Mexico underwent a dramatic cultural revolution in 1920, and from this revolution sprung a new type of art. ‘Los Tres Grandes,’ as they came to be known, were three men, Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros, who painted legendary murals depicting anti-capitalist and Revolutionary themes. This paper discusses the works of David Alfaro Siqueiros, a revolutionary Mexican mural painter, and his involvement in the Modernist movement in the United States. I first explore Siqueiros’ Los Angeles mural America Tropical and argue that he created it to be a strong political statement in a time of national turmoil. I explore the iconology and iconography of the piece that combined ancient Maya symbolism with modern techniques, creating a wholly new form of publicly available art. I also highlighted the importance of the location of this mural in a Los Angeles district that relies on white tourism for survival, and contrasted it with a mural highlighting the suffering of Indigenous people in the United States and America as a whole. Focusing on his time spent in the United States, I also explore his artist-relationship with the modernist painter Jackson Pollock and Siqueiros’ apparent influences on his style. Finally, I will discuss the influences that Los Angeles art culture had on Siqueiros, including a change in his mural style from individualistic to collectivist.

When massive stars die, they explode in violent spectacles known as supernovae, specifically core-collapse supernovae. These cataclysmic events produce and distribute a large fraction of the heavy elements in the universe, but the properties of the massive stars that produce them have historically been difficult to measure. I have made new measurements constraining the masses of stars that have produced core-collapse supernovae, also known as supernova progenitors. I have done this by measuring the ages of stars at the location of supernova remnants: the nebulae of excited and enriched gas left behind by supernovae that have occurred over the past 20,000 years. Assuming the progenitor was associated with these stars, I am able to estimate the age of the star that exploded. Using theoretical models, I am able to infer the mass from this age. I used images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate the stars responsible for producing hundreds of these remnants in the nearby galaxy NGC 6946. In addition to the remnants of supernovae, this galaxy has hosted ten observed core-collapse supernovae within the past hundred years, leading to it being referred to as the “Fireworks Galaxy”. I was able to constrain the progenitor mass distribution for 175 remnants, eight of the historically observed supernovae, as well as the progenitor of the first direct black hole formation candidate in NGC 6946. I found the distribution of progenitor masses was consistent with mass distributions measured for massive stars in other galaxies, including our own Milky Way. These new measurements allow NGC6946 to be included for the first time in statistical studies of the masses of stars that produce supernovae.

Seed dispersal is a crucial phase of plant lifecycles. Effective dispersal is important to the ecosystem as a whole because it affects composition of the community, ecological succession, and response to climate change. Given the importance of seed dispersal, understanding the factors that contribute to the evolution of varied dispersal modes and promote convergence on specific dispersal strategies is particularly important to understanding plant ecology. We think habitat might be one of these important factors. Here, to explore the relationship between habitat and dispersal mode, we are studying the onion grasses (Melica), a small genus of perennial grasses primarily distributed in temperate regions, and their relatives. These grasses are found in a wide variety of habitats and possess a remarkable diversity of seed dispersal strategies. These traits make them a useful case study for better understanding the factors that influence the evolution of dispersal strategy. We are testing the hypothesis that evolution in traits associated with seed dispersal is correlated with changes in habitat. In particular, we hypothesize that the evolution of wind dispersed seeds follows transitions into open habitats. Seed dispersal structures (diaspores) were collected from 28 grass species (14 Melica and 14 outgroup). To assess wind dispersal potential, we quantify falling velocity by filming seed descent at 1000 fps. Lower falling velocities are associated with higher wind dispersal potential. Diaspores were photographed and the images were used to measure surface roughness, which is associated with adhesive dispersal potential. Habitat data were obtained for each species via a literature survey. These data, along with several other traits associated with seed dispersal processes, were mapped onto the evolutionary tree of the onion grasses. Initial results indicate that convergence upon wind dispersal may be in part driven by convergence upon disturbed habitat types.

Star formation at the outer extremities of the Milky Way takes place under conditions much different from those in the rest of the Galaxy, giving us a window into how the process differs in a low-density, low-metallicity region. The Outer Scutum-Centaurus (OSC) spiral arm is the most distant molecular spiral arm in the Galaxy, lying about 15 kpc from the center of the Galaxy. In this study, we use the VLA radio array to observe 12 HII regions in the OSC, all of which had no previously existing continuum data. HII regions are areas of ionized hydrogen around massive stars and are the brightest objects in the radio spectrum across the Milky Way, making them perfect laboratories to study star formation in the outer Galaxy. These OSC HII regions represent the most distant known high-mass star formation regions in the Milky Way and give us an excellent laboratory for studying those processes in a low-density, low-metallicity environment. Our data let us identify radio continuum data for 7 HII regions in the OSC, as well as establish upper limits for the RMS associated with the other 5 observed nondetections. By assuming a single ionizing star for each region, we assign spectral types from O9 to O5.5 to these sources. Combined with existing data, we identify a total of 12 HII regions in the OSC Arm with continuum and spectral data. Further research would involve re-observing our nondetections to identify data for what are likely B-type ionizing sources. Obtaining meaningful data for those nondetections would allow us to classify more stars powering HII regions in the region, increasing the amount of information known about star formation in the extreme conditions of the OSC and potentially revealing new information about how O-type and B-type stars form differently in the same unique environment.

Seed dispersal is an important component in the lifecycle of plants and aids in establishment of successive generations. Flowering plants have developed multiple ways of dispersing their progeny, including via wind, a strategy known as anemochory. In this presentation, I evaluate and compare wind dispersal potential of ecologically dominant grasses of the tropical savannas of Venezuela, Cerrado region in Brazil, and Serengeti region in Tanzania. Due to increased canopy cover in regions of the Cerrado and Venezuelan savannah relative to the Serengeti, I predict that conditions in the Serengeti would favor wind dispersal. Dispersal structures, known as diaspores, were sampled from specimens obtained from various herbaria. I measured falling velocity as a proxy for wind dispersal ability. I dropped diaspores from a chute and recorded them on high-speed video, which I analyzed to determine the speed of the falling specimen. My data analysis so far has consisted of obtaining and comparing average falling velocity for communities. Contrary to my original prediction, preliminary data suggest that wind dispersal is favored in the Cerrado. This may be due in part to the relative abundance of megafauna in the Serengeti, which would allow for seed dispersal via animal adhesion (epizoochory) or consumption (endozoochory). Diaspores using these dispersal mechanisms may not be as likely to have low falling velocities associated with anemochory. To further evaluate epizoochorous and endozoochorous potential, I am currently analyzing surface roughness using photographs of dispersal units.

There are 50 million family caregivers caring for their loved ones in the United States. Caregivers experience significant stress and burnout, and need on-demand support with minimal resources investment. With the burgeoning development of artificial intelligence, conversational agents (chatbots) emerged as a solution for symptom self-management and self-care. Our research team developed Caring for Caregivers Online (COCO) - an AI-enhanced platform providing on-demand, empathetic, and tailored caregiving support. One of the key challenges in designing a chatbot is to ensure effective communication. To address this problem, our research team aims to determine the best practice in conveying health symptoms and solutions in a conversational agent to improve users' understanding of their health data and increase their trust in the technology. User testing and surveys are our main tools to address this question. After the initial session with the chatbot, users were asked to fill out a post-conversation survey. Based on users' ratings on their symptom intensity and solution effectiveness in the post-conversation survey, the chatbot generates personalized health recommendations. Next, we randomly assigned users to one of the two surveys that present the same recommendations in different ways—one with text, the other with a visualization. Users then provided ratings on how well they understood the visualization, their trust toward the chatbot, and some additional feedback. The results of the rating will be analyzed with an average score comparison between the two groups, and qualitative analysis will be employed to evaluate users' feedback. We expect the group presented with visualizations to give higher ratings in areas of both trust and data comprehension. Effective data visualizations inform caregivers of their health progress which motivates them to continue monitoring their health conditions and further practice proposed solutions. In addition, visualization increases caregivers' level of trust in chatbots and helps improve their chronic health conditions.

This study asks how participants in Veterans Treatment Court perceive services received from them and what impact the courts have on participants’ feelings about themselves. It uses data drawn from three in-depth qualitative interviews of veterans who have completed veterans courts treatment and services. Participants described their criminal charges, which include assault, malicious mischief, driving under the influence, and theft. All of the participants described their current state as being in some form of recovery from either addiction or another form of mental health challenge. The interviews were conducted with a unique social work frame focusing on the micro, meso and macro implications of participation in the courts. Findings based on qualitative analyses revealed that participants felt supported during the course of their participation and empowered to make changes in their lives. Most importantly, participants felt humanized by their experience which stands in marked contrast to their experiences in other criminal proceedings. The study points to the unique value of veterans courts and the role they can play in supporting participants’ recovery and wellbeing.

This paper is intended as a critique and development of morality in literature, seeking to prove that literature can have deep effects on a reader’s moral character. The stakes for such research are rather high: especially during the pandemic, our culture is heavily informed by social and mass media, and it is hard to imagine a good future for the world if these mediums cannot shake the status quo. Though this paper takes a narrower scope of investigation than moral progress itself, the reader should keep in mind that all of our practices of communication can and should be informed by literary tradition, among other practices. For art is our name for the most refined and deliberate artifacts of human expression, capable of great scale, subtlety, and mass dissemination. Morality in communication is explored here through literature, but I hope the reader will make an attempt to apply any knowledge gleaned to as diverse a range of their practices as is possible. The basic issue of my research is that conventional calls to action, for example Sarah McLachlan’s famous (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) SPCA commercials, are not terribly effective. This is obvious insofar as there is a saturation of these calls to action, and a shocking lack of action or concern from many, but I will also seek to justify this in the theories of Immanuel Levinas, then develop a solution from a more philosophical framing of the problem, with Louis Althusser’s writings on ideology, as well as case studies from literature. Eventually, this all leads to the question: how do we address ideology in art? Which will hopefully be somewhat answered by the development of the question, and further addressed by the case studies comprising the latter half of this writing.

Mental health issues are prevalent across cultures and people. Immigrants with developmental disabilities (ID) face a double minority challenge due to the formidable differences among diverse groups in perceptions of mental health and difficulty in accessing services. Yet, health disparities and barriers faced by people with disabilities from a culturally diverse background have not been prioritized in educational curriculum, in scholarly research, and in general societal discourse. Recent reports suggest that systematic neglect of culture in health and healthcare has contributed to barriers to the advancement of health worldwide. This study strives to illuminate the development of mental health services for immigrants with co-occurring developmental (ID) and mental health challenges (MHC). It includes data from surveys and interviews with health care practitioners serving people with ID. Data analysis focuses on practitioners' challenges and successes working with this population. The findings help identify strategies and resources to support the immigrant communities who are experiencing the intersecting effects of marginalizing characteristics in their daily lives, especially through an intersectionality framework.

Mid ocean ridges are large interruptions in the expansive abyssal plains that dominate ocean basins. Volcanically active ridges release heat and chemicals into the surrounding ocean through hydrothermal plumes. Benthic organisms are dependent on these plumes for nutrients and distribution of their larvae. Quantifiable changes in hydrothermal plumes have been documented in response to volcanic eruptions. These plumes experience increases in fluid temperature and rise height after eruptions and become event plumes. This study investigates the effects on circulation from the 2015 eruption at Axial Seamount: a submarine volcano located along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, 300 miles off the coast of Oregon. After the eruption, an unusual temperature increase was measured within the summit caldera. This increase is unique compared to other eruptions in that it is widespread, uniform, and has a large amplitude of 0.6 to 0.7 °C. Two hypotheses exist for the temperature anomaly: a large brine layer was expelled from the subsurface after the eruption, and a neutrally buoyant event plume formed above a lava flow and was advected above the summit. Since no salinity data is available, I evaluate the two hypotheses using the mean flow direction, magnitude, and variation of currents measured at a site within the caldera. There was an abnormal sustained flow to the southeast lasting 12 days with high speed coinciding with the rising temperature. This observation is consistent with the movement of a large volume of warm fluid. The increase in standard deviation and by proxy, turbulence, are not significant enough in the presence of increased flow speed to imply either a brine layer or event plume as the cause. Understanding fluid motion after eruptions will help give insight into how microorganisms are distributed amongst and establish new communities in hydrothermal vent fields.