Electronic Thesis or Dissertation

The two and a half decades following the ending of the American Revolution was filled with change. The formation of government and the ratification of the Constitution at the state and federal levels created spaces where topics were hotly debated. Specifically, religion and its role in the United States government generated much discussion: how much power should religious institutions have within this new country and should this new United States have an established religion? Historians have dissected and analyzed these topics for years. But, how informed were Americans during this period of these conversations which created the bedrock of American government? One conduit which was generally available to the masses was the newspaper. The creation of news and the dissemination of information to the expanding United States created a unique platform for newspaper printers and editors alike, touching all levels of society and politics. Using newspapers printed during this period and focusing specifically on the state of Virginia, this thesis analyzes newspaper content between 1784 – 1808 as a general guide as to what the Virginia common persons would have been exposed to regarding separation of church and state and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Based on the saturation of religion in society at this time, it is surprising to find that Americans were only minimally interested in the separation of church and state discussions happening in Virginia and the greater United States. It was when religious topics shifted into perceived morals and ethics, political campaigns, or the potential for land control through glebe land ownership that Virginians expressed their opinions and reactions to the separation of church and state.

All Return is a short story collection centered on nostalgia, and the desire of going back to a place or time, which sometimes doesn’t exist anymore. The characters that populate the collection, are all returning or trying to go back, either to a physical place, a language, to an age of innocence, or to loved ones.
While the book tries to portray stories of immigrant lives in parts of collection, the desire of immigrants to sometimes return to their countries of origin are not exclusive to them, but universal. The stories in All Return remind us that we are all going back, or long for a place or time that exists without us.

Children learn from their parents’ emotional expressions because one’s parents are the main source of social information, especially on an emotional level. Depression hinders the parents’ ability to express these emotions, in turn, hindering the child’s ability to identify and express emotions as they get older. Parents self-reported their everyday depressive symptoms and were placed into two depressive categories: high and low. By means of a story-telling paradigm, each parent read 2 stories to their child, one positively and one negatively valanced. This study looked at the parent-child dyadic interaction, as well as behavioral patterns of interactions in both children and parents. Parents’ depressive symptoms affected their ability to be expressive during emotionally valenced situations. Parent-child pairs also had less dyadic unity when depressive symptoms were prevalent. Depressive symptoms in the parent also led to the child expressing fewer relevant emotions and having lower comprehension of emotions. The findings suggest that depressive symptoms in the parents, even at a subclinical level, not only affect the parents’ emotional expressivity but also leads to weaker emotional processing skills in their preschoolers.

Full-service community schools (FSCSs) are a holistic, multifaceted reform strategy aimed at improving the educational life experiences and outcomes of underserved student populations (Sanders, 2016; Sanders & Galindo, 2020), designed to provide more equitable educational experiences (Sanders et al., 2018). Black, Native American, and LatinX children represent three-quarters of children living in poverty today, because of systemic inequities and racial disparities that these groups have experienced for decades (Gennetian & Yoshikawa, 2021). The purpose of this study is to document the evolution of a full-service community school, as well as its alignment to the highly effective community school (HECS) model. Richardson’s (2009) HECS model was implemented to identify the relationship between leadership, collaborative partners, and organizational development, and their ability to produce beneficial outcomes and, ultimately, a highly effective FSCS. The research site was the Achievement Centers for Children and Families (ACCF), a long-standing, full-service community school located in Delray Beach, Florida. Data for this qualitative case study were collected using an oral history methodology which included interviews and document analysis.

Over 70 million people worldwide suffer from epilepsy, with 90% of those cases taking place in developing countries (Singh & Trevick, 2016). Epilepsy can be defined as at least two unprovoked seizures occurring more than 24 hours apart, one unprovoked seizure with at least 60% chance of another seizure occurring within the next 10 years, or a diagnosis of epilepsy syndrome (Fisher et al., 2005). Varying physiological, molecular, genetic, and environmental factors can contribute to epileptic episodes. Although antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) exist, the complexity and lack of understanding behind the molecular mechanisms of the syndrome leaves the few drugs available to be insufficient for many patients (Rho & White, 2018). Therefore, the discovery of genetic pathways involved in epilepsy is imperative for the innovation of antiepileptic drugs. This thesis explores a novel method to add to mutant C.elegans libraries and improve antiepileptic drug discovery in a cost-effective and efficient manner by uncovering candidate molecular pathways through the candidate genes involved with antiepileptic strains.

The present study evaluated affective, relational, and emotional behaviors associated with symptom reduction and clinical outcomes in psychotherapy. It relied on 36 therapist-client dyads and assessed client symptoms using the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS-34) as the progress monitoring and outcome assessment tool used by university counseling centers before every psychotherapy session. The research examined the first administration scores and the last administration scores of the CCCAPS to determine the level of clinical improvement. The researcher used the revised Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF) to code the therapist and client interactions throughout the entire first psychotherapy session. The results revealed significant effects between the affective exchanges in the therapeutic relationship of both the therapist and the client on clinical outcomes. The researcher employed multivariate statistics with appropriate univariate follow-up procedures to determine group differences between SPAFF codes on the symptom outcome groups and CCAPS subscales. The researcher also used path analysis following Actor Partner Independence Model assumptions (Kenny et al., 2020) to examine the interdependent emotional dynamics between therapist and client on client symptom outcomes, and these revealed significant effects between SPAFF scores observed in the first session on client outcomes at the termination of therapy. The results add to the current research literature, highlighting patterns of significant affective behaviors in the first psychotherapy session on client outcomes. The study reveals that the first session cannot be minimized, as it has a greater impact on client outcomes than previously believed. The conclusion also outlines the study’s implications for clinical practice, graduate training, and research.

This study tests a model that draws on human capital theory to explain how individual characteristics of founding entrepreneurs influence performance of their new businesses. Using data from Project GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship), this research study assesses the direct effect of gender on new venture performance and the moderating role of gender on the relationship between general and specific human capital and new venture performance.

This research investigates the development and performance of a new closed-form stiffness matrix for a beam element that assumes a second-order stiffness variation over the regions of beam-columns with partial yielding. Stiffness reduction occurs due to yielding of the cross-section of W-Shapes under certain conditions of residual stress, moment, and axial load. Currently, inelastic material models assume a linear stiffness variation over the beam element length, even though it is well known they vary nonlinearly over the partially yielded regions. To evaluate the performance of the new stiffness matrix, two beams and four frames were analyzed using MASTAN2 considering five load increment and nine element conditions. Discussion and recommendations are provided regarding the parameters that influence the modeling results and the ability of the new stiffness matrix to consistently provide better results than the original stiffness matrix with an assumed linear stiffness variation.

Epilepsy is a widely prevalent disease within the United States. It is estimated that about 1.2% of the total American population has active epilepsy, a condition of the brain that causes seizures. These seizures are marked by chemical alterations in neuronal firing that can cause abnormal behavior, sensations, muscle spasms, and loss of consciousness. Although the prevalence of seizures and epilepsy is high, effective treatments are limited and fail to provide effective treatment for nearly one-third of adult epileptic patients. Here, I conclude results of successful screening of novel compounds that can ameliorate seizures using an electroshock assay to examine seizure susceptibility and duration in C. elegans. The use of this assay provides an excellent platform for novel antiepileptic drug (AED) discovery efficiently.
Literature shows Resveratrol, a natural product from plants, provides neuroprotective effects in various model organisms and therefore, is an excellent candidate for a molecule that has never been related to seizure. However, it is easily metabolized, being a flat and planar molecule. Our research group has collaboratively identified a novel bicyclic bridge molecule derived from the scaffolding of two resveratrol molecules we named Resveramorph (RVM). We also used the candidate approach to test a number of Resveramorph analogs on this assay to find the analog with highest efficacy. The various molecules characterized with their efficacy for seizure-like behavior after an electroshock have helped elucidate the mechanism of action and the RVMs physical target to give us greater insight into this potential family of AEDs.

Coral reef ecosystems across the Tropical Western Atlantic, are rapidly degrading due to a combination of anthropogenic stressors including coastal development, overfishing, and climate change-induced coral bleaching and disease outbreaks. Despite this general pattern, certain reef ecosystems are less exposed to these stressors due to a lack of/or distance from coastal development and/or their depth. These characteristics protect these coral reef ecosystems from rapid degradation and these coral populations potentially serve as important refugia. Developing an understanding of the connectivity dynamics among these refugia and to more degraded reefs is critical to developing networks of marine protected areas and management to ensure the persistence and recovery of coral metapopulations. In particular, increased research focus has been placed on mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs, 30-150 m) which are deeper and more buffered from anthropogenic stressors than shallow reefs (<30 m). A collection of hypotheses known as the Deep Reef Refugia Hypothesis surmises that MCEs may serve as larval sources to reseed shallow coral populations following a disturbance-driven decline. This dissertation research focuses on quantifying the population genetic structure of a dominant, depthgeneralist, coral species, Montastraea cavernosa, across previously understudied shallow and mesophotic reefs throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Western Caribbean to quantify the refugia potential of these reefs and characterize their roles in the regional coral metapopulation. Chapter 1 provides a review of the ecology and population genetic connectivity dynamics of shallow and mesophotic coral populations in the Tropical Western Atlantic.