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Is Fidelity a Matter of Turning On or Toward One’s Partner? A Survival Analysis of Sexual Quality and Strong Relationality as Protective Factors Against Infidelity
No full textInfidelity is among the most traumatic challenges in relationships, affecting an estimated 17.5% to 35% of couples over their lifetimes (Warach et al., 2024). The majority of extant infidelity research focuses on risk factors, consequences, and treatment of infidelity, leaving a notable gap in understanding the protective factors which may reduce its occurrence (Haseli et al., 2019). Recent theoretical models on protective factors of monogamy and relationship flourishing offer insight into how individuals and couples might protect their relationship against infidelity (Fye & Mims, 2019; Galovan & Schramm, 2018). The present study examines how two constructs from these models, sexual quality and strong relationality, might individually and collectively prevent infidelity. Using a survival analysis, this study aims to empirically model the relationships between these protective factors and infidelity, which will provide practical insights into the mechanisms of preventing infidelity. The intended outcome of this analysis is to advance prevention theory and offer actionable recommendations for promoting fidelity in committed relationships
The Decolonial Heroes of the United States and Brazil
No full textThis research provides new outlooks that elevate the hidden stories of the marginalized. The other ways of knowing that are examined in this project begin with the musical genre of the corrido, a form of Mexican American balladry which exemplifies the folkloric heroes who stood up to the Texas Rangers in their lifetime and continue to combat modern forms of colonialism through cultural production and community consolidation. This project begins by discussing the Anglo invasion which led to la matanza, one of the worst moments of racial violence in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. There are similar genres to the corrido transnationally in northeastern Brazil such as xaxado. Similar folkloric heroes fought against the active forces of modernity that marginalized the black, indigenous and mixed races that represent the true identity of Brazil. This project seeks to elevate their voices, making them the lynchpins of a new modernity. In this project, I propose the term Decolonial Hero to link these two spaces together. This represents the modalities, such as performance in the context of community and how people can come together in solidarity to combat modern colonialism. Each time Decolonizing Heroism is performed, it is adapted. In four chapters, this dissertation discusses three fountains of knowledge: performance, adaptation and activism. This begins by exemplifying the corrido’s fluidity as it is performed and adapted into the film The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez. Following that, women heroes in Brazil such as Maria Bonita and their role in the fight against modern colonialism are emphasized in the multi-sensory mediums. This includes coming-of-age heroes who overcome restrictions of mobility through agency and selfless actions for their community. This study concludes with examples of activism and sets out a framework for creative projects as fundamental for education. This can extend outside the classroom through new creative monuments that consist of dedicated spaces with stages for performances and where activists can collaborate
Glass Basket: Poems
No full textGlass Basket is a collection of poems focused on art, pain, place, and the responsibilities of witness and attention, and the book aims to bridge the ekphrastic tradition in poetry and my own experiences of chronic pain and invisible disability by connecting emotional reactions to art to our similarly moving responses to bodily suffering. A key factor in this project is attending to people not often given adequate or careful consideration (by nature of age, status, race, gender, and so on) by considering the objects they have left behind: a potsherd, a portrait miniature, an unsent postcard, a piece of embroidery, a cut-paper silhouette. Ultimately, I employ ekphrasis of objects to which we have shared access in order to both reflect and calibrate interior, incomparable, entirely subjective, and paradoxically communal experiences of individual pain
Control of Grid-Forming Inverter to get Ancillary Services for Voltage Regulation and VAR Support
No full textThe global shift toward sustainable energy has accelerated the adoption of renewable resources, significantly transforming traditional power systems. This transition, from synchronous generator-based grids to inverter-based resources (IBRs), presents critical challenges in maintaining voltage stability, reactive power support, and overall system inertia. This thesis focuses on grid-forming inverters (GFMIs) as a promising solution to address these challenges by emulating synchronous generator behavior. Through comprehensive modeling and control strategy development primarily using droop control mechanisms and an additional Var compensation module this study investigates advanced GFMI control frameworks to provide ancillary services such as voltage regulation and VAR support.
The control architecture, designed with cascaded loops and proportional-integral (PI) controllers, is validated through MATLAB/Simulink simulations testing, demonstrating effective voltage stabilization and reactive power compensation even in weak grid conditions. By integrating energy storage systems (ESS) and renewable sources via DC coupling, the proposed system enhances grid resilience against intermittent energy fluctuations and disturbances.
Despite significant advancements, ongoing challenges such as fault ride-through capability and high renewable penetration stability persist, suggesting future research directions. This work contributes to the development of more stable, flexible, and sustainable future power systems driven by high shares of renewable energy
The Impact of Data Coaching on Collaborative Inquiry and Teacher Perceptions in a Co-Teaching PLC Framework
No full textThis design-based school improvement study investigated the impact of collaborative data inquiry coaching within a professional learning community (PLC) framework on teacher development and perceptions of student learning in a Texas middle school. Grounded in the Teacher Collaboration Assessment Survey (TCAS), the study focused on improving the data literacy and collaborative practices of two instructional teams serving students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Data were collected through pre- and post-surveys, interviews, PLC observations, and five cycles of individualized coaching. Thematic analysis revealed that while both participants initially relied on assumption-based reasoning, sustained coaching fostered growth in data-informed instruction, reflective practice, and equity-minded decision-making. Findings emphasized the critical role of targeted coaching in disrupting deficit thinking, increasing responsiveness to student needs, and promoting shared leadership in PLC settings. The study contributes to the limited U.S.-based literature on the TCAS and underscores the importance of structured, context-sensitive professional development to support teacher collaboration, particularly in co-teach environments. Implications extend to district and campus leadership efforts to improve equity outcomes through collaborative inquiry
Co-overexpression of AtCLCc and OsSIZ1 in Arabidopsis leads to high tolerance to drought, heat, and salt stress
No full textWith the continuous increase of global population, the food security issue is becoming a real challenge. In addition, abiotic stresses such as drought, heat, and salt impair plant growth and development, cause significant losses in crop production. More importantly, in nature these stresses could come together or in various combinations, which are even more lethal than they come independently, causing even bigger losses in agriculture productivity. As a solution to deal with these problems, genetically modified organisms with increased tolerance to abiotic stresses would be a good solution to reduce abiotic stress-caused declines in crop yields. Creating genetically modified organisms for increased tolerance to abiotic stresses takes a shorter time, and less procedure in comparison to traditional hybrid breeding. Also, this technique has been applied widely in many countries for decades and proved to be an effective method to ensure crop yield under various abiotic stresses. In this research, we overexpressed two genes, AtCLCc and OsSIZ1, in Arabidopsis in order to further increase Arabidopsis’ drought, heat, and salt stresses. Based on the information from literature, overexpression of AtCLCc would increase salt tolerance in transgenic plants, and overexpression of OsSIZ1 would increase tolerance to drought, heat, and salt stresses, either separately or in their various combinations. We hypothesized that co-overexpression of these two genes would further improve plant tolerance to these stresses either separately or in any combination of these three stresses, and our data prove that our hypothesis is correct. The proof-of-conceptexperiments conducted in Arabidopsis indicate that this approach might be applicable to crops where increased crop yield might be obtained for crops grown in semiarid and arid regions in the world
Impact of Age and Years in the Fire Service on Firefighter Health and Physical Performance Outcomes
No full textBackground: Age is considered an independent cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor, but limited data exist concerning the impact of age and years in the fire service on firefighter health and physical performance. Objectives: We assessed the impact of age and years in the fire service on structural firefighter health and physical performance. Methods: 142 firefighters completed an annual clinical assessment. General linear model (GLM) multivariate and univariate analyses were performed across age groups, with years of fire service experience as a covariate. Partial Eta squared (ηp2) values for the GLM statics and Cohen’s d for pairwise comparisons were used to assess effect size. Results: GLM analyses revealed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) for several demographic, body composition, blood biomarker, and physical performance parameters. Pairwise comparisons revealed that younger firefighters displayed more favorable health and fitness profiles than their older counterparts. Interestingly, when accounting for years of fire service experience, differences for only the following variables remained: body mass index, waist circumference, lean mass, visceral adipose tissue, triglycerides, cardiopulmonary exercise test time-to-exhaustion, and VO2max. Conclusions: These findings suggest differences in CVD risk biomarkers, physical fitness levels, and body composition metrics across age groups. However, years of fire service experience appears to have a greater impact on these variables, suggesting that firefighters’ time in the fire service may accelerate the effects of aging on these outcomes. While age-specific health interventions are recommended to manage and mitigate CVD risk effectively, there also should be consideration for the years of fire service
Dietary Phytochemical Index and Risk of Gallstone Disease: A Case-Control Study
No full textBackground and Aims: Gallstone disease (GSD), a common gastrointestinal disorder, arises from a combination of genetic and metabolic factors. Its rising prevalence is strongly linked to obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia, all of which are modifiable through dietary interventions. The dietary phytochemical index (DPI), representing the consumption of bioactive plant-based compounds, may influence GSD risk. This study explored the association between DPI and GSD risk.
Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 189 newly diagnosed GSD patients and 342 controls. Dietary intake data were collected using a validated 168-item food frequency questionnaire and DPI was calculated as follow: daily energy obtained from foods rich in phytochemicals (kcal)/total daily energy intake (kcal)) × 100. Phytochemical-rich foods include whole grains, fruits, vegetables, olive oil, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Logistic regression models were applied to compute odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for potential confounders.
Results: A significant reduction in GSD cases was observed with increasing DPI scores (p < 0.001). Higher DPI scores were significantly associated with lower risk of GSD in crude and adjusted models (OR T3 vs. T1 = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.19–0.52, P for trend < 0.001).
Conclusion: These findings demonstrated a significant inverse association between DPI and the risk of gallstone disease, indicating that phytochemical-rich foods may be protective against gallstone formation
The Development of a Machine Learning Model to Predict Daily Wildfire Growth Across the Continental United States
No full textWildfires burn millions of acres across the United States each year threatening
human lives and property. As rapid growth occurs in the wildland-urban interface
(WUI), where houses and vegetation meet, wildfires are becoming more of a
pressing issue. In addition to WUI growth, climate change continues to result in a
warmer and drier climate, promoting increasingly favorable conditions for wildfires.
As a result, forecasting and messaging elevated wildfire potential to partners and
the public is crucial. Several fire weather indices, such as the Hot-Dry-Windy index
developed by Srock et al 2019, have been developed. However, these indices are
either tied to a particular topographical region or composed of various different
atmospheric or fuel variables. Given the disparity among fire weather indices, a
need for a consolidated fire weather prediction model is needed.
In order to consolidate these forecasting indices, a machine learning model has
been developed to predict daily wildfire spread across the Continental United States
should a fire develop in any given location. The model accounts for 96 different
atmospheric, fuel, topographical, special, and static variables such as population
density, topographical slope, and regional fire climatology to predict daily wildfire
growth. The resulting model shows skill in predicting areas of active fire growth out
to three days in the future for new fires across the United States. This work serves
as a useful foundation for predicting fire spread across spatial and temporal scales
using machine learning in real time. Eventually, ML model output will allow for
precise relocation of emergency resources and increase preparedness for the general
public ahead of significant fire events, protecting lives and propert