95038 research outputs found
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Divine Authority or Desperate Measures? An Assessment of Religious Legitimacy in Egypt
Get PDFThis study examines how religious legitimacy is structured and deployed within authoritarian governance. Using the cases of Egypt under Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi, and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, it conducts a qualitative content analysis of political speeches and constitutional texts, supported by MAXQDA coding. The cases are compared to assess how variations in rhetorical strategy and institutional control shape the role of religion in sustaining regime authority.Bachelor of Art
Lithologic facies and stratigraphic evolution of temperate North Atlantic seagrass beds
Get PDFSeagrass beds support healthy estuaries and are thought to be among the most efficient carbon sinks. The research community mainly assesses seagrass carbon stocks from surface samples; however, a depositional facies model is required to constrain the entire stock, from the vegetated surface to the substrate at depth. The main aim of this research is to develop a seagrass depositional facies model for Core Sound, North Carolina, and assess the preservation potential of seagrass units in the sedimentary record. North Carolina has the largest seagrass area on the east coast of North America (mainly Zostera marina and Halodule wrightii) and ~80% of that area is positioned on high-salinity sand flats behind the Outer Banks barrier island chain. We collected four core transects across patchy and continuous seagrass beds in Core Sound, running from the back barrier shoreline into the estuary. The facies models from our four transects show that high salinity seagrass beds mainly form on sandflats and are composed of a lower sandy bioturbated unit and an upper organic muddy-sand unit. The lower bioturbated unit is interpreted to represent patchy seagrass cover and the upper organic muddy-sand unit is interpreted as a continuous seagrass meadow. The high-salinity back-barrier setting, where most seagrass forms in North Carolina, is frequently impacted by storms. Storm processes can bury seagrass as they form ephemeral inlets and associated flood-tidal delta sand is deposited on the meadow. Those storm beds also provide new substrate suitable for seagrass colonization by depositing sand and elevating the bed. We recognized old seagrass units that were buried in sand and those sand layers were subsequently recolonized by seagrass. This work underscores the great resilience of seagrass beds to storm burial events in the past and provides the framework needed to define carbon stock from the entire seagrass depositional system as opposed to surface beds.Bachelor of Scienc
Postpartum Obsessive-Compulsive, Anxiety, and Depression Symptom Severity Varies with Maternal Race and Ethnicity
Get PDFThe perinatal period is characterized by unique factors that may exacerbate maternal mental health symptoms, including societal pressures, diminished social support, life transitions/stressors, and hormonal alterations. Obsessive-compulsive (OC), depression, and anxiety symptoms are especially common during the perinatal period, and due to their impact on maternal mental and physical and newborn health, improving our understanding of risk factors for postpartum psychological distress is critical. Additionally, previous research has found racial and/or ethnic disparities in rates of OC, depression, and anxiety symptoms, suggesting that minoritized racial and ethnic groups may experience disproportionately greater symptoms during the postpartum period. These disparities are theorized to be due to a number of factors, including socioeconomic inequities, experiences with racism and discrimination, and language and cultural barriers to mental health information and treatment. To test for differences in psychological symptoms as a function of race and ethnicity, pregnant mothers (N = 254) were recruited and completed self-report measures of OC, anxiety, and depression symptoms at 20 and 34 weeks of pregnancy and 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum. Results obtained from one-way analyses of variances and independent t-tests indicated Black mothers reported significantly greater OC symptoms than White mothers during the postpartum period. Black mothers also reported significantly greater washing and ordering OC subscales at 20 weeks of pregnancy and in the postpartum period compared to White mothers. There were no differences in depression or anxiety symptom severity at any time point. These results indicate maternal mental health disparities that disproportionately impact Black mothers. Limitations include a sample in which racial group representation was uneven and not representative of wider demographic distributions. Future research should investigate mediators of the relationship between race and postpartum symptoms, such as increased instances of racism and discrimination and diminished social support.Bachelor of Scienc
The Influence of Stakeholder Engagement on Caribbean MPA Outcomes
Get PDFMarine Protected Areas (MPAs) are established to protect a region’s biodiversity. Existing MPA research primarily focuses on ecological outcomes, but social outcomes and stakeholder engagement should receive a similar focus to ensure the MPAs are both effective and equitable. Recently, the rate of MPA establishment has rapidly increased in response to the “30x30” objective of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and previous targets. This study aims to assess the state of evidence on the relationship between stakeholder engagement and MPA ecological outcomes and identify any direct influence of stakeholder engagement on MPA fish biomass. We conducted a peer-reviewed and grey literature search revealing a research gap in social outcomes and stakeholder engagement in 27 Caribbean MPAs. Only 3.8% of search results included information relevant to the ecological or social outcomes of the MPAs; most were ecological studies. Due to time constraints, we narrowed our study to four MPAs in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef region to investigate the influence of stakeholder engagement on MPA ecological outcomes. No direct links to stakeholder engagement were identified, but MPA age and historical fishing pressures were linked to fish biomass levels in one of four MPAs. As rapid MPA establishment continues, the need for a complete understanding of the social and ecological implications of MPAs becomes greater. This thesis calls for stronger integration of social and natural sciences regarding MPA research, and in the meantime, increased stakeholder engagement in existing and future MPAs for both social and ecological benefit.Bachelor of Scienc
"What Do We Do to Keep People Engaged?": A Comparison of Two Small-Town Ghost Tours
Get PDFThis thesis examines ghost tours from Statesville, NC and Hillsborough, NC to understand their function in their communities, their phenomenological aspects, and their choices in conveying local history. The thesis opens with a literature review which establishes dark tourism, the theoretical frameworks of phenomenology and hauntology, and the literature on ghost tours. The current literature on ghost tours is mostly focused on large urban cities with well-known hauntings, and this thesis seeks to add smaller and lesser-known towns to that body of literature. Using ethnographic, interview, and survey data, it seeks to understand what the goals of those running the tours are and to understand the experience of participants on these tours. The Statesville tour, coming from a small rural town, is sponsored by a nonprofit development group with the goals of increasing tourism and spreading local history. Despite this highly public structure, it reflects honestly on the history of injustice in Statesville, NC creating secondary hauntings. It also implements humor and emotionality effectively to enchant the audience. The Hillsborough, NC tour is privately operated and uses the narrative of the colonial Regulator movement to explain local history to participants. Despite its private operation, this tour utilizes primary hauntings and creates audience connection through the guide who is in-character as a ghost and uses props and historical images throughout. The interview and survey responses both show that people come to the tours with the goal of historical education, and historical educators find it to be a useful tool. However, ghost tours can be troubling for what they exclude from their narrative, or the way they frame violent histories for minority groups. Overall, both tours take a different approach to navigating these difficult topics while using similar techniques to phenomenologically engage their participants.Bachelor of Art
Bias Correction of Modeled Water Surface Elevations to Improve Exposure Predictions in the Eastern Carolinas
Get PDFFloods cause large-scale economic stress and loss of human life; with climate change, more geographies are experiencing increases in flooding, putting more people at risk. Hydrodynamic models have been used to simulate floods at large scales to predict flooding and mitigate damages. However, model errors often range from +/- 0.11-0.33m, even for the best models. This may lead to lack of preparedness or reduce public trust in model outputs. In this study, we apply kriging to bias correct modeled water surface elevations from the Super Fast INundation of CoastS (SFINCS). We compare the change in predicted error by the SFINCS model and corresponding high water marks, finding a decrease in the mean average error in modeled WSE by 0.361m. We then leverage address-level NFIP claims and policies data at buildings in North Carolina to measure the improvement in exposure prediction. We find that the domain sensitivity, specificity, precision, and F1 score all improved in the corrected model. Applying kriging to hydrodynamic models can improve the accuracy of exposure predictions, resulting in better preparedness, more reliable exposure assessments, and risk mitigation for communities vulnerable to flooding.Bachelor of Scienc
Polymer-Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites for use in Dialysis Membranes
Get PDFHemodialysis is the most common way to treat chronic kidney disease (CKD). Despite this, patients on hemodialysis have a high mortality rate when compared to those with other chronic diseases. To develop a more permeable and selective membrane for use in a wearable artificial kidney device, a Poly(2,2’-disulfonyl-4,4’-benzidine terephthalamide) (PBDT) and Graphene Oxide (GO) nanocomposite was developed because of the ordered nature of the nanocomposite. This membrane can be chemically modified to alter the spacing between PBDT rod-like self-assemblies and the GO platelets, allowing the selectivity and permeability of the membrane to be tuned. Initially, the nanocomposite membrane had promising results. Salt rejection values of -1.94% and 0.5% were observed for the 2.4% and 4.8% GO weight relative to (w.r.t.) PBTD membranes, respectively. Urea rejection values of -9.37% and -1.13% were observed for the 2.4% and 4.8% GO w.r.t. PBDT membranes, respectively. These results are ideal for a dialysis membrane which seeks to clear urea and salts from the blood to dialysate.The membranes still had low lysozyme rejection fractions at 6.9% and 10.6% for the 2.4% and 4.8% GO w.r.t. PBDT membranes, respectively; both membranes had 100% rejection of bovine serum albumin. These values were promising for a potential dialysis membrane, demonstrating clearance of middle weight molecular toxins and rejection of albumin. However, the nanocomposite was unstable when exposed to physiological levels of sodium, suggesting the cross-linkages between PBDT rods were broken, preventing the nanocomposite from functioning as a dialysis membrane. Ultimately, the phosphate buffer saline necessary to dissolve these proteins dissolved PBDT, thereby destroying the membranes despite initial promising results.Bachelor of Scienc
Power outage impacts on adult hospital occupancy and summary of health indicators in Puerto Rico
Get PDFPuerto Rico’s electric grid has experienced mounting grid reliability challenges since Hurricane Maria devastated its infrastructure in 2017. This study examines trends in intermittent power outages in 2022 and their association with adult hospital occupancy across selected municipalities (Arecibo, Bayamón, Caguas, Carolina, Mayagüez, Ponce, and San Juan). A comprehensive literature search and analysis of health data revealed negative trends in public health – specifically all-cause mortality and hypertension on the island. Outage data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s EAGLE-I system were integrated with publicly available hospital occupancy data from the Department of Health in Puerto Rico. Mortality and hypertension data from the World Health Organization were reviewed with a time-series analysis. Results indicate that frequent outages coincided with some increases in adult hospital occupancy during certain months (January, May, July, August, September, October, November, December), though the association was relatively weak when aggregated over the entire year (adjusted R2 = 0.2458). Outage events clustered in less populated and more remote western municipalities such as Mayagüez, Arecibo, and Ponce, where restoration was slower and outage durations longer. Both mortality and hypertension rates in Puerto Rico have trended upward since 2015, with cardiovascular disease consistently noted as a leading cause of death. These trends suggest that stress from grid instability and barriers to healthcare access may compound preexisting vulnerabilities, including a large population dependent on electrically powered medical devices. Findings underscore a need for more reliable electricity infrastructure and targeted community-level mitigation strategies to address public health risks. Further research incorporating granular hospital and emergency department data is warranted to identify causal pathways linking power interruptions to declining health outcomes in Puerto Rico.
Bachelor of Scienc
A Regressive Progressive: The Legacy and Outlook of Julian S. Carr, 1845-1924
Get PDFA Regressive Progressive covers the legacy and outlook of Julian Shakespeare Carr in three areas: religion, race, and labor. Inspired by the recent Silent Sam controversy, the paper seeks to expand the understanding of Julian S. Carr, whose character had been flattened by the controversy. Using the Julian S. Carr Papers held in the Wilson Special Collection library, I found Julian S. Carr followed a paternalistic view on the South and North Carolina. Julian S. Carr believed in spreading his plans for North Carolina, which were heavily influenced by his Southern Methodism and his white supremacy. Carr provides a moderate perspective on white industrial leadership in North Carolina. He took a paternalistic view on both race and labor, seeing himself as a moral guide to those he deemed needed to be led. Bachelor of Art
From Policy to Practice: An Examination of Portuguese People Who Inject Drugs Navigating Harm Reduction
Get PDFIn 2001, Portugal was the first country to decriminalize all drugs under Law 30/2000. This decriminalization effort reflects a health-oriented and humanistic approach to substance misuse. Harm Reduction (HR) is a critical component of the 2001 law - this includes methadone maintenance treatment, drug consumption rooms, needle/syringe programs, and more. In this thesis, I seek to examine the experiences of people who inject drugs navigating Portuguese harm reduction - with an emphasis on the environment these organizations foster. I conducted fieldwork in Lisbon using participant observation and qualitative interviews with staff and service users. My findings reveal that the utilitarian approach to HR has some limitations, but overall, the HR principles of low-threshold care, deviation from moral assessments of substance use, and flexibility in "treatment" were significant for people who inject drugs and public health more broadly. Other salient themes included maintenance of privacy and reduction of surveillance in these treatment spaces. My findings are relevant in places and situations where there is a diverse and critical mass of people willing to pursue harm reduction for people who inject drugs. Bachelor of Art