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The Bisexual+ Journey of Self-Acceptance and Synthesis
No full textBisexuality is an umbrella term defined as an attraction, physical and or romantic, to two or more genders. Existing literature on bisexual identity formation offers a complicated and varied representation of how to view bisexual identity formation, whether as impossible or achievable by bisexual individuals. This study explores how bisexual individuals and individuals under the bisexual umbrella (e.g., pansexual, polysexual, multisexual) accept and synthesize their sexual identity. Additionally, this study questions if there are internal (e.g., biphobia, lack of support) or external (e.g., family, society) barriers preventing bisexual individuals from being able to accept and synthesize their identity. Lastly, a new bisexual model of identity formation will be created in order to explore a more modern understanding and representation of bisexuality identity formation and acceptance.Psychology & Educatio
Spanish Prosody in The Cat in the Hat
No full textThe book, The Cat in the Hat, is a popular pick for children under 3 years old. Predictable
metric and rhyming structure is composed of multiple metric levels. Prosodic cues such as
intensity, duration, pitch and intonation create these distinct metric levels in a language. This
study aims to analyze whether Spanish speakers employ prosodic cues to construct a metrical
hierarchy, and if so, how. Metrical hierarchy in a language conveys information regarding the
location of beat and stress in an utterance. Spanish speakers were asked to read El Gato
Ensombrerado, the Spanish translation of The Cat in the Hat. The recordings were then analyzed,
specifically looking at duration, intensity, and pitch. Where we found significant effects in all of
these dependent variables, which were intensity, duration, and pitch. Our findings can contribute
to the understanding of child directed speech structure to help children’s language acquisition.Neuroscience and BehaviorPsychology & EducationSpanish, Latina/o, & Latin American Studie
A Bird’s Eye View: Understanding saltmarsh degradation through avian population change
No full textThis thesis used data collected by the Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research ProgramSaltmarshes are dynamic coastal wetlands characterized by zones of halophytic plant species, which grow based on tidal inundation patterns. The high marsh zone provides nesting habitat for several marsh specialist bird species. Specialists rely on the saltmarsh for foraging and nesting. However, this carefully balanced ecosystem is threatened by anthropogenic disturbance and the effects of sea-level rise.
This project examines how both specialist and generalist bird populations are responding to these environmental stressors over temporal and spatial scales in order to focus conservation and restoration efforts. I combined data from the 1994-2012 Tidal marsh bird survey, the 2011-2014 Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program (SHARP) dataset, and marsh zonation data. I found that we are least likely to observe marsh specialists in their breeding grounds using passive survey methods. I found no decrease in unique specialist species from 2011 to 2014 in the high marsh and pool zones; however these data were not sufficient to elucidate shifts in nesting site fidelity over time. Specialist species richness decreased with increasing latitude, indicating that we should focus our conservation efforts on the larger, more continuous saltmarshes in the Southeast Coastal US.Biological Science
Statistical Analysis of the Association between Bilirubin and Survival in Primary Biliary Cirrhosis
No full textPrimary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) is a relatively rare chronic liver disease that mainly affects women. When someone’s immune system attacks the liver, the bile ducts are damaged and accumulated in the liver. Over time, it will lead to fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver. PBC progresses differently among patients and its severity is indicated by repeated measurements of longitudinal biomarkers. In practice, insights on how biomarkers associate with death risk contribute to better adjustment of personal care and improvement of treatment regimen generally.
In this project, we are interested in the association between the biomarker serum bilirubin and overall survival of PBC patients. When the liver fails to excrete bilirubin, high levels of this serum can cause jaundice of the skin, which is a common symptom of cirrhosis. This association is investigated with three different statistical approaches: Cox Proportional Hazards Model, Time-Dependent Cox Model, and Joint Model for Longitudinal and Time-ToEvent Data. For each of the three models, the following procedure is applied: univariate analysis, variable selection, and multivariate analysis. The study data comes from a PBC clinical trial conducted by the Mayo Clinic over 10 years from 1974 to 1984. The hazard ratios estimated from these three models
are compared.
Intuitively, the difference in the estimated hazard ratios can be explained by the different levels of information considered. The Cox Proportional Hazards model uses the baseline values of bilirubin. The Time-Dependent Cox model uses the current values of bilirubin by accounting for the changes of bilirubin over time. The Joint Model captures the internal progression of bilirubin and
measurement errors. For applications where sample size is large and computational resources are available, Joint Models should be used because they reduce potential bias in parameter estimation relative to the other models in survival analysis.Mathematics & Statistic
The effect of one proton on the possible pathways of another proton in yttrium-doped barium zirconate
No full textProton conduction is a crucial property of fuel cell electrolytes. Unlike oxide-ion conductivity in oxide-ion conductors, proton conductivity occurs at a lower temperature (less than 600◦C), enhancing material stability and facilitating heat recovery for a variety of applications. Perovskite structure, ABO3 is one of the structure families that observe proton diffusion and proton conductivity, making it a potential candidate for solid-state proton conductors. Previous works studied the proton conduction in 12.5% Y-doped BaZrO3 system with multiple protons and found that the incorporation of protons into the system affects backbone distortion, kinetic energy barriers, and proton trajectories. In this study, we investigate the effect of one proton on the pathways of another proton in the same system but with larger dimension. The ab initio method is utilized to obtain the total electronic energy for each configuration using Density Functional Theory and the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof functional. The lowest-energy configuration results from the structure in which two protons are in closest proximity to the dopant. We notice that the distortion induced by protons only affects backbone structure at the local level in the large system. However, the presence of two protons completely alters the tilting pattern in the smaller system. The Nudged Elastic Band method is applied to the perovskite configurations to find the conduction pathways between two proton binding sites. As a result, we found that there are no contractions of the intra-octahedral and inter-octahedral O-O distances along the proton pathway with rotation movement. However, both intra-octahedral and inter-octahedral transfers cause changes in lattice distortion and witness intermediate minima between initial and final binding sites, suggesting more complex pathways. Also, we notice that a full inter-octahedral transfer has a tendency to break down into two consecutive intra-octahedral transfer along the Nudged Elastic Band pathways, suggesting the prioritization of intra-octahedral transfers in the proton trajectories.Chemistr
Analysis of Interspecific Genital Shape Variation in Watersnakes of the Genus Nerodia and the Potential for Female-driven Species Divergence
No full textGenital evolution can be driven by a multitude of selective pressures, including the pressure to avoid harm and hybridizations. Recent studies reveal how rapidly evolving female genital structures may drive speciation under selective processes like sexual conflict and reinforcement. This study explores whether the vaginal morphologies of watersnake sister species are diverging more rapidly than male intromittent organs. We used 2D and 3D geometric morphometrics to quantitatively compare the complex shapes of vaginal pouches and hemipenes across the three species N. sipedon, N. fasciata, and N. rhombifer. Previous work examining genital shape differences in female N. sipedon and N. fasciata revealed significant morphological differences. Similar
male genital shape within these two species would support the phenomenon of rapidly evolving female genitalia driving speciation. By also including N. rhombifer in the analysis, we were able to compare samples from a morphologically distinct relative. With the new additions to our sample, our results reinforced previous findings that show significant differences in vaginal pouch shape across species. As we predicted, pairwise
comparisons showed that the vaginal pouch shape of N. rhombifer was more distinct from N. fasciata and N. sipedon than they were from each other. Male shape was also significantly different across
all species, and the same pattern emerged in the pairwise comparisons, which does not support our prediction that hemipene morphology is indistinct across N. fasciata and N. sipedon. Although this result does not provide sufficient data to support our initial hypothesis, it does not rule out female-driven species
divergence. Future steps include using larger samples from Nerodia to explore intraspecific coevolutionary patterns and using 3D geometric morphometrics for female specimens.Biological Science
Long Live Death: Violence & Martyrdom in Eastern Europe’s Fascist Movements, the Legion of the Archangel Michael & National Democracy, 1919–1933
No full text“Long Live Death” examines homegrown fascism and radicalization in Poland’s National Democracy party, also called Endecja, and Romania’s Legion of the Archangel Michael. This project examines why fascist violence and martyrdom became more prevalent in the Legion. Both Endecja and the Legion were antisemitic, nationalist, and anti-liberal, but until the 1930s, Endecja did not exhibit fanatical self-sacrificial violence and radical worldview of the Legion. Using newspapers, books, and the memoirs of Legionaries and National Democrats, this project analyzes the fascist myth of national rebirth, the relationship between politics and violence, and the convergence of religion and nationalism in the Legion, which heroized violence and martyrdom. Until 1926 Endecja was part of the Polish government. Additionally, National Democrats did not fully embrace the national rebirth or the fanaticism of fascism. Therefore, the movement could not reach the same level of martyrdom. Examining the development of Polish and Romanian fascism can assist us in understanding the rise of nationalism, authoritarianism, and radicalism that we again see today. Histor
The role of Matrix metalloproteinase-2 in Drosophila melanogaster prepupal and pupal fat body autophagy
No full textAutophagy is the mechanism by which an organism can dispose of parts of its cells. This mechanism plays a vital role in many human diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, includings Alzheimer's disease (Lőrincz et al., 2017). In order to examine how autophagy is regulated I studied it during metamorphosis in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Both D. melanogaster and humans have Matrix metalloproteinases, or MMPs, which are enzymes that work in the extracellular matrix (ECM) to cleave and degrade proteins. D. melanogaster has two distinct MMPs, MMP1 and MMP2. There is already evidence suggesting that MMP2 in D. melanogaster is involved in the ecdysone and insulin signalling pathways that lead to fat body remodeling (Bond et al., 2011). However, there has not been enough research done on whether MMP2 is involved in fat body autophagy. I propose an experiment to test whether MMP2 is required for fat body autophagy during the prepupal and pupal stages of metamorphosis. To do this I used the UAS-Gal4 system in conjunction with RNAi technology to generate flies that lack MMP2 in their fat body cells. I used a western blotting approach to quantify levels of autophagy in fat body cells from transgenic Drosophila that lack MMP2, and in the fat body cells from control, wild-type Drosophila (Lőrincz et al., 2017). My preliminary results suggest that MMP2 is required for fat body remodeling, but more research must be done to confirm this. Determining whether membrane type MMPs like MMP2 are involved in the signalling cascade leading to autophagy could be vital in determining how autophagy is triggered and in finding ways to treat the diseases associated with autophagy.Biological Science
Genetic Analysis of Programmed Cell Death
No full textThe larval fat bodies of Drosophila melanogaster are responsible for storing energy from the larval feeding stages for use during pupal development. In most larval tissues, programmed cell death (PCD) is triggered by two pulses of the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (ecdysone), delivered at the end of the third larval instar stage and at 12 hours after puparium formation, respectively. Ecdysone signaling induces the transcription of the death activator genes, rpr, hid, and grim, which interact with the E3-ubiquitin ligase Diap1 to give rise to PCD. Diap1 has been found to promote the degradation of the PCD initiator caspase Dronc, thus acting as an inhibitor of unwanted cell death. Upon ecdysone-induced transcription, the death activator genes promote the auto-ubiquitination of Diap1, removing its inhibitory effect and triggering caspase activation. Studies have shown that Dronc plays an essential role in the promotion of PCD, with its loss of function being associated with a decrease in necessary PCD. Unlike other larval tissues, larval fat bodies are noted for their resistance to PCD, dissociating from a tissue to free, individual fat cells rather than undergoing PCD. This study follows upon previously conducted research, hypothesizing that up-regulation of Dronc and down-regulation of Diap1 promotes PCD in Drosophila melanogaster, and predicting that the PCD-resistant larval fat bodies will display up-regulation of Diap1 and down-regulation of Dronc. This study plans to compare the relative levels of Diap1 and Dronc in PCD-resistant larval fat bodies to those in the larval salivary glands, a PCD-susceptible larval tissue. Preliminary results indicate that this experiment can be done and that all primers and equipment are working as intended. Next steps include the analysis of cDNA synthesized from larval fat bodies and larval salivary glands collected from pupae at 12 hours after puparium formation via qRT-PCR. Understanding of the role of these expression levels in the regulation of PCD has broader implications for research into cancer development, degenerative diseases, and treatments thereof.Biological Science
Anahnu Tannaiot (We Are Reciters): South, Central, West Asian, and North African Jewish Women's Voices as Resistance in Art, Music, and Writing
No full textThis thesis analyzes modes of expression that form the “voice” of SCWANA (South, Central, West Asian, and North African) Jewish women. By expanding the definition of voice, my study engages with multiple modalities which SCWANA Jewish women use to create work about their experiences. There have been several waves of Jewish exodus from South, Central, and West Asia, North Africa, and the Balkans. Each chapter discusses the development of SCWANA Jewish women’s voices in multiple contexts, noting the ways in which travel and geography influence their experiences and expression. My first chapter will examine the development of musiḳah Mizraḥit as a result of mass migration to Israel. My second chapter will investigate the subsequent creation of Mizraḥi as a disenfranchised class (as opposed to a rite/prayer order) and review SCWANA/Mizraḥi activist movements in Israel and abroad. Finally, I will interpret these histories via a lens of women’s experiences in their communities, ultimately seeking out modes which form a literal and figural “voice.” The findings of this review suggest that there is no one way in which SCWANA/Mizraḥi women use their voices in pursuit of self-imaging, imagining, and healing from structures of antisemitism (in the case of their former states in SCWANA; and other states in which Jews have a minority status) and Orientalism/racism (in the case of Israel, the United States, and France). Ultimately, music is a consistent thread in these processes, even as melodies evolve and change, with ‘canonical’ liturgical tunes (including piyyutim) drawing inspiration from the world around these singers. I also engage with questions regarding the inclusivity of ‘Mizraḥi’ as a label, in order to examine the origins of the term and investigate how SCWANA and (some) Balkan Jewish women have reclaimed this term, while others have not.Religio