Underrepresented Populations in Educational MakerSpaces: The Voice of African American Female Students

Timmons, Thomas D Miami University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2020 해외박사(DDOD)

What are the barriers that implicitly and explicitly exclude or disinvite African American females from high school Educational MakerSpaces? This narrative inquiry utilizes vignette surveys to engage two African American female students in a scenario about a girl named Lisa who makes a difficult choice of whether to enroll in a program which has an Educational MakerSpace she sees filled with White boys. The narratives from these students are reinforced by the narrative texts collected from three African American female adults who had previously participated in a high school Educational MakerSpace and who engaged in this survey and participated in a focus group. Applying the lenses of Whiteness in Education and Maleness in MakerSpaces, the narratives of these participants are then also used to identify three barriers and two powerful counterbalances to these barriers, both of which can serve to inform future research. These narratives also suggest targets educators can use to develop strategies to begin to address these barriers.

Embracing a multi-perspective view of therapeutic alliance: A process-oriented study of alliance formation and management in couples therapy

Timmons, Sara Elizabeth Michigan State University 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

Therapeutic alliance is a widely researched topic in psychotherapy literature due to its positive relationship with treatment outcome. Recently, researchers have started to address therapeutic alliance in couple and family therapy, but have struggled to identify the essential elements and therapist and client behaviors that are influential of positive alliance formation with multiple family members. Review of the literature shows that research needs to measure alliance over time in order to see how it evolves in conjoint therapy, and needs to incorporate the four perspectives of alliance: the therapist, each member of the couple, and independent observer. This study adopted a process oriented approach to explore therapeutic alliance formation and maintenance with couples. Two doctoral level therapists were followed over the course of treatment with a total of 5 couples. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and SOFTA (Friedlander, Escudero, & Heatherington, 2006a) observational and self-report measures to identify key themes and patterns of alliance development based on the experiences of each member of the therapeutic system and an independent observer. Thematic content analysis of the interview data identified that therapeutic factors pertaining to the training nature of the clinic and student status of the therapists had initial negative influences on the alliance formation. Additionally, findings suggested that the client factors related to level of relationship distress, interpersonal skills and gender contributed to the formation and progression of alliance over the course of therapy. Therapist characteristics such as personality and gender, as well as the interactive factors related to the couple-therapist goodness of fit and therapist skills also influenced the therapeutic relationship. The results from the SOFTA self-report data identified how alliance progressed throughout treatment for each couple. Alliance configurations depicted alliance patterns that stabilized around the fourth session followed by increased fluctuations after the sixth sessions. Overall, therapeutic alliance patterns were most heavily influenced by the level of relationship distress and strength of the within-couple alliance. How well therapists promoted individual alliances with both partners and the within-couple alliance contributed to the alliance ratings. The results of the study have important implications for the effective formation and management of alliance with couples. Discussion of the findings connects previous research to the current results to provide a greater understanding of how therapeutic alliance was formed with the couples in this study. Clinical and training implications are given for supervisors and therapists working with couples, as well as suggestions for future research on therapeutic alliance formation and management with couples.

Cosmology Through Einstein's Lens: Understanding Galaxy Structure and Evolution Using Strong Gravitational Lensing

Timmons, Nicholas ProQuest Dissertations & Theses University of Cali 2019 해외박사(DDOD)

Presented here are four studies in which the strong gravitational effect is used as a tool in studying the physical properties and environments of galaxies with an emphasis on dusty star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. The first chapter contains an introduction to the dissertation. In the second chapter we present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3 imaging and grism spectroscopy observations of the Herschel-selected gravitationally-lensed starburst galaxy HATLASJ1429-0028. It is found that a combination of high stellar mass, lack of AGN indicators, low metallicity, and the high star-formation rate of HATLASJ1429-0028 suggest that this galaxy is currently undergoing a rapid formation. In chapter 3 we present a source-plane reconstruction of a Herschel and Planck-detected gravitationally-lensed dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) at z=1.68 using Hubble, Sub-millimeter Array (SMA), and Keck observations. We present a lens model with source plane reconstructions at several wavelengths to show the difference in magnification between the stars and dust, and highlight the importance of a multi-wavelength lens models for studies involving lensed DSFGs. We find the ratio of star formation rate surface density to molecular gas surface density puts this among the most star-forming systems, similar to other measured sub-millimeter bright galaxies (SMGs) and local ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGS). In chapter 4 we make use of FIRE-2 cosmological simulations in order to model the light coming from sub-millimeter bright galaxies and quantify the effect of differential magnification. We compare the results to observation and find that there is a physical offset between the light coming from stars and the light radiated by dust in the simulated galaxies that is in agreement with observations. Having the source and lens be physically offset, having the lens be closer to the source than the observer and increasing the mass of the lens all contribute to a greater magnification of the stellar light vs. the dust emission intensifying the differential magnification effect. When deriving the physical properties of galaxies from model SEDs we find that the overall effect of differential magnification is an underestimation of the ratio of star-formation rate to stellar mass that is equivalent to the ratio of stellar magnification to dust magnification. In chapter 5 we measure the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) skewness power spectrum in Planck, using frequency maps of the HFI instrument and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) component map. We model fit the SZ power spectrum and CMB lensing-SZ cross power spectrum via the skewness power spectrum to constrain the gas pressure profile of dark matter halos. The gas pressure profile is found to be in agreement with existing measurements in the literature including a direct estimate based on the stacking of SZ clusters in Planck.

Venenum bibit: The Poison Trial in Medieval Hagiography

Timmons, Jennifer Lynne Sandstrom ProQuest Dissertations & Theses The University of 2022 해외박사(DDOD)

This study investigates the capacity of medieval poison metaphors to express anxiety about the human ability to distinguish the truth from a falsehood. Because poison was often administered covertly, things that were described as “poisonous” in the medieval world were not simply destructive, but dangerous in a way that relies on both deception and adulteration. I argue that poison imagery in the medieval monastic context was a tool adapted to deal with epistemic crises, in that it was used to simultaneously highlight the dangers of verisimilitude and false signifiers and to attempt to adjudicate seemingly plausible alternatives. The language of poison provided a vocabulary to think through problems of deception and hypocrisy, and, in the context of medieval hagiographical stories of saints surviving the ingesting of poison, to arbitrate competing claims to truth using the medium of holy bodies. Using liturgical manuscripts, collections of saint’s lives, poetry, hymnody, theological treatises, histories, and sermons, I trace poison trials from their origins into the thirteenth century. Once it had become a means of asserting a saint’s ability to distinguish truth from falsehood in the presence of ambiguity, the hagiographical poison trial was used to arbitrate a variety of contests internal and external to religious communities, both theological and political.

Effects of acetaldehyde on C-Jun/AP-1 expression in oral keratinocytes

Timmons, Sherry Rene The University of Iowa 2001 해외박사(DDOD)

Oral cancer is a significant health problem, particularly among individuals that ingest alcohol in combination with the use of tobacco products. The enhanced development of tobacco-initiated oral cancers by ethanol suggests that ethanol or one of its metabolites may act as a type of tumor promoter. Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying the ability of ethanol to enhance oral carcinogenesis remain unclear. We hypothesize that acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of ethanol, may activate the expression and/or activity of Jun/AP-1 in oral keratinocytes analogous to the phorbol ester TPA and other tumor promoters in epidermal keratinocytes. We also hypothesize that acetaldehyde, and indirectly ethanol, may play a role during the progression stage of oral carcinogenesis by activating Jun/AP-1 expression and/or activity in transformed cells for the facilitation and/or maintenance of the malignant phenotype. To test this hypothesis, we treated HPV immortalized, non-tumorigenic human oral keratinocytes as well as transformed human oral keratinocytes, SCC-25, with acetaldehyde at various concentrations (10 μM–5 mM) and for various times (2–24h) and measured several parameters of Jun/AP-1 expression and function. Our results indicated that c-Jun mRNA and protein levels increased in the acetaldehyde treated cells compared to untreated control cells in both the non-tumorigenic and transformed cell lines. Moreover, Jun/AP-1 DNA binding activity was rapidly activated in the HPV-immortalized and transformed cells by acetaldehyde in a dose-dependent fashion. The increases in Jun protein and AP-1 DNA binding activity were accompanied by increased transactivation of an AP-1 responsive reporter construct transfected into the HPV-immortalized oral keratinocytes. The levels of acetaldehyde employed were minimally toxic to the HPV-immortalized cells as determined by MTT assays. Thus, acetaldehyde was found to activate the expression and activity of an oncogenic transcription factor in HPV-initiated cells as well as transformed malignant cells. Taken together, these results suggest that acetaldehyde may participate, at least in part, during both the promotion and progression stages of oral carcinogenesis.

Mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse: Factors related to decision processes of educators (Indiana)

Timmons, Deanna S Indiana University 2004 해외박사(DDOD)

Concentrating on the four general categories of child abuse---sexual, physical, emotional, and neglect---the purpose of this instrumental case study is to promote awareness of Indiana Code 31-33-5 which makes educators mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse. According to Stake, (1994) in a case study that is instrumental in character, a case is carefully studied in order to provide greater enlightenment of a subject or theory. Its role is to provide support of a contributory nature in bringing insight into another issue. Frequently it is closely examined and its meaning is critically inspected in order to support the investigation of the other issue. The case study might or might not be interpreted as key to other cases. It is chosen because it is anticipated it could heighten understanding of the other issue---in this case---to promote awareness of Indiana Code. The primary methodology used in the study was semi-structured field interviews with 27 volunteer teachers and other school personnel in one public high school in Indiana. The interviews provided insight into the problems that exist for educators in reporting suspected child abuse as well as ambiguity with the Code. Different approaches to managing and coping with individual case characteristics in order to ensure effective and organized responses to suspected abuse were also discussed. Additionally, consideration was given to anxieties, fears, or difficult decisions that school personnel could experience when reporting suspicions. Finally, required in-service training, including recognition of the signs of child abuse and the school's reporting procedures, was examined.

The politics of punishment and war: Law's violence during the Mexican Reform, circa 1840 to 1870

Lowery-Timmons, Patrick Weldon The University of Texas at Austin 2004 해외박사(DDOD)

What rights do citizens have when confronted by the state's repressive power? A citizen's right to life---qualified or not---and co-existing with the death penalty reveals the legal limits to and fatal capacities of state power. In nineteenth-century Mexico questions about capital punishment dogged liberals, who sought to restrain state violence through individual rights. Newspapers, official and personal archives, almanacs, travel accounts, and illustrations illuminate a little-known dispute about the death penalty amongst the political class in Mexico City and beyond from 1840 to 1870. These sources reveal that the threat of disorder ultimately allowed liberals to forego restraining law's violence. After several centuries of capital punishment in Mexico, in the 1840s reform-minded politicians disputed its value. Reformist liberals considered themselves civilized and modern. Well-versed in European and U.S. Enlightenment theories about crime, state power, and individual rights, they supported abolition. In 1856 the liberals drafted a new constitution, outlawing the death penalty for political crimes because its imposition often reflected a sitting government's whim. Even so, they did not abolish the death penalty outright. Citizens enjoyed only a qualified right to life. Executions for ordinary crimes could persist until the construction of a penitentiary system. The Mexican state, guided by the government and directed through law, continued killing with an unreformed penal strategy. Personal experiences---varied, changing, and unstable---shaped the values within political culture supporting punishment. Repression during political turmoil and the last dictatorship of Santa Anna, ending in 1855, informed liberals' calls for reconciliation, and made acceptable Enlightenment penal reform. But between 1858 and 1867 civil war, foreign invasion, and a puppet emperorship provided liberals with reason to call for capital laws to avenge losses and to protect order. Experience and the Enlightenment could not provide a stable foundation for abolitionism. By the 1870s the liberal government contradicted the Constitution by defining banditry and kidnap as capital crimes. The consequence of retention precipitated an attempt in 1870 to mythologize Constitutional rights through artistic representations of death; and, between 1876 and 1911 enabled Porfirio Diaz to construct a constitutional dictatorship. This analysis is significant because it reveals the problems encountered by modernizing liberal polities attempting to restrain law's violence.

Protease-activated receptors in embryonic development

Griffin, Courtney Timmons University of California, San Francisco 2001 해외박사(DDOD)

The blood coagulation cascade is best known as a sensor of vascular injury. The coagulation protease thrombin signals through protease-activated receptors (PARs) to achieve platelet aggregation, endothelial cell activation, and other important cellular responses to vascular leakage in the adult. However, coagulation factor knock-outs have also demonstrated an unexplained role for the cascade in the developing mouse embryo. Approximately half of PAR1-deficient embryos die at midgestation with massive hemorrhage due to defective vascular integrity. The receptor is expressed in embryonic endothelial cells, and we rescued death of <italic>Par1</italic>−/− embryos with an endothelial-specific PART transgene. Our results highlighted a novel role for coagulation factor signaling in vascular development rather than in clot formation in the developing embryo. When PAR1 was targeted for deletion in combination with factor V, a cofactor necessary for thrombin production, virtually all doubly-deficient embryos died at midgestation, indicating the existence of other targets of coagulation proteases in embryonic development. We found that double-deficiency of PAR1 and PAR4, another thrombin receptor expressed in embryonic vasculature, resulted in 88% lethality. This result suggests that PAR4 provides “back-up” signaling for PAR1 during embryonic development. The PARs are expressed throughout development, and <italic>LacZ</italic> knock-in technology allowed us to detect their expression in a number of novel tissues during late-gestation. This new information about the temporal and spatial expression of the PARs will potentially help us better understand the functional overlap and specificity of PAR signaling in both embryos and adults.

For-profit management of public schools: A cross-site analysis of San Francisco, Atlanta, and Boston (California, Georgia, Massachusetts)

Brown, Stephanie Timmons University of Virginia 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

Growth in school choice and for-profit education has fueled fears that education providers may exploit vulnerable populations while pursuing profits. Critics of for-profit management fear that the privatization of academic instruction may become a tool of commercial exploitation as firms capitalize on poor academic performance in politically vulnerable districts. This project is the first study to empirically examine why and how for-profits locate in urban school districts. Through a comparative examination of three urban school districts---San Francisco, Atlanta, and Boston---this research examines who were the key decision-makers in the for-profit debate in these districts. Also, it examines what factors most influenced school administrators' decisions to contract with an education management organization (EMO). Using data from a variety of sources and employing qualitative methods, this dissertation explores how non-traditional education stakeholders (e.g., influential business leaders, and community advocates) are key actors in the policy process that leads to contracts with EMOs. The dissertation has a tripartite structure: (1) an examination of how municipal services and another socially based industry---the hospital industry---are privatized and how this model paves the way for for-profit in public schools; (2) an explanation of the conditions, policy processes, and consequences leading to the emergence of for-profit management in San Francisco, Atlanta, and Boston; and (3) a cross-site analysis of EMO emergence among these three urban sites. Each case study chapter identifies the conditions that attract EMOs to an urban district, conditions that attract school district officials to for-profit management, and the involvement of traditional education stakeholders and non-traditional education stakeholders in the policy process. Because public education is a political industry, these EMOs made their decisions based on which districts look favorably upon their services and leniently granted access to their schools. Each district maintained schools where students' academic performance lingered notably below district average over a period of time. While the researcher hypothesized that stakeholders such as school board members, the superintendent, the mayor, and city council members were the principal agenda setters, the study revealed that local business leaders in each district served as policy entrepreneurs and were instrumental in the policy process.