Covering China at the Crossroads: Unpacking the Community of Chinese Transnational Journalists

This dissertation examines the roles of Chinese transnational journalists in Western media during a period of the past five years, marked by escalating US-China geopolitical tensions. It draws on data from 37 interviews with Chinese journalists placed in reputable and newly founded Western news outlets, as well as on narrative analysis of selective journalistic content. The study explores how these journalists serve as transnational communicative intermediaries, both challenging and immersing in hegemonic media practices in the Global North. The analysis illuminates significant obstacles that this journalistic community faces as it operates in Western media, including precarious labor and reporting conditions. In terms of labor conditions and career trajectories, these assistants and journalists face distinct yet significant challenges due to their status as Chinese employees, expatriates, immigrants, and minorities. In reporting on China, they also face the dual constraints from Western media’s reporting structure that prioritizes the Western gaze, and an increasingly constrained Chinese media environment that limits their access to China stories. Despite these obstacles, they negotiate different opportunities for professional development, craft and publicize nuanced narratives that counter the simplified geopolitical stories prevalent in mainstream Western media. Some of these journalists also initiate independent media projects like podcasts, newsletters, and videos that center to the needs of China-interested audiences and promote China storytellers’ voices by focusing on humanistic perspectives and societal issues. This study enriches three key bodies of scholarship: media imperialism, transnational journalism, and China’s global communication. Firstly, it deepens our understanding of global media hybridity by linking the individual agency of non-state journalists with broader power hierarchies and editorial processes. Secondly, it deepens our grasp of labor dynamics in transnational journalism by examining the precarity and opportunities of non-Western journalists, challenging the traditional binary that positions Western correspondents as central and Global South journalists as peripheral. Lastly, it positions Chinese transnational journalists as pivotal in reshaping China’s global communication narrative, moving beyond the dominant focus on state-driven practices and diasporic engagements

The Associations Between Positive and Negative Affective Empathy and Worry in Middle Childhood

Empathy is typically an adaptive trait associated with healthy social and emotional functioning in children. However, for children with difficulty controlling their emotions, too much empathy for others’ distress (i.e., negative empathy) may lead to an aversive, self-focused response. Children prone to this type of response may have higher levels of worry, defined as cognitive elaboration of possible negative outcomes. While worry is common among children, high levels of worry that are excessive or difficult to control can lead to maladaptive outcomes. Empathizing strongly with others’ happiness (i.e., positive empathy) may be protective against worry because positive emotions build psychological resilience and dismantle negative emotions. The current study (N = 117, 50% female, Mage=9.13 years) examined if higher levels of negative affective empathy, as measured through parent-report and ratings of facial expressions in response to sad emotional videos, were associated with lower levels of worry in children with stronger emotion control and higher levels of worry in children with weaker emotion control. It also examined if higher levels of positive affective empathy, as measured through parent-report and ratings of facial expressions while children watched happy emotional videos, were associated with lower levels of worry. Contrary to my hypotheses, emotion control did not moderate the association between negative affective empathy and worry. Further, neither positive nor negative affective empathy was significantly associated with worry, suggesting that affective empathy does not serve as a direct risk or protective factor for worry in middle childhood. One explanation may be that worry at this age is more self-focused than other-focused, and therefore self-conscious emotions (i.e., shame, pride) may be more relevant to worry than affective empathy. Lastly, there was a significant main effect of emotion control on worry, such that children with stronger emotion control had lower levels of worry, which could have clinical implications for interventions aimed at reducing worry

Two Centuries of Defining Moments for Black Women Higher Education Leaders in the United States

Black women have made significant strides in their representation in higher education leadership in the United States over the past two centuries. They have faced barriers, yet they have also made substantial contributions to the field. Historically, Black women remain at the forefront of the struggle for equal access to education, with many earning degrees, becoming educators, and founding higher education institutions. However, their leadership roles have often been marginalized and overlooked. Despite this, Black women have persevered and made advancements in higher education administration, but they continue to face obstacles in their career paths and leadership progression. The experiences of Black women higher education leaders, including the challenges they encounter and the strategies they employ to overcome them, can provide valuable insights for improving the retention and advancement of Black women leaders. Achieving gender equality in leadership positions in higher education is a matter of fairness, and it is essential to advancing the evolving higher education landscape

Within-Individual BOLD Signal Variability in an N-Back Task: Relation to Neuropsychological Assessments of Attention and Working Memory in Survivors of Pediatric Brain Tumor

Pediatric brain tumor survivors are at heightened risk for cognitive deficits in areas of executive functioning including, but not limited to, attention and working memory (WM). To date, research examining task-based within-individual blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal variability has focused on healthy individuals and a select group of clinical populations. Survivors of pediatric brain tumor are not yet represented in this literature. The present study examines task-based within-individual BOLD signal variability patterns during attention and WM trials of a letter n-back task and examines the relationship between in-scanner within-individual BOLD signal variability and out-of-scanner neurocognitive abilities in a sample of pediatric brain tumor survivors (N = 30) and healthy controls (N = 48). Using peak coordinates of an attention/WM network, we first explored within-individual BOLD signal variability patterns during n-back task loads. We found limited significant differences in within-individual BOLD signal variability in common contrasts between n-back load types for the 20 regions of interest. There were no significant differences in within-individual BOLD signal variability patterns in each n-back task load between brain tumor survivors and healthy controls. Within-individual BOLD signal variability in each n-back task load was not significantly correlated to mean accuracy or mean reaction time. Within-individual BOLD signal variability did not have a significant influence over group in the relationship between BOLD signal variability and task accuracy. Finally, for WM n-back task loads, greater within-individual BOLD signal variability was significantly negatively associated with performance on out-of-scanner measures of attention and WM. Group differences between brain tumor survivors and healthy controls were present in latent values from neuropsychological data rather than from within-individual BOLD signal variability data. We document evidence that chemoradiation treatment significantly impacts within-individual BOLD signal variability patterns; those with chemoradiation demonstrate lesser variability. Examining task-based within-individual BOLD signal variability and how it relates to neuropsychological outcomes contributes to the literature to allow greater understanding of brain-behavior relationships in this unique clinical population with documented deficits in domains of executive functioning. Understanding within-individual BOLD signal variability patterns in this population may help explain these cognitive weaknesses and/or provide avenues for appropriate intervention in this vulnerable population

Investigating the Protective Potential of Muslim Identity on Experienced Islamophobia and Trauma Symptomatology among Muslims in the U.S.

The current study investigated the association between experienced islamophobia and trauma symptomatology, as well as the potential for Muslim identity to mitigate the effects of experienced islamophobia on PTSD symptoms in a community sample of adult Muslims in Georgia (N = 130). Consistent with our hypothesis, bivariate correlation analyses revealed that overall experienced islamophobia, as well as all three islamophobia dimensions (i.e., religious prejudice and stigmatization, bicultural identification and conflict, and perception of a racist environment), significantly and positively correlated with total PTSD symptoms. Moderation analyses revealed that overall experienced islamophobia significantly predicted total PTSD symptoms, but contrary to our hypothesis, overall Muslim identity and both identity subscales (i.e., identity exploration and identity belonging/commitment) did not emerge as moderators. One-way ANOVA and t-test analyses revealed significant group differences in experienced islamophobia and PTSD symptoms across gender, birthplace, and migrant status. Qualitative data was utilized to contextualize the quantitative responses regarding experiences of islamophobia, stress, and identity. This study adds to the minimal literature on how stressors like islamophobia can impact PTSD symptomatology, and the potential for distinct experiences across identities within Muslim communities. Furthermore, this study offers insight into how such factors work together to broadly influence mental health disparities among Muslims living in the United States

Two Centuries of Defining Moments for Black Women Higher Education Leaders in the United States

Black women have made significant strides in their representation in higher education leadership in the United States over the past two centuries. They have faced barriers, yet they have also made substantial contributions to the field. Historically, Black women remain at the forefront of the struggle for equal access to education, with many earning degrees, becoming educators, and founding higher education institutions. However, their leadership roles have often been marginalized and overlooked. Despite this, Black women have persevered and made advancements in higher education administration, but they continue to face obstacles in their career paths and leadership progression. The experiences of Black women higher education leaders, including the challenges they encounter and the strategies they employ to overcome them, can provide valuable insights for improving the retention and advancement of Black women leaders. Achieving gender equality in leadership positions in higher education is a matter of fairness, and it is essential to advancing the evolving higher education landscape

Predictors of Cognition Across the Menopausal Transition: A Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The menopausal transition is known to bring considerable changes to the physical and mental health of many women. The hormonal cascade during menopause is associated with cognitive and mood disturbances and can amplify preexisting vulnerabilities for cognitive decline. However, there is variability in the literature about the extent to which menopause is linked to cognition in women. Biopsychosocial factors related to the menopausal transition and cognitive decline may account for this variability. Additionally, racial disparities in the experience of menopausal and its related symptoms, many of which impact cognitive health, suggest the relationships among biopsychosocial factors, menopausal status, and cognition may differ for women from different ethnoracial backgrounds; however, there is a dearth of research about these relationships in diverse samples. Using a multiple-group structural equation modeling approach, the present study investigated how changes in biopsychosocial functioning that are prominent for women in midlife interact with menopausal status to influence cognitive performance in a sample of 1,221 women. Additionally, this study examined differences in the relationships among biopsychosocial factors, menopausal status, and cognition between Black and White women. Results revealed that menopausal status was related to cognition, but the effect was no longer significant when models accounted for demographic variables including age. Higher depressive symptoms and worse sexual functioning were significantly associated with worse cognition, but these factors did not significantly interact with menopausal status. For premenopausal women, greater vascular burden was associated with better cognition, with an effect in the opposite direction for early perimenopausal women. Furthermore, for Black postmenopausal women, greater vascular burden was associated with better cognition. This contrasts with a significantly negative relationship between vascular health and cognition for Black early perimenopausal women and White women in the early peri- and postmenopausal groups. Overall, biopsychosocial factors tended to have stronger relationships with cognition for Black women. Future studies should more rigorously study these relationships with objective measures, more comprehensive cognitive testing, and in more diverse populations over time

Estimation of Additive Cure Model with Applications

Survival analysis plays a crucial role in medical research for understanding the time until an event of interest occurs, such as disease recurrence or death. An important branch of survival analysis models is cure models, assuming that a proportion of subjects will never experience the event of interest. The value of the proportion is called the cured rate and is usually associated with many covariates with complex effect relationships. Studying cure models under such non-linear covariate effects remains an active research area. This thesis aims to investigate advancements in additive cure models, focusing on their ability to capture additive complex relationships between covariates and survival outcomes with a curedfraction through non-linear modeling techniques, such as basic splines. Additive cure models offer a robust framework for analyzing survival data when a subset of individuals is cured and does not experience the event. The thesis will involve simulation studies to assess the accuracy of parameter estimation and model fit in various scenarios, and the application of additive cure models to real-world datasets from medical research studies. The findings will enhance the understanding and application of additive cure models in analyzing survivaldata with non-linear covariate effects, with implications for clinical decision-making and prognostic modeling. The insights gained from this research have implications for various fields, including epidemiology, clinical research, and public health, providing valuable tools for analyzing survival data and enhancing decision-making processes

Engineering Peace from Civil War: The Prospects of Institutional Peacebuilding and Multidimensional Inclusion

This dissertation incorporates quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the impact of institutional engineering on levels of political violence in states emerging from civil war. Despite consensus on the conflict dampening potential of particular mechanisms, the promise of democratic peacebuilding has yet to be realized in many cases. Accounting for the divergence between expectations and outcomes, I assess the interactive effects of electoral system and power sharing arrangements on the propensity of former rebel movements and governments to pursue strategies of political violence or, conversely, compromise and cooperation. In contrast with existing research on democratic peacebuilding, which focuses largely on separate institutions and relies heavily on intensive, single case study methods, this project provides a variegated exploration into the interactive effects of particular institutional configurations. To facilitate a systematic, robust investigation, the research supplements the cross-sectional time-series methods, used to analyze a dataset of terminated intra-state conflicts after 1990, with two case studies

The Development of Culturally-Appropriate Educational Materials to Facilitate Comprehension and Adherence to Occupational Therapy Interventions

Title: The Development of Culturally-Appropriate Educational Materials to Facilitate Comprehension and Adherence to Occupational Therapy Interventions Purpose: The purpose of this capstone project is to enhance the engagement of the Hispanic population with occupational therapy (OT) services by developing translated educational resources that will support their ability to understand and implement their plan of care in a hospital. Methods: A literature review supported the need for improved access of culturally-appropriate healthcare material for the Hispanic community. A needs assessment served to interview staff members at the capstone facility to gain knowledge about the current practices and available resources offered intended to enhance the engagement of the Hispanic population with OT services. All handouts were developed in English, utilizing best practices of educational handout development, as described in literature review. The translation process involved a multi-step process and interprofessional collaboration with WellStar Language Access Department and Georgia State World (GSU) Language and Culture Department. Results: Four department binders were established for this doctoral capstone project. A total of fifteen educational handouts were developed in English covering a wide spectrum of topics. Of the fifteen developed handouts, eleven were translated into Spanish; the remaining four documents will be translated as part of the sustainability plan. The student delivered a presentation to the staff at the capstone facility and obtained feedback about the finalized materials, and it was evident the staff was enthusiastic about the outcome of the doctoral capstone project. The doctoral capstone project established interprofessional collaboration and fostered the relationship for continued partnership between WellStar and GSU. Conclusion: The doctoral capstone project addressed a gap in culturally-appropriate OT resources for Hispanic patients at the capstone facility. The development and translation of educational handouts represents a contribution to improving patient care and communication access within the hospital system