Dissertations: Recent submissions
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Case Study: Academic Capitalism & Academic Coaches’ Working Conditions, Emotional Labor, & Compassion FatigueStudent affairs within higher education encompasses a wide range of professions, including academic coaching. Although most academic coaching programs have only been around for the past 20 years, much of the research has focused on its justification and value as a profession by evidence of students’ increased grade point averages (GPAs), retention rates, and goal attainment (Alzen et al., 2021; Capstick et al., 2019; Losch et al., 2016; Vanacore & Dahan, 2021). There remains a gap within the literature that falls short of examining the everyday experiences of academic coaches within university settings. This critical case study looked to give a platform for academic coaches to voice their experiences with their working conditions, emotional labor, and compassion fatigue. Through the means of 22 qualitative semi-structed interviews, the findings concluded that University of Arizona (UA) academic coaches exist within an institutional environment that promotes and upholds academic capitalist structures. This negatively effects their working conditions, while also advancing elements of emotional labor and compassion fatigue. Although collectively experienced across the university, department affiliation dictates the different ways or levels to which these elements of working conditions, emotional labor, and compassion fatigue are felt by academic coaches. Through evidence of these findings, recommendations and implications for academic coaches and university management are provided.
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Story-ing Possibility Space: Becoming With/in Refugee/(Im)migrant EducationThis dissertation is a story—one among many intra-active (Barad, 2007) stories in a web of differing versions (Gómez, 2019)—that is being told about refugee/(im)migrant education. Theoretical, methodological, and practical in its goals and applications, the project described in this dissertation brought together fourteen teachers/learners/leaders across the United States to discuss, explore, and (re)imagine refugee/(im)migrant education through co-created and co-creative story-ing processes and diffractive methodologies. As a research community, we didn’t start with an end in mind but rather followed our stories where they took us, stepping into curiosity and making knowledge “otherwise—as a mode of wondering and wandering, as a matter of what happens if?” (Taylor, 2021, p. 32). The project articulated in this dissertation, including through three co-written texts that comprise chapter five, shares methodological entanglements and theoretical weavings that may allow for different ethico-onto-epistemological engagements in refugee/(im)migrant education policy, practice, and research. Through story-ing and space making—intra-activity rooted in love and of an intimacy often forgotten in education leadership and policy research—possibility space is forming, becoming with (Haraway, 2016) and in refugee/(im)migrant education.
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Quantifying the Fate and Transport of Energetic Compounds through Bench Scale Experiments, Field Scale Observations, and ModelingEnergetic materials are used around the world in training operations and combat. When energetics munitions function as designed, most of their constituent compounds are expended leaving small amounts of residue on the soil surface. However, occasional low order detonations, also known as failed or incomplete detonations, can result in significant deposition of energetic material. The deposition of explosive contaminants in particulate form onto the soil surface during low-order detonations and continual regular use can lead to ground and surface water contamination. The understanding of the fate and transport of these potentially toxic compounds is needed to predict their environmental impacts. The recent introduction of insensitive munitions (IMX-104 and IMX-101), which are safer in handling than legacy munitions (Comp B and TNT), have resulted in the need to examine the environmental fate and transport of their constituent compounds. This dissertation presents a comprehensive approach to this problem by showcasing bench scale experiments, field scale observation, and modeling to quantify and predict their environmental behavior. In Chapter 2, I present an experimental study that explores the impact of overland flow and rill erosion on the transport of IMX-104 constituent compounds 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO), 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN), hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), and octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX). In Chapter 3, I present a review that summarizes the current available information about factors affecting fate and transport of both legacy munitions (TNT [2,4,6-trinitrotoluene] and Comp B [TNT, RDX, and HMX]) and newer insensitive munitions (IMX-101 [DNAN, NTO, and NQ (nitroguanidine)] and IMX-104 [DNAN, NTO, and RDX]). This chapter suggests approaches for predicting site-specific parameters for their fate and transport in soils and in overland flow. Chapter 4 combines field observations of energetic compound deposition and transport in overland flow with modeling that predicts their fate and transport. The training range we worked with was Florence Military Reservation (FMR) in Florence, Arizona. By picking this field site we were able to explore the fate and transport of energetic compounds in arid environments, which is challenging to predict due to limited information and understanding.
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Improving Prehospital Providers’ Confidence in Performing Cricothyrotomies via Simulation and Cognitive AidPurpose: The primary purpose of this quality improvement project was to improve prehospitalproviders’ confidence in performing an emergency surgical cricothyrotomy after implementing a cognitive aid and hands-on training with a high-fidelity cricothyrotomy simulator. Additional goals of this project included enhancing prehospital providers' self-assessed competence, knowledge, and procedural skills. Background: Failure in airway management continues to be a leading cause of preventable patient harm (Joffe et al., 2019). Simulating emergency airway skills can improve performance, speed, and confidence in providers, and the use of cognitive aids in emergencies is shown to improve the speed, performance, and accuracy of providers (Añez Simón et al., 2019; Marshall & Mehra, 2014). Despite the evidence of utilizing these tools, many prehospital providers in Southern Arizona do not have access to and are not utilizing high-fidelity airway simulation. Additionally, no standard cognitive aid is currently being utilized in this region. Methods: This education-based quality improvement (QI) project utilized a pre-post design. Participants were assessed using an adapted confidence scale (C-scale), a perceived competence survey, a knowledge-based quiz, and a cricothyrotomy skills assessment tool while performing a surgical cricothyrotomy on an inexpensive high-fidelity simulator. Results: Significant improvements were observed post-intervention compared to pre- intervention in provider confidence (p < 0.01; d= 2.03) and perceived competence scores (p<0.01; d= 1.96). Participants demonstrated statistically significant improvements in skill performance and enhanced adherence to critical steps based on skills assessment scores (p < 0.01; d= 0.97). There were also statistically significant improvements in procedural efficiency 13 (p<0.01; d= 0.81), as evidenced by the average time to procedural completion being 54 seconds faster post- versus pre-intervention. Knowledge scores showed a slight, non-significant improvement (p >0.05; p = 0.083). Conclusion: This project supports the efficacy of a cognitive aid and high-fidelity simulation to improve provider confidence, competence, and skill in performing emergency surgical cricothyrotomy. With these findings, it can be concluded that the use of a cognitive aid with high-fidelity procedural simulators is effective at increasing provider confidence, competence, and skill in successfully performing a surgical cricothyrotomy.
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Do Investors React Differently to Interim Target Disclosures for Emissions Reduction Goals Depending on the Difficulty of the Target?Regulators are mandating interim target disclosures for firms disclosing long-term emissions reduction goals. I examine how interim target disclosure affects investors’ perceptions of a firm’s commitment to its long-term emissions reduction goal and subsequent investment decisions. I predict that the difficulty of the interim target moderates the effect of interim target disclosure on investors’ perceptions of the firm’s goal commitment. I find consistent results testing these predictions using a 2 × 3 between-participants experiment where I manipulate the presence and difficulty of an interim target. Specifically, goal commitment perceptions increase in response to an interim target disclosure when the target appears difficult. However, this effect backfires and goal commitment perceptions decrease if the interim target does not appear difficult. I also predict and find that this effect on perceptions of goal commitment ultimately affects investment decisions. The finding that interim target disclosures can backfire, and thus mandates can be counterproductive to investors’ interests, is important for regulators and improves theoretical understanding of investors’ decision making.
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The Curious Case of Copper: Copper’s Novel Stress Response and its Effect on Combined StressCells encounter various forms of stress over time–oxidative stress, protein misfolding, DNA damage–and respond by activating specific, well-defined stress response pathways. As we age, the burden of stress increases while our cells’ ability to deal with the resulting damage becomes diminished due to dysregulation of cellular stress response pathways. Copper is a well-studied physiological stressor that is implicated in a variety of age-associated diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and many more. Though generally considered to be an oxidative stressor, here I describe a novel stress response where copper creates toxicity through an alternate mechanism in C. elegans. I show that this toxicity is independent of the oxidative stress response and several other canonical stress response pathways and is dependent on several genes previously unassociated with copper stress. Next, I describe copper’s protective mechanisms over several other physiological stressors and show that, similar to the individual stress response, this protective mechanism is independent of the oxidative stress response. I select the CuSO4- NaCl combination for further investigation and begin to characterize the genes involved in the C. elegans transcriptional response to the combined stress, identifying several key genes with functions related to immune response, protein processing, and membrane carbohydrate binding activity. In addition to the copper work, I also develop a protocol for longitudinal monitoring of individual worm lifespan, healthspan, and fluorescence in an environment that mimics manual agar lifespan assays. Finally, I propose a set of guidelines for the C. elegans stress response field in order to set standards for experiments and make future work more directly comparable.
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Stratospheric Modulation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation: Potential Influence Mechanisms and Implications for the Behavior of the North Pacific Storm TrackThe Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is an eastward-propagating, convectively-coupled wave packet, and functions as a key driver of subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) variability in tropical convection and precipitation. Recent research has shown that both the phase and the amplitude of the MJO may be modulated by the stratosphere, via both an oscillation of the stratospheric zonal wind known as the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) and by changes in stratospheric ozone production induced by variations in solar UV activity. This dissertation investigates, in detail, potential mechanisms behind this modulation, its extent in the tropics, and its implications for mid-latitude weather patterns, including aspects of S2S predictability. Published, peer-reviewed papers resulting from this research are presented in Appendices A and B. Results that are in a near-final form but not yet submitted for publication are presented in Appendices C and D. In Appendix A, we investigate a wave forcing mechanism for the existence of the QBO-MJO connection, one which may explain both its exclusivity to the boreal winter and its relatively recent development within the observational record. In Appendix B, we investigate the possible influence of shorter-term 27-day rotational solar UV variations on MJO behavior. We find significant and long-lasting effects on the effectiveness of MJO propagation past the maritime continent barrier, stemming from static stability changes associated with such short-term solar UV variability. Appendices C and D focus on possible implications of stratospheric MJO modulation on the mid-latitude storm track. In Appendix C, we focus on interannual sources of stratospheric variability, such as the QBO and the 11-year sunspot cycle. The MJO-induced changes in the North Pacific Storm Track (NPST) produced by these stratospheric forcings are compared to well-known ENSO-related NPST influences. In Appendix D, we extend on the findings of both Appendix B and Appendix C by linking changes in the MJO induced by 27-day rotational solar UV variations to lagged effects on the NPST. The nature of the statistically-derived effects on the NPST provide insight into the mechanism leading to stratospheric influences on the MJO-NPST relationship, which is centered on the generation and propagation of Rossby waves. The results of these studies have implications for mid-latitude S2S predictability, given the found stratospheric influence on the NPST, while also providing evidence for a specific mechanism for the modulation of the MJO via the stratosphere. This implicated mechanism may be useful in addressing some of the deficiencies in simulating observed stratosphere-troposphere connections in current-generation global climate models.
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School Counselor Education and Professional Identity Formation: A Content Analysis of Graduate School Counseling Programs in the United StatesSchool Counselors continue to grapple with questions surrounding their professional identity as ongoing debate persists over whether they should be viewed primarily as counselors, educators, or a balanced combination of both. This identity formation process often begins in graduate school as students explore different programs, complete coursework, engage in practicum and internship experiences, and interact with faculty and peers. While previous research has identified variation across school counseling programs (Pérusse et al., 2001; Pérusse et al., 2015), few studies have examined how these differences might influence the development of school counseling students’ professional identities. Using content analysis, this study examined the structure and characteristics of 212 school counseling graduate programs in the United States. The results reveal ongoing inconsistencies among programs and provide valuable insight into the continued identity confusion within the profession, differences that may shape how students understand and define their roles within their educational environments.
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Operating Room To Ozone: Advancing Sustainability In Inhalational Anesthesia – A QI ProjectPurpose: This quality improvement (QI) initiative aimed to increase anesthesia providers' awareness of the environmental effects of inhaled anesthetics. The goal is to lower greenhouse gas emissions from anesthesia services and promote eco-friendly practices among providers. Background: Climate change is identified as the primary health concern of the century due to increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions leading to ongoing global warming. Operating rooms, known for their high energy consumption, play a significant role in GHG emissions in healthcare. Anesthetics for inhalation, previously vital for anesthesia, are a major contributor to the environmental impact in healthcare. Sustainable anesthesia practices are becoming increasingly important globally in the fight against the climate crisis. Methods: Anesthesia providers employed by Summit Anesthesia were recruited via email to participate in project education. Over two weeks, a pre-recorded educational presentation on current practices in sustainable anesthesia was made available to the group’s anesthesia staff. Following the educational intervention, participants were asked to complete a digital retrospective post-pre-survey to assess their knowledge of the content and intent to change practice. Results: Following the educational intervention, anesthesia providers demonstrated a significant increase in cognitive knowledge and intent to implement sustainable anesthetic practices. Mean knowledge scores improved across all three assessed domains: overall knowledge of sustainable anesthetic practices increased from 3.00 to 5.71 (90.48% increase), knowledge of volatile agent selection enhanced from 2.43 to 5.86 (141.18% increase), and understanding of low fresh gas flow (LFGF) techniques rose from 2.57 to 5.71 (122.22% increase). Additionally, post-education scores increased across all CPD-Reaction Questionnaire constructs, with the most substantial improvements in intention (44.3%), beliefs about capabilities (42.2%), and social influence (33.4%). These findings indicate that targeted education can enhance anesthesia providers’ knowledge and motivation to adopt environmentally sustainable practices. Conclusions: This quality improvement (QI) initiative improved anesthesia providers’ knowledge and intent to implement sustainable practices. Findings highlight the effectiveness of targeted education in promoting eco-friendly anesthesia practices. Continued efforts are essential to reinforce sustainable behaviors and mitigate the environmental impact of inhaled anesthetics in healthcare.
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University Belongingness Among Professional Doctoral Alumni in the US Transnational Education in China: A Mixed Methods Case StudyThis mixed-methods case study investigates university belongingness among professional doctoral alumni within a US transnational education program in China. Guided by socialization theories, the study employed explanatory sequential design, beginning with an online survey and followed by in-depth interviews. The study addresses two main questions (RQ): RQ1: What are the key factors shaping the sense of belonging in transnational education programs? RQ2: How does the transnational nature of educational programs shape students’ sense of belonging toward the US and Chinese partner universities? The findings indicated that the academic reputation of partner universities, curriculum design, peer relationships, career background, and professional development were the primary influential factors of professional doctoral alumni's sense of belonging. Secondary influential factors included institutional culture, academic support, location and geopolitics, instructional methods, program requirements and structure, faculty-student interaction, staff-student relationships, educational background, interpersonal connections, and networking and collaboration in professional community, which interacted with primary factors to significantly affect alumni satisfaction and their sense of belonging toward both partner universities. The transnational setting itself enabled alumni to navigate multiple cultural and educational landscapes, thereby shaping a dual sense of belonging. This study addresses a gap in the literature on university belongingness among professional doctoral students and alumni in US transnational education in China. It contributes to the theoretical framework of socialization in contexts of transnational and professional community contexts, offering insights for administrators to enhance practice and policy, thereby improving the sense of belonging among transnational alumni. These insights are instrumental in guiding the design of structured student and alumni services that enhance the educational experience with both partner universities.
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Kindness Versus Compassion: Prioritizing Kindness for Improved Healthcare Professionals and Patient OutcomesPurpose: This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to provide education for the staff of apediatric inpatient psychiatric unit about kindness and ultimately change staff’s knowledge, perception, and intention to implement kindness techniques. Background: Historically, healthcare has encouraged its ’professionals care compassionately for patients, but by maintaining this position, the healthcare system has created unrealistic expectations of behavior for its ’employees that are unsustainable and contribute to compassion fatigue, staff burnout and shortages, high rates of suicide, depression, and anxiety, job dissatisfaction, workplace incivility, and unhealthy work environments. However, kindness has proven to achieve the same, if not better, healthcare professional and patient outcomes. By educating hospital staff on kindness in healthcare, and how it differs from compassion, there is an opportunity to positively impact the health and wellbeing of healthcare staff, as well as the productivity, culture, and cost of healthcare organizations, and patient outcomes. Methods: This QI project used pre- and post-educational surveys in conjunction with an asynchronous educational presentation to provide education to hospital staff on the difference between kindness and compassion in healthcare. The pre- and post-educational surveys were used to assess changes to staffs ’knowledge, perception, and intention to implement the information before and after viewing the asynchronous educational presentation. Results: There was a mix of Registered Nurse (RN) and Program Specialist (PS) participants in the sample. Eight participants completed only the pre-educational survey and seven completed both the pre- and post-educational surveys. The comparison of the pre- and post-survey data showed an overall improvement in the knowledge, perception, and intention to implement kindness into healthcare practice. Conclusions: An asynchronous educational intervention regarding kindness in healthcare was an effective approach to improving the knowledge, perception, and intention to implement kindness techniques of hospital staff on a pediatric inpatient psychiatry unit. Kindness is largely subjective and further research is necessary to create standardized tools to objectively measure kindness in healthcare.
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Effect of Babywearing on Acute Reactivity of Cortisol and Oxytocin in Infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: A Feasibility StudyPurpose: The purpose of this study was to examine feasibility and test the study protocol for a babywearing intervention aimed at reducing withdrawal symptoms in infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) through mechanisms of comfort and connection. Background: NAS continues to affect thousands of infants every year. Nonpharmacological treatment options are the first line of therapy for NAS, and babywearing is one nonpharmacological intervention that has been shown to decrease heart rate in infant withdrawal. Methods: A prospective cohort feasibility study design was used to compare three interventions (babywearing, Skin-to-Skin Care or SSC, and walking with a stroller) in two groups (infants with NAS and infants without NAS). A convenience sample of infants was taken from an active parent study examining outcomes in mothers. The infants participated in a 20-minute reactivity lab at baseline (~ 2 weeks of age) and at 3 months to assess the acute reactivity of cortisol and oxytocin in relation to the intervention. Results: Twenty-five (n=25) infants were enrolled, and eighteen (n=18) completed participation to three months, translating to a 72% retention rate. The groups differed in that the NAS group was more often born by c-section and admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) more often (71% vs. 11%; t-value=2.94, df=14, p = 0.01). Feasibility results included a low intervention compliance (8 – 33%) among both groups and all three interventions. Saliva samples successfully collected with ≥ 1 mL at baseline was 6.8% and at Post-partum month 3 (PPM3) was 51.4%. Exploratory results for cortisol changes from baseline to PPM3 by intervention included a decrease of 0.206 μg/dL (SD 0.28) for babywearing, a decrease of 0.272 μg/dL (SD 0.46) for SSC, and an increase of 0.163 μg/dL (SD 0.38) for the stroller-walking group. Exploratory results for oxytocin changes from baseline to PPM3 included decreases in all three interventions: babywearing by 20.99 pg/mL (SD 23.26), SSC by 83.79 pg/mL (SD 48.96), and stroller-walking by 237.35 pg/mL (SD 303.62). Implications to Practice: Babywearing may be effective at decreasing cortisol and minimizing the decrease in oxytocin in infants with NAS, but further research is needed with improvements in intervention compliance and methods for adequate saliva collection.
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The Aging Voice: Choral Singing After the Age of FiftySinging has been shown to have a variety of benefits for older singers, including improved posture, higher levels of perceived physical health, improved speaking tone, and greater ease of breathing. Choral singing in particular has social and mental health benefits for older adults. Older adults who participate in choirs are less isolated, are more involved in their communities, and have heightened optimism about life. In addition, choral participation can have a positive impact on mindfulness and mental focus and can reduce depression. The human body undergoes numerous age-related physical changes. For people over fifty, these changes can affect their singing experience and participation in choral ensembles. For this study, I have surveyed sources regarding issues of aging that can negatively impact choral participation, as well as approaches to address these issues. Based on this research, I have provided recommendations for application in choral ensembles, including physical accommodations, research-based vocal pedagogy and repertoire selection considerations to support positive and rewarding choral experiences for older adults.
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Rescuing Moral EmpiricismThe motivating thought underlying my work in this dissertation is that empirical evidence sometimes counts as moral evidence—that is, evidence for and against normative theories, principles, actions, and values. This view I call moderate moral empiricism, for while few would deny minimal moral empiricism (e.g., acknowledging that how much whiskey one has drunk before ethical reasoning matters), many reject the idea that empirical facts can play a substantial evidential role in our moral theorizing. My primary positive argument is that our dominant moral methodology presupposes that some empirical evidence is genuinely moral evidence. In the first chapter, I rescue G.A. Cohen’s influential argument from poor exegesis for an autonomy thesis commonly thought to oppose empiricism in moral and political philosophy. I argue that it does not oppose my view, but may well still strike its intended target: Rawls. In the second chapter, I give the positive theoretical argument for moral empiricism. I argue that our dominant moral methodology—reflective equilibrium—presupposes a moderate moral empiricism. In the third and fourth chapters, I examine a certain kind of empirical evidence: moral testimony. I argue moral deference is not different in kind from nonmoral deference, though moral deference is in general more suspect due to a convergence of factors. I also use cases of moral deference in the medical field to indirectly challenge those condemning of moral deference. In the final chapter, I provide a new case for a pluralistic moral framework that should satisfy the moderate moral empiricist and the moderate moral rationalist. The theory has notable parallels with the structure of Ross’s ethics.
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Lexical Fluency And Cross-Linguistic Influence During Immersion Abroad: A Longitudinal Study of German Speakers in the USThis dissertation explores the development of lexical access for production during study abroad (SA). It follows the pattern of a three-article dissertation. The first article provides a literature review and an overview of previously utilized research methods to study lexical development during SA. The article calls for methodological advancements to shed more light on the relation between lexical development in L1 and L2 and language use and exposure patterns during SA. Moreover, it calls for more longitudinal studies to explore dynamically changing patterns of L1 and L2 lexical access in SA participants. Articles 2 and 3 present findings of an empirical study conducted with a group of German exchange students in the US. Article 2 reports a longitudinal study that tracked the SA participants’ L1 and L2 lexical skills using picture-naming tasks, verbal fluency tasks, and self-report questionnaires. Findings provided evidence for the benefits of SA in improving L2 lexical skills and the maintenance of L1 lexical skills although some traces of dynamic change in the L1 were also observed. Article 3 scrutinizes the cases of two high school SA students, Karl and Franziska. Their use and exposure frequencies of L1, L2, and additional languages were tracked through acoustic behavioral observation with the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) in addition to self-reports in periodically administered questionnaires. These data were related to the lexical production data elicited through picture naming and verbal fluency tasks. The case study found that Karl and Franziska improved their L2 lexical skills, and while no pronounced L1 lexical attrition was found, there was some indication of impeded L1 lexical access in the verbal fluency tasks as well as in participants’ self-reports. There was mostly agreement between the findings of the EAR and participants’ self-reports, especially for language production. In conclusion, this dissertation provided evidence for SA’s impact on L2 lexical gains and for the sturdiness of the L1 lexical system during relatively long-term SA. Methodologically, this study demonstrated for the first time the usefulness and potential of acoustic behavioral observation and the EAR as a method for SA research.
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An Intervention to Support Well-Being and Reduce Burnout in Psychiatric Nurse PractitionersPurpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to address burnout and promote well-being among Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs) in the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Collective in Tucson, Arizona and assess burnout risk levels. An asynchronous educational intervention was developed to provide evidence on burnout and well-being and introduce Cyclic Sighing, a breathwork technique selected to support nervous system regulation and enhance mitochondrial function. Background: Burnout syndrome results from prolonged exposure to chronic, unmanageable stress and is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Among healthcare providers, including PMHNPs, burnout is linked to significant psychological and physiological harm—disrupting autonomic nervous system balance, reducing mitochondrial efficiency, and impairing emotion regulation, memory, and executive function. The consequences of provider burnout extend beyond the individual, contributing to higher turnover, reduced quality of care, and increased systemic strain on healthcare delivery. In Arizona, where unmet mental health needs are among the highest in the country, PMHNPs face disproportionate stress as they shoulder increasing demand with limited support. Interventions that are brief, accessible, and grounded in neurobiological evidence are urgently needed to support provider well-being and stabilize care systems. Methods: Nineteen PMHNPs participated in the project by viewing an educational presentation and completing a post-intervention survey. The survey included items assessing knowledge, confidence, and intent to use Cyclic Sighing, as well as an adapted version of the abbreviated Maslach Burnout Inventory (aMBI) developed for this project to estimate burnout risk. Results: Post-survey responses indicated high levels of understanding of burnout and well-being (mean = 4.53), confidence in applying the breathwork technique (4.26), and intent to incorporate it (4.32). Burnout risk scores indicated moderate emotional exhaustion (mean EE = 3.32), low depersonalization (1.97), and high personal accomplishment (3.88). Overall, 10.5% of participants were classified as high risk for burnout, 52.6% as moderate, and 36.8% as low. Conclusions: This project highlights the potential impact of brief, neuroscience-informed education combined with supportive practices. Interventions that address burnout and well-being through strategies that support multiple health aspects may serve as powerful tools to support PMHNP well-being and reduce burnout risk.
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Insights Into the Magmatic and Metallogenic Evolution of North-Central Mexico from Geochemistry and Geochronology of the Fresnillo, San Julian, and Orisyvo Precious-Metal DistrictsFresnillo is one of the largest silver districts of the world, Orisyvo is the largest single gold ore body of the high-sulphidation epithermal class discovered in Mexico, and San Julian is an emerging Ag-Au district displaying two different overlapping ore types. Detailed geochemical and geochronological data from San Julian and Orisyvo is provided for the first time.Fifteen new ages from U-Pb geochronology in zircons reported from Fresnillo provide details over three felsic magmatic pulses from 47.6 to 30.8 Ma and one mafic in the Miocene. Two new 11.8 and 18.6 Ma 40Ar-39Ar adularia ages are reported from two veins emplaced in NE-trending faults associated with Basin and Range extension, which crosscut the NW-oriented Jarillas-Valdecañas vein. Nineteen new ages from U-Pb geochronology in zircons from San Julian document 4 magmatic pulses, the oldest associated with the late Cretaceous to early Paleocene arc, followed by three 43.8 to 30.5 Ma felsic flow-dome complexes and associated volcanic products. Disseminated silver mineralization occurs at the onset of the Eocene pulse at ~42 Ma, and low-sulphidation epithermal veins were emplaced near the end of the Oligocene pulse, with 40Ar-39Ar adularia ages adularia from 33-34 Ma and 31.5 Ma. Nine new ages from U-Pb geochronology in zircons document three magmatic pulses, one at 69.8 Ma, a second fertile dacite porphyry pulse at 46.0 to 47.3 Ma, and a late 34.3 to 27.7 Ma post-mineral pulse. 187Re-187Os geochronology in molybdenite gave a mineralization age of 47.9 Ma, within the uncertainty range of the 47.3 Ma U-Pb age of its host rock. Two 40Ar-39Ar geochronology attempts were made to date alunite from the Orisyvo lithocap but failed due to Ar loss, providing a minimum age of 44.2 Ma. Whole rock Nd and Hf in zircon isotopic data were used to document the evolution of crust-mantle input to the magmas at the three study areas, which included mantellic incursions associated with mineralization at Orisyvo and at the San Julian late-stage veins. The evolution of the regional tectonic regime over time and its influence in the associated structural setting at upper crustal levels are discussed, especially in relation to their implications in the formation of ore deposits at the district scale and to the metallogenic evolution at the regional scale. Emphasis is placed on the possibilities for multiple mineralization events, which are favorable in Central Mesa due to its complex metallogenetic history.
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Using Performance-Based Insights into the Sorghum Microbiome to Advance Microbiome-Mediated Solutions in Arid AgricultureIncreasingly, the crop microbiome is looked to as a novel toolkit to combat abiotic stressors while sustaining agricultural productivity, essential to overcoming ecological challenges associated with agricultural intensification in a changing world. Despite recent advances in characterizing species that comprise plant microbiomes, specific ways by which a given microbiome contributes to crop performance remains unclear. Broadly defined, the endophytic microbiome consists of microbes that inhabit the interior of plant tissues without causing symptoms of disease. As such, endophytes in that establish in roots and leaves form intimate relationships with their plant host, at times existing as commensals but in other cases altering plant phenotypes. Because endophytes have a long evolutionary history with plants, they depend on plants complete their life cycle, and they either evade or overcome plant defenses to establish, it is thought that many can be beneficial for plant growth and resilience to stress. However, knowledge gaps remain a challenge for applications of endophytes: how do they vary among genotypes of plants? What are their growth-influencing traits? Do potentially beneficial endophytes harbor genes associated with production of undesirable secondary metabolites? How can endophytes be selected and delivered to plants effectively for improvements in agriculture? This dissertation centers on characterizing the fungal and bacterial endophytic microbiome of sorghum, a stress-resilient cereal crop, and developing a pipeline for selection of beneficial root-associated bacteria for plant growth and yield promotion. Together with my coauthors, I show that the sorghum root microbiome shifts under drought, and that the microbiome of higher-performing lines may be especially responsive to drought. However, drought does not remodel microbe-microbe interactions, suggesting that host-microbe interactions underlie microbiome shifts under environmental stress. To test this prediction, I, with my colleagues, analyzed the root metabolome and interpreted its relationship to specific microbial taxa. Relative to lower-performing lines, higher-performing sorghum accumulated a lower level of flavonoids, which are members of a phytohormone class strongly linked to defense and may facilitate establishment of root-endophytic microbes with plant-growth promoting potential. To understand the genomic architecture of representative root-associated bacteria, my colleagues and I used whole-genome sequencing to explore secondary metabolite production and other genomic features of microbes associated with high-performing sorghum from field conditions in Arizona. Finally, we evaluated a biobank of sorghum cultures, testing the prediction that those associated with higher-performing plants would be more likely to show plant growth-promoting phenotypes in vitro, including phosphate solubilization, auxin production, ammonium production, and siderophore activity. Based on bioassay results, a suite of microbial strains was used in a greenhouse and field experiment to evaluate the potential of microbial inoculants to promote desirable phenotypes in sorghum. We found that microbial inoculants associated with plant growth promotion were successful at promoting biomass and yield in a field-grown sorghum hybrid line, with differences relative to greenhouse results suggesting a strong impact of field-relevant stressors or other conditions. Overall, this work strengthens our understanding of how plant microbiomes relate to plant phenotypes, and provides a framework for a translatable approach to manipulate microbes for field applications.
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Gaussian Processes for the Design and Optimization of the Cylindrical Implosion PlatformSimulating direct-drive inertial confinement experiments presents significant computational challenges, both due to the complexity of the codes required for such simulations and the substantial computational expense associated with target design studies. Machine learning models, and in particular surrogate models, offer a solution by replacing simulation results with a simplified approximation. In this body of work, we apply surrogate modeling and optimization techniques to design studies of the cylindrical implosion platform, which provides a method for diagnosing hydrodynamic instability growth in the high-energy-density regime. Cylindrical targets allow for direct diagnostic access to the instability while preserving the effects of a convergent geometry. By enabling direct measurements of instability growth to be coupled with empirical data on thermonuclear burn, this platform provides a valuable tool for improving our understanding of the complex interplay between mix and burn. Previous studies relied upon xRAGE, Los Alamos’s Eulerian radiation hydrodynamics code, to model this class of implosions. However, full radiation hydrodynamic simulations entail significant computational challenges, both due to the complexity of the codes required for such simulations and the substantial computational expense associated with target design studies, thus motivating the development of machine learning models. We will investigate how these models generate predictions and their ability to measure and represent uncertainty. We will demonstrate how past work, which focused on the optimization of Gaussian process surrogates trained exclusively on output from 1D xRAGE simulations, revealed that optimal designs selected in this manner exhibited a substantial loss in yield when simulated in 2D. Despite their lower prediction accuracy, 1D simulations are less expensive than their 2D counterparts. To improve the predictive performance of the surrogate while maintaining low costs, we introduce a cost-aware multi-fidelity optimization algorithm which integrates data from 1D and 2D simulations to identify target designs that maximize yield. The design selected by the algorithm is discussed, emphasizing the design choices and implosion physics responsible for the target’s improved performance.
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Focusing on Strengths or Highlighting Deficits?: How Social Mission-Driven Organizations Take Strengths-Based Approaches to DestigmatizationThis dissertation examines how social mission-driven organizations (SMDOs) pursue destigmatization by enacting strengths-based beliefs – a set of shared beliefs that view stigmatized individuals as capable of growth, development, and self-determination, rejecting the idea that stigma reflects an inherent deficit or incapacity. Through a two-year ethnographic study of Elevate (a pseudonym), a local SMDO serving blind individuals, I found that sustaining strengths-based beliefs in SMDOs requires ongoing organizational effort, especially in environments dominated by deficit-based beliefs. Elevate’s strengths-based beliefs served as both a guide for practice and a counter to dominant deficit-based beliefs. These beliefs helped develop blind individuals as agents of destigmatization, but their implementation generated recurring tensions around how to best represent blindness to the public, how much to protect students from deficit-based beliefs, and how to balance high expectations with structural realities. Organizational members responded with tension management strategies that not only managed these tensions but also reinforced belief alignment over time. Ultimately, this process amplified Elevate’s belief system, buffering the collective from ongoing threats of dominant deficit-based beliefs in their industry and society. This study contributes to research on destigmatization, strengths-based beliefs, social mission-driven organizations, and positive organizational scholarship by offering insights into the complexities of sustaining strengths-based beliefs in pursuit of destigmatization.