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MULTIFUNCTIONAL HYDROGEL SCAFFOLDS FOR TISSUE ENGINEERING AND WOUND HEALING APPLICATIONS
No full textWound healing is a complex physiological process in reaction to tissue injury. Our bodies are generally capable of healing wounds on their own, unless the wound volume is too large and/or the normal physiological functions are interrupted due to disease. In these cases, the principles of wound healing can be applied in tissue engineering to develop new tissues that replace damaged tissue. Despite significant advances in research, key challenges in wound healing and tissue engineering remain unsolved, including chronic wound non-healing and complex, but scalable scaffold construction. Hydrogels are crosslinked polymers with three-dimensional networks that can hold excess amounts of fluid, and they can serve as scaffolds that mimic extracellular matrixes. This dissertation employs hydrogels to solve key problems in tissue engineering and wound healing applications. The first project concentrated on a major challenge in tissue engineering scaffolds: controlling scaffold degradation rates during healing while maintaining mechanical properties to support tissue formation. To address this problem, chitosan methacrylate was blended with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) methacrylate (ChiPVAMA) using different photoinitiators to construct a photo-crosslinked hydrogel system. The ChiPVAMA platform displays fascinating properties for TE scaffolds, including degradability, tunability, suitability for cell encapsulation, and antimicrobial efficacy. This work provides a new hydrogel library for tissue engineering scaffolds and holds significant potential for applications in microfabrication and wound healing. In the second project, a novel hydrogel foam system was designed to treat chronic wounds (e.g., diabetic ulcers) with the ability to deliver mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs, with their multifunctional differentiation capabilities, have been used to enhance wound closure but often suffer from limited engraftment. The PVA/Gelatin hydrogel scaffolds are rapidly fabricated using a cytocompatible gas blowing process to encapsulate MSCs within porous hydrogel foams. The porous structure within the resulting hydrogels allows nutrient and waster transfer to improve long-term MSC viability. By optimizing the thiol/methacrylate ratio of PVA combined with GelMA, a fully degradable platform that supports cell attachment was fabricated. These hybrid hydrogel foams, with encapsulated therapeutic cells, demonstrate strong potential for robust wound healing and serve as a promising platform for chronic wound dressings. In the third project, an advanced hydrogel system was developed with potential for treatment of fistula in Crohn’s disease (CD). A fistula is an abnormal tunnel connecting the gastrointestinal tract to the skin, causing abscesses, infections, and significant emotional distress for patients. Improved fistula plugs could reduce treatment invasiveness and improve long-term healing outcomes. Current plugs fail to address the pathophysiology of fistulas, which is hypothesized to contribute to high recurrence rates. To address this need, a hydrogel-based fistula plug was designed to target the underlying biological mechanisms of fistula formation, particularly the loss of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) reversibility. Curcumin, a wound healing agent, was physically incorporated into a PVA/Gelatin hydrogel, and the effect of the system on the EMT was scrutinized. The results showed that curcumin effectively prevented the EMT while eliminating biofilm formation. This fully degradable and scalable system presents an excellent candidate for development of an injectable treatment for Crohn’s fistulas. These comprehensive works expand the scaffold library for tissue engineering and wound healing applications
Explaining Weak National Identification in Afghanistan
No full textThe case of Afghanistan presents us with a paradox of state formation: the curious phenomenon where a population that has historically risen, time and again, in unified opposition to external threats - from the British Empire to the Soviet Union to the United States - remains more deeply wedded to its religious and ethnic affiliations than to a shared national narrative. This dissertation seeks to answer this puzzle: why do Afghans identify less with their national identity than their religious or ethnic identity? It argues that high government presence strengthens national identification and low government presence strengthens sub-national identification. It systematically tests this theory through an analysis of fine-grained survey data at the sub-national level for both direct and indirect measures of the independent variable. It finds that where the state recedes, traditional bonds reassert themselves. In places where government exists only as a rumor, where services are promises unfulfilled, people turn to the mosque, their ethnicity, and to the codes passed down through generations. This is not failure but absence: the absence of the everyday exercise of state power and of those small institutional interactions that slowly, imperceptibly, inculcate a sense of national identification. Afghans thus have stronger national identification in urban areas and in districts with high government presence, than in rural areas and in districts with low government presence. Given that most districts in Afghanistan are either rural or have low government presence, national identification is weak overall. These findings suggest that the mere existence of a territorial state does not automatically generate national identification. While many scholars have emphasized the role of shared historical narratives or imagined communities in fostering national identity, the evidence in this dissertation points to a more fundamental relationship between state presence and national identification. The findings suggest that the path to strong national identity runs not through nationalist ideology or historical mythology, but through the mundane yet crucial work of building state capacity. This insight thus challenges both modernization theory\u27s assumptions about linear development and primordial theories of immutable national identities. Instead, it points to the critical role of institutions in shaping political identities. In conclusion, this dissertation offers implications for further research on national identity
Three Essays on the Implications of U.S. Social Welfare Spending through the Tax Code
Get PDFIn the United States, tax credits are one of the primary ways the federal government supports families with children. This dissertation focuses on the effect of tax credits on the way recipients spend their time and money. I use time use data to examine how tax credits change recipients’ time allocated to both labor supply and caregiving. I use consumption data to examine changes in spending and savings behavior induced by tax credits. Combined, these elucidate the mechanisms through which these policies affect the well-being of recipients and their family members. My first chapter is the first study to examine the effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on unpaid caregiving for adults, which could operate through the credit’s effects on labor supply and household income. Using a sample of unmarried mothers and data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), I employ a simulated benefit approach to generate causal estimates of the effect of EITC generosity on time use. I find that increases in average EITC benefits have differential effects on assisting adults by both the age of the EITC recipient and the relationship between the EITC recipient and the care recipient. Results for other types of time use (paid work, home production, leisure, childcare, education, sleep), as well as probability of multigenerational co-residence, help explain these shifts. There has been relatively little causal examination of the Child Tax Credit (CTC)’s effect on parental labor supply, especially compared to the extensive empirical literature on the EITC. In my second chapter, I thus leverage a major federal expansion of the CTC that took place in 2018 as a part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) to estimate the marginal effect of a CTC dollar on parental labor supply for three groups of parents: unmarried mothers, married fathers, and married mothers. I use data from the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) to do so. I also examine treatment effect heterogeneity across parts of the CTC benefit schedule where theoretical predictions of the effects of increased generosity diverge (phase-in versus plateau ranges) and calculate labor supply elasticities. I find that in response to increased average CTC benefits, unmarried mothers and married parents in the phase-in range of the CTC benefit schedule are more likely to be employed or increase their hours worked. However, those beyond the phase-in range of the CTC benefit schedule are estimated to maintain or reduce their labor supply. In the third chapter, I return to the EITC and examine how policy generosity affects consumption and savings behavior. I use 1999-2019 data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) that includes annual spending data on a variety of disaggregated consumption categories, as well as annual measures of assets and debt. This expands the current literature, in which we know more about how EITC eligibility is associated with the timing of consumption, rather than the causal relationship between benefit generosity and annual consumption. These annual measures also speak more directly to the mechanisms through which the EITC may improve well-being. I find that policy-induced increases in EITC benefits increase spending on work-related costs like childcare and transportation; big-ticket purchases like owning a vehicle; goods and services with positive income elasticities like eating out, private health insurance, education, and recreation and entertainment; and wealth through decreased student debt and increased savings
Personalized Learning and Transformative Literacy Learning and Teaching: A Case Study of Students\u27 20time/Passion Projects in English 8
Get PDFThis is a narrative case study of 20time or passion projects in English 8. The study explores how traditional educational hierarchies and practices, as well as perceptions of agency and competence, may be transformed in a personalized context by examining a single case comprising 17 students drawn from four sections of eighth grade English in which students are engaged in sustained 20time or passion projects as a fundamental part of their curriculum. The data comprise teacher, student, and administrative products, participant interviews and observations, and memos. Data analysis employs general qualitative methods and critical narrative analysis. This personalized, 20time thirdspace afforded students a location in which they integrated new and out-of-school literacies as they explored and developed their own passions, identities, and agency. For the teacher, the thirdspace location promoted personalization and relevance in a way that she felt was not supported by her existing curriculum. The students found an opportunity for growth in skills and confidence in an environment that supported their strengths and their identities. The researcher, a school administrator, found the location to be a place in which many normative and often oppressive school structures could be successfully challenged and sometimes overcome. In these ways, the thirdspace studied here was transformative of the students’ and teachers’ expectations of one another, themselves, and of literacy learning itself. Opportunities for making the model even more powerful and transformative are also explored
Femme Fatale: Explaining the Tactical Deployment of Female Operatives by Terrorist Organizations
Get PDFWhat explains variation in women’s participation in terrorist organization? Why do some terrorist organizations deploy women in violent, operative roles, whereas other terrorist organizations only deploy men as operatives? Why do some terrorist organizations begin a conflict with only male operatives but later begin to recruit, train, and deploy female operatives? Previous literature examining the deployment of women by terrorist organizations has been largely divided into those who examine the radicalization process of potential recruits (the “supply” side of the equation) or the reasons why an organization seeks to recruit women as potential operatives (the “demand” side). Scholarship examining the reasons why an organization seeks to recruit women has thus far focused on strategic or structural explanations for explaining women’s participation in terrorist violence. I argue that terrorist organizations primarily recruit and deploy men as operatives and women in auxiliary, nonviolent positions. However, when a terrorist group is facing increasing repression from the state in the form of coercive counterterrorism policies, they may be forced to innovate their tactics to increase operational success. One potential innovation is to deploy unexpected operatives, such as women, who can evade security personnel by exploiting security officials’ assumptions of female passivity. I argue that terrorist groups facing increasing counterterrorism pressure are more likely to incorporate women as operatives and in greater numbers. However, I also argue that there is a cost to the organization for incorporating women as violent operatives in the form of societal censure. The group’s domestic constituency may disapprove of the organization deploying women in violent roles and reduce their support for the organization. The terrorist group must weigh this potential cost against the operational benefits of incorporating women. I test this novel theory using a multi-method research design. First, I outline my theory of tactical innovation in Chapter 2. This chapter outlines the tactical benefits and costs to a terrorist organization for deploying women as operatives. Next, I undertake a plausibility probe examining two paired case comparison of terrorist organizations in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and Palestinian groups during the Second Intifada. In each paired case, one organization deployed women as operatives whereas the other group did not. This allows me to undertake an initial plausibility test of my theory of tactical innovation. Second, I conduct a large-N statistical analysis of 100 rebel groups to explore the impact of coercive state repression on the deployment of female operatives. I find that those groups who experience harsh counterterrorism policies are more likely to incorporate women as combatants and in greater numbers. I follow this time-variant statistical analysis with cases studies of Boko Haram and the Community Party of India (Maoist) in order to trace the temporal element of state repression on women’s deployment as operatives. Next, I deploy a survey experiment to test the theory that terrorist organizations will face a cost in the form of societal censure for deploying women as operatives. Using a novel online survey experiment conducted among adults in Northern Ireland, I find that respondents were less supportive of the goals of terrorist groups who deployed women as operatives compared to groups who deployed men. This supports my theory that terrorist organizations face an audience cost for deploying women as operatives. Finally, I conclude with a summary of the study’s main findings, weaknesses, theoretical and policy contributions, and policy implications
REDs RISK IN PHYSICALLY ACTIVE FEMALES AND INFLAMMATION: IS THERE A CORRELATION?
Get PDFBackground: Low Energy Availability (LEA) is a key factor in the Female Athlete Triad and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), affecting performance, metabolism, and inflammation. Uric acid (UA), a byproduct of purine metabolism, has been proposed as a potential inflammatory marker. We hypothesize that EA will be inversely correlated with inflammation and that collegiate athletes will exhibit lower EA compared to recreational athletes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 51 physically active female college students (18–24 years), including 28 collegiate athletes. LEA risk was assessed using the Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q), while energy availability (EA) and resting metabolic rate (RMR) ratio were calculated using indirect calorimetry, dietary intake (ASA-24), and lean body mass (BodPod). Saliva samples were analyzed for UA levels. Pearson’s correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were performed. Results: 56.9% of participants exhibited LEA, and 21.6% had a suppressed RMR ratio (\u3c0.90). A significant positive correlation was found between RMR ratio and UA (r = .464, p \u3c .001), while EA showed no association. Multiple regression analysis identified RMR ratio (B = 9.20, p \u3c .001) and LEAF-Q score (B = 0.159, p = .011) as significant predictors of UA levels (R² = .340, F(4,46) = 5.92, p \u3c .001). Conclusions: These findings highlight the complexity of LEA’s metabolic consequences and suggest that uric acid may not be a reliable standalone marker for inflammation in this context. While LEA is linked to metabolic disruptions, its relationship with inflammation remains unclear. Future research should explore alternative biomarkers, controlled dietary assessments, and animal models to further elucidate these mechanisms
ENCRYPTED EROTICISM: ENCODING AND DECODING STRATEGIES AGAINST CENSORSHIP IN CHINESE SLASH FANDOM
Get PDFThis study examines how Chinese slash fans circumvent censorship through coding and decoding strategies (Hall, 1980). Based on online ethnography and participant observation of a 20-year slash fandom of a popular online novel, DMBJ, I find that fans employ linguistic wordplay across morphological, phonetic, and semantic dimensions with their linguistic literacy in Chinese. Fans actively extract scenes or descriptions from the original novel that align with erotic contexts and collage them into new slash fiction. This form of creation is not entirely original but involves poaching and recombining canonical texts to assign new sexual meanings. At the same time, fans selectively appropriate terms associated with male characters—often those connoting masculinity—and, through repeated use in community communication, gradually link these terms to sexual scenarios. These terms then gain coded meanings in writing, allowing fans to avoid common sexual expressions that are more likely to be flagged as sensitive. As commercial platforms grow increasingly restrictive, fan-operated websites have become primary spaces for preserving and circulating slash works. These sites often impose stricter entry requirements, such as registration quizzes and credit systems, and rely on a shared body of insider knowledge, which is argued as a game between senior and junior fans. Senior fans, already familiar with legacy norms, maintain a state of “strategic invisibility” by using traditional tactics like typing in traditional Chinese to reduce visibility. Younger fans engage more actively in the community, seeking guidance to pass entry barriers and maintain a visible presence within the fan site
Resisting (Un)Accountability: Rhetorical Strategies of Forgetting Denmark’s IUD Campaign in Greenland
Get PDFThis thesis explores how colonial amnesia manifests rhetorically in media representations and public discourse about Denmark’s IUD campaign in Greenland. Beginning in the mid-1960s, this state-led initiative systematically targeted Greenlandic Inuit girls and women, fitting them with IUDs as part of a nationwide birth control campaign, some without their consent or knowledge. During the campaign’s most intensive years from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, approximately 4,500 girls and women – half of the fertile female population – were subjected to this reproductive violence. The spiral campaign was largely forgotten by the Danish public until an investigative podcast, Spiralkampagnen, brought it to public attention in May 2022. Over five episodes, two Danish journalists narrate the campaign’s violence, drawing on archival materials and interviews with Greenlandic Inuit women. Through a rhetorical analysis of the podcast Spiralkampagnen and the public discourse that followed its release, I identify multiple rhetorical strategies of “forgetting” that sustain Denmark’s colonial amnesia by obscuring the campaign’s colonial underpinnings. This amnesia, I argue, is both enabled by and reinforces the national-sentimental narrative of Denmark as a benevolent colonial caretaker – a story that continues to shape the Danish public imagination. These rhetorical strategies, regardless of intent, downplay the colonial logics that enabled the campaign and allow the state to evade accountability for its enduring consequences. By tracing how colonial amnesia manifests in discourse, this thesis shows how contemporary framings of the spiral campaign both reflect and reinforce dominant narratives of national innocence, hindering efforts to confront colonial legacies and address their ongoing impacts
Critical Literacy Approaches to Teaching Canonical Texts: Analyzing Race in To Kill a Mockingbird in Rural, Predominately White Classrooms
Get PDFIn the 21st century, U.S. legislation continues to push for teacher censorship and seemingly depoliticized curriculums that ignore systemic issues regarding race, gender, sexuality, and other social justice topics. With the understanding that texts can never be politically neutral, English language arts (ELA) teachers must adopt critical approaches to teach required, and often hegemonic texts, and help students cultivate criticality and critical race consciousness. In this study, we aim to explore strategies that can be used to promote critical readings of canonical texts and how the topic of racial oppression can be broached in rural, predominantly White secondary English classrooms. Our case study explores how one rural teacher in an all-White seventh-grade classroom uses critical approaches to teach Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. We obtained our data through document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and non-participant observations that occurred three days a week for seven weeks in spring of 2024. Our data was then recorded, coded, and analyzed according to case study methods informed by grounded theory methodology. We observed two main pedagogical strategies (using a sociopolitical lens and exploring multiple perspectives) that the teacher used to promote critical literacies. We found that teaching To Kill a Mockingbird required contextual framing that included the introduction of sources such as court cases, accounts of resistance movements, and contemporary literature such as Brown Girl Dreaming (Woodson, 2014)
Tips for Inclusive Postsecondary Education Programs on College Campuses: Peer Mentors’ Perspectives on Access and Inclusion
Get PDFAs inclusive postsecondary education programs have grown and improved towards more campus access for college students labeled with an intellectual disability, peer mentoring is a common model for such programs. Peer mentors from one private institution were asked to describe their experiences and perspectives of campus inclusion after participating in a training program designed to increase their understanding of disability within a social justice lens. Mentors shared the personal and professional benefits of mentoring, for both themselves and for students labeled with an intellectual disability, and noted recommendations for how programs can increase access to college in order to improve equity and relational support models within inclusive postsecondary education and beyond. This research is applicable to teacher education programs preparing special educators who will be qualified to teach in transition programs, and more broadly to any preservice and professional teachers who work with students with disabilities. Using a Critical Disability Theory lens, this paper seeks to provide suggestions for how to support and include people labeled with an intellectual disability, raise awareness about disability, and promote appreciation and opportunities for people with disabilities