Yes / South-South Cooperation SSC) has returned as a significant trope in the contemporary rhetoric of the aid industry. We compare the way that the idea of SSC is being currently constructed. In the 1960s and 1970s, SSC was discussed as constituting a challenge to the ideological dominance of the global north, presented initially as a counter-hegemonic challenge to neo-colonialism. Currently it is framed similarly as a challenge to neoliberalism. However, the current iteration of SSC differs fundamentally from the first round in the early 1970s, largely because of differences in assumptions about who is co-operating with whom and to what end, in the context of SSC. These differences are significant for the material practice of SSC and the ideological function of SSC rhetoric.

Thesis advisor: Ann W. Burgess / Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to understand the lived experience of Black emerging adults with psychotic disorders who have community violence exposure (CVE). The aims included understanding how Black emerging adults with psychotic disorders described the experience of community violence in their lives. A secondary aim was to understand how these individuals described how their experience of community violence has impacted their ability to attain goals that are consistent with emerging adulthood.Background: CVE is a public health crisis. Black emerging adults are at an increased risk of CVE and having a psychotic disorder. CVE and psychotic disorders can cause an increased burden on life. While there is research examining the impact of CVE on mental health and research examining the effects of trauma on psychotic disorders, there is limited qualitative work in Black emerging adults with psychotic disorders and CVE. Method: This study was guided by Husserl's descriptive phenomenology philosophy, and Giorgi's descriptive psychological phenomenological approach guided data collection and analysis. Eleven participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Participants had to have a psychotic disorder, report CVE, identify as Black or African-American, and be between 18 and 29. Interviews were conducted individually with each participant to understand their experiences of CVE. Using bracketing, the data was coded and analyzed. Rigor and trustworthiness were ensured by using Lincoln and Guba's criteria for credibility, confirmability, dependability, and transferability. Results: The sample consisted of eleven participants, ranging in age from 21 to 28, with an average age of 24.6. Six identified as male, four identified as female, and one participant identified as transgender and non-binary/non-conforming. All participants identified as non-Hispanic Black/African-American and had a primary psychotic disorder. Four themes were identified: (1) CVE results in a range of emotional responses, (2) CVE results in a range of behavioral responses, (3) CVE causes disruptions in life and relationships, and (4) participants aspire for a better life without a clear pathway. These four themes represent the lived experiences of CVE in these Black emerging adults who have psychotic disorders in Boston, MA. The themes shed light on the consequences CVE had in their lives. Conclusion: Utilizing descriptive phenomenology created a comprehensive understanding of the experience of the phenomenon of CVE in Black emerging adults with a psychotic disorder. The results illuminated the complex nature CVE has on their life and mental health. Future research should focus on quantitative studies to explore the impact of CVE on various health, social, and psychological outcomes. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

Times of transition are laden with ambiguity, and the move from high school to college has an additional component of role changes to add to this uncertainty. In the spring and summer of 2020, this transition was disrupted by the changes brought on by the pandemic, affecting social norms, routines, and overall mental health outcomes. For professionals such as counselors and advisors to be able to provide specialized support, it is important to understand emerging adults' experiences at this time and to identify factors that helped them cope with this transition. Understanding the development of coping strategies has direct implications for both therapy and clinical practice which can work together to provide a higher quality of care for the people affected by the stress of major life transitions. In this study, I used a mixed-methods design to understand the experience of emerging adults who graduated high school during the pandemic, and the relation between tolerance for ambiguity and coping strategies, resilience, and psychological impact. / Master of Science / The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on so many of us here in the United States and abroad. This was a time in which so much of what we considered normal was totally disrupted by all of the changes that the pandemic caused. For my thesis I wanted to look at how the pandemic changed the ways that students who were in high school transitioned and moved on to college. I wanted to know what existing factors such as their ability to handle uncertainty impacted this transition and if it ended up being helpful for them. For this project I looked at how a person's ability to handle uncertainty, called tolerance for ambiguity in this study, impacted students abilities to cope with uncertainty, psychological impact of the pandemic, and resiliency overall.

Objectives: It is uncertain what characteristics predict adherence to a brief sleep extension intervention, like that offered in primary care settings. This study examined how mental health concerns (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress), self-control, baseline sleep characteristics, and physical activity predicted adherence to a brief sleep extension intervention. Methods: 184 young adults (ages 18-25; m = 20.96) were asked to extend their nightly sleep to eight hours for one week. Sleep was tracked using actigraphy. Baseline sleep quality, baseline daytime sleepiness, depression, anxiety, stress, self-control, and physical activity were assessed. Results: Poorer baseline sleep quality predicted better adherence (p = 0.002). Other baseline sleep characteristics, mental health, and physical activity were not predictive of adherence (p's = 0.753, 0.383, 0.562, 0.179, 00625). Lower levels of baseline daytime sleepiness predicted longer sleep duration (p = 0.019). Other baseline sleep characteristics, mental health, and physical activity did not predict sleep duration (p's = 0.725, 0.068, 0.066, 0.072, 0.288, 0.985). Conclusions: There may be advantages for primary care providers in assessing for baseline sleep characteristics and mental health in determining whether young adults will be able to adhere to a brief sleep intervention or whether they should be referred for more comprehensive sleep treatment.

The current study examined how social media has had both negative and positive effects during, before, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It was hypothesized that there would be a relationship between social media use during the pandemic and decreased social skills of emerging adults. Additionally, the study also hypothesized that loneliness would relate to a decrease in social skills. Finally, it was hypothesized that loneliness would mediate the relationship between social media use during the pandemic and decreased social skills. The results of the current study indicated that there was a mediational relationship between social media use, increased feelings of loneliness, and decreased social skills such as conversation, self-exposure, and academic and work skills.

The rise of Brazil as an economic power in the last decade has been celebrated by politicians and analysts as an opportunity for the country to take advantage of its visibility and bargaining power in order to effectively advocate for and promote an institutional and normative reform of the international order toward a less asymmetric and exclusionary space for politics. This dissertation aims to examine the spatial and temporal assumptions in these recent discourses about Brazil's emergence to the global stage and Brazil']s disposition towards the future. Departing from an understanding that there are scripts governing the realm of the possible and the visible in international politics, this dissertation proposes an analysis of what defines the conditions of possibility for Brazil's emergence to the global stage. By looking at discourses about Brazil's position and positioning in international politics, this study explores implicit and explicit rules defining the possibilities for one to be seen as a legitimate presence in the future and what these spatiotemporal constructs reveal about what is allowed as repetition and as change in the world. Contrary to many optimistic accounts of Brazil's emergence as a transformational leader from the developing world, I argue that it is only possible for Brazil to be discursively represented as an emerging global player and/or a country of the future that may have finally arrived because of the same limiting spatial and temporal discursive representations in world politics that translate difference into hierarchy and that contain and define intelligible possibilities for an alternative political order. / Ph. D.

Emerging infectious diseases (EID) pose a serious threat to global public health. Computational epidemiology is a nascent subfield of public health that can provide insight into an outbreak in advance of traditional methodologies. Research in this dissertation will use fuse nontraditional, publicly available data sources with more traditional epidemiological data to build and parameterize models of emerging infectious diseases. These methods will be applied to avian influenza A (H7N9), Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks. This effort will provide quantitative, evidenced-based guidance for policymakers and public health responders to augment public health operations. / Ph. D.

The agricultural industry is changing every day, and new innovations are being developed faster than educational resources can be developed. Secondary agricultural education is faced with the challenges of keeping up with the changes in the industry. Determining how to bring cutting edge innovative content to the classroom is difficult and without a clear vision of what is relevant it is impossible. The purpose of this case study was to determine how modern agricultural education programs may be designed and developed to support innovative agricultural content. The researcher focused on the planning theory of (Cervero and Wilson, 2006), as well as the Diffusion of Innovations Theory (Rogers, 2003) for the theoretical framework of the research. The case study used a qualitative approach to examine the phenomenological views of stakeholders and artifacts collected to support the innovative program design. This qualitative study used interviews to describe and find the meanings to how modern agricultural education programs may be designed and developed to support innovative agricultural content. The findings of this study delivered a clear picture of this innovative agricultural education program. There were five categories and nine themes to emerge from the data collected, these categories and themes support the role the participants have played in the design and development of this innovative agricultural education program. The study showed that teachers were the key to a successful program. Teachers were then connected to professional development, program support, curriculum, and expectations of students at the end of their agricultural education program. / PHD / This case study looked at a modern rural high school agricultural education program in Southwest Virginia. The purpose of the study was to determine how this modern agricultural education program was designed and developed to support innovative agricultural content. The researcher focused on the data collected to describe the methods and resources used to establish the current program. There were twenty-one stakeholders interviewed to examine their views and lived experiences during the development of the program, also artifacts were collected to support the innovative program design. The findings of this study delivered a clear picture of this innovative agricultural education program. There were five categories and nine themes to emerge from the data collected, these categories and themes support the role the participants played in the design and development of this innovative agricultural education program. The study showed that teachers were the key to a successful program. Teachers were then connected to professional development, program support, curriculum, and expectations of students at the end of their agricultural education program.

Emerging adulthood can be viewed as a time of exploration and experimentation for college-aged adults (Arnett, 2000). As individuals begin trying on their possible selves as they explore personal identity, they can gravitate to peer groups that fit their interests. For some, that can mean being drawn to the emo subculture. This subculture focuses on its fashion, often based on dyed black hair, dark clothing, studded accessories, and black eyeliner (Chernoff & Widdicombe, 2015), centered around music with lyrics often interpreted as depressive or angst?ridden. Emo subculture has been subject to criticism and stereotypes, especially those with mental health themes (Arunrangsiwed & Arunrangsiwed, 2019). This research explored possible differences in identity status (Marcia) and identity style (Berzonzsky) among those who identify as emo compared to emerging adults who did not identify with this subculture. The purpose of this study was to examine identity formation in individuals who identify with the emo subculture compared to individuals who do not identify with this subculture. The sample for the survey comprised emerging adults 18-26 recruited through social media sites offering a link or QR code to an online survey consisting of measures of identity status, identity style, and psychological well-being-related questions. There were 648 participants in total, out of which 87.00% identified themselves as emo. The research provides useful insights into identity development within the emo subculture. It explores the connections between exploration, commitment, different identity styles, and mental health themes. According to the study, there are notable differences in the identity processes, statuses, and styles between emerging adults who identify with the emo subculture and those who do not. The research shows significant differences in identity status and identity processes between individuals who identify with the emo subculture and those who do not.

Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife have threatened host populations of diverse taxa in recent history, which is largely attributable to anthropogenic global change. In three data chapters, this dissertation examines the drivers of individual- to population-level variation in how host populations respond to novel and emerging pathogens. Each chapter explores these processes in bat populations of North America, predominantly the Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States, impacted by the emerging fungal pathogen that causes white-nose syndrome, Pseudogymnoascus destructans. In Chapter 2, I disentangle the effects of adaptive host traits and environmental influences in driving host population stabilization of the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), finding that host-pathogen coexistence in this system is the product of their complex interaction. In Chapter 3, I characterize the range-wide variation in white-nose syndrome impacts on a federally endangered and poorly studied species, the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), as well as environmental and demographic determinants of its declines over epidemic time. In Chapter 4, I explore the role of individual variation in roosting microclimate selection of little brown bats in driving their infection severity, yielding important insights into the pathophysiology and environmental dependence of white-nose syndrome. Ultimately, this dissertation characterizes complex drivers of variation in host responses to emerging and invading pathogens, yielding insights essential to the successful mitigation of their impacts. / Doctor of Philosophy / In the same way that Covid-19 swept through our global human population in the year 2020, novel infectious diseases have threatened wildlife populations, sometimes to the point of extinction. Often, however, the processes driving the impacts of novel infectious diseases in wildlife are unknown, despite being important information to protect susceptible populations. In this dissertation, I explore how North American bat populations have been impacted by a recently emerged disease, white-nose syndrome, and what processes cause variation in how individual bats and bat colonies have responded to the disease. In Chapter 2, I explore how the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) has evolved to co-exist with its new pathogen and how this coexistence is affected by environmental conditions like temperature and humidity. In Chapter 3, I characterize variation in how populations of the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) have responded to white-nose syndrome and how environmental and demographic conditions have affected declines since the disease first emerged. In Chapter 4, I explore how the temperatures used by little brown bats during hibernation affect the severity of their infection, giving us important information on how bats survive with white-nose syndrome and the role of temperature. Altogether, the research in this dissertation describes complex interactions between hosts, pathogens, and their environment in driving the patterns we observe after the emergence of novel infectious diseases.