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Predicting Migrant Youth Integration in the United States
Get PDFThe relationship between participation in an identity development program for migrant youth and their subsequent integration into U.S. society is examined. The study focuses on the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants\u27 (USCRI) READY4Life program, which aims to support migrant youth in their transition to life in the United States. This study will examine whether performance scores in the READY4Life program can predict scores on the Immigration Policy Lab\u27s (IPL) Integration Index, a validated measure of integration. The study will employ a cross-sectional experimental research approach, using multiple linear regression analysis to examine the relationship between the READY4Life performance scores and the IPL Integration Index score while controlling for relevant demographic variables. The findings of this research are expected to contribute valuable insights into the effectiveness of identity development and integration programs for migrant youth. By evaluating the impact of the READY4Life program on integration outcomes, the study seeks to inform future policy decisions and program development in the field of migrant youth support. Ultimately, the goal is to identify effective strategies for facilitating the successful integration of migrant youth into American society
Survival Signature Estimation for All-Terminal Networks by Solving the Multi-Objective Bottleneck Spanning Tree Problem
Get PDFThis research examines the problem of estimating the survival signature of all-terminal networks using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. Following a recent similar result for twoterminal networks, we show that the work required within each MC replication corresponds to solving a multi-objective bottleneck spanning tree (MOBST) problem. We implement the resulting MC procedure using a “Blocks” algorithm from the literature to solve the MOBST in each replication by identifying its minimal set of non-dominated points. We compare this implementation against intuitive benchmark procedures for completing the work within an MC replication. We conduct numerical experiments to assess the efficacy of multi-objective optimization algorithms in expediting survival signature estimation for network structures. Our focus is to determine if these advanced computational strategies can significantly reduce the time complexity inherent in large-scale network analyses
Examining the Impact of the Executive Healthcare Leadership Institute on Faculty Readiness to Lead
Get PDFAmericans living in rural communities face significantly poorer health outcomes compared to those in urban areas. Academic medical centers (AMCs), such as the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), play a critical role in addressing these disparities by incorporating rural health improvement into their mission. UAMS has committed to mitigating adverse health outcomes through targeted initiatives. However, AMCs operate within highly complex environments, balancing their tripartite mission of teaching, research, and clinical care, which demands exceptional leadership. These institutions also face unique organizational and economic challenges, compounded by personal and professional pressures on faculty members. To enhance leadership capacity and address these challenges, UAMS partnered with the Executive Education program at the Sam M. Walton College of Business (Walton College) to establish the Executive Healthcare Leadership Institute (EHLI). EHLI is designed to develop leadership skills among UAMS faculty, with one of its primary objectives being to increase faculty readiness to lead. This readiness is assessed through leader self-efficacy, a concept rooted in Albert Bandura’s self-efficacy framework, which reflects an individual’s confidence in their ability to execute leadership responsibilities effectively. This study evaluates the effectiveness of EHLI in enhancing leadership readiness among UAMS faculty. Using multiple linear regression, the study compares leadership readiness scores, as—measured through the Leader Efficacy Questionnaire (LEQ)—between faculty who have completed EHLI and those who have not. Additionally, the research examines whether prior leadership experience or participation in leadership development programs (LDPs) moderates the relationship between EHLI completion and leadership readiness. The findings will inform potential modifications to EHLI, assess its overall value as a resource investment, and contribute to broader efforts to strengthen AMC leadership in an era of constrained resources and persistent rural health disparities
Quantifying the Role of Climate on Tropical River Flow (Guarare River) along the Panama Pacific Coast, 1981 – 2020.
Get PDFThe Guarare River watershed on the Azuero Peninsula of Panama, part of the Panamanian Dry Arc, experiences significant hydrological variability driven by seasonal changes, elevation, and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). This study investigates precipitation and river discharge patterns over 40 years (1981 – 2020), showing that elevation influences rainfall distribution, with higher-altitude areas receiving more precipitation during the Neutral and El Niño phases. In contrast, La Niña phases bring increased rainfall to lower-elevation areas, such as Pocrí. Seasonal ENSO effects reveal that El Niño phases reduce dry-season precipitation, lowering river discharge. La Niña events sustain high wet-season rainfall, peaking river discharge at 60 m3/s. Strong correlations during the La Niña and Neutral phases highlight the direct influence of precipitation on river flow. In contrast, El Niño phases suggest a reliance on groundwater for maintaining discharge. These findings demonstrate that the variable impact of ENSO phases, along with elevation and seasons, causes both drought and flood risks in the Guarare River watershed. The analysis underscores the need for adaptive water management strategies that account for ENSO-driven shifts, emphasizing groundwater as a critical factor in maintaining discharge during El Nino-related droughts and identifying specific areas vulnerable to flooding during intensified La Nina events
Maria Sabina and the Wise Ones
Get PDFMaria Sabina was born Maria Sabina Magdalena Garcia in 1894, in the principality of Huautla, located in Oaxaca, Mexico. She’s known as a healer and poet, though she would most likely refer to herself as a woman doctor, whose language becomes beautiful with the help of the psylocibin mushroom, which she affectionately refers to as little saints or holy children. In 1953, American banker, R. Gordon Wasson and his wife, pediatrician Valentina Pavlovna, were the first non-Indigenous people to witness one of Sabina’s ceremonies. Novice ethnomycologists and anthropologists, the couple traveled to Southern Mexico to witness a ceremony in which the mushrooms were used to heal. A few years later, they returned and participated in one of the ceremonies and Wasson published an article in Life magazine describing the experience. Though he initially kept Sabina’s identity a secret, it was later revealed in an introduction to another of Wasson’s books, and seekers began looking for Sabina, not to cure any illness, but rather, to find God. Alvaro Estrada met Sabina in 1967 and endeavored to learn more about her life, interviewing her between September 1975 and August 1976. These interviews were recorded in Mazatec and transcribed by Estrada into Spanish, which would later become her autobiography, La Vida de Maria Sabina: La sabia de los hongos or The Life of Maria Sabina: The Wise Woman of the Mushrooms. He included Spanish translations of audio recordings made in actual ceremonies by Gordon Wasson in 1956, which were released on vinyl in 1957 and titled “Folkways.” Wasson would later translate her autobiography into English in 1981 with the title Maria Sabina: Her Life and Chants. A very recently reprinted volume of Maria Sabina’s work by Jerome Rothenberg, titled Maria Sabina: Selections, provides context for her healing songs, incorporating the names of the people being cured, their ailments, and the environment, adding insight into the words Sabina chose for that specific ceremony. Sabina could not read or write and therefore was unable to check her own biography for accuracy, and so, the term “auto” is questionable, though the text is based on her interviews. The municipality of Huautla is approximately 6,000 feet above sea level, located Northwest of the capital city of Oaxaca, in the Sierra Madre mountains. The region has a rainy season, making it a fertile place for not only mushrooms, but the cultivation of corn, coffee, and other fruits. The lush, green terrain attracts many bird species, and the Mazatecan language has elements of whistling, which at times could be mistaken for birdsong. Mazatec has many dialects, made more unique by mountain isolation, as well as Zapotec and Mixtec roots. Other features of the language are complex tonal systems and dental/glottal pronunciations. In the translation of her biography, I had to trust the transcriptions of Alvaro Estrada, which he notes in his introduction, were taken with great care. My translation of Sabina’s biography is through the lens of religious syncretism, myth, and an element tantamount in her value system; language
Space and Subjectivity in the Emerging American West
Get PDFThe American West resists theoretical definition. As myth, ideal, region, contact zone, place, space, symbol, territory, home, assemblage, dream, and home, the West is continually changing. As a region, the West is not a closed space; it is an open, ongoing constellation of processes, an unfolding simultaneity of storied events or happenings. This dissertation, “Space and Subjectivity in the Emerging American West,” explores literature and cinema of the modern West. My project seeks to answer the question “What is the American West?” by examining the work of novelists, poets, filmmakers, cultural geographers, philosophers, and photographers who reimagine identity, locality, and cartography in new and challenging ways. Chapter One “Creating Cartographies” and Chapter Two “Exploring Trajectories” establish the methodological frameworks for the dissertation. These opening sections use Karen Tei Yamashita’s novel I Hotel (2010) and Edward Dorn’s poem Gunslinger (1974), along with the scholarship of cultural geographer Doreen Massey, to examine how cartographies and culturally mediated representations influenced perceptions of the American West in the post-WWII era. Chapter Three “Blurring Boundaries” considers nomadic subjectivity as a way of being. Rosi Braidotti and Gloria Anzaldúa’s work is foregrounded, and the chapter looks at Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Crossing (1994) to trace ways that borders, boundaries, maps, and fences permeate the West. A detailed literary analysis is undertaken in Chapter Four “Wandering Regions.” The notion of a region is considered through four lenses: social construct, assemblage, affective landscape, and territorial process. The fictional work of four decolonial authors – Percival Everett, Nina McConigley, Hernán Diaz, and Tommy Orange – is highlighted to show how regions and identities in the West are always open for reinterpretation. Cowboy and Outlaw archetypes are presented as symbols of ongoing cultural adaptation in Chapter Five “Adapting Icons.” The historical outlaw Jesse James and modern-day Sioux cowboy Brady Jandreau figure prominently. The Conclusion of the dissertation projects forward and speculates on digital geography and simulated landscapes in the West
In Situ Studies on Lithium Dendrite Growth Using Optical Microscopy
No full textThis thesis presents an in-situ optical microscopy technique for observing dendritic deposition of lithium ions onto lithium metal electrodes. Current research methods and findings using in-situ and operando optical microscopy are discussed. Future works relevant to lithium metal anode implementation are explored. This paper discusses the procedure for constructing an effective in-situ optical microscopy visualization cell and the difficulties that arise during construction. Lithium metal symmetrical cells were constructed with 1 M bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide lithium salt (LiTFSI) in 1:1 by volume dioxolane/dimethoxyethane (DOL/DME) electrolyte (i.e., 1 M LiTFSI in 1:1 DOL/DME, referred to as the ether electrolyte) and with 1.2 M lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6) in 3:7 by weight ethylene carbonate/ethyl methyl carbonate (EC/EMC) electrolyte (i.e., 1.2 M LiPF6 in 3:7 EC/EMC, referred to as the carbonate electrolyte). The dendrite morphology in these electrolytes was compared via in-situ optical microscopy (OM) imaging, in-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and ex-situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Comparative experiments are conducted with symmetrical lithium metal coin cells in the same electrolytes. In the ether electrolyte studies, in-situ OM reveals a nearly uniform distribution of dendrite nucleation sites across the lithium metal surface, with a constant increase in thickness throughout the plating half-cycle at various current densities. The lithium deposition in the carbonate electrolyte exhibited sporadic nucleation sites with large discrepancies in growth rate of each dendrite. Ex-situ SEM investigations of the working electrode in ether electrolyte studies revealed large, uniform filament size across the electrode. The working electrode in the carbonate electrolyte study showcased dendrites with a morphology resembling a bush, with individual filaments too small to analyze. These dendrites were also variable in size and easily broken or removed from the surface. EIS was utilized to examine the development of the native layer on the surface of the lithium metal before electrochemical cycling as well as to investigate the impedance across the cell after a plating half-cycle. All studies using the ether electrolyte exhibited lower impedance than the same experiments with the carbonate electrolyte. All of these results indicate that the ether electrolyte is more compatible with lithium metal and promotes a beneficial solid electrolyte interphase for electrochemical cycling
Parole Predictions: Estimating the Likelihood a Humanitarian Parole Group will Receive a Status Adjustment
Get PDFHumanitarian parole is an immigration policy that allows paroled individuals to enter or remain in the United States temporarily. The standard pathway for parolees to gain legal permanent residency (LPR) is limited by a number of requirements and restrictions, i.e., sponsorship from a family member or employer is usually required. However, in some instances, laws have been passed that grant an automatic adjustment to LPR status for select groups of parolees. This study is intended to investigate the circumstances that lead some groups to receive a status adjustment while other groups are denied a dedicated pathway to legal permanent residency. Specifically, this paper asks what variables best predict if a group paroled into the United States will receive a status adjustment. Using logit regression, I find that the group majority religion and group majority ethnicity have no statistically significant relationship with the granting of a status adjustment. Data analysis indicates that as the polarization level during the year a parole group is recognized increases, the probability that a group will receive a status adjustment decreases
Liquid-Liquid Crystal Phase Separation in Solutions of Binary Rod-like Systems
No full textLiquid-liquid crystalline phase separation (LLCPS) is an intricate phenomenon observed in the presence of LC-forming molecule governed by intricate molecular interactions and thermodynamic forces. LLCPS manifests as the demixing of a solution into two distinct phases: a dense phase enriched with LC-forming components coexisting with a supernatant phase depleted in LC content. In this study, we highlight the interplay between lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) and other rod-like molecules, leading to LLCPS. We note that the phase separation can be associative or segregative. Associative phase separation, more commonly known as complex coacervation, arises due to an attractive interaction such as charge-based interactions, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions, and π-π interactions between two molecules. The basic form of LC coacervation consists of an LC-forming molecule and an oppositely charged polyelectrolyte. Here, the dense (coacervate phase) consists of the LC-forming molecule and the polyelectrolyte, while the supernatant is mostly water. We uncover surprising LC coacervate droplets with sensitive and unique optical properties that can be influenced by external stimuli. We exploit chiral LCLCs – induced by chiral molecules dopants to explore the role of chirality in the type of complex formed (isotropic or nematic). The primary mechanism that drives segregative LLCPS is the entropic depletion force, which arises when large particles are placed in a solution of smaller ones and sterically constrained to avoid them. Existing studies have however largely focused on understanding LLCPS from the lens of the participating polymers/particles being spherical/isotropic, rather than rod-shaped, despite the prevalence of rod-shaped biopolymers participating in LLCPS in vivo. We harnessed the LLCPS phenomena of rod-shaped particles to eventuate the development of biosensors for DNA. We emphasize that the biosensing mechanism and/or the sensitivity achieved with rod-shaped particles is unattainable with their spherical counterparts
Studies on the Economic Effects of Violence and Diversity
No full textThis dissertation uses econometric and experimental tools to study differential labor market outcomes, behavioral responses to mass violence, and team integration in the face of diversity.
The first chapter sheds light on the ongoing discussion of the gaps in labor market outcomes between natives and immigrants. Using both parametric and nonparametric estimation techniques on a rich dataset (the European Social Survey), I demonstrate that, even after accounting for selection into the labor force, immigrants are less likely to find employment than natives. A strong country-of-origin identity harms immigrants’ employment chances. The evidence suggests immigrants’ employment chances are also affected by the intensity of cultural differentials and by the attitudes of natives.
The second chapter documents changes in short-run economic activity after 42 mass shootings between 2018 and 2022 in the United States. Exploiting a large dataset of foot traffic to over 150 thousand points of interest (POIs), I use event study and Difference-in-Differences methodologies to evaluate the evolution in the number of visits to the places surrounding shooting sites. Results reveal that foot traffic patterns within a 5-mile radius from the shooting sites significantly change over time, resulting in a considerable relocation of economic activity.
The third chapter adds a level of depth to the study of teams – one that allows for the evaluation of team integration in the presence of diversity in a context where physical proximity to teammates is not a given. Using a lab experiment, I demonstrate that working in teams remotely does not affect cooperation, on average, and that the quality of a team and the identity of teammates plays a lesser role an individual’s cooperative behavior when the team does not interact in person.
Taken together, these chapters deepen our understanding of how diversity and violent social events affect economic outcomes, while opening interesting paths for future research