third, the dissertation investigates the efficacy of automated methods for recommending developers for bug reports in open-source software projects. It reveals that these methods do not perform consistently across different reports, leading to a proposal for using the most effective method for each report, assessed through machine learning. The findings suggest a gap in the understanding of real-world bug assignment processes and call for further research. Lastly, the dissertation explores different deep learning models that can automatically localize buggy UI screens and components from the bug descriptions of mobile apps. This approach is critical for understanding, diagnosing, and resolving underlying bugs in GUI-centric software applications. Together, these contributions present a comprehensive strategy for enhancing the automated bug report management process, promising significant improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of the software development process.Computer ScienceDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Molecular Dynamics simulations of Solid-Liquid Interfaces for NMR Relaxometry
No full textThe physical, chemical, biological, and electronic implications of interfaces cannot be understated. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a potentially useful technique to study interfaces, due to its ability to probe both the kinetics and structure of molecules. NMR relaxation times are related to the molecular mobility of the sample, which can be restricted by the presence of an interface. NMR is held back by low sensitivity, meaning it can be difficult to isolate a large enough interfacial volume such that the relaxation constants are different from bulk. This work uses molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to understand how changes in relaxation times caused by a solid surface propagate through space. The motion restrictions posed on the liquids by the surface propagate on the order of a nanometer from the surface. The relaxation change in this region is very intense, causing net relaxation constants to remain significantly lower than bulk constants for system sizes on the order of tens of nanometers. Factors contributing to the scale of the relaxation propagation include the geometric and electrostatic properties of the liquid-surface pair.ChemistryBachelors of Science (BS
Mapping the Tidal Marshes of Coastal Virginia: A Hierarchical Transfer Learning Approach
No full textCoastal wetlands, especially tidal marshes, play a crucial role in supporting ecosystems and slowing shoreline erosion. Accurate and cost-effective identification and classification of various marsh types, such as high and low marshes, are important for effective coastal management and conservation endeavors. However, mapping tidal marshes is challenging due to heterogeneous coastal vegetation and dynamic tidal influences. In this study, we employ a deep learning segmentation model to automate the identification and classification of tidal marsh communities in coastal Virginia, USA, using seasonal, publicly available satellite and aerial images. This study leverages the combined capabilities of Sentinel-2 and National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery and a UNet architecture to accurately classify tidal marsh communities. We illustrate that by leveraging features learned from data abundant regions and small quantities of high-quality training data collected from the target region, an accuracy as high as 88% can be achieved in the classification of marsh types, specifically high marsh and low marsh, at a spatial resolution of 0.6 m. This study contributes to the field of marsh mapping by highlighting the potential of combining multispectral satellite imagery and deep learning for accurate and efficient marsh type classification.Applied Scienc
Red Stone, Invisible Legacy: Goan Aesthetics in Charles Correa's Design
No full textExcerpt from publication: "The obituary for Charles Correa (1930-2015) in the New York Times hails him as an ''American trained" architect, who reached "deep into India's past for inspiration in producing work that is notable for its imagination and breadth."1 Of course, Correa's design practice drew from "Indian" traditions, including the use of the mandala, a sacred geometric configuration associated with Buddhism. The visibility of mandalas in the architect's designs questions the alignment of his legacy with an Indianness that can only be understood as heralding a mythic Hindu past..."Englis