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Retelling a Tale in Pictures: A Fusion of the Arts in a Medieval Emaki of the Japanese Court Romance Geni npo monogatori Tale of Genji
No full textThe Genji no monoga ta ri 源氏の物語, the Tale of Genji, b y the Japanese court lady Murasak i Shi kibu 紫式部 ( c . 9 7 3 – c . 1014), thought to have been completed around the year 1008, is one literary masterpiece of the Heian 平安 period (794–1185) that has been adapted for retelling many times. A little over one hundred years after its conception it had been adapted and lavishly illustrated as an emaki 絵 or “ picture scroll. This paper provides a discussion on the importance of the emaki to the representation of this early text
Gourd Gun Powder Flask
No full text“Some of the old granny women still administer gunpowder and water to women in labor, believing that it stimulates the muscular contractions which expel the child...”
This gourd flask holds remnants of gunpowder and was gifted by the donor Jake O. Ry alongside a tin of Remington’s Central Fire gunpowder in 1906.
While both the original owner and artisan a mystery, the gourd flask is inscribed with the initials of R.A.T and features a rawhide stopper. This object is part of a great tradition of gourd craft within the Ozarks and the Americas as the tradition can be attributed to several indigenous nations as far back as nearly 10,000 years.4
Just as the gourd functions outside of its original intended purpose, gunpowder operates similarly within medicinal folk beliefs in the Ozarks5, focusing specifically on the practice of administering a mixture of gunpowder and water to women in labor. While there is no distinct medical research supporting this practice, midwives and “granny women,” as Randolph refers to them, alike believe that the mixture acts to stimulate muscular contractions and thus expel the child.6
4 Webb, Emily. “All in Gourd Fun.” Lees McRae University, November 17, 2022. https://www.lmc.edu/about/news- center/articles/2022/all-in-gourd-fun.htm.
5. Randolph, Vance. “Ozark Superstitions.” The American Journal of Folklore 46, no. 179, March 1933.
6 Randolph, Vance. “Ozark Superstitions.” The American Journal of Folklore 46, no. 179, March 1933.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/uamucc/1001/thumbnail.jp
Turkish Eyes for America: How Turkey Embraced the United States in the Interwar Period
No full textThis research discusses the unique relationship developed between the United States and Turkey between world wars and invites us to reconsider the popular understanding of the United States’ place in Turkey and questions the ways American officials believed were the most effective at spreading their national ideals and culture
Impact of Retail Display Case on Shelf-Life, Palatability, and Color-Stability of Fresh Beef Steaks
No full textThe objective of the study was to determine: the impact of two retail display cases, three beef muscles, and three packaging schemes on palatability traits, flavor development, lipid oxidation, objective and subjective evaluation of color stability, and microbial shelf-life. No muscle × package × case × day interactions were observed for any instrumental or panelist color evaluation (P \u3e 0.851). No retail case effect was observed for TBARS, consumer sensory evaluation, or cook loss (P \u3e0.05). A muscle × case × package interaction was observed for L* and b* (P\u3c 0.05). No muscle × case × package observations were observed for shelf-life or palatability analyses (P \u3e 0.05). No significant two-way or three-way interactions were observed for evaluation or acceptability of palatability traits analyzed. Tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and overall liking scores were all significantly influenced by muscle effects (P \u3c 0.0001). Lipid oxidation, cook loss, volatile compound analysis, and consumer sensory evaluation were predominantly influenced by muscle and packaging scheme (P \u3c 0.05). Biochemical and structural properties are primary influencers in determining rate of lipid oxidation, tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and cook loss within fresh beef steaks. Retail display case can influence environmental temperature regulation and airflow steaks are subjected to retail display. These factors provide improvements in color stability while maintaining shelf-life and palatability attributes in fresh beef steaks. Muscle type and packaging scheme play a more significant role in quality and shelf-life attributes than retail display case
A Theoretical Investigation of Photo-induced Deformations and Transitions in Nanoscale Ferroelectrics
No full textThis dissertation presents a comprehensive first-principles investigation into the interaction of light with ferroelectric materials, focusing on light-induced structural responses (photostriction) and phase transitions in Ferroelectric superlattices, epitaxially strained BiFeO3 thin films, and twodimensional NbOX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) ferroelectrics. The work aims to provide microscopic insights into how light can control the lattice structure and even the crystallographic phase in these systems, with the broader goal of informing the design of light-responsive functional materials for practical technological applications. The first part explores light-induced effects in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices with different polarization orientations. Our simulations reveal that photoexcitation modifies the internal electric fields and structural distortions, enabling light-driven control of the superlattice properties and inducing a polarization rotation in the superlattice. These results offer a theoretical foundation that supports and complements existing experimental observations. The second and third parts examine how photostriction in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 depends on structural parameters—specifically, thickness and chemical composition. In ultrathin superlattices, free carriers are delocalized and suppress electric dipoles, resulting in contraction. In thicker superlattices, free carriers are strongly localized at the interfaces, inducing internal fields that suppress existing depolarizing/polarizing fields in PbTiO3 and SrTiO3 layers and produce opposite strain responses in PbTiO3 and SrTiO3 layers, leading to net expansion or contraction. The balance between these competing responses can be engineered by tuning the PbTiO3 fraction, enabling thickness- and composition-dependent control of photostrictive behavior. The fourth part investigates the enhancement of photostriction in BiFeO3 thin films under varying epitaxial strains. We demonstrate that strained BiFeO3 phases near phase boundaries exhibit large light-induced strains, far exceeding those in bulk BiFeO3. This enhancement arises from the coupling between epitaxial strain and the photoexcitation-driven lattice response. The final part focuses on two-dimensional NbOX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) materials. We discover that light can induce phase transitions from ferroelectric or antiferroelectric to paraelectric states, along with significant photostrictive effects. These results highlight the potential of 2D ferroelectrics for next-generation optoelectronic devices. Altogether, this dissertation advances the understanding of light–matter interaction in ferroic systems and establishes practical guidelines for tailoring photostrictive responses through structural and chemical design
Switching Performance Optimization of SiC MOSFETs with Digital Active Gate Drivers
No full textSilicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) have extensive applications in high-power density devices, but they exhibit quick switching transients that are problematic, including electromagnetic interference (EMI), voltage overshoot, and current imbalance between paralleled devices. The purpose of this dissertation is to maximize the switching performance of SiC MOSFETs using digital active gate drivers (AGDs). A three-level gate driving approach is presented to improve current sharing in paralleled SiC MOSFETs through turn-on voltage and gate signal delay adjustment. Closed-loop control with real-time feedback ensures high-reliability operation. For better practicability, a compact AGD structure of a single-path Class-B amplifier-based topology is presented. The structure allows multistage independent control, which makes gate voltage response time 40% shorter while maintaining Miller clamp function without extra circuits. A DSP realization takes the place of FPGA counterparts to reduce system expense and complexity. In addition, a switching-time-dependent sampling technique is introduced to boost high-frequency feedback for digitally controlled power converters. Effective online parameter identification using low-speed ADCs is enabled by the proposed technique, as demonstrated by experimental validation on an SR-DAB converter. By addressing key SiC MOSFET gate driving issues, the work accelerates the development of AGD technology and enhances system efficiency, EMI performance, and reliability in future power electronics. Converters, the approach enables online parameter identification and real-time monitoring of SiC MOSFET performance effectively
Strange Things, Moving Things, Wild Animals: Attentional Capture and Suppression of Threat in Social Anxiety
No full textSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) is associated with significant functional impairment and low remission rates, even at subclinical levels. Selective attention to social threat, or attentional bias, has been proposed as a cognitive mechanism contributing to the development and maintenance of SAD. However, decades of research have produced mixed findings, and attempts to modify attentional bias have yielded modest treatment effects. One reason for these inconsistencies may be that traditional models of attentional bias have focused primarily on early, automatic capture of threat. In contrast, emerging work in visual cognition emphasizes the role of proactive attentional suppression, such as the signal suppression hypothesis, according to which even salient stimuli may be inhibited in early stages of visual processing, before they capture attention. The current study extends the signal suppression hypothesis to socially threatening stimuli and tests whether anxiety symptoms disrupt this form of proactive attentional control. 48 undergraduate participants completed an eye-tracking task involving an adaptation of the additional singleton paradigm, in which either an angry or a neutral face appeared as a singleton distractor in an array of otherwise all-angry or all-neutral faces. Participants were instructed to report the orientation of a gradient inside a predefined target shape. First saccade destination and manual reaction time were recorded as indices of attentional capture or suppression. At the group level, results provided strong support for the signal suppression hypothesis. First saccades were significantly more likely to land on nonsingleton distractors than singleton distractors, and response times were faster on singleton-present trials, suggesting that salient, task-irrelevant stimuli were proactively suppressed regardless of emotional context. However, linear mixed-effects models, which are more sensitive to individual differences, revealed that anxiety symptoms moderated these effects. Contrary to hypotheses, social anxiety symptoms did not significantly predict oculomotor capture, although a trend-level interaction was observed. Trait cognitive anxiety emerged as the strongest and only significant predictor of increased oculomotor capture of angry distractors, indicating reduced suppression efficiency under conditions of emotional salience. In contrast, reaction time analyses were largely nonsignificant. These findings advance mechanistic accounts of attentional bias by demonstrating that proactive suppression, and not just stimulus-driven capture, plays a central role in visual attention to social threat. The specific effect of trait cognitive anxiety underscores the importance of anticipatory processing and goal-directed inhibition as targets for future theoretical models. Moreover, the discrepancy between oculomotor and reaction time findings suggests that early-stage attentional disruptions may go undetected in traditional behavioral tasks, highlighting the value of eye-tracking methods. Taken together, this study contributes to a more nuanced framework for understanding anxiety-related attentional control and offers a foundation for future work integrating the study of anxiety with contemporary theories of visual cognition
Stay Woke: Understanding Critical Consciousness Development in Adults and its Relationship to Psychological Constructs
No full textRacism confers numerous measurable health risks for people of color. Interventions to mitigate the impact of racism on health are necessary and important to reduce disease burden and improve health outcomes for people of color. While communities of color have developed resiliency tactics that have allowed them to survive, even thrive, in the face of racial oppression, the evaluation and promotion of promising tools that counteract racism’s negative impacts are essential (Phillips et al., 2015). Critical consciousness is just such a tool. Research with children suggests it holds promise (Diemer et al., 2016; Heberle et al., 2020; Maker-Castro et al., 2022); lacking is attention to whether critical consciousness develops and functions similarly in adults. The current studies aim to expand the field’s understanding of critical consciousness in adults. Study 1 was a qualitative study using a semi-structured interview of adult participants of color who experienced race-based discrimination and scored high on a measure of critical consciousness. The 12 interviews highlighted six themes that indicated that education and discrimination can help precipitate the development of critical consciousness, critical consciousness development can be painful and almost like a grief process, and critical consciousness development can be associated with various aspects of identity. Study 2 evaluated quantitative data from 260 adults (18 – 40 years) of color who reside in the United States. Participants in Study 2 completed a variety of measures that includes measures of critical consciousness development, racial identity, racial attitudes, mental health, and well-being. Results suggested that a three-factor model (i.e., critical reflection, critical motivation, and critical action) is the best representation of critical consciousness among this sample. I added questions from Study 1 to create a new and more robust short critical consciousness scale (i.e., the Adjusted Short Critical Consciousness Scale). Correlations between critical consciousness factors and various outcome measures suggest that critical action and critical motivation measure unique constructs. Meanwhile, critical reflection seems to overlap theoretically with other measures relevant to awareness of oppression. Critical reflection and critical motivation were associated with higher levels of negative mental health outcomes and lower levels of positive health outcomes and well-being. Overall, these two studies add to the critical consciousness literature by 1) creating an adjusted and more robust critical consciousness scale, 2) providing insight into how critical consciousness develops, 3) highlighting unique features related to identity and critical consciousness development in adults of color, and 4) expanding our theoretical understanding of critical consciousness as a construct among adults of color. These findings help lessen the gap in the critical consciousness literature among adults. The implications of this study suggest that while critical consciousness development may disrupt the negative associations between racism and health, we still need more research with adult samples
Differential Drivers of Psychological Constructs: A Comparative Analysis Using Conditional Inference Tree and Spatially Varying Coefficient Models
No full textPsychological constructs such as Anxiety, Depression, Fatalism, Divine Control, Luck, Helplessness, and Internality are pressing subjects in the United States (US). Although several studies have explored how specific covariates influence these constructs, less is known about how combinations of predictors interact to predict these constructs and how these relationships vary across different geographic regions. This study addresses the gap by combining Conditional Inference Trees (CIT) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) to explore the interaction effects of the covariates in predicting the constructs and spatial variability in the determinants of psychological constructs respectively Using a nationally representative survey of 2000 respondents, CIT was used to explore how covariates such as Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE), age, gender, race, education, and urbanicity interact to predict each construct. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) was employed to explore the spatial variation in the effects of covariates on psychological constructs in the U.S. Key findings reveal that age and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) were strong predictors of different levels of Depression and Anxiety. Education, age, and race played critical roles in predicting different levels of Fatalism. Regional patterns also emerged: for example, education and urbanicity were more influential on Anxiety in the West and Central U.S., while gender had stronger effects in the Northeast and Midwest. Urbanicity more strongly affected Depression in the Northeast and Midwest, whereas gender was more impactful in the West and Central regions. Similarly, education and urbanicity were linked to Luck in the Northeast and Midwest, while ACE was more predictive in the West and Central U.S. Helplessness was associated with gender in the Northeast and Midwest and with race in the West. Education influenced Internality in the West and Central U.S., while gender was more impactful in the North and Midwest. This study highlights the importance of considering both interactions among mixed-type covariates and geographic variability when examining psychological constructs. By incorporating CIT and GWR, we were able to discover significant interaction between covariates in predicting psychological constructs and regional differences in how covariates such as education, gender, race, and urbanicity influence constructs like Anxiety, Depression, Fatalism, and Divine Control
The Intersection of Race and Nativity: Exploring Criminal Justice Contact Among Black Adults in the United States.
No full textBlack immigrants in the United States navigate a dual identity as both Black and immigrant, yet their unique experiences remain underexplored in research on immigration and crime. While prior studies have documented generational differences and negative associations between immigration and crime, the intersection of race and nativity in shaping criminal justice contact for Black immigrants is unknown. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study examines the role of race and nativity on various forms of criminal justice contact. Specifically, we investigate (1) the extent to which nativity plays a role in criminal legal contact among Black adults and (2) whether socioeconomic factors shape these relationships