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The Knowledge, Ability and Willingness of Instructors to Accommodate Students with Disabilities in Higher Education
No full textThis dissertation presents the findings of a study investigating the knowledge, ability, and willingness of faculty at a large university to accommodate students with disabilities (SWD). It reveals that while many instructors demonstrate a solid understanding of disability legislation, variations in knowledge and confidence exist based on demographic factors, particularly years of experience. Accommodations like extended time and distraction-free testing environments are more likely to be received positively by instructors and granted easily, while there needs to be more inclination to offer resource-intensive options like note-takers. The study also recommends future research and practical strategies for higher education institutions to support SWD better
Awful, Yet Awe-Full: The Sublime Dystopia of Blade Runner 2049
No full textBlockbuster dystopian sci-fi features stories of environmental collapse, authoritarian governments, out of control corporations, unbounded consumerism, and other awful possibilities. Scholars of science fiction broadly agree that this genre explores collective fears, anxieties, and speculations about the present and future. At the same time, film scholars have established that dystopian sci-fi cinema is compelling, and audiences respond to their effects-driven visuals, photorealistic mise-en-scene, and dramatic narratives. This creates an apparent paradox: Blockbuster cinematic aesthetics portray undesirable worlds desirably. I resolve this paradox by arguing that the worldbuilding of spectacle-driven, dystopian sci-fi cinema is Romanticized. That is, the provocative style of Blockbuster dystopian cinema draws upon artistic styles and tropes discussed by nineteenth century Romantic philosophers.
Films in this mode—specifically Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 film Blade Runner 2049 and its 1982 predecessor—depict monolithic, grandiose, and awful sci-fi environments. These movies aesthetically incite pleasure and displeasure in a way that can be usefully interpreted through the philosophies of sublimity discussed by Edmund Burke. Both philosophers discussed how repellant environments, visuals, and sounds connote positive experiences at a distance. I affirm—if the well-established phenomenological conversations about the sublime in film scholarship are true—that Blockbuster dystopian sci-fi draws upon this unexpected literary history, collectively (1) resolving the paradox of the appeal of dystopian cinema, (2) expanding our analytical toolkit for understanding the construction of dystopian and sci-fi filmmaking, and (3) linking the post-Enlightenment industrial criticisms of Romanticism (urbanization, capitalism, and nostalgia) to contemporary postmodern ecological and social devastations
Relationship Between Motivation, Requesting Accommodations, Rapport, and Adequate Progress in College Students with Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textCollege students with disabilities often face challenges including difficulty accessing accommodations and developing satisfactory rapport with instructors when navigating their college experience. These challenges can negatively impact their academic progress and their ability to complete their programs of study. The first purpose of this study was to describe the levels of self-efficacy, perceived control, willingness to request accommodations, instructor- student rapport, and adequate progress towards a degree among college students with disabilities. The second purpose was to determine any relationships between these variables. Undergraduate students with disabilities at a public university in the southeast region of the United States completed an online questionnaire. Results were based on a sample of 120 undergraduate students with disabilities. The most common disabilities reported by these students included Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (n=37), Attention Deficit Disorder (n=27), Emotional/Behavioral Disorder (n=37), and psychological disorders (n=35). Results from a descriptive analysis indicated high levels of self-efficacy, a strong willingness to request accommodations, positive experiences during class meetings, and evidence of rapport between students and instructors. Results also indicated that 98 participants made adequate progress while 22 did not. Results from a logistic regression found no statistically significant relationships between self-efficacy, perceived control, accommodations, rapport variables and adequate academic progress. Although no relationships were found, these results provided insight into the experiences and support needs of college students with disabilities within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
“We Built Our Plane as We Flew It”: Communicative Resilience in Nonprofit Organizing During the Pandemic
No full textThis dissertation investigates how nonprofit organizations cultivate resilience through communication and practice during periods of disruption, focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a case study of Apex for Youth—a New York City-based nonprofit serving low-income Asian and immigrant youth—this research explores how organizational members co-constructed resilience in response to both the pandemic and rising anti-Asian hate. Guided by the Communicative Theory of Resilience (CTR) and practice theory, resilience is examined as a dynamic, relational process enacted through daily organizational life.
Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, Formative Influences Timelines (FIT), ethnographic observation, and organizational documents. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed four key practices that fostered resilience at Apex: reframing all work as mission work, embracing role fluidity and collaboration, blurring boundaries between organization and community, and developing collective mindfulness. These themes illustrate how resilience emerged through communication and practice, often amid tensions and uncertainty.
By coupling CTR with practice theory, this dissertation contributes to the theorization of nonprofit resilience as a relational, situated, and ethically grounded phenomenon. It challenges traditional, outcome-based models of resilience by foregrounding tensions, improvisation, and the emotional and moral labor of resilience work. The study also provides practical insights for nonprofit practitioners, especially those navigating resource constraints, systemic inequities, and rapidly changing environments. Ultimately, this dissertation advances a communicative understanding of resilience that emphasizes values-driven action, collective agency, and the transformative potential embedded in everyday organizational practice
“Smart Trap”: A Portable Device for Real-Time Mosquito Capturing and Classification Using Image-Based Analysis
No full textCapturing mosquitoes in real-time and taking high-quality images for classification with state-of-the-art methods is not only time-consuming but also expensive. Sometimes even carefully controlled environments and experimental setups fail to capture living mosquitoes. Catching live mosquitoes is necessary to be able to study aspects of their physiology and behavior that cannot be investigated by collections of resting mosquitoes and dead specimens, and to help estimate the local population numbers. My thesis introduces a “Smart Trap”, a small portable device that can attract mosquitoes in real-time, capture them, take high-quality images with dual cameras, and store those images in the cloud. The images can later be used for further classification based on the necessity of the circumstances. This trap sets an example that tools based on artificial intelligence show prospects for monitoring mosquitoes to prevent vector-borne illnesses. A manual for the “Smart-Trap” is also available which shows the step-by-step making process of the smart trap so that anyone can make it. It is not only inexpensive but also a great alternative to expensive scientific processes that take a long time to capture and classify mosquitoes. Currently, for the back-end prediction model, a lightweight Mobilenetv2 architecture is used along with transfer learning to predict the mosquitoes. The accuracy achieved is 90% on the data collected from the “Smart-Trap”. Though there are some false positive predictions, the false negative predictions are much less which is a good sign
Untangling the Roles of Pulmonary Vagal Afferent Subsets with Inhaled Irritants
No full textThe sensory nerves in the airways directly regulate critical defenses and indirectly regulate vital gas exchange. Airway function is largely controlled by the autonomic nervous system, and our understanding of its sensory regulation is directly connected to our ability to treat respiratory and cardiovascular pathologies. Airway sensory afferents are heterogeneous with respect to their electrophysiological properties, peptidergic capacity, and stimuli sensitivity, which at least in part dictate some of their various functions. There is evidence that embryological origin impacts reflex function: activation of the neural crest-derived population of sensory afferents has been shown to evoke the cough reflex whereas activation of the placode-derived population can inhibit it (Chou et al., 2017). Nociceptors are also sensitive to a wide range of stimuli such as inflammatory mediators, allergens, irritants, and environmental pollutants and are thought to be involved in mediating many symptoms of pulmonary inflammation (Taylor-Clark, 2020). As such, these nerves represent important targets for therapeutic intervention.
Indeed, sensory nerve activation can evoke many reflexes in the cardiopulmonary system that overlap with those seen in pathological cardiovascular and respiratory conditions (Taylor-Clark & Undem, 2022). One question that remains is which sensory afferents evoke which distinct reflexes? The diverse reflexes caused by stimulation of sensory nerves may be explained by afferent heterogeneity, however it is still unknown which parameters define functionally distinct subpopulations of pulmonary afferents. Are these reflexes determined by embryological source, receptor expression, nerve termination patterns (which may or may not be overlapping subsets), or some other unknown parameter? Our goal was to determine which afferent subsets are responsible for the different cardiovascular and respiratory reflexes so that we can target their pathological functions without interrupting their homeostatic functions.
The term “cardiopulmonary reflex” might suggest a relatively simple feedback/feedforward mechanism underlying respiratory and cardiovascular reflexes. This would imply straightforward treatment strategies for its role in autonomic dysfunction. However, careful review of the literature reveals complex neuronal networks whose study have been hindered by practical limitations. Evidence suggests different functions of the airway sensory afferents originating from the nodose and jugular ganglia (the two components of the vagus (Mazzone & Undem, 2016), but the lack of subset-specific agonists has restricted the study of these nerves. Adding additional complexity, functional reflexes require communication between multiple organ systems and as such should be measured with in vivo physiological studies.
In previous studies, selective stimulation of the airways has often been accomplished with the use of anesthesia. However, some of the cardiopulmonary reflexes are sensitive to and altered by anesthesia, which can either make it appear as if there is no reflex response at all or even cause an opposite effect (e.g. allyl isothiocyanate (AITC, TRPA1 agonist) evoking tachypnea instead of bradypnea (Hooper et al., 2016)). Finally, although the vagus nerve is responsible for the majority of sensory innervation in the airways, the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and trigeminal nerves are also found in the airways, further complicating selective activation of afferent subsets. The conceptual innovation of the following experiments is the identification of specific afferent subsets responsible for reflex regulation.
Our lab has combined the use of several approaches to circumvent the limitations described above. Firstly, we use radiotelemetry and whole-body plethysmography to measure heart rate and respiration in awake and freely-moving animals. The ability to measure these reflexes without the use of anesthesia is critical to uncovering the functions of these afferent subsets in healthy physiological conditions. Secondly, to address the issue of selectivity, we have combined the following techniques: chemogenetics, adeno-associated viruses (AAVs), vagal ganglia injections, and intersectional genetics. To compensate for the lack of subset-specific agonist, we use the chemogenetic tool DREADD (Designer-Receptor Exclusively Activated by Designer Drug), allowing for recombinase-driven insertion of a modified muscarinic receptor (activated only by the otherwise inert clozapine-N-oxide, CNO), into our population of interest. The jugular DREADD mouse models we have developed are some of the first to demonstrate in vivo reflex regulation by jugular-specific activation in awake mice. Then, to account for the potential influence of DREADD expression in non-vagal afferents, we performed vagal injections of AAVs for Cre-driven selective insertion of DREADD receptors into only the vagal afferents. Finally, we incorporated intersectional genetics (Fenno et al., 2014): by manipulating the distinct genetically-defined subpopulations (combinations of TRPV1+/-, peptidergic+/-, nodose +/-), we can determine the functions of nociceptive and non-nociceptive afferent subsets. By systematically identifying the functions of these sensory nerves, we seek to identify selective therapeutic targets that will facilitate better treatments for respiratory and cardiovascular disease
Proteomic Characterization of the Neuronal BIN1 Interactome in Homeostatic and Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Brains
No full textThe gene BIN1 is the second-largest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD). It is expressed in neurons and glia in the brain as cell-type specific and ubiquitous isoforms. BIN1 is an adaptor protein that regulates membrane dynamics in many cell types. Previously, we reported that BIN1 predominantly localizes to presynaptic terminals in neurons and regulates presynaptic vesicular release. However, the function of neuronal BIN1 in relation to LOAD is not yet fully understood. A significant gap in the field is the unbiased characterization of neuronal BIN1-interacting proteins and proximal neighbors. To address this gap and help define the functions of neuronal BIN1 in the brain, we employed TurboID-based proximity labeling to identify proteins biotinylated by the neuronal BIN1 isoform 1-TurboID fusion protein (BIN1iso1-TID) in cultured mouse neuroblastoma (N2a) cells in vitro and in adult mouse brain neurons in vivo. Label-free quantification-based proteomic analysis of the BIN1iso1-TID biotinylated proteins led to the discovery of 360 proteins in N2a cells and 897 proteins in mouse brain neurons, identified as BIN1iso1-associated (proximal) or interacting proteins. A total of 92 proteins were common in both datasets, indicating that these are high-confidence BIN1-interacting or proximity proteins. SynapticGO analysis of the mouse brain dataset revealed that BIN1iso1-TurboID labeled 159 synaptic proteins, with 60 corresponding to the synaptic vesicle cycle. Based on phosphorylation site analysis of the neuronal BIN1iso1-TID interactome and related kinase prediction, we selected AAK1, CDK16, SYNJ1, PP2BA, and RANG for validation through immunostaining and proximity ligation assays as members of the BIN1 interactome in the mouse brain. We extended these studies to Alzheimer’s disease utilizing the same approach of BIN1iso1-TID proximity labeling in 5XFAD mice with the goal of determining how amyloid pathology affects the BIN1 interactome. To investigate this, we compared the BIN1iso1 interactomes of 5XFAD mice at an early time point before high amyloid burden compared to older animals where amyloid pathology is documented to cause synaptic dysfunction. Through this approach, we discovered 1034 proteins in young 5XFAD mice and 1085 protein hits in old 5XFAD mice. These datasets corresponded well with the homeostatic neuronal BIN1 interactome, sharing 541 proteins between them and replicating many of the top hits from homeostatic neurons. The young and old 5XFAD BIN1 interactomes were compared and analyzed with GO and network analyses, revealing enrichment in amyloid-associated pathways of oxidative stress, autophagy, and apoptosis, providing novel targets for investigating BIN1-associated LOAD-risk. Analysis of contrasting proteins between the groups allowed us to prioritize potential interactors such as BLNK and PPIF for further validation. These datasets provide a foundational framework for future hypothesis-driven studies that will elucidate BIN1’s amyloid-specific functions to better understand BIN1’s role in LOAD
Introductory Chemistry Student Success: Investigating Study Strategies and Evaluating an Informative Utility Value Intervention
No full textImproving retention in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs is essential to meet the growing demand for skilled professionals in the domestic workforce. To achieve this, it is critical to understand and address the factors that influence student persistence in STEM degrees. Gateway courses such as general chemistry often serve as early barriers to STEM degree completion, with high rates of attrition that impact not only individual students but also institutions and society. Therefore, the aim of this work was to examine and influence the factors that contribute to student withdrawal from introductory chemistry courses in order to promote student success.
First, this work conducted fundamental research to understand students’ study behavior in first-semester general chemistry settings (Chapter III). Past research has linked students’ study behavior as one of the factors associated with withdrawal from introductory chemistry. Using a qualitative methodology and self-regulation theory as the conceptual framework, the study in Chapter III characterized students’ decision-making processes regarding their study behavior. Specific factors that guide each decision-making process were also identified. The findings of the study highlight the nuanced nature of changes and constancy within the study strategy decision-making process. These results indicate that a uniform approach to improve study behaviors may be ineffective. Instead, targeted strategies are needed to address the varying decision-making processes among students in introductory chemistry courses.
Another factor linked to withdrawal from introductory chemistry is course design. The current structure of introductory chemistry courses offers limited opportunities for students to reflect on the relevance of what they are learning. This lack of reflection increases the risk of students losing motivation and ultimately leaving STEM fields. The study in Chapter IV advanced applied research to support a course structure aimed at enhancing student motivation within the introductory chemistry sequence. This work specifically targeted to manipulate students’ utility value beliefs, a key component to improve student motivation. The Informative Utility Value Intervention (IUVI) was designed to offer students concrete examples of how chemistry relates to their future career goals, with the aim of enhancing their perceptions of utility value of chemistry. IUVI was administered to second-semester general chemistry students and evaluated using a quasi-experimental study design. The results indicate that students who received the intervention reported higher perceptions of utility of chemistry as well as higher scores on a common exam at the end of the semester. However, structural equation modeling highlighted that gains in utility perceptions and final exam scores were potentially independent of each other. Overall, IUVI is an effective and portable intervention that can be adopted/adapted by general chemistry instructors to improve student success in their classes.
Next, a different version of IUVI was developed by integrating an Artificial Intelligence platform to further support a course design aimed at improving student motivation, while requiring even less effort from instructors. (Chapter V). In this version, concrete examples of how chemistry relates to their future career goals were generated using ChatGPT. It was administered to first-semester general chemistry students and evaluated using an experimental study design. Students were randomly assigned to receive either the AI-version (AI-IUVI) or the original version (Research-IUVI). The results reveal that both versions were equally effective in mitigating the natural decline in utility perceptions across the course of semester. Student perceptions were positive for either version of the intervention. The results highlight that instructors can adopt either version of the intervention in their course design to promote students’ utility perceptions of chemistry, thereby enhancing their motivation
Breeding Ecology and Incubation Behaviours of Little Tern \u3cem\u3eSternula albifrons\u3c/em\u3e in the Sabkhat Al-Fasl Lagoons, Saudi Arabia
No full textAspects of the breeding ecology and behaviour of the Little Tern Sternula albifrons were studied in the Sabkhat Al-Fasl Lagoons, Saudi Arabia, a region characterized by extreme temperature fluctuations. Ground temperatures in the area can range from 50 °C during the day to 25 °C at night. Observations of 147 nests revealed that Little Terns prefer to nest in exposed sites with no vegetation cover. The distance from nests to the nearest bushes ranged from 11-17 m (median = 13 m), while the distance to water ranged from 2-10 m (median = 4 m). Using a small trail camera, adult incubation behaviours were recorded at eight randomly selected nests over a 24-hour period. Results indicated that ground temperature influenced Little Tern nest attendance. During the hottest part of the day, when temperatures exceeded 45 °C, and at night, when temperatures dropped below 30 °C, nest attendance increased to over 95%, likely to prevent the eggs from experiencing lethal conditions. In addition, sunlight direction—especially during the hottest hours of the day—affected the orientation of the incubating adults. Adults frequently oriented themselves toward the east or north, using their bodies to shade the eggs. These two behaviours of incubating adults may reflect the species\u27 remarkable ability to adapt to extreme environmental conditions
Occurrence, Distribution, and Mortality of Seabirds in South and Southeast Brazil, 2015–2019
No full textWe compiled data on seabirds that use coastal and coastal/oceanic habitats, recorded alive and dead, during four years of beach monitoring in Santa Catarina, Paraná, and São Paulo states, along Brazil\u27s south and southeast coast. This is a pioneering study, as no previous studies of this magnitude have been done in Brazil. Among the 26,900 individuals collected, 45 species were identified, distributed across four orders: Charadriiformes (29 species), Pelecaniformes (12 species), Sphenisciformes (one species), and Suliformes (three species). We determined maturity and sex for the five most abundant species: Magellanic Penguin Spheniscus magellanicus, Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus, Brown Booby Sula leucogaster, Neotropic Cormorant Nannopterum brasilianum, and Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens. The penguin tally was the only one dominated by young individuals (93.24%). Concerning sex, S. magellanicus and L. dominicanus were predominantly female, with 76.64% and 53.36%, respectively, while males were more frequent in S. leucogaster (56.21%), N. brasilianum (59.42%), and F. magnificens (55.86%). The continuation of monitoring activities will be essential for tracking cyclical patterns of seabird species occurrence and composition of coastal and marine environments in the study area