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How Does Race Moderate Adolescent Girls' Relationship Between Social Media and Body Image: A Study on Black and South Asian Adolescents
No full textM.P.P.Current literature suggests that adolescent girls’ exposure to media content is associated with poorer body image because the media often portrays unrealistic beauty standards which women tend to compare themselves to. Social media might amplify such comparative tendencies through algorithms, increased digital editing, and competition to see who gets more likes. Since in predominantly White western countries, mainstream beauty standards tend to be Eurocentric, adolescent girls of color might have worse body image outcomes than their White counterparts when comparing themselves to such beauty standards. However, our study, using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, finds little evidence of race being a risk factor when it comes to the relationship between social media use and adolescent girls’ body image
Defining the Functional Identity of the Late-Maturing Paralaminar Amygdala
No full textPh.D.The paralaminar amygdala (PL) is a subregion of the human amygdala containing neurons which delay their maturation until adolescence. PL development contributes to the adult amygdala’s increased size and cell number compared to childhood. However, little is known about the mechanisms of PL development during adolescence, or its consequent function in the adult amygdala. In this thesis, I identify the mouse PL, and investigate its functional properties: the developmental patterning of the region, the electrophysiological changes that characterize its maturation, the different cell types that comprise the region after it matures, and its input and output connections. The late-maturing neurons that comprise the PL are derived from heterogenous progenitor zones. Their protracted immature stage is characterized by rudimentary electrical properties and spike patterns that mature during adolescence, alongside an increase in inhibitory input. At adulthood, I identify two subtypes of excitatory neurons in the PL based on unsupervised clustering of electrophysiological properties. Further, I find that the PL is reciprocally connected to the main olfactory network and basolateral amygdala, with further output projections to regions associated with memory, autonomic, and reward processing. Thus, the adult PL is centrally placed to play a major role in the integration of olfactory sensory information, likely coordinating affective and autonomic behavioral responses to salient odor stimuli
Holy Friendship: A Comparative Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and Muḥyiddı̄n Ibn Al-ʿArabı̄
No full textPh.D.Interreligious friendships are an inevitable feature in religiously heterogeneous societies. Such friendship begin with an admiration of holiness in the religious other. This dissertation seeks to answer the following question: is there is any justification for this admiration, and if so, is there any spiritual benefit to interreligious friendships? As a practice of Catholic comparative theology, this study will argue that Catholic and Muslim interreligious friendship is a possible means to cultivating holiness in the self and the other precisely as friendship with God. Using Erich Przywara's analogy of being as a methodological tool and framework, this dissertation will explore the nature of friendship with God in Christianity and Islam through the theologies of St. Thomas Aquinas and Muḥyiddīn Ibn al-ʿArabī. As such it examines the grounds, means, and ends of divine friendship for the two authors. I will show that the theology of creation in each of their respective theologies establishes an analogy between God and the human person which serves as the ground of possibility for divine befriendment. This act of divine befriendment is contrasted in these two authors. I will show that Aquinas's theology of the mysteries of the incarnation and passion have the character of divine friendship in the person of Jesus. Further, for Ibn al-ʿArabī, the offer of divine befriendment is made directly through the prophet Muḥammad but is also be mediated through the prophets of other religions. Lastly the end of divine befriendment for both figures is the theo-ethical transformation of the friend. For Aquinas this is understood primarily as a deification of the intellect and the will through a union with the Word and the Holy Spirit following the model of the incarnation. For Ibn al- ʿArabī this is understood as assuming the divine names or character traits of God in a model following the prophet Muḥammad. Situating their respective theologies in the analogy of being will show that both Christians and Muslims have resources for making sense of interreligious friendship as a means of cultivating holiness in the self and the religious other
The Effect of Covax on Economic Growth of Low- and Middle-Income Countries
No full textM.P.P.COVID-19 disrupted the global economy through extensive lockdowns, impacting low- and middle-income countries most. Vaccine nationalism, or the hoarding of vaccines by high-income nations, led many developing nations to rely on COVAX as the primary method to recover and inoculate against COVID-19. COVAX, mired by delays and operational challenges, was not able to distribute vaccines as effectively as initially predicted. When investigating the effect of COVAX participation on economic growth post-pandemic using a country and year-level fixed effects approach, there is a negative correlation between COVAX participation and GDP per capita in 2023, indicating that COVAX or the uneven recovery from the pandemic may have led to this decrease in potential growth. The magnitude of the correlation and inclusion of more control variables need to be considered to further improve this analysis and more accurately estimate the effect of vaccine sharing programs on economic growth. These analyses do provide a framework to consider the impact of vaccine sharing programs and to improve their effectiveness to address future pandemics
A Better Ticket Off the Streets: Ending Housing Voucher Discrimination and the Implications for the Unhoused
No full textM.A.There are roughly 600,000 unhoused individuals in the United States. The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) is the largest federal mechanism for moving people off the streets and into permanent assisted housing. However, in a majority of the country it is legal for landlords to reject a tenant based on their source of income, including whether they have a Housing Choice Voucher. This reduces the effectiveness of Housing Choice Vouchers, and is a contributing factor to the shockingly low 61% voucher conversion rate. Many tenants, after waiting sometimes years to be awarded a voucher, are unable to find a suitable location within the allotted timeframe. My thesis examines the relationship between SOI protections and the rate of homelessness in American cities. Prior literature has indicated that SOI protections increase the rate of voucher utilization, and vouchers themselves have been shown to decrease the likelihood of homelessness, but no studies have examined the impact of SOI protections on homelessness directly. This thesis utilizes HUD Point-in-Time counts of the homeless, alongside a compendium of SOI laws compiled by researchers at the Urban Institute, as well as additional control data from the ACS and HUD. I was not able to observe an impact of SOI laws on homelessness directly and discuss the limitations of this study
Student Perspectives On Learning Together
No full textHear from a panel of undergraduate students about how to foster a culture of productive dialogue and collaboration in the classroom. These students, active members of the Engelhard Student Advisory Council, have shared their insights with higher ed stakeholders from across the country during the 2023-2024 academic year, and look forward to offering their expertise to the Georgetown community. The Engelhard Project for Connecting Life and Learning is a faculty development initiative run out of Georgetown's Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship that helps faculty integrate student wellness topics into their courses through cross-campus collaboration.
Billie Abdullah and Sara Hewitt are our undergraduate student panelists. Joan Riley will serve as a faculty respondent
A Cross-Sectional Study of the Association Between Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Prevalent Hormone-Dependent Cancer Diagnoses Among NHANES Study Participants, 2011-2018
No full textM.S.This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and self-reported hormone-dependent cancer diagnoses. Previous studies reveal associations between PFAS and adverse health outcomes including altered immune response and potential carcinogenicity, as well as its role as an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC). Exposure to EDCs is further associated with increased cancer risk, however, epidemiologic evidence is limited and inconclusive linking PFAS exposure to hormone-dependent cancer development. Data were collected from four consecutive NHANES survey cycles between 2011 and 2018. PFAS biomarker assessment involved the extraction of six PFAS measured in serum concentrations. PFAS serum concentrations were categorized by quartiles for analysis. Hormone-dependent cancer outcomes included breast, ovarian, prostate, testicular, and thyroid cancers. Significant testing in proportions and geometric means were calculated with chi-square and one-way ANOVA tests, respectively. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association between each PFAS analyte and the odds of self-reported cancer diagnosis among 8,415 NHANES participants. Significant differences in PFAS serum concentrations were observed across sociodemographic groups, with higher mean concentrations in males compared to females. Concentrations of four of the six studied PFAS were detected in 97-99% of all participants. Previous prostate cancer among men was inversely associated with PFUA Q3 (OR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.91). Increased odds of combined previous hormone-dependent cancers among men were associated with PFOS Q4 (OR: 1.78, 95% CI: 1.02, 3.11), whereas combined previous hormone-dependent cancers among women were inversely associated with PFOS Q4 (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.29, 0.91). Reduced odds of previous breast cancer were also observed with PFOS Q4 (OR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.19, 0.78). Previous ovarian cancer was associated with PFDeA Q4 (OR: 3.25, 95% CI: 2.08, 5.10). Both increased and decreased odds of previous thyroid cancer in women were observed among various PFAS quartiles. Overall, there was considerable variability of effect estimates between PFAS serum exposure and sex-specific cancer sites. These findings suggest a sexual dimorphic biological response to PFAS exposures. Further investigation is required to investigate sex-mediated mechanisms of these environmental exposures implicated in cancer development
The Effect of China's Emission Trading Scheme on Industrial Structure
No full textM.P.P.The study uses a two-way fixed effect and staggered implementation double difference model (staggered DID) to examine how the emissions trading system affects industrial structure upgrading. The regression analysis is internally valid, as verified by an event study, and the regression results are robust, as confirmed by a placebo test. Finally, we tested whether technological progress is the main path for ETS to promote industrial structure upgrading. The results showed that pilot implementation can promote industrial structure progress. The empirical analysis provides strong evidence that technological innovation is an important path for the impact of ETS on industrial structure upgrading. This study is significant for policymakers to utilize ETS to promote industrial upgrading
How Affordable Is Affordable Housing? The Costs of Experiencing Poverty in the U.S.
No full textM.P.P.This paper will look to examine the intersection of housing and transportation policy and where this intersection is reflected in welfare policy. For families who are cost burdened and are eligible for government aid, what are financial outlooks in this income bracket? Do people with shorter commutes spend a smaller percentage of income on housing? For households in this demographic, is there a significant difference between a female head of household and a male head of household? After identifying this, I will look to see if my findings indicate any gaps in welfare policy, or support the current policies. Ultimately, I hope to add to the shelter poverty discourse surrounding the true cost of poverty in the US, and bolster support for housing first policies by examining how the measurments for welfare assistance in the US support households who are in need