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Fractal Dimension Study of Southern California Temporospatial Seismicity Patterns from 1982 to 2020:
Get PDFThesis advisor: John E. EbelPower-law scaling relationships concerning the earthquake frequency-magnitude distribution and the fractal geometry of spatial seismicity patterns may provide applications to earthquake forecasting and earthquake hazard studies. Past studies on the fractal characteristics of seismic phenomena have observed spatial and temporal differences in earthquake clustering and b value in relation to fractal dimension value. In this thesis, an investigation of the spatiotemporal seismicity patterns in southern California for the years 1982 to 2020 was conducted. The range and temporospatial distribution of b and D2 values for earthquake hypocenters contained in the Southern California Earthquake Data Center catalogue were calculated and shown in time series and spatial distribution maps. b values were calculated using both the Least SquaresMethod and the Maximum Likelihood Method while D2 values were calculated for length scales between 1 km to 10 km. A set of b and D2 values were calculated after declustering for foreshocks and aftershocks using Gardner and Knopoff’s declustering algorithm. b values decreased while D2 values increased on the dates of M > 6.0 earthquakes, whereas b values increased and D2 values decreased on the dates after M > 6.0 earthquakes. Declustering results suggest an influence of earthquake aftershocks to increase D2 values while decreasing b values. The role for b values and D2 values to delineate both the temporal and spatial extent of aftershock sequences for large earthquakes may prove to have an application in earthquake hazard studies.Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences
Critical Consciousness and Educational Leadership: The Superintendents' Understanding of the Tenets of Critical Consciousness and the Role of Social Networks in its Development
Get PDFThesis advisor: Rebecca LowenhauptDisrupting systemic racism and moving towards true diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates committed leadership. As a school district’s foremost educational leader, the superintendent has an influential role in ensuring equity. A superintendent may effectively address the systemic inequities present in public education through critically conscious behaviors. To engage in this work effectively, a superintendent needs support. Research has demonstrated that formal or informal networks can positively influence a superintendent. However, there is a gap in the literature explaining how critical consciousness reveals itself in a superintendent’s work and less research about how network participation can advance a superintendent’s critically conscious practices. (Daly Finnigan, 2012; deLima, 2010; Froehlich et al., 2020; Liou & Daly, 2014; Meier & O’Toole, 2003; Moolenaar et al., 2010). In response, this study explored how superintendents understood the tenets of critical consciousness in practice. Additionally, this study examined how social networks influenced a superintendent’s practice and contributed to critically conscious practices. Therefore, the research questions that guided this study are how, if at all, does a superintendent understand the tenets of critical consciousness? And secondly, what role, if any, does a superintendent’s participation in formal or informal networks have on developing critical consciousness and leadership? For the purpose of this study, the tenets of critical consciousness formed the conceptual framework and included critical reflection, critical self-efficacy, and critical action. In addition to this, the literature review of informal and formal networks provided the lens to examine what influence, if any, participation had on superintendents' critical consciousness development. This investigation employed a qualitative case study of six superintendents identified as equity-based leaders and utilized a semi-structured interview process and document review. Findings revealed that superintendents did not use the formal language of critical consciousness. Despite this, evidence showed that the superintendents exhibited the tenets associated with critical consciousness. Additionally, results suggested that both formal and informal networks played a significant role in supporting superintendents, especially during times of challenge.Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education
Trust in Educational Leadership in Times of Crisis: Leadership Practices, Trust, and Teaming Among District Leaders During Covid-19
Get PDFThesis advisor: Raquel MuñizThe concept of trust at the central office level has been examined primarily between the superintendent and schools or school leaders. The literature speaks to variable ways that researchers define teams in organizational settings, measure team effectiveness in education, and capture the importance of trust in teams. However, there is a gap in the educational literature concerning trust and teams, specifically among teams within the central office in the K-12 education setting. During times of crisis, trust becomes even more critical, as does the expectation that teams are working interdependently, rather than working in silos (Cornell & Sheras, 1998). Through a qualitative case study of one district with more than 5,000 students in the northeast region of the United States, I examined collective trust in teams at the district level through the examination of the five facets of trust, leadership behaviors that create the conditions for team member inclusion as a means of working across boundaries, and the presence of a collective mission toward collective action.I found that the perceptions of trust among district leaders and principals varied and that the variance was influenced by one’s seniority in the district hierarchy. Proactive strategies for team member inclusion were impacted by a leader’s perception of his/her power to influence a given situation. Moreover, the stated purpose of team missions was most often connected to information-sharing; thus, district meetings were perceived as transactional in nature. As such, the findings support a small number of recommendations within K-12 districts to create the conditions for greater inclusion and collective trust in teams at the central office level: (1) narrow the five facets of trust that matter to district leaders and team members to align perception and expectations around what builds trusting relationships; (2) explicitly work to invite participation of team members to create inclusive communities; and (3) clearly define and consistently communicate an individual team’s purpose to create a collective mission aligned to overall district goals.Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education
Trust in Educational Leadership in Times of Crisis: The Teacher-Principal Trust Dynamic
Get PDFThesis advisor: Raquel MuñizSchools are complex organizations where teachers and principals must work together toward common goals. Research has established that trust is an essential element for effective relationships and that, without trust, cooperation suffers. Furthermore, a high level of trust within a school has been correlated with higher academic achievement. While studies have shown correlations between principal qualities or behaviors and the trust of teachers, less is known about how teachers and principals understand their interactions with each other or what influences their propensity to trust. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the ways in which teachers and their principals experience and build trust with each other and to determine what influences their perceptions of each other’s trustworthiness. Findings indicate that teachers and principals may value trust-forming characteristics within their relationships differently, based on their role as a teacher or school leader, and that the perception of the role of the principal may pose a unique barrier to trust formation. Implications of this case study suggest that principals and teachers may value different trust-forming traits based on the vulnerabilities in their roles. In addition, the perception of the principal role may provide a unique barrier to trust in schools and therefore might benefit from further exploration.Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education
Development of a Live Cell Phage Display Screening Protocol:
No full textThesis advisor: Jianmin GaoProtein-protein interactions (PPIs) are essential for all biological functions. Developing peptides that disrupt these PPIs is an avid research effort, as peptides possess several advantages over small molecules and monoclonal antibodies. Peptide phage display is a useful tool in identifying peptides for targeting PPIs. This technology displays up to 10^10 unique polypeptides on the surface of bacteriophage, which after several rounds of panning enriches high affinity peptide sequences towards a target protein. Phage display is classically done on immobilized discrete protein; however, we propose to use this technology to identify peptides ligands for overexpressed oncogenic proteins on live cells in-vitro. This is a more accurate representation of the therapeutic target landscape and resembles how the peptide will interact with the receptor in-vivo. Several groups have explored live cell panning, such as Ruoslahti et al. and Cieslewicz et al., and while they demonstrate the capabilities of in-vitro style phage display, there are areas for improvement. We intend to improve on this previous work by 1. Identifying a peptide ligand against specific receptor/protein, and 2. By incorporating the use of covalent phage libraries to elucidate a high affinity binder. This work will be accomplished using the mammalian epidermal oncogenic cell line, A431, that is known to overexpress epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is responsible for cellular proliferation, survival, differentiation and metastasis, which makes it an attractive target to inhibit oncogenic proliferation. Despite successfully marketed monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, EGFR can mutate and develop resistance as diseases progress; this phenomenon, in addition to the benefits of peptides as therapeutics, are driving factors for pursuing this project. Despite our best efforts using non-covalent phage libraries to identify a viable ligand, screening against EGFR extracellular domain (ECD) has proven to be more difficult than anticipated. We hypothesize that non-covalent phage libraries do not possess any sequences with a high enough binding affinity for this protein, and that the use of covalent libraries will be needed to pull out a positive hit. Due to these findings, we have successfully constructed two phage libraries, a ACX7C and a ACX7C-TEV, where the latter introduced a TEV protease cleavage site on the C’-terminal side of the randomized amino acids suitable for covalent warhead modification and screening.
Further, we have begun work on constructing an EGF-displaying phage construct to aid in optimizing a live cell panning protocol. In the future, we plan to evaluate ligand affinity and protein density, as well as determine the optimal covalent warhead/peptide combination for live cell screenings. With this information, we intend to apply this to other oncogenic cell lines, such as MCF-10CA1a, to identify potent peptide ligands for overexpressed oncogenic proteins.Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
The Meaning of Empathy in the Context of Clinical Nursing Practice Among Senior Baccalaureate Nursing Students:
Get PDFThesis advisor: Chris LeeEmpathy is a vital element in the formation of meaningful and trusting relationships between nurses and patients. Studies indicate that empathetic providers promote both increased patient satisfaction and better health outcomes for patients. Given the significance of empathy, what stood out is the gap in knowledge regarding the meaning of empathy from the perspective of senior baccalaureate nursing students just prior to entering the health care context as registered nurses. The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of empathy, in the context of clinical nursing practice from the perspective of senior baccalaureate nursing students. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used in the research analysis. The key research questions were: What is the meaning of empathy in the context of clinical nursing practice among senior baccalaureate students? How does clinical nursing practice shape and nurture empathy for senior baccalaureate nursing students? The researcher anticipates this study to be the first, which delineates the meaning of empathy in the context of clinical nursing practice among senior baccalaureate nursing students. Three essential themes surfaced during analysis, discovering every patient is a human person, empathy helps patients feel visible, heard and understood, and empathy breaks through bias towards patients. The results also suggest that clinical nursing practice among undergraduate nursing students shapes and nurtures empathy.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing.Discipline: Nursing
The Lukan Presentation of the Function of the Holy Spirit
No full textThesis advisor: Christopher MatthewsThesis advisor: Matthew MonnigThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Negotiating Engagement in STEAM Education: A Longitudinal Investigation of Participants’ Experiences in an Art-Science Program
Get PDFThesis advisor: Michael BarnettPractitioners and scholars have begun to recognize the need to fracture disciplinary boundaries in K-12 learning settings in favor of more holistic approaches. STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education, in particular, has been proposed as a means to reimagine science education based on youths’ widespread interest in art, design, and making, and the encouragement of multiple forms of expression in these endeavors. This dissertation documents the development of an art-science program and research on the experiences of middle-school-aged participants, who predominantly identified as Latinx and bilingual, in three papers. In the first paper, I used design-based research to investigate how an art-science program evolved to support youths’ interests and disciplinary integration from a teacher perspective. A cross-case analysis of two program iterations yielded two design guidelines. First, it is important to create opportunities for youth to engage in STEAM education in ways that allow them to build on their interests while also cultivating desirable social images. Second, ongoing teacher collaboration and foregrounding youths’ development of project artifacts supported disciplinary integration. In the second paper, I draw on a longitudinal case study approach to investigate two focal youths’ enactment of art-science thinking practices—or practices common to artistic and scientific fields—over three program iterations. Results highlight three insights: (1) the program’s approach to disciplinary integration played a key role in which art-science thinking practices youth enacted and how; (2) the incorporation of multiple STEAM disciplines encouraged youth to build on a wide range of interests; and (3) developing artifacts supported youth to engage in STEAM projects while maintaining their social standing. The third paper is a practitioner study documenting the program design and outcomes regarding case study youths’ perspectives of art-science thinking practices. Results demonstrate how STEAM education can support youth to appreciate imagining and creating in the context of science. I conclude with the program’s successes and challenges and implications for in- and out-of-school STEAM practitioners and program designers.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction
Specialized, Localized, Privatized: An Institutional and Historical Analysis of the Emergence of New Graduate Schools of Education
Get PDFThesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-SmithThis dissertation presents an institutional and historical analysis of the emergence of new graduate schools of education, or nGSEs. A controversial reform in the field of teacher preparation, nGSEs offer teacher preparation, state certification, and master’s degrees in a variety of new non-university contexts. With bipartisan support and philanthropic backing, the nGSE phenomenon has gained traction quickly. Today, 11 nGSEs, some with several branches, are operating in 16 different states. The dissertation examines the emergence of nGSEs using concepts from sociological neoinstitutionalism through primary document analysis and institutional analysis to answer the following questions: (1) What is the nature of nGSEs as organizations, including their historical features, funding models, and organizational environments? What changes have occurred in these features since the inception of nGSEs? (2) What institutional logic animates nGSEs as organizations? (3) What happens to teacher preparation in market-organized environments? Analysis revealed that nGSEs have diverse organizational origins and that they have largely reconfigured time and place for teacher preparation. As organizations that have moved the bulk of teacher preparation to K-12 schools and/or the internet while evolving rapidly in different environments, nGSEs naturally have different cultural-cognitive schemata. However, market logic is evident in some form, though to varying degrees, at each new organization. nGSEs tend to be private sector solutions to problems in the public education system, and they enjoy the support of education philanthropists who fund alternatives to the public education bureaucracy. I show how nGSEs are fundamentally responses to specialized, and oftentimes regionalized, circumstances that create demand for new kinds of teacher preparation programs. nGSEs are tailored for particular contexts and conditions—some nGSEs serve certain geographical communities while others serve certain kinds of school communities or pedagogical movements. I argue that this has led to the creation of highly specialized niches in the 21st century market for teacher preparation. Though they all constitute one reform, namely the relocation of teacher preparation from universities to new and different kinds of organizations, nGSEs are remarkably different from one another and from the wider field of teacher preparation.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction
College Behind Bars: Exploring Justifications for the Involvement of Higher Education in Prison
Get PDFThesis advisor: Andrés Castro SamayoaThe involvement of colleges and universities in the provision of higher education opportunities in prison has reemerged after a long pause following the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill, which effectively ended the majority of postsecondary prison education programs. The 2016 Second Chance Pell Program has been instrumental in the development and expansion of higher education opportunities in prison. Support for justice reform measures has led to the likely full restoration of Pell Grant availability in prisons, taking effect as early as 2023, with funding for the initiative included in the most recent congressional stimulus bill. Both Second Chance Pell and one of the most progressive state-level prison education policies, New York’s Right Priorities initiative, rely almost exclusively on positioning higher education in prison as a tool for meeting the market needs of the state: reduced recidivism equating to taxpayer savings. This dissertation extends prior research examining the pitfalls of justifications overly reliant on narratives of recidivism. Using a three-article approach, it explores justifications capable of articulating the full moral vigor necessary to sustain long-term commitments to such policies and programs, ones that prioritize humanized responses to incarceration.
The first article amplifies justifications articulated by those who have been the beneficiaries of such educational opportunities, investigating formerly incarcerated student perspectives on the value, meaning, and purpose of such programs. The second article, by focusing on policy developments within the state of New York, examines how the rhetoric of recidivism emerges in media coverage of both federal and state level support for college-level prison education. And, finally, the third article considers the pedagogical implications of adjusting the lens through which programs are defended, exploring the use of andragogical teaching methods—those associated with the tenets of adult education—in the context of prison classrooms. Taken together, each study contributes to literatures examining justifications for higher education in prison, and develops deeper understandings of the need for the provision of such opportunities.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education