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Intelligence Services are protagonists in ensuring the survival of a democratic state, but they can also play a crucial role in supporting state institutions in a post conflict scenario, where the latter require to be rebuilt. While plenty of information is available on the role and functions of these organisms in well established democracies, when it comes to Intelligence Services in non democratic states, and more in detail in states undergoing transformation post state failure (due to war), the existing literature faces severe gaps. This thesis aims at looking at this particular scenario, applied to two case studies, Iraq and Afghanistan. By carrying out an empirical study on the Intelligence Services of these two countries, starting from the observation of the reform of their Security Sector, the objective is to determine, firstly, how the Intelligence bodies have evolved after conflict has dismantled their state-systems and, secondly, if and how they have influenced or affected the reconstruction of their respective countries. The intent is to give an account of Intelligence Services in their function as statecraft.

The prevailing image of the Lebanese state as weak and marginalised by clientelistic networks has been challenged in recent years, not least by the violent repression of the 2015 garbage protests by Lebanese state security forces. Yet despite the wide currency of clientelism in scholarship on Lebanese politics, this body offers only a limited understanding of the relation between clientelistic networks and the state, usually based on simplistic, and often dismissive, conceptualisations of the Lebanese state. This thesis calls for a reconsideration of the effects clientelism has on the Lebanese state, and seeks to contribute to a small but growing sub-field of literature dedicated to challenging the insufficiently-argued classification of the Lebanese state as 'weak'. For this thesis I propose to conceive of the Lebanese state as a mediated state - meaning a state with limited capabilities which relies on non-state authorities to fulfil its governance tasks. My argument will mark a contribution by emphasising how clientelism is the main mechanism organising the power structures and political process of the mediated Lebanese state. This thesis follows an interpretive single case study methodology based on a mixed-method approach, involving extensive fieldwork in 2015 and 2016, semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observations. First I will offer an analysis of the Lebanese hybrid security sector, where I argue that clientelism resembles its organising mechanism by blurring the boundaries between state and non-state actors. Based on the example of the Internal Security Forces, I argue that state security forces form crucial parts in the reproduction and maintenance of clientelism and the mediated Lebanese state. In the subsequent chapters I will not only highlight how municipalities serve as switch-boards for clientelistic mediation between local residents and higher echelons of the state, but also how clientelistic networks subjugate local councils to serve their interests on the national level. The case of solid waste management serves as an ideal example to illustrate the latter. Building on the previous chapters, the analysis of civil unrest during the 2015 garbage crisis serves to exemplify the workings of the Lebanese hybrid security arrangement as a protective and repressive mechanism for political elites, and hence its critical role in reproducing o political order based on clientelism. The above-described study underscores the merit in conceptualising the Lebanese state as a mediated state, and adds to similar works by emphasising how clientelism is the prime mechanism organising these power structures and political process. It further highlights how 4 formal state institutions indeed work in partnership with clientelistic non-state actors, and hence the former are part in protecting and reproducing clientelism as the organising mechanisms and very core of the mediated Lebanese state.

A study examined the effectiveness of a reading and math basic skills pull-out program. Subjects, 60 students in first through sixth grades enrolled at an upper middle class, suburban school with small class sizes, were identified as having deficiencies in basic skills by their scores on the California Achievement Test (CAT). The basic skills instructional objectives were based on the category objectives for reading and math of the CAT. Subjects participated in basic skills instruction in small groups 3 to 4 times per week for half-hour periods, and their progress was assessed regularly. Results indicated that subjects as a whole made significant gains in reading and math. Results also indicated that statistically significant mean gains in reading occurred only in the first and third grades and that statistically significant mean gains in math occurred only in the first through the third grade. (Twenty-five tables of data are included; 28 references, a list of 19 software programs, and two appendixes of data with test results are attached.) (RS)

Blood production occurs in a hierarchical differentiation process, where each blood cell has a unique transcriptome conferring proteomes that dictate cell-type specific functions. Although transcriptional studies have provided significant insights into blood differentiation, regulation of protein synthesis has become increasingly recognized for its importance in blood development and function, particularly in the context of cell stress. The rate limiting step of protein synthesis is translation initiation, whereby distinct mechanisms govern the loading of ribosomes onto mRNAs. Translation initiation in hematopoiesis and other regenerative system has not been well investigated, in part, due to the lack of appropriate animal models and methods to study these processes in rare populations of cells, like stem cells. In the first study presented in this dissertation, we developed and used a novel mouse model to define rates of IRES-mediated translation at a single-cell level. IRES-mediated translation is a subtype of translation initiation that is utilized by some RNA viruses and mammalian genes associated with cell survival and differentiation. Our goal was to evaluate the rate IRES-mediated translation in distinct hematopoietic cell types. We discovered that IRES-translation is least active in hematopoietic stem cells and increases with differentiation. The second study presented investigates how the bone marrow niche signals to hematopoietic progenitors in response to genotoxic and infectious stress by regulating translation initiation. We found that processed tRNAs (tiRNAs) are transferred from osteoblasts to granulocyte-monocyte progenitors via extracellular vesicles (EVs). The cargo of EVs includes specific species of tiRNAs that modulate translation initiation to enhance myeloid differentiation and improve survival after genotoxic injury and fungal sepsis. Together these findings further our understanding of how regulation of translation initiation contributes to hematopoietic differentiation and overcoming physiological stress. These findings will be important to developing therapeutics that rely on protein synthesis for efficacy.

The First Ladies Hall, which sits at the heart of the National Museum of American History (NMAH)—part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC—is the only national exhibition and collection created by, for, and about women. Since its establishment in 1912, the Hall’s exclusively female curatorial staff have grappled with the challenges posed by the female embodiments of the American presidency. By foregrounding the Hall’s exhibition designs, particularly the mannequins and gowns that have remained the exhibition’s focus, I center issues of gender, race, sexuality, and class, revealing how the aesthetic programs of the First Ladies Hall have reflected the representational instabilities of women and politics in the United States for over a century. Across three chapters, I explore the First Ladies Hall’s installations dating from 1915, 1955, 1992; an additional fourth chapter examines Jacqueline Kennedy’s construction of her public image as First Lady and the tensions that emerged when her incorporation into the Hall threatened to undermine her aesthetic legacy. Through the prism of art history, drawing on insights and methods from gender studies, critical race theory, anthropology, fashion studies, museum studies, and political science, I trace the cultural significance and political stakes of the First Ladies’ portrayals at the heart of the Smithsonian system. This project is the first analysis of the First Ladies Hall to consider its displays complex visual compositions whose meanings can be illuminated through formal analysis. Central to my analysis are the efforts made to refine and modernize the exhibition’s mannequins—objects at the center of exhibition’s identity constructions. Bringing together photographs, drawings, curatorial schematics, gallery guides, and archival documents I provide a historical understanding of the First Ladies Hall’s problematic representational regimes, situating each curatorial reimagining within the changing values of visitors and the evolving needs of Washington’s political elite.

Nearly every area of astrophysics is impacted by our knowledge of stellar multiplicity, though perhaps none more so than the life cycles of the stars within close binaries. This dissertation seeks to characterize these effects through statistical analyses of stellar parameters and multi-epoch radial velocities (RV) determined from the high-resolution spectra of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). Given that the majority of APOGEE’s stars have sparsely-sampled RV curves, we utilize the maximum shift in the radial velocities, ∆RVmax, as an indicator for RV variability and the fraction of RV variable systems as a proxy for the close binary fraction. First, we select a sample of 41 363 dwarf and subgiant stars from APOGEE data release 14 and explore the observed trends across a variety of stellar parameters before focusing on the discovery of a complex anticorrelation between the close binary fraction and Fe, overall α, O, Mg, and Si abundances. The steeper trends between α-process abundances as compared to Fe indicate that dust and ices within protostellar discs are largely responsible for the disks’ opacity and likelihood of fragmentation. Second, we define a sample of 24 496 dwarfs and 2786 giants from APOGEE data release 14 with projected rotation speeds vsini determined by our pipeline and ages, distances, and masses taken from the Sanders et al. 2018 catalog. We demonstrate that rapid stellar rotation is overwhelmingly associated with close binaries and that rotation in close binaries diverges significantly from the predictions of gyrochronolgy. Finally, we expose further insights into low-mass binary formation by separately analyzing samples of G, K, and M dwarfs taken from APOGEE data release 17. Through an analysis of the cumulative distributions of [Fe/H], [M/H], and [α/H], we find that correlations between stellar abundances and the close binary fraction depend on spectral type. These preliminary results suggest that the metallicity-dependent protostellar disc fragmentation crucial to forming K dwarf primaries is less important than mass-dependent disc fragmentation for G dwarf primaries, and that M dwarf binary formation may be more sensitive to disc cooling promoted by gas enriched with dust and icy grains.

The lack of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers is a commonly discussed issue in the 21st century. This inequality has lessened in life science professions over the years, but little progress has been made in math-intensive fields. Much research has been conducted focusing on the societal beliefs about gender and mathematical ability that contribute to the disparity. This thesis uses a combination of sociology and neuroscience, or “neurosociology,” to obtain a fresh perspective on gender bias in STEM careers. Electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) analysis provide insight into the subconscious, neurological activity that signals bias. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) is a specific ERP component that encodes unfavorable, unexpected events, including social expectancy violations. Results from a small pilot study reveal that the FRN was larger when male, undergraduate math majors viewed images of women performing tasks in STEM-related settings compared to when they viewed images of women performing domestic tasks. A larger study is needed to confirm a neurological foundation for a `glass ceiling’ that prevents women from entering STEM careers, particularly those that are math intensive.

This study investigated the relationship between restricted, repetitive behavior (RRB) and anxiety in a sample of adults with intellectual disability (ID). Six regression analyses were conducted. Predictor variables were age, severity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms, level of adaptive functioning, and anxiety; RRB (in general and specific subtypes) was the criterion. Together, the four predictor variables accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in total RRB, Stereotypic Behavior, Compulsive Behavior, Ritualistic/Sameness Behavior, and Restricted Interests. Self-injurious behavior (SIB) was the only subtype of RRB in which the results of the regression analysis were not significant. Anxiety was found to independently account for a significant proportion of the variance in total RRB, Compulsive Behavior, and Ritualistic/Sameness Behavior. This suggests that changes in RRB in general and in particular subtypes, specifically compulsive behavior and ritualistic/sameness behavior, may be observable indicators of anxiety in adults with ID. Overall, this study highlights the need for more research on RRB in general and on the relationship between RRB and anxiety, especially across different populations and settings.

Phytic acid is a well-known antinutritional factor and readily binds to di and trivalent ions reducing their bioavailability and thus absorption by the animal. Phytic acid levels in catfish diets have risen along with inclusion percentages of certain ingredients such as wheat middlings. While some of these ingredients contain phytase, the concentration of phytic acid may still inhibit mineral absorption. Accordingly, the impact of phytase superdosing (2500 FTU/kg) in a commercially available catfish diet was evaluated in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) and hybrid catfish (channel x blue) fingerlings at the USDA-ARS in Stuttgart, AR and Auburn University. Catfish fed phytase-supplemented diets had higher mineral levels (including iron) in serum and liver along with improved hematocrit, hemoglobin, and red blood cell values. Weight gain and feed conversion ratios were also significantly improved in the 15-week replicated pond studies.