Dissertations from the School of Arts and Sciences

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Dissertations from School of Arts and Sciences

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Dissertations from CUA School of Arts and Sciences

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dissertations, CUA School of Arts and Sciences

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: KRAS 4B Silent Mutations in NIH/3T3 Cells Lead to a Tumorigenic Phenotype; Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America, It has long been assumed that silent mutations do not affect the fate of a particular protein because the amino acid sequence remains unchanged. However, we are learning that redundancies in the genetic code can lead to changes in protein expression and subsequent phenotypic changes. Surprisingly, silent mutations have recently been associated with more than fifty human diseases. KRAS, the most frequently mutated proto-oncogene in human cancers, is often constitutively activated in cancers that are associated with a poor prognosis. While the majority of research on KRAS mutant cancers has focused on missense mutations at G12 (glycine, residue 12), G13 (glycine, residue 13), and Q61 (glutamine, residue 61), there exists a subset of cancer patients with non-random clustering of silent mutations at G12, G13, and G60. The goal of this study was to examine these silent mutations in the human KRAS 4B gene and begin to clarify the role synonymous codons play in conferring tumorigenic phenotypes on mouse NIH/3T3 cells. We present data showing silent mutations in the human KRAS 4B gene at G12, G13, and G60 altered KRAS protein expression levels when expressed in NIH/3T3 cells and affected activation status of RAS-associated signaling pathways. Moreover, NIH/3T3 cells that expressed the human wild-type (WT) KRAS 4B sequence were contact inhibited, whereas some of the cells transfected with silent KRAS mutations resulted in loss of contact inhibition. The KRAS silent mutations also affected proliferation rates, saturation densities, migration, and invasion. This study links silent mutations in the KRAS gene to tumorigenic phenotypes in mammalian cells and uncovers a previously underappreciated aspect of cancer research.

: The Role of Learning in Age-Related Differences in Decision Making under Uncertainty; The global population is growing older. In addition to this demographic change, individuals are increasingly being asked to take personal responsibility for their own economic welfare. The confluence of these trends can have profound economic consequences that underscore the importance of understanding decision making in older adults. While the study of decision making and aging has grown in recent years, there have been two important limitations in this work to date. First, researchers often assume that when people make decisions, they calculate the expected value of each option by multiplying the value of each by the probability that it will occur. This overlooks the possibility that people may focus more on value or probability when making decisions. Second, despite the fact that age differences in decision-making have been linked to learning deficits, interpretations in the literature often ignore the influence these deficits have on decisions. To address these limitations, this dissertation focused on the ability of older adults to learn probabilistic relationships, and how this learning influences decision-making behavior. The first study examined learning of stable, or consistent, probabilistic relationships in healthy and young adults. The study revealed age differences in learning, suggesting that young and older adults may use different cognitive systems when learning stable probabilistic relationships. The second study built upon the first by examining age differences in learning both stable and volatile, or unstable, probabilistic relationships. This study revealed that individual differences in learning predict decision-making performance. Specifically, learning stable relationships predicted performance on a stable decision making task while learning volatile relationships predicted performance on a volatile decision making task. Importantly, the converse relationships were not significant, revealing a dissociation between learning of stable and volatile relationships. Collectively, these results support the hypothesis that age-related deficits in learning underlie age differences in decision making and highlight the need to further characterize how learning and decision making interact with the aging process., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: Cognitive Bases of Nuclear Control Room Tasks

: Polaronic Transport in Phosphate Glasses Containing Transition Metal Ions; The goal of this dissertation is to characterize the basic transport properties of phosphate glassescontaining various amounts of TIs and to identify and explain any electronic phase transitionswhich may occur. The P2O5-V2O5-WO3 (PVW) glass system will be analyzed to find the effectof TI concentration on conduction. In addition, the effect of the relative concentrations ofnetwork forming ions (SiO2 and P2O5) on transport will be studied in the P2O5-SiO2-Fe2O3 (PSF)system. Also presented is a numerical study on a tight-binding model adapted for the purposes ofmodelling Gaussian traps, mimicking TI’s, which are arranged in an extended network. Theresults of this project will contribute to the development of fundamental theories on theelectronic transport in glasses containing mixtures of transition oxides as well as thosecontaining multiple network formers without discernible phase separation.The present study on the PVW follows up on previous investigation into the effect on mixedtransition ions in oxide glasses. Past research has focused on glasses containing transition metalions from the 3d row. The inclusion of tungsten, a 5d transition metal, adds a layer of complexitythrough the mismatch of the energies of the orbitals contributing to localized states. The datahave indicated that a transition reminiscent of a metal-insulator transition (MIT) occurs in thissystem as the concentration of tungsten increases. As opposed to some other MIT-like transitionsfound in phosphate glass systems, there seems to be no polaron to bipolaron conversion. Instead,the individual localization parameter for tungsten noticeably decreases dramatically at thetransition point as well as the adiabaticity.Another distinctive feature of this project is the study of the PSF system, which contains two truenetwork formers, phosphorous pentoxide (P2O5) and silicon dioxide (SiO2). It is not usuallypossible to do a reliable investigation of the conduction properties of such glasses because thetwo network formers will tend to separate into different phases, making it difficult to obtainhomogenous samples. The PSF system proved easier to study than other systems. The hopping inthis system seems to be dominated by the Greaves mid-range mechanism. In addition, in samplescontaining the same proportion of iron, conductivities were found to not depend noticeably oncomposition, supporting the use of models focusing on the transition metal ions in calculatingconductivity. Despite ostensibly changing the structural and metrical properties of the network,the ratio of the concentration of the network formers only appears to have an effect on theconductivity through changing the inter-atomic distance of iron.The numerical model adds to the evidence for the dominating contribution on the nearestneighborordering of TI ions on the electrical properties of a glass; especially interesting is thereproducibility of the mixed-transition ion effect (MTE) in a numerical model where ensembleaverages are taken over possible arrangements. It was also determined that the disorder arisingfrom the spread between two types of traps can lead to a MIT as function of population.Finally, an outline of the notion of invariance in TI glasses is extended from work done by otherauthors, creating an opportunity for further research., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Physics. The Catholic University of America

: Augustine the Preacher and the Judgment of God; Although the judgment of God is a dominant theme in Augustine’s Sermones ad populum, it has not yet been studied effectively. The problem is that modern scholarship strives to relate the judgment of God to other aspects of Christian teaching, or to understand its place in Augustine’s own thought, without consideration of its relevance for the life of the individual members of the Christian community. Not enough has been said about Augustine’s concrete exposition and application of this teaching, that is, his efforts to bring the judgment of God to bear on individual behaviors, and thereby to establish a dynamic link between personal life experience and ultimate human destiny. This study provides a comprehensive overview of Augustine’s homiletic application of the various teachings that are associated with divine judgment. These include original sin; divine mercy and justice; God’s activity in the world; his desire for the salvation of sinners; the incomprehensibility of divine election; the need for faith, love, and repentance to be saved; divine displeasure with sins and approval of works of charity; the divinely appointed means for receiving the forgiveness of sins in the one true Church; God’s judgment on those who unworthily partake in Christian sacraments and rituals; the mixture and separation of the good and the bad; various elements of the last judgment of Christ; and the timing of the last day. All of this amounts to what God has revealed in scripture and commanded his bishops to preach concerning the path of salvation. This is a contextualized study of the sermons, in which Augustine is portrayed as more than a thinker or a theologian. He is also a bishop, a shepherd of souls and a watchman over his flock, ever vigilant against the real dangers – both internal and external – that jeopardize the eternal welfare of his people. The same teachings are therefore applied differently in different sermons, which are distinct in their time, place, and audience. The content and style of Augustine’s preaching depends on his perception of what his listeners most need to hear., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Greek and Latin. The Catholic University of America

: Military Family Functioning Post 9/11; Background: Military families Post-9/11 have been taxed by lengthy and frequent deployments and physical and mental injuries. Despite the clear importance of understanding the impact of deployments and service member injuries on family relationships, there are substantial gaps in the limited research literature on post 9/11 military families. Objective: To provide an in-depth understanding of the impact of military life on family functioning through descriptive accounts and comparing experiences of post 9/11 military families from normative active duty (AD) and non-normative wounded warrior (WW) perspectives. Method: To gain detailed insight and understanding into participants' thinking and perceptions of military life, four semi-structured focus groups were conducted with two groups of spouses, 13 AD and 12 WW. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was utilized to construct meaning from the information gathered in the focus groups. This was accomplished by categorizing the data into themes identified from participants' descriptions of the issues, events, and expressed feelings. Results: A number of themes emerged from the detailed narrative accounts of the two groups. Superordinate themes for AD spouses include the general military experience and deployments with themes related to support, children and identity. Superordinate theme for WW spouses included the impact of the injury with themes related to the medical experience, impact on children, support, and identity. Conclusions: Consistent with previous research, normative military experiences for AD families (frequent moves, being away from family, and the deployment cycle) strain the marriage, negatively affect the wellbeing of the non-military spouse, and impact children's adjustment. Also in line with past research, spouses in WW families exhibit feelings of guilt, social isolation, confusion, lower marital quality, negative impact on wellbeing, role strain, and caregiver burden in relation to the non-normative experience of war-related injuries. However, findings from this research demonstrate that both groups experience growth in phases in relation to their adaptation to military life; experiencing anger, grief, letting go, and acceptance. Furthermore, despite a number of challenging experiences, flexibility and a positive mental outlook contribute to success in a military marriage and lead to resilience for spouses in general, and those navigating the terrain of war-related injuries., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: Dysphoria and Moral Ambiguity in Victorian Children's Literature by Carroll, Ingelow, Rossetti, and Wilde

: The Formation of the Rituale in León: Evidence for the Care of Souls in the Twelfth Century (León, Biblioteca de la Real Colegiata de San Isidoro, cod. 12: Study and Annotated Edition; The rituale was a liturgical book that guided priests in celebrating the sacraments of the Church, apart from the Mass. In Spain, this liturgical book first begins to appear in the twelfth century as part of an on-going movement of Romanization of the native Spanish liturgical practices. Its earliest forms, both in and beyond Spain, are to be found in monastic or canonical communities. The manuscript León, Archivo de la Real Colegiata de San Isidoro, cod. 12 contains one of these “monastic rituals.” Composed in 1187, this manuscript continued in use at San Isidoro in León through the fifteenth century.The Ritual of San Isidoro contains rites for the preparation of holy water, the blessing of the rooms of the monastic enclosure, infant baptism, baptism of the sick, matrimony, anointing of the sick, preparation for death, and burial. Close analysis of the text of these formularies reveals that the Ritual of San Isidoro drew on a wide array of sources in compiling and arranging its sacramental rites. These sources included the books of the native Old Spanish Liturgy (although it had been officially proscribed in León in 1080), Gallo-Roman sacramentaries of the Carolingian liturgical reform, the tenth-century Romano-Germanic Pontifical, customs from the reforming canonical community of Saint-Ruf in Avignon, and southern French local traditions going back to the eighth century; there are also some instances of what may be original euchological composition at San Isidoro. The composition of these sacramental rites in the Ritual of San Isidoro displays great creativity, as exemplified in its rite of matrimony, which contains the earliest known consent dialogue expressing the consent of both bride and groom.This manuscript also affords precious evidence for the care of souls in twelfth-century León and Spain overall. In these sacramental rites, we see both a sensitivity to the traditional local practices as well as a forward-looking assertion of late-twelfth-century initiatives for the reform of sacramental life., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Medieval and Byzantine Studies. The Catholic University of America

: Egyptian Ethnic Identity Development in Anti-Chalcedonian Coptic Literature; Egyptian Ethnic Identity Development in Anti-Chalcedonian Coptic LiteratureVince L. Bantu, Ph.D.Director: Janet Timbie, Ph.D.The rapid increase of rhetorical and thematic elements in Coptic literature emphasizing the land and people of Egypt during the centuries following the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE) was interpreted by many scholars in the early twentieth-century as a sign of Egyptian nationalism. Beginning in the late twentieth century the study of late antique Christianity has witnessed an almost complete rejection of this analysis. Yet, while offering valid objections to the nationalism thesis, contemporary scholarship has not provided a helpful framework with which to understand Egyptian-centered rhetoric in Coptic texts and its role in the overall formation of Egyptian Christian identity. This project pursues questions related to the presence of ethnic rhetoric in Coptic literature toward the goal of understanding the role of ethnicity in Egyptian Christian life and thought. In the fifth through seventh centuries, areas of focus include the value of nationalism as an analytical tool, the surge of ethnic rhetoric and its role in christological controversies, and the effect of the international aspect of Miaphysitism on the Egyptian community. The historical, hagiographical and homiletic literature under investigation are divided into the following three periods: the period immediately following Chalcedon (late fifth century), during the rule of Justinian and others (sixth century) and immediately following the Arab Conquest (early seventh century). Because nationalism has proven to be an inaccurate interpretive tool, the analysis of ethnic rhetoric in anti-Chalcedonian texts analyzes Egyptian identity from the perspective of ethnic identity development utilizing the anthropological methodology of Fredrik Barth. While the nationalism thesis has been rejected, no comprehensive analysis of ethnic rhetoric in anti-Chalcedonian literature has emerged. This project demonstrates the existence of a process of ethnic boundary maintenance in Egyptian Miaphysite literature after the Council of Chalcedon. At odds with the larger Byzantine Empire, Egyptian Miaphysites reestablished the boundaries of Egyptian identity primarily by the standard of anti-Chalcedonian theology. The Miaphysites of Egypt elevated their people as the guardians of orthodoxy to the extent that ethnic identity became a cause for division among fellow Miaphysites of different ethnic backgrounds., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America

: Investigating the Internal Struggle Hypothesis of Suicide: Differential Assessments of Suicidal States Using Reasons for Living and Reasons for Dying Qualitative Responses; Suicide is a national health crisis, with over 32,000 people taking their own lives each year in the United States alone (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2014). Despite the seriousness of the behavior, mental health providers are often ill-equipped to effectively assess and treat suicidal individuals (Jobes, Rudd, Overholser, & Joiner, 2008). Researchers have proposed various theories and conducted extensive empirical research in attempts to develop more effective clinical assessments of suicidal risk. Of particular interest to the current study are efforts to understand suicide risk as a spectrum of suicidal thinking. Kovacs and Beck (1977) were among the first to theorize and investigate suicide risk in this fashion when they developed their "Internal Struggle Hypothesis," that describes the phenomenon of psychological ambivalence towards living and dying that is commonly seen among people experiencing a suicidal crisis (Brown et al., 2005; Jobes & Mann, 1999; Linehan, Goodstein, Nielsen, & Chiles, 1983). Jobes and Mann (1999) examined aspects of the "internal struggle" by developing the qualitative "Reasons for Living vs. Reasons for Dying (RFL/RFD) Assessment." They theorized that combining both of these constructs into a single assessment could lead to much more clinically significant information that would inform the overall suicide risk assessment and provide useful information relevant to treatment. The primary purpose of this exploratory investigation was to reliably code a sample of suicide attempters' qualitative written content responses to the RFL/RFD Assessment developed by Jobes (2006) as a first step in a new line of research in this area. Beyond reliably coding these qualitative data, the study examined psychological differences between sub-types of suicide attempters derived from the coding as measured on 10 different standardized measures pertaining to suicide risk and mental health. Regression analyses found significant differences among suicidal patient typologies on multiple standardized risk assessment measures. Overall, relationally-oriented, life-motivated patients present the lowest level of suicide risk, while self-oriented, death-motivated patients presented the highest level of suicide risk. These findings suggest that developing social connectedness and cultivating reasons for living may reduce suicide risk., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: Identification of Mutation Profiles in Ovarian Cancer and Clinically Actionable Biomarkers

: Sacrifice to Demons in Porphyry and Origen; This dissertation traces the reactions of Platonists (particularly, Porphyry and Origen) to the traditional religious belief that sacrificial gifts helped to secure answers to prayers and to appease divine wrath - a system known to anthropologists as "reciprocity." This dissertation shows that late antique pagan Platonists (in contrast to Plato) completely rejected the possibility of reciprocity with the gods - a rejection based partly on a theology of absolute impassibility, harmlessness and transcendence. This could have led them to reject traditional religion altogether, but they chose instead to reinterpret it. They proposed new functions for sacrifice and prayer to displace reciprocity and so to make these practices philosophically acceptable: for them, sacrifice was thanksgiving, aligning one's will with the divine, or uniting oneself to it. In addition, Porphyry dismissed traditional stories of reciprocity with the gods as interactions with evil daemons. The theological ideas that led pagan Platonists to reject reciprocity led some Christian intellectuals (notably, Origen) to do the same. They reinterpreted Christian practices and scriptural passages that seemed to teach reciprocity, in order to bring them into line with philosophy. They allegorized Old Testament references to reciprocal interactions with God or explained them as interactions with the pre-incarnate, semi-passible Christ. The New Testament's implication that the Father required the death of his Son as a ransom payment in return for the forgiveness of the world was, to them, philosophically unacceptable. Origen solved this problem by saying that Jesus had been a ransom, not to the Father, but to the Devil. Thus, both Origen and Porphyry used evil spiritual powers to explain troublesome examples of propitiatory reciprocity in their traditions. I argue that pagan and Christian thinkers were attempting to keep their philosophical convictions without having to reject their religious stories and practices: they wanted to have their cake and eat it. By the fourth century, the theurgic reinterpretation of sacrifice reigned supreme in pagan Platonism. In contrast, Christian thinkers were turning back towards reciprocity. As a final note, I suggest that this may have given Christians a cultural advantage., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Early Christian Studies. The Catholic University of America

: On Liberal Grounds: Judith N. Shklar on Politics, Morals and Human Dignity

: Prospective Memory in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury; Prospective memory (PM) enables us to remember the intention to perform an action in the future. Following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), the brain structures supporting PM can be compromised. PM is essential for remembering activities specific to TBI survivors that promote recovery, such as following doctors' orders, taking necessary medications, completing physical rehabilitation exercises, and maintaining supportive social relationships. To date, more than 258,000 US Service Members have incurred an mTBI; however, little has been done to address PM complaints. Therefore, identifying interventions that may ameliorate PM deficits is especially important. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether the use of implementation intentions leads to better PM performance than rote rehearsal in Service Members with mTBI (n = 35) or with injuries but no TBI (n = 8) at baseline and six months later. Participants were randomized to encoding condition and asked to remember to complete a series of tasks during a single study visit. Tasks consisted of: (1) telling the experimenter the time on the clock during each of four breaks during an event-related potential (ERP) session, (2) remembering to ask for a personal belonging to be returned when the electrode cap was removed, (3) remembering to place a study survey in a specific box when handed a towel, and (4) remembering to call or text the experimenter during a prescribed two-hour window later that day. PM performance was scored such that participants received one point for each task that they completed at the appropriate time. Participants using implementation intentions significantly outperformed those using rote rehearsal. The effect of injury type and the interaction between encoding condition and injury type were not significant. Although this study was underpowered statistically, the use of implementation intentions resulted in better PM performance than rote rehearsal. Thus, the use of implementation intentions may be a useful PM remediation strategy for those who have experienced mTBI., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: Figures of Authorship in the Contemporary American Expansive Novel

: Samuel Beckett and the Irish Bull; “What is that unforgettable line?” This question, asked by Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s play Happy Days, epitomizes an enduring tradition for a decidedly non-traditional writer—the Irish bull. As much as he tried to distance himself from it, Beckett was the product of a culture that gave birth to writers from George Farquhar to Sean O’Casey, writers who trafficked in the self-contradictory utterances known as Irish bulls. Beckett’s Irish background and his use of bulls have received scholarly scrutiny in the past, but his place in the long-running tradition of bulls in Irish literature has not been thoroughly examined. Beckett was the inheritor of a legacy that traces back to seventeenth-century joke books and eighteenth-century stage conventions, a legacy kept alive by Maria Edgeworth’s novels, Dion Boucicault’s melodramas, Oscar Wilde’s satires, and the nationalist drama of the Abbey Theatre. By abstracting his settings and characters, Beckett achieved one of the major goals of the Abbey and its Irish predecessors: to reform prejudicial stereotypes found in stage Irish buffoonery. If characters stripped of national identities can utter as many or more bulls than stage Irish characters, self-contradiction is not merely the trait of a colonial people struggling with the English language. Like his predecessors, Beckett penned bulls that transcend buffoonery and take on paradoxical meaning. And like them, he often used bulls for satirical ends, even if the targets of his satire differed. Analysis of the works of numerous Irish writers, culminating in Beckett, bears this out. This dissertation has two main objectives: to describe a history of bulls by Irish writers; and to consider Beckett’s bulls in plays, short stories, and novels more synchronically, focusing on his era and his own writing. With Beckett’s help, the Irish bull has survived in the postmodern era as an unstable, problematic trope in an increasingly internationalized world. The chapters are as follow: Introduction; I. “Low and Pert”: Early History of the Irish Bull; II. Maria Edgeworth and Bulls in the Romantic Age; III. Boucicault and Wilde: Hiberno-Victorian Subversives; IV. “A Parrot Talks”: Bulls and the Abbey Theatre; V. Beckett’s Bulls: “A Logic in Absurdum”; and Conclusion., Degree awarded: Ph.D. English Language and Literature. The Catholic University of America

: Comparing Judicial Instructions About Confession Evidence in a Criminal Case; Most false confessors will plead, or will be found, guilty at trial in the U.S. DNA exonerations indicate that false confessions are the second leading cause of wrongful conviction. Jurors have an incomplete understanding of the factors that affect confession evidence. This study sought to sensitize mock jurors to factors that can increase or decrease the strength of confession evidence, by way of a novel set of modified (“enhanced”) jury instructions. The enhanced instructions combined best-practice standard (“general”) criminal case instructions with empirical findings about factors occurring before, during, and after an interrogation that impact confession reliability. Participants (N= 314) read a weak or strong murder trial transcript online, followed by general or enhanced jury instructions. The key evidence in the trial was the defendant’s confession, gathered by police using either coercive (weak case) or appropriate (strong case) tactics. The cases differed in 11 key details. For example, in the weak case, police employed coercive tactics, such as lying about the existence of incriminating evidence against the suspect, whereas in the strong case, the police ensured the suspect’s sobriety prior to the interview and recorded the interview in its entirety. Altogether, 64% of the general instruction group convicted the defendant in the weak case and 74% in the strong case—a 10% difference that was not statistically significant. In contrast, 60% of the enhanced group convicted thedefendant in the weak case and 78% in the strong case—an 18% difference that was significant. The enhanced instruction participants were 1.47 times more likely to render a guilty verdict in the strong case than the weak case compared to the general instruction participants. This is the first study to demonstrate that jury instructions can sensitize jurors to confession evidence, without making them more skeptical about confession evidence in general. However, 30% of participants who considered the confession to be involuntary still convicted the defendant, and the enhanced instructions did not lower convictions for involuntary confessions. Implications are discussed for educating jurors and legal professionals about confession evidence., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: This Great Contest of Principle: Politics, National Identity, and the Compromise of 1850; The Congressional debates leading to the Compromise of 1850 represented a critical turning point in the United States' sectional crisis, and were the product of a contest between differing conceptions of national identity. This study examines the actions, motivations, ideologies, and principles of members of Congress and the executive branch to determine how their respective national ideals were reflected in their proposals for defusing the territorial crisis, and how the interactions of ideological principles and personal rivalries influenced legislation that impacted the political order of the 1850s. The study utilizes transcripts of Congressional debates, manuscript collections, newspaper articles, and voting analysis. It identifies three competing visions of nationalism in the 31st Congress, termed Unionists, transformational nationalists, and Southern nationalists, and describes how the territorial crisis was influenced by and in turn influenced the development of these visions. It also examines how personal rivalries disrupted ideological and factional alignments within these categories, with consequences that impacted the legislative process and eventual terms of the settlement. It traces the development of these competing nationalist visions from their origins in the 1810s, 1820s, and 1830s, and describes how Unionism came to dominate the political elite following the War of 1812, but was increasingly challenged by Southern nationalism and transformational nationalism during and following the Presidency of John Tyler. It assesses the strengths of these groupings within the 31st Congress, and then traces how these principles were expressed during the ensuing debates over the admission of California to the Union as a state, Henry Clay's Omnibus Bill, and the series of bills that were adopted to encompass the final Compromise of 1850. It concludes that the Compromise of 1850 failed to provide a lasting settlement to the territorial crisis due to the adoption of popular sovereignty, which ensured that territorial agitation based upon these three competing nationalist principles would persist, and that the adoption of popular sovereignty by Unionism started the period of decline and eventual extinction of that nationalist vision., Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America

: Predictors of Behavioral and Physical Health Outcomes in U.S. Army Medics; Army medics provide medical aid on the battlefield. As such, medics are trained for and exposed to both potentially traumatic battle experiences, such as being shot at, and post-battle medical experiences, such as taking care of dying people. Using Adler and Castro's (2013) framework of military mental health, this study identifies predictors, mediators, and moderators of behavioral health in medics.In 2009, 324 U.S. Army medics completed surveys about deployment experiences, behavioral health symptoms, and other related factors, three months after returning from a combat deployment. All of the following analyses controlled statistically for socially desirable responding, which can artifactually inflate predictive effects of deployment demands on behavioral health. Both battle and medical experiences predicted symptoms of post-traumatic stress. However, battle experiences were only marginally related, and medical experiences were unrelated to symptoms of depression. We found support for a parallel, two mediator model of how deployment demands led to behavioral health symptoms. One mediator was negative cognitive reappraisals of threat to life, and the other mediator was positive cognitive reappraisals of the value of the deployment. The two mediating paths essentially cancelled each other out, as evidenced by weak or non-significant relationships between deployment demands and behavioral health symptoms. Additionally, getting enough sleep and perceiving support from one's unit or leadership appear to protect some medics with high battle experiences from behavioral health symptoms. Medics who reported higher levels of battle or medical experiences were not more likely to receive behavioral health treatment. Having a hardy personality appears to encourage some medics with high battle experiences to receive behavioral health treatment. Higher levels of battle or medical experiences also predicted higher levels of PTS, which in turn predicted behavioral health treatment. Potentially traumatic deployment demands have both positive and negative effects on behavioral health via one's reappraisal of the threatening nature of the event and of one's overall view of deployment. While the demands of combat deployment cannot be changed, training to improve sleep, hardiness, unit support, leadership support, and view of deployment may reduce the negative effects of these experiences. Our findings warrant the further study of such interventions and their effect on behavioral health symptoms and treatment., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America

: Intolerance of Uncertainty and Ambiguity and the Preservation of Working Memory Capacity in Military and Undergraduate Cohorts; The study began with the assumptions that military personnel are required to make decisions under uncertainty, that uncertainty is inherently stressful and that stress can negatively impact cognitive components, specifically working memory. As a consequence, in supporting military decision-making, it is important to examine how those cognitive components are related to established models of decision-making. Orientation, the hub upon which Boyd's Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action (OODA) Loop rotates (Richards, 2012), is enabled by working memory, and as such the OODA Loop provides a framework to examine the association between intolerance of ambiguity (IA) and of uncertainty (IU) and working memory capacity (WMC). The inability to tolerate different forms of distress, specifically intolerance of ambiguity and intolerance of uncertainty may predispose individuals to stressful reactions to uncertainty and therefore degrade working memory. Since the cognitive component of primary interest was working memory, the experiments examined the relationship between IA and IU and working memory over time. The mechanism by which that was accomplished was the introduction of ambiguous stimuli to the Operation Span (OSpan) task, resulting in a variant called the OSpan(A). This measure was used first with the military cohort as a part of a broader study on the cognitive neuroscience of resilience and again with the undergraduate cohort with a narrower focus. The main findings were that IA and IU are highly correlated; IA and IU are related to the preservation of WMC to a limited degree, although there are no consistently strong relationships; and that recall of ambiguous stimuli is a reliable predictor of WMC preservation. Additional research is required to validate the cognitive aspects of the OODA Loop, to determine whether ambiguous stimuli differentially induce stress in high IU/IA individuals, and if so, to identify how that stress impacts WM., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America