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Deep Disagreement: Evidence of an Ideological Paradigm Shift
No full textThis thesis argues that deep disagreements are evidence of an ideological paradigm shift. In a paper on the topic, Jeroen de Ridder characterizes these types of disagreements as rationally irresolvable on the basis of competing epistemic and moral frameworks incurred through social identity. In this paper I seek to motivate my suspicion that deep disagreements may actually be an indicator of progress, rather than of irresolvable differences amongst knowers as Ridder argues.
I argue that social identity is insufficient to understand the occurrence of deep disagreements and suggest that a better understanding of their occurrence can be found through ideology. I define ideology as the material enactment and justificatory content that upholds prevailing social structures and demonstrate how ideology produces social identity. In doing so, I draw a connection between ideology and deep disagreement, which still demands an additional layer of understanding. In exploring Thomas Kuhn’s account of Scientific Revolutions, I argue that ideologies and scientific paradigms can be understood as analogous in their operation, purpose, and structure. In establishing this similarity, I demonstrate that ideologies, like scientific paradigms can and do shift. Deep disagreements on the basis of social identities produced through ideology arise when ideologies are shifting and compared with one another
Innovation vs Legislation: The Impact of Incumbent Lobbying on Technological Disruptors
No full textThis study examines how incumbent firms use corporate lobbying as a strategic response to the competitive threats posed by firms introducing transformative technologies or business models. While existing research extensively explores the determinants, motivations, and financial advantages of corporate lobbying, as well as various incumbent responses to market disruption, it has not yet addressed the use of lobbying against technological disruptors. Accordingly, there is also no research on the effects of such lobbying on the disruptors. To fill this gap, I analyze a novel dataset comprising 390 industry-year observations from 1998 to 2023. The findings reveal that incumbent lobbying expenditures increase significantly as technological disruptors take greater market share. Furthermore, I evaluate the financial impacts of lobbying on disruptors, focusing on revenue growth, gross profit margin, EBITDA margin, and return on assets. The analysis indicates that increased lobbying efforts by incumbents are associated with measurable declines in disruptor revenue growth and return on assets, while impacts on profit margins remain inconclusive
Reproducing Inequality: Kinship’s Role in Addressing Environmental and Reproductive Injustice Under Pronatalism
No full textThe rise of pronatalism in the United States constitutes a significant climate and reproductive justice concern due to its encouragement of reproduction among wealthy, high-consuming populations. Pronatalism exerts pressures on certain women to reproduce in order to reinforce existing power structures while simultaneously marginalizing and controlling the reproductive rights of others. This ideology, driven by figures in the Trump Administration, echoes historical patterns of racist and xenophobic population control measures by selectively valuing certain reproductive capacities over others. While it might seem that overpopulation concerns (the fear of too many people) and pronatalism (the fear of not enough people) represent opposing ideas, both are rooted in similar acts of nation-building that reinforce racialized and economic hierarchies. To counter the varied harm of pronatalism, kinship as forms of intentional relationships of care, responsibility, and interdependence among humans, nonhumans, and the environment is proposed. This shift towards alternative kin-making challenges the dominance of the nuclear family and heteronormativity that underpin pronatalist ideologies, offering pathways toward more connected, equitable, and sustainable ways of living
Public Land and Political Identity: Problematizing Open Space Preserves in Marin County, California
Full text linkThis thesis is an interdisciplinary exploration of the role of protected natural areas—namely county-run open space preserves—in shaping political identity in Marin County, California. I critically examine the politicization of public lands and the sociorelational dynamics that emerge within local communities surrounding protected open space. I seek to deconstruct dominant understandings of landscape and nature as apolitical, neutral, or untouched, instead approaching public land as a site of ongoing meaning-making, identity formation, and power negotiation. I further place emphasis on the role of the state, through county governing bodies and affiliated organizations, in mediating access, constructing narratives of ownership, and shaping collective identity. Marin County is a compelling site for investigating the entanglements of race, affluence, entitlement, political engagement, and place-based identity. Central to my research are the tensions between progressive environmentalism and the exclusionary logics that often accompany land conservation efforts. Drawing from qualitative interviews, ethnographic observation, and critical theory, this thesis seeks to complicate dominant understandings of preservation by illuminating the political, historical, and affective dimensions of public land use in one of the nation’s most ecologically diverse, yet socioeconomically stratified, counties
Severance as Metaserial Dystopia: Penal Spectatorship and Critical Reintegration
Full text linkTypical prison media, while purporting to represent incarceration and its social meaning to the public, transforms lived realities of state-sanctioned violence into entertainment spectacle and operates under strict material and ideological constraints that prevent it from meaningfully questioning the legitimacy and function of the prison as a built institution. The television series Severance (2022), however, represents incarceration in the form of the dystopian office-prison where the innies are trapped, employing metaserial and science fictional narrative mechanisms to critically implicate the spectator. The show’s science fictional premise links the explicit violence of incarceration to the more subtle form of disciplinary control that is bureaucracy by emphasizing seriality as the logic that coheres them. Drawing on theories of seriality, science fiction worldbuilding, and abolitionist media scholarship, I argue that Severance constructs itself not only as a metaseries but as metaserial dystopia, which represents seriality itself, in its more mundane incarnations as well in its psychological and physical violence, as the narrative origin of the show’s dystopian anxiety
EXERCISE INTERVENTIONS FOR ANXIETY IN ADOLESCENTS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ANXIETY SENSITIVITY AND SELF-EFFICACY
Full text linkAlthough there is promising evidence suggesting that exercise can be an effective method for reducing anxiety, the research examining the underlying processes through which exercise relates to anxiety, especially among adolescents, is limited. The following study seeks to uncover whether 1) exercise has a significant direct impact on anxiety symptoms, 2) anxiety sensitivity mediates the relationship between exercise and anxiety, and 3) self-efficacy also mediates the relationship between exercise and anxiety. A sample of 103 high school students aged 15-17 years old will be assessed on measures of anxiety sensitivity, self-efficacy, and anxiety symptoms before and after the implementation of a “wellness program,” in which participants will be randomly assigned to an exercise group (aerobic cycling) or a stretching group. Within the exercise condition, anxiety sensitivity is hypothesized to decrease and self-efficacy is hypothesized to increase, in turn decreasing anxiety. Thus, mediation analyses are expected to indicate that there is a direct effect of exercise on anxiety, but anxiety sensitivity and self-efficacy each partially mediate the relationship between exercise and anxiety. These findings would provide support for exercise as an evidence-based intervention strategy for reducing anxiety in adolescents-- an often understudied group with high rates of anxiety-- and potentially promote their overall well-being
Allele-Specific Zinc Fingers for Rhodopsin Regulation to Address Retinitis Pigmentosa
No full textRetinitis pigmentosa (RP) encompasses a heterogeneous array of inherited diseases that lead to progressive deterioration of retinal photoreceptors, resulting in gradual loss of vision. Mutations in the Rhodopsin (RHO) gene frequently lead to autosomal dominant RP (adRP), for which effective therapeutic treatments have not yet been developed. Specifically, the Pro23His (P23H) mutation in RHO has been documented as the most common RHO mutation that leads to a gain- of-function effect, accounting for about 12% of adRP cases. Here, we aim to engineer allele- specific Cys2His2 zinc fingers (ZF) to repress the RHO-P23H gain-of-function mutation without impacting the healthy allele. We screened novel 2-finger P23H-specific constructs predicted by the machine learning model, ZFDesign, using a bacterial one-hybrid (B1H) system. After selecting the 2-finger constructs with the highest allele specificity, 5-finger constructs were further screened using fluorescence-activated cell sorting to determine ZF discrimination between the mutant P23H and the wildtype allele. Illumina sequencing of recovered ZF candidates identified mutants with strong RHO-P23H specificity, achieving on-target sequence enrichment exceeding 0.90 while maintaining critical off-target enrichment below 0.1. The development of allele-specific ZFs to regulate the RHO-P23H mutation in rhodopsin has great implications for novel gene therapeutics to address adRP in humans
The Association Between Obstetric Violence and Postpartum Depression among Latina Women in the United States: An Integrative Review
Full text linkObstetric violence, a structural form of gender-based violence, involves abuse, mistreatment, or neglect by healthcare providers during obstetric care. It is often associated with childbirth trauma and may result in physical and psychological harm to mothers and children, including postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is a major depressive episode occurring during pregnancy or within four weeks following delivery. While these concepts are often studied independently, few studies examine their intersection, particularly among Latina women in the United States. To address this gap, an integrative literature review was conducted to explore the association between obstetric violence and postpartum depression among Latina women. After screening 466 reports by titles and abstracts, 26 were included for review. Thematic analysis revealed nine key themes: (i) childbirth trauma has significant effects, (ii) obstetric violence analysis, (iii) legal proposals to reduce obstetric violence, (iv) associations between obstetric violence, traumatic births, and postpartum mental health, (v) stereotypes perpetuating obstetric violence, (vi) adverse life events as predictors of postpartum depression, (vii) cultural orientation and perceived discrimination’s impact on mental health, (viii) cesarean sections and postpartum depression, and (ix) maternal mortality rates influenced by social determinants of health. While this integrative review highlights research on the topic, discussing it is the first step to raise awareness. Incorporating the obstetric violence framework into the American legal system and medical education, as well as developing educational programs for pregnant and birthing individuals to enhance health literacy are some essential measures to challenge and mitigate this harmful phenomenon
Investigating NASPSim3’s Role in Drive-Associated Reproductive Costs in Mimulus guttatus
No full textSelfish genetic elements (SGEs) can bias their transmission—or “drive”—, despite conferring consequences for the organism’ overall fitness. A natural case of female meiotic drive (FMD) has been observed in the Mimulus guttatus Iron Mountain (IM) population where an expanded satellite array within a large non-recombining haplotype on chromosome 11 (MDL11) is associated with preferential segregation into the functional megaspore. Homozygous carriers of the drive haplotype (DD) exhibit reduced seed set and male fertility. The molecular basis of these costs remains unclear. One candidate gene, NASP—a known chaperone of the centromeric histone variant CenH3—resides within MDL11 and shows both sequence divergence and differential expression between drive and non-drive haplotypes.
To test NASP’s role in reproductive fitness and drive-associated costs, we used Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system. T-DNA insertion NASP mutants displayed reduced seed set and pollen counts, suggesting roles in both female and male meiotic development for NASP. Complementation with M. guttatus NASP alleles in nasp mutants revealed that the non-drive (D⁻) allele restored male fertility, while preliminary data suggests the drive (D) allele may not. While further data is needed, this indicates the potential of functional divergence of NASP alleles in M. guttatus. Surprisingly, complementation with the A. thaliana NASP allele in a single transgenic line did not fully restore male fertility and was associated with a stress phenotype, suggesting possible dosage sensitivity. This is consistent with prior observations that NASP is overexpressed in meiotic tissues of homozygous driver carriers, although insertion site effects cannot be ruled out
Our findings suggest that NASP may contribute to fitness costs associated with female meiotic drive in Mimulus guttatus. Future studies in M. guttatus using overexpression and targeted genome editing will be essential for testing whether NASP dosage or sequence variation alters CenH3 loading and drive efficiency in its native genomic context
¡Despertemos, humanidad! Leyendo, escuchando y mirando la resistencia ambiental indígena en Honduras
No full textEsta tesis explora la violencia colonial, la resistencia indígena y el futuro de la lucha medioambiental en Honduras a través de una invitación de despertar que hiciera Berta Cáceres cuando recibió el premio Goldman en 2015. Analiza cómo las comunidades indígenas, especialmente el pueblo Lenca, han resistido el extractivismo, la militarización y la corrupción estatal mediante formas de defensa espiritual, cultural y política. A partir del análisis del libro 13 colores de la resistencia hondureña, el pódcast Las mujeres Lencas en defensa del río Gualcarque y el documental Agua es vida, la tesis argumenta que despertar ante la resistencia implica aprender a leer, escuchar y ver desde una humanidad más completa. Inspirándose en la lucha de Berta Cáceres, la investigación plantea que el futuro de la resistencia depende de un despertar colectivo que reconozca la interconexión entre los pueblos indígenas, la tierra y la vida misma