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'It Will Always Be Work': Experience and Social Relations of Borderline Personality Disorder in the United States
No full textThis dissertation examines borderline personality disorder (BPD) as a case study to explore how social relations and cultural frameworks, including psychiatric knowledge, shape how distress is experienced, expressed, concealed and managed. I explore how individuals navigate emotional and psychic pain within the context of a highly debated diagnosis in the US managed mental health care system. Drawing on data collected during two years of ethnographic and autoethnographic fieldwork, this dissertation is composed of three interrelated articles. The papers trace a range of cultural forms through which mental distress is framed, from explicit psychiatric labels and prognostic concepts (diagnosis and prognosis) to implicit orientations toward suffering embedded in everyday interpretations of and responses to distress (idioms of distress). The first paper investigates the common phenomena of individuals with BPD accumulating multiple additional psychiatric diagnoses. Using anthropologist Joseph Dumit’s (2000) phrase, I ask why BPD and other diagnoses are “good enough” for some purposes, but not for others. I argue that diagnostic proliferation reflects the complex and sometimes conflicting demands that diagnoses are expected to meet, and that diagnoses’ ability to meet these demands is often partial and temporary, requiring additional diagnoses to supplement or replace them. These demands can be understood through three domains: personal coherence and meaning, social function, and institutional requirements. Diagnoses are attached to expected outcomes or prognoses—the focus of my second paper. In this paper, I ask how the current shift toward a “remission”-oriented approach in the prognosis of BPD impacts on individuals’ distress experience and illness trajectories. I argue that like diagnosis, prognosis is a social fact with real effects: it shapes beliefs about appropriate actions, responsibility, improvement, and how progress is measured. In particular, I suggest that the focus on treatability and the framing of BPD as “not chronic” has left little room for ambivalence toward the concept of remission while marginalizing chronic experience. The third article addresses the challenge of articulating distress among individuals with BPD. Building on anthropological work on idioms of distress as relational and socially situated, I investigate what occurs when people lack socially feasible means of expressing their emotional experience. I argue for the importance of examining the existential consequences of inexpressibility, including the pressures toward concealment and the relational effects that follow. This dissertation contributes to psychological, psychiatric, and medical anthropological theories of diagnosis, distress, and chronicity, as well as to a growing body of scholarship on the relational dimensions of recovery and care. This case study offers important insights into a particular form of chronicity that has taken shape within the current era of managed mental health care in the US. The analysis further illuminates how experiences of stigma and empathy shape understandings of emotional distress as these move beyond clinical contexts and into the fabric of everyday social relationships.Release after 01/14/203
Improving Staff Outcomes Through Trauma Informed Care: A Quality Improvement Project
No full textBackground: Trauma-informed care (TIC) has emerged as a critical framework in healthcarefacilities where many patients present with complex trauma histories. Within psychiatric facilities, the need for TIC is especially important due to the prevalence of trauma-related conditions. This need becomes even more urgent in inpatient psychiatric units, where patients often require intensive care and compassionate support. Despite increasing recognition of TIC’s importance, it remains lacking in many psychiatric facilities, contributing to staff burnout, compassion fatigue, and subpar patient care. Research has shown that trauma can significantly impact emotional regulation, cognitive function, and long-term mental health outcomes, making it essential for staff to recognize trauma-related behaviors and implement sensitive and supportive interventions. Purpose: The purpose of this DNP project was to design, implement, and evaluate a TIC training program for staff in an inpatient adult psychiatric unit. Guided by the TIC framework, the goal was to increase staff knowledge, confidence, and intent to apply TIC strategies in clinical practice. Methods: This DNP project used a quantitative pre- and post-intervention design to assess the impact of TIC training on psychiatric inpatient staff. The intervention, a single 30–40 minute in-person session was delivered to 10 direct care staff consisting of registered nurses (Rns), behavioral health technicians (BHTs), peer support specialists, and supervisors at a 15-bed unit within Community Bridges (CBI), a behavioral health organization in Mesa, Arizona. Pre- and post-training surveys evaluated staff confidence and intent using Likert-scale items, while knowledge was assessed using multiple-choice questions. Open-ended post-survey questions explored common ideas and recurring patterns related to how staff anticipated applying TIC principles in their roles. The project was guided by the TIC framework and the PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle implementation model. Data were analyzed using unpaired t-tests. Results: A total of 16 staff members consented to participate in the TIC quality improvement project, with 12 completing the pre-training survey and 10 completing the post-training survey. Participants represented both day and night shifts with varied years of experience. Quantitative results showed that the post-training group reported higher levels of confidence, intent, and knowledge compared to the pre-training group. Qualitative responses reflected themes of awareness, empathy, and self-reflection. Conclusions: The project demonstrated that brief TIC education can promote reflection and awareness among psychiatric staff. The findings highlight the importance of continued training, clear communication, and leadership support to sustain trauma-informed practices. Ongoing evaluation and stronger assessment tools are needed to better identify learning gaps and ensure that TIC principles are consistently applied in clinical care
From Catch to Canvas: An Analysis of the Archaeofaunal Record of Minoan Sites and Symbolic Marine Iconography
No full textThe Southern Aegean generally features oligotrophic waters punctuated by highly productivemicro-environments such as ravine estuaries and coastal lagoons. These ecological conditions support the multi-species environments that define the coastal fisheries of Akrotiri, Palaikastro, Mochlos, Pseira, and Kommos. The study analyzes of ichthyofaunal assemblages to identify the types of fish Minoan people caught, processed, and consumed at each site and to compare the assemblages across sites in order to distinguish any patterns that may indicate preference or unique circumstances. This analysis also compares these assemblages with modern Greek commercial fishing statistics to explore the long-term continuities and inconsistencies in fishing practices. The results demonstrate a strong preference for inshore fishing, as assemblages consist largely of small, demersal species, particularly the Sparidae and Centracanthidae families. Fishers occasionally targeted larger, pelagic species offshore, although they did
so far less frequently. Minoan iconography reveals a distinct fascination with the marine environment and the animals that inhabited it. Despite the frequent depiction of sea creatures in Minoan art, the species people consumed rarely overlap with those represented iconographically. Instead, the Minoans appear to focus on the dolphin, a sea creature absent from the faunal assemblages, as their ‘key species’. Other fish appear only rarely or in vague forms within the iconographic record. These discrepancies suggest that the Minoans emphasized symbolic and visually striking marine animals, as opposed to those that formed their diet. The widespread occurrence of similar taxa across settlements suggests that multiple social strata commonly consumed fish rather than restricted by status, although certain contexts point to feasting events. Comparisons between ichthyofaunal data and marine iconography further demonstrate limited overlap in species representation. Everyday diets relied on small, reliable coastal fish, while Minoan visual culture highlighted pelagic species that symbolized the open ocean and the Minoan sea-faring identity. This divergence underscores the economic and cultural importance of the sea in Minoan society beyond subsistence
Geochemistry Diagram Generator Web Tool v1.0
No full textThe Geochemistry Diagram Generator is a web-based tool that automatically generates major oxide geochemistry diagrams symbolized by data series and assigns sample classification lithologies or categories, based on user input data. This tool was created to simplify the process of plotting and analyzing major oxide geochemistry data, and to create stylistically similar diagrams for presentations or publications.Documents in the AZGS Documents Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact [email protected]
29 - Bear in mind that death is a drum
No full textDanielle P. Williams reading poems from Chamorrita SongThese recordings are made available by the University of Arizona Press and University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions about this title, please contact the UA Press at http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/
26 - When people don’t care to learn the difference between us
No full textDanielle P. Williams reading poems from Chamorrita SongThese recordings are made available by the University of Arizona Press and University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions about this title, please contact the UA Press at http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/
14 - creation myth
No full textDanielle P. Williams reading poems from Chamorrita SongThese recordings are made available by the University of Arizona Press and University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions about this title, please contact the UA Press at http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/
03 - Kantan Chamorrita
No full textDanielle P. Williams reading poems from Chamorrita SongThese recordings are made available by the University of Arizona Press and University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions about this title, please contact the UA Press at http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/
32 - Deep River
No full textDanielle P. Williams reading poems from Chamorrita SongThese recordings are made available by the University of Arizona Press and University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions about this title, please contact the UA Press at http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/
Bioinspired Glycolipid-Based Sorbents for Selective Removal and Recovery of Toxic Metals and Rare Earth Elements from Contaminated Waters
No full textHeavy metal and rare earth element (REE) contamination of water is a global environmental challenge that threatens both human welfare and ecosystem health. This dissertation advances the field of sustainable environmental remediation through the rational design and experimental validation of bioinspired materials capable of selectively extracting heavy metals and rare earth elements from complex aqueous environments. Conventional physicochemical technologies, including ion exchange, chemical precipitation, and membrane filtration, provide partial solutions but are often constrained by high operational energy requirements, nonspecific interactions in mixed ion matrices, and secondary waste generation that undermine environmental and economic sustainability. In contrast, nature derived molecules such as glycolipids and amino acid–inspired polymers exhibit intrinsic selectivity and degradability, presenting a promising route toward low impact remediation platforms. This research systematically harnesses these biomolecular features to generate, tune, and evaluate glycolipid-based precipitants, organosilica bound sorbents, and peptide mimetic polymer beads tailored for efficient, reversible, and scalable metal recovery.The initial investigative phase focused on the synthesis and structure activity assessment of glycolipids, amphiphilic molecules comprising hydrophilic sugar headgroups and hydrophobic lipid tails as selective precipitants for Pb²⁺, La³⁺, and Mg²⁺. Galactolipid derivatives consistently exhibited higher precipitation efficiencies (up to 95% metal removal at 5:1 to 10:1 metal:ligand ratios) than their rhamno and xylolipid analogs. Mechanistic analyses revealed that oxygen rich headgroups enhanced metal coordination while the hydrophobic tail promoted phase separation, thereby facilitating filtration and recovery. These findings expanded understanding of glycolipid–metal interactions beyond existing rhamnolipid systems and established a molecular basis for bioinspired precipitation processes. Building upon these insights, the study next explored hybrid organosilica sorbents functionalized with glycolipids (Gal-C14-O) to immobilize and stabilize bioinspired ligands for uranium remediation. The modified surfaces demonstrated robust covalent attachment and maintained metal uptake selectivity across pH 3–6. Kinetic modeling confirmed pseudo second order adsorption behavior consistent with chemisorption, while desorption studies indicated structural resilience under repeated washing. However, column flow through experiments identified limitations in dynamic sorption capacity (0.13 mg U g⁻¹) and non-ideal breakthrough profiles in authentic groundwater, attributed to insufficient ligand surface density and channeling effects. These results underscored the potential of glycolipid-functionalized materials for targeted metal removal while illuminating critical engineering barriers to field deployment. The final phase introduced polymeric beads composed of Poly(Rha-C4-Serine-Acrylamide) designed as a reusable platform for Pb²⁺ sequestration. Guided by hard soft acid base principles, the polymer produced Langmuir type adsorption isotherms and exhibited pronounced selectivity against Mg²⁺ and Cd²⁺. Spectroscopic evidence and desorption studies affirmed the involvement of multi dentate coordination via amide, hydroxyl, and carboxyl functional groups. Operational recycling demonstrated sustained performance across five acid desorption cycles with 62% capacity retention, confirming robust chemical stability with gradual degradation due to surface fouling or partial ligand loss. Collectively, this body of work establishes design principles for bioinspired sorbents integrating molecular recognition, tunable amphiphilicity, and structural stability to achieve selective, efficient, and regenerable metal binding. The materials presented here address diverse aqueous matrices, including mining effluents, saline brines, and contaminated groundwater, offering pathways to replace synthetic chelators and minimize secondary waste. Future directions include expanding glycolipid libraries through reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, optimizing headgroup tail combinations via density functional theory and machine learning, and integrating bioinspired ligands into high surface area matrices such as aerogels, magnetic composites, and metal organic frameworks. Pilot scale validation under realistic flow conditions, combined with life cycle and technoeconomic analysis, will accelerate the translation of these materials into zero waste remediation and resource recovery technologies. Collectively, the findings of this research position bioinspired materials as a transformative, sustainable solution for addressing water contamination and advancing the circular economy.Release after 02/06/202