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An Analysis of the Cost and Financial Aid Web Presences of Higher Education Institutions in North Carolina Via Usability Testing with First-Generation Students and Family Members
Get PDFThe purpose of this thesis project was to determine how higher education institutions’ websites could be redesigned in order to better communicate the holistic cost of a college education to first-generation college students and their family members. A remote moderated usability study of three North Carolina universities’ websites was conducted with five first-generation college students and one family member of a first-generation college student. The three biggest discoveries from this study are as follows: 1) Participants were largely unaware of the existence of Net Price Calculators but found them very useful once they were made aware. 2) When asked to identify a starting page for determining the affordability of an institution, student participants gravitated to pages that had cost in the title or included a number towards the top of the page. 3) Usability test tasks related to loans were the most challenging tasks for student participants. The results of this study provide evidence to support the need for more research about how higher education institution websites can better communicate loan information to first-generation college students. The study also includes recommendations for improving institutional websites that can be evaluated through further usability testing. A wireframe for a fictional university’s Net Price Calculator output incorporates some of these recommendations. Master of Arts in Digital Communicatio
Translating knowledge into action: Community-centered recommendations from the RADx-UP COVID-19 Equity Evidence Academy virtual conference series
Get PDFThe Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics–Underserved Populations’ COVID-19 Equity Evidence Academy (RADx-UP EA) was a series of virtual conferences hosted between 2021 and 2023 that assembled community members, researchers, and governmental leaders from across the US to discuss and devise ways to promote equity in COVID-19 testing and vaccination. Using community-engaged methodologies in its design and implementation, this series provided a framework and forum for community and academic partners to engage in collaborative idea generation and consensus building during a public health emergency. The ideas and strategies gained during the EAs were disseminated to inform future research and action related to COVID-19. This conference paper highlights the specific engagement approaches used and the themes and recommendations generated. This model and its findings have broad utility beyond RADx-UP and can be used by researchers and practitioners to inform and advance community-engaged research and practice in diverse public health settings
Essential, Local, and Ready to Serve: Pharmacists as Gateways to Health Access in North Carolina
Get PDFIn the heart of rural North Carolina, the Weston family has long depended on their local pharmacy, not just for prescriptions, but for care, guidance, and trust built in their community over generations. When nine-year-old Cassie Weston’s asthma flares up, her mother remembers how easy it once was to stop by the local pharmacy, where the pharmacist knew Cassie’s history and could offer immediate help. That pharmacy, in their longstanding service to the community, often acted as the only accessible health care provider in a county with no urgent care and limited access to doctors. But it closed last year, one of hundreds to shutter across North Carolina in the last several years, most in medically underserved areas
Marine policy and community engagement: rethinking the role of vulnerable groups in climate and ocean action on Lagos’ Atlantic Coast, Nigeria
Get PDFCoastal communities in Lagos, Nigeria, face increasing climate risks, including sea-level rise, flooding, and ecosystem degradation. Women and persons with disabilities in these communities experience disproportionate vulnerabilities due to socio-economic constraints and exclusion from formal climate adaptation strategies. This study explores how Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) informs local adaptation strategies and highlights the role of community-led climate resilience efforts in marine governance. Using a mixed-methods approach—including Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), structured interviews, surveys, and SWOT analysis—this research examines how fisherwomen and other community members interpret environmental changes and implement TEK-based adaptation strategies such as adjusting fishing schedules, reinforcing settlement structures, and utilising informal weather warning mechanisms. Findings reveal that while local communities possess intricate environmental knowledge, government-led adaptation policies, including the Lagos Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan (LCARP, 2024), have yet to fully integrate TEK into formal frameworks. Gaps in early warning dissemination, electricity access for fish preservation, and policy engagement further hinder effective adaptation. This study emphasises the need for participatory climate governance that incorporates SDGs 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water), and related goals such as SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) to ensure a more inclusive and sustainable response to climate change. The paper concludes that bridging the disconnect between government adaptation policies and TEK can enhance marine policy effectiveness, improve coastal resilience, and empower vulnerable groups. It calls for integrated, bottom-up policy approaches that recognize the value of local knowledge in shaping climate adaptation strategies for Nigeria’s coastal communities
Building back greener: Quantifying residential building decarbonization opportunities following floods
Get PDFThe residential building stock in the U.S. accounts for a significant share of energy consumption and emissions, and its strain on the energy grid and environment is expected to grow. Simultaneously, natural disasters are increasing in intensity and frequency, damaging the existing building stock. In this study, we bring these two challenges together by asking: How would energy demand, emissions, and peak loads shift over space and time if homeowners implemented energy-efficiency upgrades during post-disaster reconstruction? To date, no research has systematically or quantitatively assessed the potential impacts of “greening” residential rebuilding after disasters, nor how local climate and evolving risks influence net benefits. To address this, we develop a novel simulation model grounded in contemporary risk science. Our model combines physics-informed, building-level energy modeling, probabilistic flood modeling, and homeowner decision-making to evaluate outcomes for Harris County, Texas, under multiple reconstruction scenarios. We find that energy-efficient post-disaster rebuilding can meaningfully reduce energy use, emissions, and peak loads. Under our most optimistic scenario, upgrades yield a 2.9% reduction in energy consumption, a 3.6% decrease in carbon-equivalent emissions, and a 2.2% decline in peak electricity demand by 2080—equivalent to one-third of Washington, D.C.’s residential energy use and three times its electricity-related carbon emissions. While post-disaster reconstruction offers a powerful window to transform energy outcomes, federal and state policies that support such improvements remain limited. Strategic interventions during this period could deliver significant long-term benefits
The Interchangeability of Disaster-Resilient and Coastal-Resilient Community Frameworks
Get PDFResearchers frequently use frameworks developed for specific contexts interchangeably, raising a fundamental question about whether coastal communities require specialized resilience considerations. Using semi-structured interviews coastal planners, government guidance experts, and community resilience researchs, four interviews were conducted over Zoom with one excluded as an outlier. A systematic three-staged open coding process was used to refine 27 initial codes into 20 distinct codes. Most experts reflected that there were few differences between frameworks and their goal to promote collaboration. Subject responses varied on if there was a distinction between inland and coastal resilience. Although the value of coastal areas was recomfirmed by the experts interviewed and the literature. The experts interviewed assigned responsibility for adapting frameworks to local planners. Master of City and Regional Plannin
Hutchins EK et al (2025), Supplementary Table 1
No full textSupplementary Tables
Table 1. Descriptions of primers/oligos used for gene expression assays
EXPLORING THERAPEUTIC VULNERABILITIES OF BLADDER CANCER
Get PDFAPOBEC3A and APOBEC3B are highly expressed in bladder cancer. Concomitantly, up to 70% of mutations found in bladder cancer, which is among the cancer type with the highest frequency of mutations, can be attributed to APOBEC3 mutagenesis. We introduced a novel, Cre-inducible, mouse model (UPPA) that allows urothelial specific overexpression of mouse Apobec3 (mApobec3) and concomitant inactivation of tumor suppressors PTEN and p53. We found mApobec3 shortened tumor latency in UPPA mice compared to our control model UPP. Additionally, UPPA mice had high incidence of lung metastases and the tumors exhibited extensive squamous feature. We confirmed the role of mApobec3 in promoting squamous differentiation and metastasis using in vitro doxycycline-inducible cell line model and uncovered IL1/AP-1 pathway as the mediator of these mApobec3-induced phenotypes. Strikingly, we found that among the human APOBEC3 enzymes, only APOBEC3A is associated with squamous differentiation even though both APOBEC3A and APOBEC3B contribute to the mutational landscape in bladder cancer. Bladder cancer harbor a high frequency of mutations that are primarily caused by APOBEC3 mutagenesis. A portion of these mutations are expressed, processed, and presented as peptide neoantigens on the surface of tumor cells. These neoantigens can be targeted by T cells and thereby result in elimination of cancer cells. In Chapter 3, we examined the efficacy of entinostat, an HDAC1/3 inhibitor, for bladder cancer. We uncovered that, in addition to previously reported mechanisms, entinostat induces anti-tumor immune responses through modulating the expression of silent tumor neoantigens.While both APOBEC3A and APOBEC3B mutagenic activity contributes to the tumor mutational burden in bladder cancer, which is an important predictor of immunotherapy response, squamous differentiation has been suggested as a mechanism of therapy resistance. Therefore, additional research on APOBEC3A and specific inhibitor for this enzyme are warranted and potentially beneficial for bladder cancer treatment.Doctor of Philosoph
“THAT EGGPLANT IS MY QUEER COMMUNITY”: RECIPROCITY AND EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE OF QUEER FARMERS IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH
Get PDFThis thesis stems from ethnographic work with self-identified queer farmers located in North Carolina and Virginia. The thesis discusses how many queer farmers experience agriculture as affirming of their queerness and have developed a shared ethos of care that stems from a fundamental sense of interconnectedness. In the face of marginalization, lack of access to resources, and the heteropatriarchal norms of agriculture in the American South, these queer farmers are creating new spaces, both in-person and online, that are inclusive and invitational, assert queerness as a natural element of agriculture, and center collaboration and care. This collaborative work took place over nine-months of research, wherein I conducted interviews, farm visits, and participant observation with these queer farmers. This research draws upon the fields of Queer Theory, Queer Ecology, and Place Studies to examine how queer farmers view themselves as working towards a more liberatory world.Master of Art
WHY DO LOCAL AUTHORITIES ALLOW DISSENT IN AUTOCRACIES: THE EVIDENCE FROM 2017-2018 NAVALNY PROTESTS IN RUSSIA
Get PDFQuite surprisingly, Alexei Navalny’s 2017–2018 protest campaign in Russia was not met withuniform repression across the country. While most localities responded with arrests and policeviolence, rallies in some cities were officially sanctioned. To explain this variation, I draw onprincipal-agent theory and examine the context of municipal politics. Since the early 2000s, theRussian regime has systematically reduced local autonomy through the cancellation of direct mayoralelections, frequent leadership turnover, and the criminal prosecution of mayors. As a result, localofficials are increasingly incentivized to serve the interests of higher-level authorities rather than thoseof ordinary citizens. Using an original dataset covering Navalny’s 2017–2018 protests in 143 Russiancities, I hypothesize that more independent mayors were more likely to permit rallies, compared totheir less independent counterparts. The findings support this hypothesis: the probability of rallypermission was, on average, 51% lower in localities with high leadership turnover, and six timeshigher where mayoral terms were longer. Moreover, the likelihood of legal protest without arrestswas 35% lower in municipalities where a previous mayor had been arrested. These results contributeto our understanding of how authoritarian regimes calibrate repression, particularly at the regionaland local levels, in response to growing protest mobilization.Master of Art