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Book of Love
Get PDFThis fictional novella takes place in Texas between the years 1872 and 1927, and has been compiled from real knowledge of my family history. Ada Mae is a girl on the precipice of adulthood, struggling to understand her positionally and fighting to determine her future for herself. Within her story, another unfolds - William\u27s, which takes place almost fifty years prior
The Moral Justifications of the Justice-Experienced: Recidivism in Dark Triadic Morally Disengaging Offenders
Get PDFLittle is known about the cognitions of those who commit violent crimes; even less is known about the justification process of those who reoffend after completing a prison sentence. The proposed study suggests analyzing the moral disengagement strategies and personality traits of incarcerated adults to identify recidivism risk factors. Current literature indicates that nonhomicide violent offenders’ use of moral disengagement cognitions that justify the violation of socially accepted morals will moderate the relationship between psychopathic, Machiavellian, and narcissistic personality traits and offenders’ risks of recidivating. Furthermore, it is anticipated that an interaction will exist between moral disengagement and this so-called dark triad of personality traits, with distinct patterns of dark triadic personality traits and moral disengagement strategies showing simple effects. However, it is expected that the greatest recidivism risk will emerge among dark morally disengaged offenders with psychopathic personality traits who use the moral disengagement strategies comprised in the behavioral locus—euphemistic language, advantageous comparison, and moral justification. Findings from the proposed study will aid in constructing treatment programs that are effective at reducing recidivism by increasing the understanding of the adverse cognitive distortions of the justiceexperienced mind that are capable of overwhelming hardened societal moral standards
Empowering Adolescent Females: A Psychological Approach to Sexual Education
Get PDFAdolescence is a pivotal stage of self-discovery, yet many young women lack the tools and knowledge to navigate sexual health confidently. This study implements an intervention rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Social Learning Theory (SLT) to enhance empowerment, self-advocacy, and boundary-setting in adolescent females aged 13–16. The program’s structure incorporates skill-based activities, including role-playing and action planning, to equip participants with practical tools and a safe space to practice these skills. This approach emphasizes addressing psychological and social factors influencing sexual decision-making and seeks to bridge gaps in traditional sexual education. Participants will be recruited from six randomly selected schools in the Houston Independent School District and will participate in a three-week program comprising three workshops. The workshops focus on fostering bodily autonomy, advocating for sexual health, and developing long-term goals aligned with participants’ values and aspirations. The intervention hypothesizes a measurable increase in perceived empowerment following participation, as assessed using the Sexual and Reproductive Empowerment Scale. Pre- and post-intervention data will be analyzed via Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), with age and socioeconomic status controlled. The anticipated results include a significant enhancement in perceived empowerment among adolescent females, reflected in higher post-intervention scores compared to pre-intervention and a notable time-by-intervention interaction effect. This study advances understanding of adolescent female empowerment by integrating psychological theories into a targeted intervention and addressing gaps in sexual education programs. Broader impacts include empowering young women to make informed decisions, build healthy relationships, and achieve improved educational and career outcomes
A Women\u27s College Advantage? The Impacts on Leadership Stereotypes
Get PDFGender stereotyping is pervasive across many societal contexts. Stereotypes indicate that male leaders are agentic - assertive, results driven, and engaged in technical details. Female leaders on the other hand, are supposed to be more communal oriented - communicative, collaborative, and nurturing. These stereotypes further affect the perceptions of men and women as leaders. Women’s colleges however, have been proposed as institutions which enable women to grow their leadership capabilities. This study expands on this literature, looking at how women’s colleges compare to coeducational institutions in reducing self stereotype perceptions towards women’s leadership. Using a longitudinal within subjects design, female participants from womens and coed institutions will be asked during their freshman year to complete a set of originally compiled scales which measure communal, agentic, soft, and hard skills perceptions pertaining to leadership abilities. Participants will then be asked for some demographic information such as age, school, and grade in school. The same participants will be asked to complete the same scales during the first month of their senior year of college. It is anticipated that attending a women’s college will reduce alignment with communal and soft skill leadership stereotypes, and that perceptions of leadership stereotypes will decrease from first to senior year. Results can be used to emphasize the pervasiveness of women’s leadership stereotypes, and provide valuable insight as to how to reduce leadership stereotypical thoughts and behaviors in the educational contexts, and beyond
Of Monsters and Men: Fantasy, Aesthetics, and the Nation in Pan\u27s Labyrinth (2006) and The Shape of Water (2017)
Get PDFABSTRACT: Guillermo del Toro has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most beloved filmmakers due to his ability to blend popular genres with arthouse flair. This is especially true when it comes to fairy tales, a common thread woven throughout his films that are consistently imbued with political commentary on authoritarianism. This is most apparent in two of his most critically acclaimed films, Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and The Shape of Water (2017). Part of why these films are so beloved is how they utilize popular culture not just as tools to foreground the story’s setting, but also to guide the lead protagonists’ journeys from beleaguered outsiders to brave dissenters of the status quo. But this blending of aesthetics and politics in period pieces can come with certain risks. Although the use of fairy tale narratives can attract a global audience, national histories and politics might be diluted in favor of satisfying the general audiences. Moreover, the role of aesthetics also deserves special attention for defining how the nation chooses to remember or obscure bottom-up post-memory in service of a top-down cultural memory. All of these factors are used in the two films to challenge sanitized versions of history that overlook marginalized communities for the sake of a unified front. I believe the intertextuality present in Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water functions to broaden a national story to global audiences, allowing them to connect the dots between popular culture and their own politics
Examining Flagellar Proteins: Motility and Lethality in the Bacterial Pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa
No full textPseudomonas aeruginosa are Gram-negative, monotrichous bacteria responsible for acute and chronic nosocomial infections and known for their high levels of antibiotic resistance. Hierarchical regulation of flagellar gene expression in P. aeruginosa is coordinated with virulence factors, and functional flagella have been associated with increased infection. Therefore, in order to combat rising levels of infection and multidrug resistance, it is important to understand how flagellar proteins and flagellum-driven motility contribute to virulence and pathogenicity. My first aim was to purify two flagellar proteins in P. aeruginosa for future biochemical characterization: FlgB, a proximal rod protein, and FlhF, a polar landmark protein. SDS-PAGE analysis indicated that both proteins were purified, but not at concentrations high enough to move forward with antibody production. Additionally, the proteins of interests were not successfully cleaved and separated from the N-terminus polyhistidine and SUMO tags used for overexpression and purification. My second aim was to characterize the ecological significance of flagellar number and localization in a Caenorhabditis elegans model system using P. aeruginosa flagellar protein deletion mutants ∆fliC, ∆flhF, and ∆fleN. Results showed that the ∆fleN mutant demonstrated decreased lethality in C. elegans compared to other mutants and the wild-type, which all showed similar lethality. These findings show that while all of the mutants had limited motility, they all demonstrated different lethalities, suggesting that motility is likely not a contributor to virulence in this particular model. These results contribute to future work which may include elucidation of the mechanism of lethality of these particular mutants
Mágico Nunca Se Muere: Una Historia de un Amor Unconditional and Unstoppable
No full textThis novella explores how traditions of silence, family dynamics, adolescence and storytelling influence identity formation and self-perception for Mexican-American women. Situated within the AIDS pandemic, this story aims to show how even within a world riddled with grief, hatred, and fear siempre hay espacio para las risas y el amor
INTERNATIONAL TRADE IMPLICATIONS OF POLICY: MODELING THE IMPACT OF THE CHIPS ACT ON AMERICAN SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANIES
No full textThe CHIPS Act of 2022 provided $52.7 billion in federal funding for the U.S. semiconductor industry. Their goals were to change supply chains to make the U.S. self-sufficient in the manufacturing of semiconductors, and they also invested in school programs and promised more manufacturing jobs. In my study, I aim to find the effects of the CHIPS Act policy on the profitability of public U.S. semiconductor firms through OLS and GLS regressions, and an event horizon analysis. Since the literature on tariffs and subsidies show a mixed effect on firm profits, the CHIPS Act has the potential to affect profits either way. I found that the CHIPS Act had decreased the profits as measured by operating profit margin by 18.06% due to commodity import prices, though commodity import prices still had a net positive effect on firm profits. I also found that firm profits were impacted by a 117.34% decrease due to increased debts in firms, which could simply be from increased borrowing to finance building the manufacturing centers in the U.S
HOW HOUSING AFFORDABILITY INFLUENCES LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES; AN MSA-LEVEL ANALYSIS
No full textThis study aims to provide an empirical analysis of the relationship between housing affordability and labor market dynamics across 18 of the largest U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) over a 19 year period. Using data from The House Price Index (HPI) and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), I run a fixed effects panel regression to examine how changes in housing prices influence three labor market variables: ‘job openings’, ‘hires’, and their difference (‘hires - job openings’). This approach allows me to examine the relationship between high housing prices and labor market conditions across these MSAs over time. My results suggest that there is a positive relationship between changes in the HPI and labor market outcomes; as HPI rises, ‘job openings’ and ‘hires’ both increase, while the difference between the two ‘hires - job openings’ decrease, pointing to a tighter labor market within these areas. These results offer insights into why firms may be facing challenges in finding workers and why job positions are remaining unfilled. This study also opens the door for further discussions or research studies relating to housing affordability, migration trends, income inequality, and reverse causality