Global water consumption is at record levels, prompting concerns about sources, treatment, shortages, accessibility, and environmental impacts. While residential use is high due to population growth, industrial activities, particularly in sectors like textiles, are major contributors to overconsumption and pollution. The textile industry's emphasis on high-volume production, driven by capitalist economies and fueled by trends and social media, has led to increased consumption and waste, notably in the cotton sector, which has one of the highest water consumption rates. By investigating the three (3) top cotton-producing countries, an inference regarding global cotton production practices, water usage, and pollutant discharge was able to be made. These countries included India, China, and the United States. It was determined that the agricultural and post-harvest production conjointly sum to a water usage of about 10,000 m3 per ton. This includes water use for irrigation, various purification processes, serial dilutions for pollutants, cleansing, dyeing, and printing processes. In addition to high water consumption, the cotton industry is also a major source for pollution. These pollutants are due to many processes within the complete production process. The contaminants of concern within this investigation are azo dyes. These dyes are able to degrade into toxic byproducts called aromatic amines which are known to be carcinogenic, mutagenic, and irritating. They also reduce sunlight transmittance and increase the BOD and COD within aquatic ecosystems. Popular remediation methods include reverse osmosis, electrolysis, and biological decoloration – through fungi and prokaryotes – are used due to their high degradation efficiency of around 90%. Although this efficiency rate is quite high, a newer remediation method for azo dyes was found that has a 99.8% efficiency rate along with reusable materials. This process utilized silver nanoparticle-intercalated cotton fibers to completely remove the dyes from the tested waters. Through the investigation, inefficiencies and possible sustainability initiatives were determined that will hopefully become globally implemented in order to reduce the large impact of the cotton textile industry.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the most common form that exists and has many variables that play into its development and diagnosis. This study looks at some of the factors that may have played an impact on people who are pre-diabetic or at risk of being pre-diabetic. Pre-diabetes can often serve as a warning sign for people and presents them with an opportunity for intervention before their condition worsens. However, it often goes unnoticed due to the lack of education regarding healthy living and making better quality-of-life decisions in Hispanic communities. The purpose of this study was to help identify patterns in how people from these communities manage their conditions and find techniques that can be replicated by others in order to improve health outcomes. This study followed a mixed methods approach in order to gain a full understanding of the quantitative (QUAN) and qualitative (QUAL) aspects that may have an impact on diabetes. Data was collected using a questionnaire to analyze different aspects and lifestyles of the participants and an interview with probing questions regarding life decisions, beliefs, and expectations. The overarching research question was “How did varying levels of health motivation and healthful eating habits affect glycosylated hemoglobin levels (HbA1c) in Hispanic/Latinx populations who are at risk of or are pre-diabetic?”. With this, we can obtain a better understanding of certain key aspects that play a role in the development of diabetes. A correlations matrix analysis was run to test how certain variables related and caused changes with one another. To analyze how these variables related specifically to HbA1c, our dependent variable, a multiple regression model analysis was used. It was found that the main contributors to elevated HbA1c levels were health motivation and age. A joint display analysis combined different levels of health motivation, QUAN data, and the responses to a focus question regarding efforts taken to improve one's condition, QUAL. This displayed a pattern of participants with higher health motivation showing efforts to reduce their diabetes risk and by contrast, low health motivation participants showing minimal to no efforts in changing behavior. This study found that elevated HbA1c levels also come with higher health motivation which normally wouldn’t make sense. However, the participants from this study knew about their HbA1c levels before this survey was conducted which means that these people already knew about the dangers of their condition and may have been taking steps to mitigate further risk. This demonstrates the importance of developing education systems to help inform people about risk factors and symptoms to alert them of their condition. It is common in Hispanic areas for people to cook high-fat foods, lard, or oil which often lead to an increased risk of diabetes. There is also a great difference in the amount of resources that Hispanic communities have for practicing healthy lifestyle habits and less effective self-monitoring that makes it difficult to recognize early signs of diabetes. Promoting interventions that help educate about the risks of diabetes could encourage great change in eating habits, activity levels, and overall health outcomes for people from Hispanic communities.

This thesis/creative project explores revisionist mythmaking expressed in the ancient texts of Gnosticism. It also references modern works which are revisions of Greek mythology and the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Two creative writing works are inserted into a larger essay: a synopsis of three gnostic creation myths entitled “The Upside Down: A Gnostic Genesis” and a revisionist myth entitled “Sophia’s Story.” Gnostic revisionist myths are wrought with the duality between matter and spirit. “Sophia’s Story” is an example of how an ancient myth can be revised to reflect 21st-century problems. The myth inverts the duality between matter and spirit into an origin story that unites matter (nature) and spirit. The essay as a whole addresses how mythmaking reflects the society and culture of the time to make sense out of the writers’ lived reality. In the case of the Gnostics, they were oppressed and colonized by the Roman Empire. For example, a gnostic story about the rape of Eve by an evil demiurge and his rulers reflects the abuses colonized women suffered. The essay is also a research project that delves into two personalities that appear in the author’s unpublished novel, Norea: Origins, to further develop their characters. The antagonist, Yaldabaoth, and the protagonist Norea, are main characters in Gnostic mythology. Yaldabaoth is an evil demiurge that created humans as slaves and rapes Norea’s mother Eve. Norea is a female savior in Gnostic mythology. Norea confronts Yaldabaoth and his rulers, names them, damns them, and discovers her true self through gnosis, or knowledge. The author shows how revising myths and retelling old stories can speak to the societal problems we face by navigating the climate crisis in an ecofeminist way.

After the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Haiti was a hot topic in American news outlets. Soon after, there was footage released of Haitian migrants attempting to cross the border while border patrol agents on horseback charged at them, whipping them and shouting obscenities. Following this event, Donald Trump went on Fox News announcing old stereotypes about Haitians bringing AIDs to the US. He degraded Haiti similarly to how he did in his 2018 comments from an oval office meeting, when he stated that their country was a “shithole.” Following these comments and events, Haitian migrants were being refused Temporary Protected Status “TPS,” and being deported back to Haiti - the treatment they received was as congresswoman Alexandia Octavio Cortez described, in “stark contrast,” to that of the Ukrainian refugees who were automatically being granted TPS at the time. This thesis analyzes the history of Foreign Relations between the US and Haiti in order to understand the US’s involvement and responsibility for Haiti’s current state. I start with a historical analysis of American Occupation of Haiti in 1914, and continue through the Duvalier dictatorship, NGO involvement in Haiti, up until Haiti’s current political state, in order to give the socio-political context for the image portrayed of Haitians in American news, social media, film, and TV outlets. My thesis contends that racist stereotypes have been used in media and government alike to dehumanize Haitians and justify exploitative foreign policy.

Medulloblastoma is the most common pediatric brain cancer and accounts for 20% of all pediatric brain tumors. Upon diagnosis, patients undergo tumor-resection surgery followed by intense chemotherapy and cerebrospinal irradiation (CSI) regimens. CSI therapy is highly toxic and poorly tolerated in pediatric patients and is known to cause long-term neurocognitive, endocrine, and developmental deficits that often diminish the quality of life for medulloblastoma patients. The development of targeted therapies is necessary for both increasing the chance of survival and reducing treatment-related morbidities. A potential therapeutic target of interest in medulloblastoma is the polyamine biosynthesis pathway. Polyamines are metabolites present in every living organism and are essential for cellular processes such as growth, survival, and differentiation. Recent studies have shown that polyamine production is dysregulated in several cancers, including brain cancers, and have highlighted polyamine biosynthesis as a potential cancer growth dependency. Dysregulated polyamine metabolism has also been linked to several oncogenic drivers, including the WNT, SHH, and MYC signaling pathways that characterize genetically distinct medulloblastoma subgroups. One way to target polyamine biosynthesis is through the inhibition of the rate-limiting enzyme ornithine decarboxylase with difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), an analog of the polyamine precursor ornithine. DFMO is well-tolerated in pediatric populations and exerts minimal toxicities, as shown through neuroblastoma clinical trials, and is a therapy of interest for medulloblastoma. While DFMO has been tested clinically in multiple cancers, few in vitro studies have been performed to understand the exact mechanisms of anti-proliferation and cytotoxicity. Our study screened two immortalized medulloblastoma cell lines, DAOY (SHH) and D283 (non-WNT/non-SHH), and three patient-derived medulloblastoma cell lines, SL00024 (SHH), SL00668 (non-WNT/non-SHH), SL00870 (Unknown subgroup), for DFMO sensitivity and profiled the immortalized medulloblastoma cell line metabolome to understand the interactions between inhibition of polyamine metabolism with other essential metabolic processes and tumor cell growth. We found that medulloblastoma cell lines are sensitive to DFMO and the adaptive response to DFMO in medulloblastoma may be caused by increased oxidative stress and free radical scavenging. Our study hopes to inform the use of DFMO as an anti-cancer therapy in medulloblastoma by understanding the drug’s single-agent anti-proliferative mechanisms.

Survivors of military sexual assault (MSA), which has been shown to be positively linked with negative posttraumatic cognitions (NPTCs), may be at an increased risk of engaging in sexual risk behaviors. However, the relation between sexual risk-taking and NPTCs among MSA survivors is understudied. In the present study, it was hypothesized that (1) there would be a significant positive association between sexual risk-taking and NPTCs among MSA survivors, and (2) sex would significantly moderate this association, such that the relation between NPTCs and sexual risk-taking would be stronger among male MSA survivors compared to female survivors. Secondary data came from the Military Social Science Laboratory (MiSSiLe) at Arizona State University (ASU). Participants (N = 400) completed surveys in Qualtrics, Inc. assessing military history, MSA exposure, sexual risk-taking, and NPTCs. Pearson’s correlation and simple linear regression with moderation were used to test the above hypotheses, covarying for age, marital status, military branch, and history of PTSD treatment. Results showed a significant positive association between sexual risk-taking and NPTCs among MSA survivors (p < .001); however, the interaction between sex and NPTCs only approached significance, such that the association was slightly stronger for male MSA survivors compared to female survivors (p = .055). These results suggest that the interplay between sexual risk-taking and NPTCs could be an important target for improving healthcare for MSA survivors. Furthermore, future research may consider utilizing study samples that more accurately reflect the distribution of service members across all military branches and the sex distribution of service members and veterans. Doing so would improve generalizability and better inform treatment.

Children who experience ACEs are more susceptible to engaging in illegal acts later in adulthood. Despite the frequency of ACEs within the prison population, the criminal justice system continues to employ a punitive ideology in its operations instead of addressing the ACEs that lead people to commit illegal acts. Many defendants in this study had prior charges and/or were confirmed to have previously served some amount of time in an incarceration facility before they appeared in court to be tried again. The criminal justice system is sometimes referred to as a “revolving door” because it describes the high recidivism rate and how many released ex-offenders return to jail a few years after their release. Every single defendant in the study had current and/or previous drug charges or a history of substance abuse, which goes to show how much the criminal justice system needs to change the way it approaches substance use disorders if the goal is to reduce recidivism. A punitive approach to substance abuse and addiction is ineffective when people who have experienced a multitude of ACEs are released from prison just to return to the same environment that they were arrested from.

Since urban sustainable development involves dynamic and complex systems, tools, and models to aid urban sustainable development must also reflect dynamism and complexity to foster resilience. System dynamics allows for an iterative and robust approach when studying complex problems. This approach applies both quantitative and qualitative data to help unveil the interconnected components and dependencies within a specific city or community. This study approaches urban sustainable development in terms of its environmental, social, and economic dimensions to holistically look at the different components of the system at various levels. Using Tempe, Arizona as a case study, this research and tool provides a conceptual framework in making strides towards dynamic and interconnected thinking that can be taken further to extend into different communities and levels.