South Asian Visual Culture: From Traditional Arts to Mediums of Modernity

South Asia is home to myriad expressive traditions spanning from classical sculpture and painting to popular illustration and film. While medium is important, especially in shaping the meaning of a cultural expression, this exhibit uses visual culture as a way of looking at contrasting media to draw attention to commonalities across media. This exhibit highlights items from the UT Libraries to bring attention to both the impressive array of items available here while also gesturing to the wide range of interconnected media forms prevalent in South Asia today.UT Librarie

The Effects of Interstate Speed Limit Increases: Fatality Rates and Traffic Diversion Versus Speed Spillover

This thesis examines two panel data sets of 48 states from 1981 to 2009 and utilizes ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects models to explore the relationship between rural Interstate speed limits and fatality rates and whether rural Interstate speed limits affect non-Interstate safety. Models provide evidence that rural Interstate speed limits higher than 55 MPH lead to higher fatality rates on rural Interstates though this effect is somewhat tempered by reductions in fatality rates for roads other than rural Interstates. These results provide some but not unanimous support for the traffic diversion hypothesis that rural Interstate speed limit increases lead to decreases in fatality rates of other roads. To the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first econometric study to differentiate between the effects of 70 MPH speed limits and speed limits above 70 MPH on fatality rates using a multi-state data set. Considering both rural Interstates and other roads, rural Interstate speed limit increases above 55 MPH are responsible for 39,700 net fatalities, 4.1 percent of total fatalities from 1987, the year limits were first raised, to 2009

Inhibition of Action, Thought, and Emotion: A Selective Neurobiological Review

The neural bases of inhibitory function are reviewed, covering data from paradigms assessing inhibition of motor responses (antisaccade, go/nogo, stop-signal), cognitive sets (e.g., Wisconsin Card Sort Test), and emotion (fear extinction). The frontal cortex supports performance on these paradigms, but the specific neural circuitry varies: response inhibition depends upon fronto-basal ganglia networks, inhibition of cognitive sets is supported by orbitofrontal cortex, and retention of fear extinction reflects ventromedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala interactions. Inhibition is thus neurobiologically heterogeneous, although right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex may support a general inhibitory process. Dysfunctions in these circuits may contribute to psychopathological conditions marked by inhibitory deficits.Psycholog

Dads on the Dotted Line: A Look at the In-Hospital Paternity Establishment Process

In the U.S., two out of five children are born to unmarried parents. These children do not have a legal father until paternity is established, a process completed by most families in the hospital at the time of the birth. Over the last 30 years, the percentage of unmarried parents voluntarily establishing paternity in the hospital has climbed considerably, driven in large part by a series of policy changes aimed at easing and incentivizing the process. Despite the apparent success of these policies, few have examined the mechanics of the paternity establishment process itself to understand whether it is functioning optimally for parents and hospitals. Further, few have sought an understanding of why parents do or do not establish paternity. Drawing on original data collected through two separate studies, this paper presents a descriptive portrait of the paternity establishment process from two perspectives—that of unmarried parents and that of birth registrars, the certified hospital staff who administer the process. Data come from the Paternity Establishment Study (PES), a longitudinal birth cohort study of approximately 800 Texas mothers who gave birth outside of marriage in 2013, and the Nonmarital Birth and Registration (NBAR) study, an online survey of 555 hospital staff members certified to register births in Texas conducted in January of 2014. In addition, we incorporate data from a roundtable discussion with staff from the Child Support Division who oversee the in-hospital paternity establishment program. We find that despite heavy workloads, high turnover, relatively low wages, and varying levels of support from hospital management, birth registrars are largely effective in their execution of the in-hospital paternity establishment process, guiding a remarkable 90 percent of parents who are both at the hospital to establish paternity. Despite these successes, birth registrars continue to confront issues that lie outside of their training, experience, and legal knowledge; third-party AOPs, disputed paternity, and family violence cases deserve special consideration, and underscore the need to recognize circumstances in which it may be preferable for a father to establish paternity through alternate means. Our findings call for a more nuanced perspective on the objectives of paternity establishment, and highlight the need for clear and consistent protocols to address the more complex circumstances that birth registrars face

Supporting Intervention Fidelity of Dialogic Reading to Support Preschool Children’s Early Literacy Skills

Early literacy skills are key indicators of later reading success, and early literacy instruction in early childhood education can support both positive academic and behavioral child outcomes. Dialogic reading (DR) is an evidence-based intervention that targets early literacy skills like oral language, vocabulary, and print concepts. Although research suggests DR has the potential to impact the early literacy skills of young children, intervention fidelity must be maintained for the intervention to be effective. Two single case design studies were conducted in an early childhood setting that together examined (a) the effects of intervention supports on the intervention fidelity of educators performing interventions, and (b) early child literacy outcomes when educators accessed DR intervention supports. Study 1, an alternating treatment design, focused on intervention scripts and an intervention checklist on intervention fidelity. Findings indicated that both supports equivalently increased educators’ (N = 4) intervention fidelity, though the educators preferred using a checklist. Study 2, a multiple baseline design, examined the effects of the intervention supports and subsequent increased intervention fidelity on child early literacy across four children. Findings indicated increased book-based vocabulary for children during the intervention phase when intervention fidelity levels were higher. Taken together, the studies suggest intervention fidelity for DR is best delivered with support from checklists or other methods, and that ensuring that DR is delivered as intended may help bolster children’s reading skills

Eigenvector continuation with subspace learning

A common challenge faced in quantum physics is finding the extremal eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a Hamiltonian matrix in a vector space so large that linear algebra operations on general vectors are not possible. There are numerous efficient methods developed for this task, but they generally fail when some control parameter in the Hamiltonian matrix exceeds some threshold value. In this work we present a new technique called eigenvector continuation that can extend the reach of these methods. The key insight is that while an eigenvector resides in a linear space with enormous dimensions, the eigenvector trajectory generated by smooth changes of the Hamiltonian matrix is well approximated by a very low-dimensional manifold. We prove this statement using analytic function theory and propose an algorithm to solve for the extremal eigenvectors. We benchmark the method using several examples from quantum many-body theory.Comment: Version to appear in Physical Review Letters, 4 + 6 pages (main + supplemental materials), 1 + 6 figures (main + supplemental materials

Phosphate and Selective Anion Removal of Waste Water in Industrial Systems

Phosphorous is an essential nutrient for a functioning water ecosystem, however, heightened levels caused by waste water and agriculture can be damaging. High levels of PO43- cause toxic algae blooms, which kill wildlife and contaminate drinking water supplies. Therefore, cheap, efficient phosphate removal systems are beneficial for commercial settings in order to meet governmental standards. Similar research and technology can aid in the removal of toxic heavy metals in industrial waste water. Using a packed column with solid supported media, both phosphate and other selective anions were successfully removed from water. This was confirmed by inductively coupled plasma analysis. Constraints for this deliverable would include reagent cost as well as governmental regulations concerning substances in waste water. Another consideration was the ability to reuse spent columns through regeneration techniques. By creating a small scale column system, the team tested the effective removal of selective anions from water sources while keeping in mind the contact time and loading capacity of metals onto the media. Through design of experiment, optimal results were obtained. For removal, it was determined that, the higher the loading of the metal along with 4 minute contact times allowed for optimal removal. The most efficient media and regenerative were also determined. Future considerations should involve a real time controller to obtain instant analytical data allowing users to know when columns need to be regenerated. This ensures minimal waste of reagent during removal. This design is applicable to companies concerned with the environmental impact of their waste water.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1086/thumbnail.jp

The Role of the Nucleus Accumbens and Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Anhedonia: Integration of Resting EEG, fMRI, and Volumetric Techniques

Anhedonia, the reduced propensity to experience pleasure, is a promising endo-- phenotype and vulnerability factor for several psychiatric disorders, including depression and schizophrenia. In the present study, we used resting electroencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and volumetric analyses to probe putative associations between anhedonia and individual differences in key nodes of the brain's reward system in a non-clinical sample. We found that anhedonia, but not other symptoms of depression or anxiety, was correlated with reduced nucleus accumbens (NAcc) responses to rewards (gains in a monetary incentive delay task), reduced NAcc volume, and increased resting delta current density (i.e., decreased resting activity) in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), an area previously implicated in positive subjective experience. In addition, NAcc reward responses were inversely associated with rACC resting delta activity, supporting the hypothesis that delta might be lawfully related to activity within the brain's reward circuit. Taken together, these results help elucidate the neural basis of anhedonia and strengthen the argument for anhedonia as an endophenotype for depression.Psycholog