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The Monument
No full textThis thesis is an excerpt of a novel in progress titled The Monument. The central narrative follows three characters on a quest for sanctuary at the southern border in a post-collapse United States. As these characters make their way across a hostile, unforgiving landscape, they must be wary of other Americans and ever vigilant of a species of dangerous creatures that has emerged from beneath the earth. They also must contend with tensions between each other because necessity and desperation have forced this trio of incompatibles together. Along the way, their group grows as they explore the nature of cruelty and kindness and they encounter horrors that seem both nascent consequence of circumstances and fundamentally American. In the process of researching this thesis, with the generous support of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, the author traveled the route these characters take. The author intends this thesis to become a novel, which he hopes to publish in the near future.This thesis has been embargoed for 10 years. It will not be available until April 2032 at the earliest
Extracellular Vesicle Subpopulations From HTLV-1 Infected Cells Induce Differential Effects in Recipient Cells
Get PDFHuman T-cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) is the causative agent of Adult T-Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma (ATLL) and HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). Extracellular vesicles (EVs)—membrane-bound vesicles excreted by cells into the microenvironment which play an extensive role in cell-to-cell communication—have been implicated in contributing to these two conditions by carrying cellular materials from donor cells to recipient cells. Our lab has previously shown that EVs from ATLL cells contain viral protein and mRNA and promote cell-to-cell contact when placed on uninfected recipient CD4+ T-cells, enhancing HTLV-1 infectivity. Another recent paper involving ATLL EVs resulted in mesenchymal stem cell proliferation and was attributed to helping aid in leukemic progression. Because ATLL is a leukocytic cancer, ATLL EVs have the potential to interact with any cells that blood or biofluids interact with. However, a gap in knowledge exists relating to how ATLL EVs interact with differentiated non-leukocytes. In addition, many of the conclusions made about the effects of cancer “extracellular vesicles” look at a small subpopulation within the total EV population, and have not been generalized. Therefore, in this study, we sought to better understand the different impacts of individual ATLL EV subpopulations upon non-leukocytes. We found that differential ultracentrifugation subpopulations (2K, 10K, 100K, 167K (4hr) and 167K (16hr)) of HuT102 EVs contained different distributions of viral proteins, viral mRNA, and vesicle-associated proteins. We saw that HeLa cells treated with EV subpopulations had no change in cell viability but had preservation of normal cell morphology post-confluency and had different patterns of anchorage-dependent proliferation. Furthermore, we found that less-dense EV subpopulations 100K and 167K (16hr) helped promote anchorage-independent proliferation. Collectively, our data suggests that there may be a correlation between subpopulations with high amounts of vesicle markers and anchorage-dependent proliferation, while subpopulations with low amounts of viral markers may promote anchorage-independent proliferation. These findings prompt further research into how the contents of each ATLL subpopulation affect recipient cell proliferation and whether these recipient cells are pushed towards cancer development.This thesis has been embargoed for 2 years. It will not be available until May 2024 at the earliest
Examining Online Collaboration in a Graduate Project-Based Learning Marketing Class: A Design Research Study of a Value-Based Collaboration Model
Get PDFThis study examined the use of a design framework to facilitate and support collaboration work for graduate marketing students in an online bichronous Project-Based Learning (PBL) course. The goal of this study was to find applicable design and content strategies to inform faculty and instructional designers who are facilitating collaboration in an online course. The research question that guided this study was: In what ways do the processes and emotional elements of a Value-Based Collaboration (V-BC) model impact student collaboration in online graduate marketing project-based learning? To respond to this question, the enactment phase of a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach was implemented to investigate a researcher-created intervention, the Value-Based Collaboration (V-BC) model. The V-BC enacted design principles, in the form of curricular design elements, to address and support the challenges of team collaborations during a PBL experience. Data sources included interviews with students and the faculty member, class observations, course deliverables and responses to surveys. Data were analyzed using qualitative methods. Three overarching themes were generated from the data that impacted the success of the students, the success of the faculty and the success of the technology. The analysis of the themes when compared with the supports provided by the intervention, led to three major findings of the study. The findings contributed to the body of literature on collaboration practices in PBL. The study also generated applicable design knowledge for faculty and instructional designers by creating a detailed, clear blueprint of the academic collaboration journey. The findings included: • Enabling Student Success: Pinpointed the two perceived positive benefits of collaboration and identified three major collaboration pain points for students where they needed extra support. • Enabling Faculty Success: Confirmed that strong and ongoing faculty presence, open communication and establishment of trust was necessary for collaborative group work. • Enabling Technology Success: Demonstrated that the bichronous modality was effective for collaborative group work and that choices around additional technology tools must be made carefully. As a part of these findings, the study also informed a modified version of the V-BC model reducing the design principles to better align to the three focus areas: students, faculty and technology. Exploration of the findings in terms of the existing research and suggestions for immediate changes for the next intervention cycle are provided as well as areas of future research
Maybe I Wasn’t So Crazy After All: Affirmation Through Workplace Television For Women. A Grounded Theory Expansion Of CCO And Institutional Positioning
Get PDFIn CCO scholarship the concept of institutional positioning is considered from an institution to institution level, overlooking the contributions of individuals within those institutions. As a result, necessary conceptual expansion has halted. The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory dissertation was to explore how the representations of working women on television have been interpreted by women and how those interpretations may expand CCO theory and the concept of institutional positioning to consider how individuals interact with the institutional environment through media consumption. Through seven themes, unrealistic expectations; structures that perpetuate silence; casual sexism; support between women; confident, unapologetic women; small- scale risks, and; realism in workplace television, a grounded theory of workplace affirmation through television was proposed. As a result, this study proposes a potential pathway to reconceptualize how CCO theorists have considered the environment that surrounds organizations and effects organizational communication by including the role of individual positioning and the permeable boundaries of organizations
THE WARRIORS OF THE SAHEL: EXAMINING THE RESILIENCE OF BOKO HARAM AND OTHER TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS
Get PDFThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until May 15, 2025.Recent trends in terrorism show that many terrorist organizations are becoming resilient, remaining active much longer than ever imagined. Although terrorism research has more than doubled in the last two decades, few scholars examine the resilience process among terrorist organizations. How do terrorist organizations facing aggressive military and nonmilitary counterterrorism operations develop their resilience to remain active? Understanding the processes that enhance the capacity of terrorist organizations to be resilient is critical to explaining terror groups' behaviors and influencing policies capable of eradicating them or inhibiting their capacity. This thesis contributes to the literature on terrorist organization resilience by examining group processes that result in resilience using the case of 'Jama'atu Ahl as-Sunnah li-Da'awati wal-Jihad,' popularly known as Boko Haram. This thesis applied a descriptive, qualitative case study design to collect secondary and primary data relating to various practices of Boko Haram. It began with an extensive, systematic review of the existing empirical and theoretical research-based literature on the Boko Haram terrorist organization and insurgency. Second, I conducted in-depth interviews of key informants for fifty-four research participants selected for their unique and varied lived experiences with the group, including former fighters, Chibok girls, individuals who lived under the group's caliphate, subject matter experts and professionals who work with former Boko Haram fighters and local communities. I analyzed the data that I gathered using thematic analysis. My contribution to knowledge is that the resilience of Boko Haram is a function of the huge support from Muslims in northern Nigeria and the group's flexibility in adopting organizational structures adaptable to their immediate circumstances. Boko Haram gained considerable support from Muslims by exploiting the bystander effect of many Muslims in northern Nigeria. The group then maintains its popular support through selective, symbolic attacks that instill fear among their host communities, compelling them to continue supporting Boko Haram to cope with the conflict. Using popular support, Boko Haram built organizational structures that facilitate optimizing resources to pursue the group's objectives and minimize cascading effects arising from counterterrorism efforts in the last twenty years. It concludes that eradicating the group will be very challenging because Boko Haram has always exploited and continues to utilize assistance from its enormous supporters to avoid cascading effects from attacks by the military. Unless a more broad-based counterterrorism strategy that centers around diminishing the appeal of Boko Haram among northern Nigerian Muslims and isolating the group from its support base is implemented, the group will remain resilient.2025-05-1
Ground-Based Follow-Up Observations of TESS Object of Interest TOI 3779.1
Get PDFThis study presents the identification of an eclipsing binary system consisting of a 1.618-day orbital period, as determined through follow-up observations of the TESS Object of Interest (TOI) 3779.01 (TIC 275527293). Leveraging data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and ground-based observations from George Mason University's 16″ Dobsonian Strickland telescope in Fairfax, VA, Multi-Aperture Photometry using AstroImageJ (AIJ) was performed for photometric measurements, light curve plotting, and transit analysis. The resulting light curve and validation tests suggest TOI-3779.1 is likely an eclipsing binary system. All outcomes, including light curves, detrended data, and measurements, were submitted to ExoFOP (Exoplanet Follow-up Observation Program) for further examination and archiving
Middle School Outcomes Related to Earlier English Language Acquisition in Dual Language Learners
Get PDFDual Language Learners (DLLs) in the US are young children who speak at least one language other than English at home and who are simultaneously mastering their native language(s) and English. Students who become English proficient earlier often experience better academic outcomes, but research on the in-depth relationship between the speed at which DLLs acquire English proficiency and later academic outcomes while accounting for relevant factors is rare. The current study used data from the Miami School Readiness Project (MSRP) to investigate how the grade in which DLL students acquired English proficiency correlates with their later middle school academic outcomes (GPA, standardized test scores, grade retention). Participants included DLLs with middle school outcome data (N = 14,852; 47% female; 85% receiving free/reduced-price lunch; 88% Latinx, 8% Black, and 3% White/Asian/Other). I examined the extent to which the total number of years DLL students spent in the English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) program related to later academic outcomes in middle school and examined for which grade(s) student ESOL exit matters the most. Statistical analyses, including ANOVAs, chi-square tests, multiple regressions, and logistic regressions, were used to compare DLL students who reached English proficiency between kindergarten and 8th grade. Results indicated that earlier acquisition of English generally predicts better later academic outcomes. Additionally, earlier English acquisition seems to be more strongly related to later reading outcomes than GPA or math, and DLLs not proficient in English until 6th grade or later have higher odds of being retained in middle school. The implications for the education of DLL students and future research are discussed
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods for Assessing Urban Walkability At City-Wide and Intersection-Level Scales
Get PDFCities are opting to pursue various smart growth strategies which include the process of
integrating more walkable environments. WalkScore.com offers users the ability to
measure the alleged level of walkability at a given location. The problem with the
website’s tool is that while it does consider nearby amenities for its calculation of
walkability, it does not consider other equally important factors. In his book, city planner
Jeff Speck presents the case that to be walkable an urban environment must be safe,
useful, comfortable, and interesting for pedestrians. This thesis explores these four
walkable categories with qualitative and quantitative approaches. The scale of the
analysis is set to a macro city-wide analysis which uses collected GIS data from online
sources, as well as manually digitized data. There is also a micro intersection-focused
analysis that utilizes a direct observation method of collecting and operationalizing data
Accuracy Analysis of Photogrammetrically Derived Point Clouds for Partially Submerged Models
Get PDFThere are many marine applications for 3D reconstruction ranging from the analysis of coastal erosion and bathymetric mapping using LiDAR to assisting in the structural health assessment of ships using photogrammetrically derived 3D models. As the quantity of data in all sectors of the global economy continue to grow, the historic methods of accomplishing activities such as structural inspections of ships must be succeeded by methods that cost less, save time, and provide for a safer work environment. The benefits from incorporating photogrammetrically derived 3D models can then clearly be seen when performing inspections on ships with the cost of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV), and mounted camera systems replacing the cost of mobilizing equipment, reducing time to complete a task, and reducing the risks of in-person inspection. This study aimed to find out how accuracy was affected by merging two sets of photogrammetrically derived point cloud data that were not collected simultaneously, both above and below the water surface. Due to phenomena such as Snell’s law and barrel distortion, the image data and resulting 3D model can experience a decrease in accuracy to the real-world dimensions of a model in underwater sections compared to above water sections. This problem space has been harder to evaluate in prior work because of the typical subjects of partially submerged 3D models being large in scale, such as ships or caves, which results in non-exhaustive attempts to establish reference and control in complex physical environments To evaluate the impacts of these distortions, a new benchmark 3D model representative of a ship’s structural hull was designed, fabricated, and tested. This benchmark structure incorporated a uniform coordinate system based on target points along the surface of the hull shape, providing a basis for universal 3D reconstruction error. The impact of partial submersion on reconstruction accuracy was determined by comparing a fused model derived from a partially submerged benchmark model to a ground truth representation of the benchmark model that was unsubmerged. The results show that the absolute distance between the reference and fused model was less than 2 millimeters on average, but the maximum distances between the two models reached up to approximately 34 millimeters because of distortion caused by the water’s surface during 3D model generation. Future efforts should include the application of a benchmark uniform coordinate system on physical features of a greater scale. Additionally, the development of 3D model survey quality standards independent from a geospatial reference system is a critical future work opportunity. This would allow researchers to assess how the level of accuracy captured during one surveying effort compare to the level of accuracy in a subsequent survey
Things I Didn't Know I Would Miss
No full textThis is a collection of essays exploring the intersection of the personal and the professional, along with themes of loss, freedom, secrets and truth, and appearance versus reality.This thesis has been embargoed for 10 years. It will not be available until May 2032 at the earliest