Changing children’s intergroup attitudes towards refugees: Testing different models of extended contact

The present research evaluated an intervention, derived from the "extended contact hypothesis," which aimed to change children's intergroup attitudes toward refugees. The study (n=253) tested 3 models of extended contact among 5- to 11-year-old children: dual identity, common ingroup identity, and decategorization. Children read friendship stories based upon these models featuring in- and outgroup members. Outgroup attitudes were significantly more positive in the extended contact conditions, compared with the control, and this was mediated by "inclusion of other in self." The dual identity intervention was the most effective extended contact model at improving outgroup attitudes. The effect of condition on outgroup intended behavior was moderated by subgroup identity. Implications for theoretically based prejudice-reduction interventions among children are discussed

State-Augmented Mutating Particle Filtering for Fault Detection and Diagnosis

This research develops a model-based particle filter algorithm for quickly detecting sudden faults in dynamic systems. Faults are defined as the abnormal behavior or failure of the system components. This novel method avoids the numerical issues of some other model-based methods. It also allows the fault magnitudes to take on continuous values, instead of constraining them to discrete values. The multiple-model particle filter (MMPF) and interacting multiple-model particle filter (IMMPF) techniques are tested on a nuclear reactor pressurizer system for the detection of loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA). The drawbacks of these methods leads us to the develop the novel algorithm: the state-augmented mutating particle filter (SAMPF), which uses random walk techniques. The SAMPF detects sudden faults faster than conventional random walk techniques. Choosing the proper parameters for the algorithm is considered. The performance of the SAMPF is compared to that of the IMMPF for the pressurizer system. The SAMPF is superior to the IMMPF in fault diagnosis accuracy and consistency

Visual Responses in Mice Lacking Critical Components of All Known Retinal Phototransduction Cascades

The mammalian visual system relies upon light detection by outer-retinal rod/cone photoreceptors and melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells. Gnat1(-/-); Cnga3(-/-); Opn4(-/-) mice lack critical elements of each of these photoreceptive mechanisms via targeted disruption of genes encoding rod alpha transducin (Gnat1); the cone-specific alpha 3 cyclic nucleotide gated channel subunit (Cnga3); and melanopsin (Opn4). Although assumed blind, we show here that these mice retain sufficiently widespread retinal photoreception to drive a reproducible flash electroretinogram (ERG). The threshold sensitivity of this ERG is similar to that of cone-based responses, however it is lost under light adapted conditions. Its spectral efficiency is consistent with that of rod opsin, but not cone opsins or melanopsin, indicating that it originates with light absorption by the rod pigment. The TKO light response survives intravitreal injection of U73122 (a phospholipase C antagonist), but is inhibited by a missense mutation of cone alpha transducin (Gnat2(cpfl3)), suggesting Gnat2-dependence. Visual responses in TKO mice extend beyond the retina to encompass the lateral margins of the lateral geniculate nucleus and components of the visual cortex. Our data thus suggest that a Gnat1-independent phototransduction mechanism downstream of rod opsin can support relatively widespread responses in the mammalian visual system. This anomalous rod opsin-based vision should be considered in experiments relying upon Gnat1 knockout to silence rod phototransduction

My Job is to Live My Life, Not Save Yours: The Ordinariness and Emotional Labor of Queer Masculinity in Netflixs Queer Eye

The current study examines contemporary understandings of Queer masculinity through a textual and audience analysis of Netflix\u27s Queer Eye: More then a Makeover. I begin by situating this project within the context of media studeis. From there, I engage with literature surrounding the representaitons of differing genders and sexualities in reality television shows. Using the theory of ordinariness (Cavalcante, 2018) and the theory of reflexivity (Sender, 2012), I argue that Netflix\u27s Queer Eye represents a subtle shift in the representaiton of Queer men in television as ordinary and everyday. Audiences understood this presentaiton as Netflix\u27s Fav Five\u27s ordinariness as confidence and through reflexive engagements with the series, came to expect the Fav Five to perform emotional labor on themselves in order to construct an actuated self. Audiences also deploy reflexivity to complicate their engagements with Netflix\u27s Queer Eye through believability, queer representation, and anti-fandom

A Performative Autoethnography on the Irruption of a Healing Assemblage

In this ecofeminist poststructural performative autoethnography, I explored my own personal journey through prolonged grief, conceptualized as a grief assemblage, while critically examining the functionality of preexisting thought and practices on loss and self-care. The research questions that guided this dissertation were: (1) Who and what constitutes a grief assemblage? (2) How does a grief assemblagea fluid entity of nonhumans and humans that somehow functions togetherproduce me as a woman, a graduate student, and a counselor? (3) How can a reconceptualization of grief as assemblage expand thinking and practices on loss, grief, and self-care? (4) How can an applicable, customizable tool arise from this work that can further the aim of helping others heal from grief and engage in self-care practices in therapeutic settings?I worked closely with ecofeminist poststructural theory and performative autoethnographic methodology and became enmeshed in a fluid process that interrogated the confines of traditional research studies. This enmeshment also generated interrogations of preconceived notions about binary systems supposedly separating self and other, life and death, and nature and culture, until these separations collapsed into constant movements along infinite lines of flight. As I assembled artifacts related to my experiences of grief, loss, and self-care, the assemblage continued to vibrate with the constant fluctuations at work among a myriad of forces, thereby necessitating that I think and work with data differently. St. Pierres (1997) transgressive data irrupted along these lines of flight as concrete artifacts, dreams, hauntings, memories, emotions, and performative knowledge through living the assemblage with my body. I employed writing as a method of inquiry (St. Pierre & Richardson, 2005) and analysis to assemble a rhizomatic narrative in which I showed the many identity performances I enact as a person who is simultaneously grieving and healing. I used photo-text to illustrate how the grief assemblage is becoming a healing assemblage. Just as the assemblage collapses, folds, vibrates, and performs constant movements, I found myself assembling, dismantling, and re-assembling the data into various configurations which culminated in the alternating pages of photographs and text as I conversed with my mother and all the other forces in the assemblage. I found that I am performing healing as I continue to move with the assemblage.To further the aim of social justice for others who are grieving and trying to heal in a world that is far too often focused on work and achievement at the expense of self-care, I created a healing-gram, which is a practical therapeutic tool mental health professionals can use with their clients. The healing-gram itself is an assemblage of artifacts with which grieving individuals become entangled as they work with their selected artifacts in empowering and creative ways. The healing-gram includes a protocol that serves as a standardized guide for therapists, yet which also honors the unique experiences and identity locations of diverse populations. I created this tool to bridge the gap between counseling-specific theories and practices about loss, grief, and healing, and poststructural thought. I conceptualize this work as an ongoing process that does not provide straightforward answers to questions such as those that guided this study. Instead, more questions continue to irrupt which I hope will lead to future studies and practices on these topics