For the love of all that is queer and holy: exploring the experiences and identity tensions of LGBTQ individuals within Christianity

2022 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Historical tensions exist between Christian and LGBTQ communities and LGBTQ people are marginalized within Christianity. The purpose for studying the experiences of LGBTQ people within Christianity is to explicate how this religion both benefits LGBTQ people's wellbeing and causes them harm, and to offer solutions for increasing their inclusion at personal and congregational levels. Christianity is a dominant U.S. religion and many of its practices are founded by cisgender, heterosexual White men, and the LGBTQ community is socially marginalized. This study uses Dominant Group Theory and Social Identity Theory with emergent themes to investigate how Christians as a dominant group reinforce, impede, or dismantle LGBTQ discrimination and reveals that LGBTQ Christians embody two historically conflicting populations. Fourteen in-depth interviews were conducted with participants across the U.S. Findings revealed dynamic connections between participants' Christian faith, their LGBTQ identity, and their other social identities. Participants testified leveraging their knowledge of and experiences within Christianity to enact dominant group strategies to advocate for themselves and other LGBTQ people within Christian contexts. There are unique challenges and opportunities in studying how individuals can glean from dominant and nondominant social identities simultaneously to address ingroup–outgroup tensions. This study revealed more avenues to be explored within this context, using these theories, and additional theories

Inhibitory Effects of Unique Sulfonamides on Leishmania tarentolae and Potential Pathway of Inhibition

Leishmaniasis is an endemic disease caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania. Current treatments for the parasite are limited by cost, availability, and drug resistance as the worldwide occurrence of leishmaniasis continues to be more prevalent. Sulfonamides are a class of compounds with medicinal properties that have been used to treat bacterial and parasitic diseases via various pathways. In this study, newly synthesized, unique structural analogs of sulfonamide compounds were assessed for their impact on Leishmania cell viability and potential pathways for inhibition were evaluated. Leishmania tarentolae (ATCC Strain 30143) axenic promastigote cells were grown in BHI medium and treated with varying concentrations of the unique sulfonamide compounds. Light microscopy and viability tests were used to assess the cells with and without treatment. Recombinant Leishmania major dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS) bifunctional enzyme was expressed in E. coli, extracted, and purified. DNA sequencing at UIUC confirmed the gene was expressed correctly, but the recombinant protein did not exhibit catalytic activity. Future work should include evaluation of the inhibitory effects of the sulfonamides on the recombinant DHFR-TS. The conclusions of this work will help determine potential applications for tested sulfonamides improving future medicinal therapies for this disease

“The Ties That Bind Us”: The Creation of a Dance Film

This project centers around the creation of a dance film about my sister and I. Though this piece was originally intended for the stage, the pandemic changed my plans and forced me to adapt it into a dance film. This thesis describes my process as I attempted to adapt my original piece into a dance film, as well as examining the influences which made this work possible. In this thesis, I examined the artistic influences which brought me to who I am as a choreographer today, paying homage to the pioneers of modern dance who inspired generations of dancers like myself. In addition, I included a brief history of the relationship between dance and film, and the benefits and challenges which come with putting dance on film. All of this research and background information lays the groundwork for my summary of my creative process, and my reflections on the work and process. Ultimately, this project is about my personal creative process and journey. Through writing this thesis, I was able to analyze my work and my process thoroughly, and learned more about the process of creating a dance film and how to improve when I create my next work

What\u27s so bad about hooking up?: Factors predictive of more positive perceptions following a hookup

The purpose of the study was to examine factors predictive of a more positive perceptions following a hookup. The participants included 188 students from Illinois State University. Participants completed a demographics questionnaire, the Hookup Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Sexual Self-Esteem Inventory, religiosity questions, attitudes toward hooking up questionnaire, emotional reactions to hooking up questionnaire, and the Social Academic, Romantic, and Sexual Hooking Up Reactions Scale. The current study found that participants who reported high global self-esteem, high sexual self-esteem, and positive attitudes toward hooking up reported less regret, more positive reactions, and fewer negative reactions following a hookup

Decolonizing the YA North: Environmental Injustice in Sherri L. Smith’s Orleans

Young Adult (YA) dystopias, in recent years, have imagined a future world fueled by the overuse and misuse of technology, the advancement of science for human gain, as well as societies ruled by governments that govern based on their own self-interests and economic gain. Such novels have opened the door for discussion about how the present-day actions of societies can impact the future of the environment; yet many only focus their attention on societies in the North— regions considered “developed” by the western world. In her YA novel, Orleans (2014), Sherri L. Smith focuses attention on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and how government denial of ecological realties in southern societies—regions considered “developing”— can lead to catastrophic environmental degradation. Smith’s novel also diverges from other YA novels in that her protagonist is of African descent. This thesis considers how global understandings of the North/South divide can lead to understandings of the divide on a local scale. Through its setting, conflict, and characterization, Orleans, exposes the intersections of environmental injustice with racial and gendered based oppression in order to critique the local North/South divide in present-day New Orleans. Smith’s novel also advocates for the reconciliation of the divide through its dramatization of ecofeminist principles, namely Rosemary Radford Ruether’s “ecofeminist ethic” and Vendana Shiva’s “decolonization of the north

Data and Tools to Operationalize Ridge-to-Reef Management and Build Island Resilience in Oceanic Island Environments.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

Sex allocation theory reveals a hidden cost of neonicotinoid exposure in a parasitoid wasp

P.R.W. was funded by the University of Stirling, C.V.B. and S.M.G. were funded by Nuffield Research Placements and N.C., J.G. and D.M.S. were funded by NERC (NE/J024481/1).Sex allocation theory has proved to be one the most successful theories in evolutionary ecology. However, its role in more applied aspects of ecology has been limited. Here we show how sex allocation theory helps uncover an otherwise hidden cost of neonicotinoid exposure in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Female N. vitripennis allocate the sex of their offspring in line with Local Mate Competition (LMC) theory. Neonicotinoids are an economically important class of insecticides, but their deployment remains controversial, with evidence linking them to the decline of beneficial species. We demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge, that neonicotinoids disrupt the crucial reproductive behaviour of facultative sex allocation at sub-lethal, field-relevant doses in N. vitripennis. The quantitative predictions we can make from LMC theory show that females exposed to neonicotinoids are less able to allocate sex optimally and that this failure imposes a significant fitness cost. Our work highlights that understanding the ecological consequences of neonicotinoid deployment requires not just measures of mortality or even fecundity reduction among non-target species, but also measures that capture broader fitness costs, in this case offspring sex allocation. Our work also highlights new avenues for exploring how females obtain information when allocating sex under LMC.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Effect of grazing on ship rat density in forest fragments of lowland Waikato, New Zealand

Ship rat (Rattus rattus) density was assessed by snap-trapping during summer and autumn in eight indigenous forest fragments (mean 5 ha) in rural landscapes of Waikato, a lowland pastoral farming district of the North Island, New Zealand. Four of the eight were fenced and four grazed. In each set of four, half were connected with hedgerows, gullies or some other vegetative corridor to nearby forest and half were completely isolated. Summer rat density based on the number trapped in the first six nights was higher in fenced (mean 6.5 rats ha–1) than in grazed fragments (mean 0.5 rats ha–1; P = 0.02). Rats were eradicated (no rats caught and no rat footprints recorded for three consecutive nights) from all eight fragments in January–April 2008, but reinvaded within a month; time to eradication averaged 47 nights in fenced and 19 nights in grazed fragments. A second six-night trapping operation in autumn, 1–3 months after eradication, found no effect of fencing (P = 0.73). Connectedness to an adjacent source of immigrants did not influence rat density within a fragment in either season (summer P = 0.25, autumn P = 0.67). An uncalibrated, rapid (one-night) index of ship rat density, using baited tracking tunnels set in a 50 × 50 m grid, showed a promising relationship with the number of rats killed per hectare over the first six nights, up to tracking index values of c. 30% (corresponding to c. 3–5 rats ha–1). The index will enable managers to determine if rat abundance is low enough to achieve conservation benefits. Our results confirm a dilemma for conservation in forest fragments. Fencing protects vegetation, litter and associated ecological processes, but also increases number of ship rats, which destroy seeds, invertebrates and nesting birds. Maximising the biodiversity values of forest fragments therefore requires both fencing and control of ship rats

Cannabinoid-Induced Enhanced Interaction and Protein Levels of Serotonin 5-HT2A and Dopamine D2 Receptors in Rat Prefrontal Cortex

Recent evidence suggests that non-selective cannabinoid receptor agonists may regulate serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptor neurotransmission in brain. The molecular mechanisms of this regulation are unknown but could involve cannabinoid-induced enhanced interaction between 5-HT2A and dopamine D2 (D2) receptors. Here, we present experimental evidence that Sprague-Dawley rats treated with a non-selective cannabinoid receptor agonist (CP55,940, 50μg/kg, 7days, i.p.) showed enhanced co-immunoprecipitation of 5-HT2A and D2 receptors and enhanced membrane-associated expression of D2 and 5-HT2A receptors in prefrontal cortex (PFCx). Furthermore, 5-HT2A receptor mRNA levels were increased in PFCx suggesting a cannabinoid-induced upregulation of 5-HT2A receptors. To date, two cannabinoids receptors have been found in brain, CB1 and CB2 receptors. We used selective cannabinoid agonists in a neuronal cell line to study mechanisms that could mediate this 5-HT2A receptor upregulation. We found that selective CB2 receptor agonists upregulate 5-HT2A receptors by a mechanism that seems to involve activation of Gαi G-proteins, ERK1/2, and AP-1 transcription factor. We hypothesize that the enhanced cannabinoid-induced interaction between 5-HT2A and D2 receptors and in 5-HT2A and D2 receptors protein levels in the PFCx might provide a molecular mechanism by which activation of cannabinoid receptors might be contribute to the pathophysiology of some cognitive and mood disorders