UARK (University of Arkansas )
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Pink Silk Dress/Butterfly (image 3)
No full text“When a mountain girl wants a new dress, she catches a butterfly of the desired color, and crushes it between her teeth...”
Given to the University’s Museum by Mrs. B.J. Wade, this pink flowered sprigged dress possibly dates to the early 1900s and could be worn in a variety of settings; including the possibility of “Play Parties.” “Play Parties” are described by Mary Celestia Parler in CBS’ The Search: Folklore in Arkansas as similar to a dance, consisting of folksong instead of instrumentals, hand-swings rather than waist swings and a game that is directed through song.9While this specific garment may not have been worn for events such as this, one thing that remains to be true across cultures and generations is the desire to don a new outfit for a special occasion. Randolph’s conversations with community members proves this to be true as the saying goes, “When a mountain girl wants a new dress, she catches a butterfly of the desired color and crushes it between her teeth...”10
9 Parler, Mary Celestia. “CBS’ The Search: Arkansas.” YouTube, 1950. https://youtu.be/0JX5vQFDln4?si=4lRyBQw26nkPYzED.
10 Randolph, Vance. “Ozark Superstitions.” The American Journal of Folklore 46, no. 179, March 1933.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/uamucc/1006/thumbnail.jp
Children\u27s Butterfly Book (image 2)
No full textPublished by Saafield’s Publishing Company in 1907, this colorful children’s book is made entirely out of cloth. The delicate pink cotton book was gifted to the University of Arkansas’ Museum in 1989 by Lina Watson and features six unique pages featuring illustrations of butterfly families native to North America; one page pictured here features a Barred Swallowtail.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/uamucc/1008/thumbnail.jp
A Mobility Data-Driven Approach to Analyzing and Modeling Park Accessibility Inequities and Use in U.S. Cities
No full textUrban Park accessibility inequities have been a longstanding issue globally and the United States in particular. Despite the benefits that urban parks provide, use and access is not equitably distributed among the population, often favoring historically privileged populations over others (disadvantaged). Fortunately, improvements have been made in recent years to promote balanced park distribution in some cities; however, evidence still shows that most cities are behind. Interestingly, the rise in human mobility data has facilitated the study of human behavior and use of activity spaces. This thesis advances the existing studies on park accessibility and emerging human mobility to study park accessibility inequities in American cities in an integrated fashion. The objectives are clearly defined to analyze city-wide patterns in park visitation and empirically uncover the influence of socioeconomic and demographic factors by highlighting observed disparities that perpetuate long-term inequities in park accessibility. Additionally, the study aims to model dynamic visitation patterns, considering the evidence and trends in current accessibility. The important theoretical, methodological, and contextual knowledge gained in this study could greatly benefit decision-makers, and the recommendations are particularly useful to urban planners, city administrators and managers, and private businesses seeking to find better ways to eradicate inequities, foster balanced use/access to public parks, and promote inclusive cities for all Americans
Media’s New-Age Opinion Leaders: Audience Perceptions of SMI Credibility and Opinion Leadership Role
No full textWith worldwide technological and communication advancements in the last few decades, everyday citizens can capture, create, and share news through social media platforms. Nowadays, prominent social media influencers (SMIs) influence where and from whom online audiences consume their news and information. This study aims to explore how different SMI attributes – such as attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness – and their social media tactics create or add to audience perceptions of SMIs as credible online opinion leaders. Applying Two-Step Flow theory and Source Credibility theory, the study used data from a survey of 115 participants to understand how audiences perceived the trustworthiness and expertise of SMIs when evaluating credibility. The research found that SMI trustworthiness and expertise have stronger positive relationships with credibility, and SMI attractiveness has the strongest positive relationship with opinion leadership. Yet, the regressions show that SMI trustworthiness has a statistically significant effect on opinion leadership, and both attractiveness and trustworthiness have a statistically significant effect on credibility. This study integrates and provides an examination of modern mass media communications and audience perceptions of SMI credibility and the opinion leadership role. The findings suggest that social media users prioritize attractiveness and trustworthiness when considering SMIs to be credible opinion leaders, while content attractiveness and expertise play minor, insignificant roles
An Integrated Skeletal Muscle Methylome-transcriptome Profile in Pre-clinical Colorectal Cancer Cachexia Models and Chemotherapy Aggravating the Effects of Cachexia
No full textCancer cachexia is a wasting syndrome characterized by the loss of skeletal muscle affecting cancer patients’ independence and quality of life. Cancer cachexia affects up to 80% of cancer patients and is responsible for 30-40% of cancer-related deaths. Previous studies have demonstrated sex-specific differences in the onset and progression of cancer cachexia; however, these differences remain underexplored. To date, pharmacological and nutritional interventions are largely ineffective in preventing or reversing cachexia. Chemotherapy, a first-line cancer treatment, is known to trigger cachexia by itself complicating prognosis and therapy response. In addition, epigenetic alterations, such as DNA methylation (DNAm), are known to impact other types of muscle atrophy but remain unexplored in the context of cancer cachexia. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to investigate DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns during the onset, progression, and severity of colorectal cancer cachexia across biological sexes (Aim 1, Chapter 3), and to define how chemotherapeutic treatments interact with cancer to influence muscle atrophy in a sex-specific manner (Aim 2, Chapter 4). To achieve Aim 1, I employed a novel experimental design including: (1) effective chemotherapy (tumor reduction), (2) ineffective chemotherapy (no change in tumor size), and (3) chemotherapy- only, non-cancerous control groups, allowing for the evaluation of cachexia driven by cancer, chemotherapy, or both. I found that while chemotherapy and cancer induce similar phenotypic effects in males, chemotherapy in females exacerbates multi-organ alterations. In addition, my findings suggest muscle wasting in chemotherapy-treated mice may occur through mechanisms distinct from those driven by cancer alone, potentially involving DEPTOR dysregulation. For Aim 2, I utilized transcriptomic and methylomic data, and their integration, from two colorectal cancer cachexia models of varying severity. By analyzing multiple time points, I characterized the molecular progression of cachexia and identified sex-specific differences. Notably, I found that early methylome dysregulation was associated with impaired signaling associated with muscle regeneration and activation of neurodegenerative pathways in both sexes. Overall, this dissertation advances our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying muscle wasting during cancer cachexia onset and progression. It also highlights the distinct pathways activated by chemotherapeutic agents in males and females and their differences, underscoring the importance of including female population in cachexia research and for sex- specific preventive and therapeutic strategies
The Cannon-Thurston Map for Relatively Hyperbolic Free-by-Cyclic Groups
No full textLet F = H1 ∗ · · · ∗ Hk ∗ Fr be a splitting of a finitely generated free group, H = {H1 , . . . , Hk } a set of subgroups of F , and Φ ∈ Aut(F ) an automorphism such that for any i, Φ([Hi ]) = [Hj ] for some j. Consider the free-by-cyclic group Gϕ = ⟨F, t | t−1 xt = Φ(x)⟩. Suppose Gϕ is strongly hyperbolic relative to H̃ = {H̃1 , . . . , H̃k }, where H̃i = ⟨Hi , t | t−1 xt = Φ(x)⟩. In this thesis, we prove the existence and some properties of the Cannon-Thurston map î : ∆(F, H) → ∆(Gϕ , H̃). We build on work of mathematicians studying Cannon-Thurston maps in the contexts of manifolds, hyperbolic group extensions, and hyperbolic free-by-cyclic groups, in particular Cannon and Thurston [CT07], Mj [Mit98], and Kapovich and Lustig [KL15]. Our goal is to consider this work in the context of relatively hyperbolic free-by-cyclic groups, in a similar sense as Pal [Pal10]. Pal proved the existence of the Cannon-Thurston map for certain extensions of relatively hyperbolic groups. We use a construction based on the Grushko trees of splittings, rather than coned-off Cayley graphs, to look at the geometry of relatively hyperbolic free-by-cyclic groups and to prove the existence of the Cannon-Thurston map î. Using this construction, we are able to very quickly observe that î is surjective, and, in a particular case, that the restriction î |∂T : ∂T → ∆Gϕ is surjective as well. We also show that a known theorem about the Cannon-Thurston map for hyperbolic free-by-cyclic groups does not hold in the relative case
Moral Worth and Motivational Demands
No full textIt has become a philosophical commonplace to distinguish actions that are merely right from actions that possess moral worth. To be right, an action needs only to accord with the demands of morality. To possess moral worth, an action needs not only to be right, but to be non-accidentally so. While this much is uncontroversial, what is involved in this sense of non-accidentality is a matter of ongoing debate. This thesis lies at the heart of that debate. Many parties to this debate agree that actions with moral worth must be properly motivated. Suppose someone speaks respectfully to a colleague only to serve their professional interests. Had their interests been served by doing something disrespectful, they would have gladly done so. Given their motives, it was only accidental that they did the right thing. Throughout this thesis, I focus on what sort of motives render actions relevantly non-accidental. After defining key terms in the introduction, I devote the second chapter duty-based views. According to these views, an action has moral worth if and only if the agent who performs it is motivated by the fact that it is right. This view enjoys an advantage regarding reliability: if I am motivated by rightness itself, this motive will never lead me to act wrongly. But this view makes moral worth too hard to come by for agents with imperfect moral understanding, and it leads us to deem praiseworthy some actions that do not reflect well on their performers. Thus, duty-based views are extensionally inadequate. Chapter three concerns feature-based views. On these views, an action has moral worth if and only if the agent is motivated by the feature(s) that make the action right. These views direct our attention toward morally important features and make moral worth obtainable for people who are mistaken about whether their actions are right. But without certain specifications, these views cannot secure the reliability an account of moral worth needs. Even well-placed concerns can come in the wrong degree, leading to wrongful actions. Therefore, some actions motivated by relevant right-making features are only accidentally right. In chapter four, I present my own care-based view: an action has moral worth if and only if the agent is motivated by an appropriate distribution of care among all their action’s morally relevant features, while being independently praiseworthy. This view inherits the best parts of other views. It ensures reliability by requiring motives to be appropriate in content and degree, and it still requires attention to what is morally important. It also makes moral worth obtainable for those with mistaken moral beliefs. Avoiding accidental rightness matters because we often care not only what people do, but what they would do in different situations. By centering what agents care about, my view classifies as morally worthy only those actions stemming from an appropriately deep commitment to what matters. This is no accident
Predicting Case Clearance for Victims of Anti-Transgender Homicide in the United States
No full textThere is a shortage of research exploring case clearance of anti-transgender bias homicides. This study will comparatively examine the similarities and differences in anti-transgender bias homicide cases with and without arrests at the victim, situational and incident levels occurring in the United States between 2013 and 2023. Data are extracted from the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB), the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). This project will address the gap in understanding case clearance of anti-transgender bias homicides, provide policy implications, and ideas to further the discipline’s understanding of the topic. Keywords: LGBTQIA+ victims, bias homicide, transgender, victimizatio
Measuring the Impact of GED Preparation on GED Testing Outcomes
No full textThis quantitative study investigates the relationship between participation in GED preparation programs and GED test outcomes among adult learners at a single Adult Basic Education (ABE) center located in an urban area of a south-central U.S. state. Recognizing the significance of the GED as an alternative credential to a traditional high school diploma, the research examines how instructional hours and structured preparation correlate with students’ final scores in mathematics, English language arts, social studies, and science. The study also describes the demographic characteristics of the learners, including gender, race, and age groups, and analyzes their performance on the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) pre- and post-tests. By focusing on academic achievement within a defined educational setting, this research aims to provide actionable insights for educators and policymakers seeking to enhance the effectiveness of GED preparation efforts. The study is framed within the broader context of challenges faced by individuals without a high school diploma, including limited employment opportunities and poorer socioeconomic outcomes. While the research emphasizes measurable academic variables, it acknowledges limitations related to its single-site design and the exclusion of qualitative factors such as student motivation and external life circumstances. Despite these constraints, the findings are expected to offer valuable contributions to understanding how GED preparation programs impact adult learners’ success on high-stakes equivalency tests. Ultimately, this study seeks to inform instructional practices and program development in adult education, supporting efforts to improve GED attainment for non-traditional learners
Navigating Stigma and Privacy: Health-Related Communication Among Bangladeshi Women
No full textWomen in Bangladesh often silently bear the burden of stigma tied to their bodies, minds, and societal roles. This study examines the coping strategies women use to manage health-related stigma and their privacy while facing issues like reproductive health, mental health, and postpartum challenges. The study was conducted by utilizing in-depth interviews with 17 Bangladeshi women. Stigma Management Communication Theory (SMC) and Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM) are the two frameworks that guided the study. The findings of the study reveal that stigma often silences women and threatens their social identities, and women feel that having a health problem means they have failed in some way. Therefore, strategies such as, avoiding conversations, distancing themselves from stigma, concealing their struggles, and relying on their own resilience were adopted by women. On the other hand, privacy, closely connected to their stigmatized identity, becomes an emotional labor. The process of choosing people to share private information is not straightforward. It is a risky decision influenced by trust, social judgment, and the need to maintain dignity. This study highlights women\u27s voices and adds to health, stigma, and privacy research in the Global South. It shows how communication can support or challenge stigma