University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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Pride in the mountains: A queer Appalachian anthology, 1970s-2020s
Full text link"Pride in the Mountains" seeks to disrupt the fixity of regional-based Appalachian and LGBTQ+ identities through the evaluation of sociocultural place-making and change over time for queer individuals and communities in Appalachia. As this thesis centers marginal voices to uplift the self-determinist efforts of queer Appalachians in creating belonging, negotiating identity expression, and ongoing community development, this scholarship will focus on bottom-up narratives of queer individuals who have grown up, lived, or have chosen to live in the region from the 1970s through the present. As such, this work offers crucial interventions in understanding the processes of developing communities of memory and place, the complexity of identity assemblages, and the negotiation of belonging through lenses of class, gender, sexuality, region, and environment. Thus, "Pride in the Mountains" establishes a historical precedent of national historical processes and sociocultural evolutions that have gradually led to developing inclusive spaces and communities within the Appalachian region. In bridging the fields of rural queer and Appalachian studies through interdisciplinary analyses rooted in historical perspectives, this thesis will answer the following questions: How do queer Appalachians describe and create communities of belonging within the region? How does this coincide with identity construction through regional and community belonging, and what barriers have they encountered with these negotiations? What social and cultural conditions allowed for the emergence of visible queer communities in Appalachia, and how has this growth evolved? How fluid are identity expressions and negotiations in the Appalachian region, and how can these definitions extend beyond binary terms? Finally, how does the narrative of queer Appalachian communities and individuals challenge characterizations of Appalachia in historical and media-driven narratives
A qualitative study exploring structural violence and mental health among Latino migrant and seasonal farmworkers in North Carolina
Full text linkMigrant and seasonal farmworkers are subjected to structural violence, which is the result of social structures and institutions inflicting harm by inhibiting the ability of farmworkers to meet their basic needs such as safe housing, food, and healthcare. Structural violence removes power from these populations and limits their opportunities. Much of the literature surrounding farmworkers has focused on their physical health, and there is a lack of focus on their mental health. Mental health provides a way of deepening our understanding of the impacts of structural violence as well as Latino migrant and seasonal farmworker health and wellness. This study aims to address these gaps by examining the lives and mental health of farmworkers through a structural violence lens. Utilizing the “Sort and Sift, Think and Shift” methods, a secondary analysis of qualitative data was conducted to operationalize structural violence and demonstrate how it is connected to the mental health of Latino migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Structural violence is created and reinforced by forces and institutions at the highest level of social organization. The results suggest that like many phenomena at the higher levels of the social ecology, structural violence is experienced at the individual level as well. It also suggests that we cannot rely solely on individual-level solutions for something that is a product of structures
Asynchronous automaticity and products of hyperbolic spaces
Full text linkThe main result of this thesis is a general procedure for constructing an asynchronous automatic structure for some finitely generated groups quasi-isometric to products of non-elementary hyperbolic spaces. An asynchronous automatic structure, in turn, can be used to represent the group computationally, by now-classical means which we describe in some detail. We refer to the structures at the heart of this procedure as factor-language systems, and give certain criteria which guarantee their existence. The particular criteria we describe enjoy an intriguing analogy with certain criteria of discreteness and reducibility in the theory of lattices in products of trees. Along the way, we explore the geometry of path systems, finite-state automata, regular languages, automatic relations, hyperbolic geometry, quasi-isometries, and HNN-extensions
Trauma’s distinctive and combined effects on subsequent substance use, mental health, and neurocognitive functioning with the NCANDA sample
Full text linkPurpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and potentially traumatic events (PTEs) contribute to increased substance use, mental health issues, and cognitive impairments. However, there's not enough research on how TBI and PTEs combined impact mental heath, substance use, and neurocognition. Methods: This study leverages a subset of The National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) multi-site dataset with 551 adolescents to assess the combined and distinctive impacts of TBI, PTEs, and TBI+PTEs (prior to age 18) on substance use, mental health, and neurocognitive outcomes at age 18. Results: TBI, PTEs, and TBI+PTEs predicted greater lifetime substance use and past-year alcohol and cannabis use. PTEs predicted greater internalizing symptoms, while TBI+PTEs predicted greater externalizing symptoms. Varying effects on neurocognitive outcomes included PTEs influencing attention accuracy and TBI+PTEs predicting faster speed in emotion tasks. PTEs predicted greater accuracy in abstraction-related tasks. Associations with working memory were not detected. Conclusion: This exploratory study contributes to the growing literature on the complex interplay between TBI, PTEs, and adolescent mental health, substance use, and neurocognition. The developmental implications of trauma via TBIs and/or PTEs during adolescence are considerable and worthy of further investigation
School leaders’ experiences and perceptions around student reintegration after a psychiatric hospitalization
Full text linkThis qualitative study aimed to explore and understand educators’ experiences with and perceptions of supporting students when they return to the secondary school setting after discharge from a psychiatric hospital. Schools are a significant post-discharge environment for the adolescent’s experiences, meaning a seamless re-entry is one of the essential elements for the students’ post-discharge adjustment (Savina & Simon, 2014). What has become all too prevalent is the need for purposeful and effective student reintegration back into school for intellectual, emotional, and social growth. Because the difficulties that young people face when attempting to re-enter the school environment can be insurmountable, it was useful to investigate how schools address the demands of these students. I recruited this study’s participants from Ingleside, Kingsville, and Jackson Stone High Schools in the Odyssey School District. To ensure the privacy of participants and the confidentiality of the collected data, I changed the names of the district, schools, and participants. Each participant is a crucial school-based professional involved in managing students' reintegration into their schools. I conducted semi-structured interviews with open-ended, in-depth questions. The interview transcripts were then coded using standard qualitative research procedures to identify themes relevant to the study. The findings in my study underscore the urgent need for district and school-based interventions to address the mental health challenges students face. One critical finding is that there are issues associated with ineffective communication inside and outside the school environment. Parent and student engagement is necessary and a lifeline to form a trusting connection, creating an environment where people feel more comfortable and protected. Creating a defined re-entry protocol and a plan tailored to each student’s needs and regularly reviewing it for any necessary modifications is a critical and essential intervention when a student returns to school. Returning students also needed individualized support to provide meaningful reentry. Importantly, I also found that ongoing professional development in areas specific to the demands of students returning post-psychiatric hospitalization is essential to support teachers who feel ill-prepared to manage students with behavioral health challenges. This training would give teachers the tools to feel confident and knowledgeable when engaging struggling students. The implications of this study point to the importance of recognizing the significance of efficient interpersonal interaction and the need for suitable approaches for addressing the demands of students with mental health difficulties. I conclude by sharing recommendations for the district and school-based staff about the importance of addressing communication issues, ensuring that school-based staff are sufficiently prepared/trained to support students, and developing written protocols to be followed during the re-entry process for students struggling with mental illness. Keywords: mental health, acute care psychiatric hospitalization, reintegration, re-entry plan, trauma-informed approac
The effects of pricing policies and excise taxes on alcohol consumption
Full text linkTo address the critical need for understanding the efficacy of pricing policies in reducing excessive drinking, this dissertation examines beverage-specific price elasticities and the pass- through rates of alcohol excise taxes. Using a Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood model, this dissertation reveals varying price elasticities across different alcohol consumption behaviors. Additionally, this dissertation uses the synthetic control procedure to show that a beer excise tax increase in Illinois in 2009 is substantially overshifted. This dissertation provides evidence that excise taxes can serve as an effective and potentially efficient control policy for excessive alcohol consumption. However, tax hikes should be concurrent across all alcoholic products to avoid substitution behaviors that could drive overall consumption in the wrong direction
We remember : conversational and narrative discourse during mother and child reminiscing
Full text linkA specialized form of child narrative arises when parents discuss shared memories with their children. Reminiscing studies examine adult conversation style when caregivers and children recount shared memories together, such as family trips or unique experiences. Children of highly elaborative (HE) mothers use more autobiographical details and more propositions in their personal narratives and conversation with their caregivers than those of less elaborative (LE) mothers (Fivush et al., 2006; Reese et al., 1993). Few studies have examined mother and child reminiscence as both narrative and conversational discourse. Between the ages of 4 and 6, children are still developing narrative and conversation skills. During reminiscing, mothers scaffold children by creating a cohesive and coherent narrative and sustaining a conversation. The present study investigated how maternal elaborative style was associated with narrative co-construction and conversational interaction during mother and child reminiscence. Results indicated the HE mother and child dyads use more complex narrative elements and structures than LE dyads. Children in HE dyads use more complex and complete narrative contributions than LE children. HE dyads sustained longer reminiscing conversations and HE mothers used twice as many affirmations and questions as LE mothers, although HE and LE mothers used measured speech acts in proportion with one another. Children in HE dyads engaged in narrative construction and conversational interactions that stretched developmental expectations
Underexplored barriers, facilitators, and benefits in a district-university tutoring collaboration
Full text linkHigh-impact tutoring also known as high-dosage tutoring (HDT), is distinct from general tutoring. As a model, it consists of practice guidelines around training, frequency, and length of tutoring sessions. This approach is integrated with the school curriculum and ideally conducted during the school day. There is a resurging interest in tutoring, and many researchers, as well as federal, state, and district leaders, have adopted these HDT guidelines from the National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) regarding dosage, frequency, and other logistics essential to structuring a high-impact program. The success of HDT initiatives are usually measured in randomized control trials assessing changes in students' standardized test performance, and these guidelines help establish consistency and quality assurance. This study builds on the existing HDT practice guidelines to capture additional social inputs and outputs of a successful school-based tutoring partnership. I focus on better understanding the facilitators and barriers of on-the-ground implementation by exploring the experiences of graduate students working as K-12 tutors in an urban district. Since there is little research on the non-test benefits associated with the novel HDT model, this study also investigates whether tutors report evidence of any holistic benefits to students in addition to academic improvements. Using a generic qualitative research design, 24 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were conducted to explore the perspectives of tutor practitioners within urban school-based ecosystems. Six themes were identified through thematic analysis that illuminate factors impacting HDT engagement and success. The underexplored insights revealed in this study can help guide communication considerations, onboarding processes, tutor support and training, and ways to operationalize and evaluate “success.” Future research could triangulate these findings by incorporating the perspectives of teacher-partners, parents, and students. Keywords: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, District-University Partnership, Tutoring Initiatives, Interviews, Bottom-Up Evaluation, Focus Group
Kernel density estimation using randomized response models
Full text linkThe randomized response technique (RRT) was first introduced to estimate prevalence of sensitive characteristics for binary response variables. Extensions to quantitative variables using additive and/or multiplicative scrambling were later explored for population parameter estimation, but estimation of population distribution estimation for sensitive variables remains underexplored. This dissertation investigates kernel density estimation (KDE) for sensitive variables using additive Randomized Response Technique (RRT) models, addressing the gap in direct distribution estimation in this field. It refines prior work on direct distribution for sensitive variables, particularly KDE under multiplicative RRT models, and explores KDE under additive RRT models. The research encompasses the application of KDE in the presence of auxiliary information and further study of KDE under optional RRT models. Simulation results show that the kernel density estimator using additive scrambling performs better and is more flexible in bandwidth selection compared to multiplicative scrambling. Additionally, the inclusion of auxiliary variables enhances the accuracy of sensitive variable distribution estimation. Introducing sensitivity level W into RRT models as an option proves beneficial under certain conditions for extreme values of W, or when noise levels are high. By combining the strengths of KDE and additive RRT models, this research seeks to contribute to the advancement of estimation techniques for sensitive variables and provide valuable insights into their distribution. The findings may enhance the understanding and application of survey sampling methodologies when dealing with sensitive and privacy-related information
Engineering high-throughput approaches for CRISPR gene therapy and synthetic biology
Full text linkThe field of synthetic biology has witnessed rapid advancements in recent years, driven by the integration of high-throughput engineering approaches. This dissertation delves into the design, development, and implementation of high-throughput tools tailored for synthetic biology for various applications while addressing various challenges and complexities associated with each application. Firstly, we have focused on applying high throughput engineering approach in gene editing tools such as CRISPR. CRISPR based technologies primarily are used for precision gene editing, mutating a DNA sequence based on the CRISPR effector’s guide RNA or gRNA. Beyond gene editing, a burgeoning yet less-explored application of CRISPR effectors is in CRISPR-based antiviral biotechnologies. However, the rapid proliferation and mutation rates of viruses introduce unique complexities such as need of expanding recognition across clinical strain variants, enhancing viral detection sensitivity, and limiting mutagenic escape which are not addressed by current gene editing oriented CRISPR guide RNA (gRNA) design tools. To address this challenge, here, we have developed a computational algorithm for the design of efficient gRNAs, termed polyvalent guide RNAs (pgRNAs), which are optimized for simultaneous activity at multiple viral targets by utilizing the inherent tolerance of certain CRISPR effectors to mismatches between their guide RNA (gRNA) spacer sequences and its target sites. Next, we present a highly parallelized method, compartmentalized CRISPR reactions (CCR), for screening large numbers of gRNA/target/off-target combinations simultaneously in vitro for both CRISPR effector activity and specificity, by confining the complete CRISPR reaction of gRNA transcription and CRISPR target cleavage within individual water-in-oil microemulsions. This approach overcomes the limitations of traditional CRISPR gRNAs screening, which has low throughput. Additionally, we demonstrate that CCR can be used to screen hundreds of thousands of extended gRNA (x-gRNAs) for highly active and highly specific variants of the standard gRNA sequences that can completely block cleavage at off-target sequences while maintaining high levels of on-target activity. Lastly, we have focused on scaling microfluidic systems which are used in many advanced applications in medical diagnostics, lab-on-chips, and laboratory automation. Microfluidic valves play a key role within microfluidic systems by regulating fluid flow through distinct microchannels. While microfluidic systems are often limited to planar structures, 3D printing enables new capabilities to generate complex designs for fluidic circuits with higher densities and integrated components. However, the control of fluids within 3D structures presents several difficulties, making it challenging to scale effectively and many fluidic devices are still often restricted to quasi-planar structures. Here, we have performed systematic computational and experimental characterization of a modified re-entrant honeycomb structure to generate a modular metamaterial for an active device that allows us to directly regulate flow through integrated, multiplexed fluidic channels “one-at-a-time,” in a manner that is highly scalable. In conclusion, these high throughput techniques developed in this research, including multiplexed CRISPR-based antivirals, parallelized and compartmentalized in vitro CRISPR screening, and scaling microfluidic systems with novel metamaterial designs will enhance the efficiency and scalability of molecular biology methodologies across biotechnology, medicine, and diagnostics