ScholarWorks@Georgia State University
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Publication Embargo Fur Rubbing as a Potential Resilience Protective Factor in Tufted Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus spp.)(2026)Resilience, the ability to maintain or regain stability following adversity, offers a promising direction for animal welfare by emphasizing animals’ natural capacity to cope with stressors. Central to resilience are protective factors that prepare individuals for negative events or facilitate efficient recovery. Identifying such factors in animals may allow individuals greater autonomy over their affective states during unavoidable stress. I investigated fur rubbing as a potential protective factor in 14 captive tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) using both cognitive and behavioral measures. We predicted that fur rubbing would improve working memory performance, particularly under higher task difficulty, and increase tolerance to a mild behavioral stressor. Contrary to predictions, fur rubbing did not significantly affect cognitive performance or stressor tolerance. Tolerance increased across sessions regardless of condition, indicating habituation. Future research should disentangle the biological, affective, and social components of fur rubbing to better evaluate its role as a protective factor.Publication Embargo Application of Random Forest for Identifying Key Demographic, Engagement, and Psychosocial Predictors of Smoking Cessation(2026)Introduction: The use of tobacco continues to be a problem across the United States, and most quit attempts are unsuccessful. Determining which demographic, engagement, and psychosocial variables best predict smoking cessation outcomes can help future smoking cessation programs and public health strategies focus on factors that will lead to greater success in smoking cessation attempts. Methods: This study used data from an NIH-funded smoking cessation clinical trial. Random forest was used to determine which variables were the most important in predicting smoking cessation outcomes at week 24 by considering psychosocial variables only, engagement and psychosocial variables, and demographics and psychosocial variables. After random forest, a principal component analysis was performed due to high correlation among the selected important variables. Logistic regression was then performed for the two major principal component variables for the psychosocial model and the demographics and psychosocial model at week 24 and earlier weeks (week 12 and week 8) to evaluate their ability in predicting the biochemically confirmed smoking abstinent status at week 24. Results: The most important predictors for smoking cessation outcomes include the contrast between self-efficacy and dependence motives, the difference between self-efficacy and cravings, and income. Higher self-efficacy, lower cravings, and higher income were associated with increased probability of being abstinent at the final time-point. Conclusion: Future research and smoking cessation programs should focus on increasing individuals’ confidence in their ability to decrease smoking, while also working to decrease cravings and other dependence motives.Publication Embargo Does Momentum in ICAPM State Variable Risk Premia Drive Characteristic Portfolio Momentum?(2026-04-14)This paper shows that momentum in risk premia associated with ICAPM state variables drives momentum in characteristic long-short portfolio returns. State variable risk premia exhibit momentum, and characteristic portfolios have substantial state variable exposures. State variable risk premia momentum explains an estimated 37% of characteristic portfolio momentum.Publication Embargo Cult Baby(2026-05)Poetry Collection. Cult Baby examines the now defunct doomsday cult, Worldwide Church of God (WCG), and the beliefs therein. The cult observed Hebrew high holy days, kosher law, and shabbat. WCG’s leader, Herbert W. Armstrong, preached the End of Days, and made four failed Armageddon predictions during his tenure as Evangelist of WCG. Armstrong claimed to be a descendent of King David and promised congregants his direct line to God informed his beliefs. More than just a religion-based cult, WCG was also a financial cult, demanding 30% tithing (from gross earnings). A primary focus of the manuscript is deconstruction from that faith tradition and acknowledgement of the cult’s toxic culture, specifically the adherence to patriarchal norms and the rampant abuse of women and children under the banner of Christianity, as well as the fiscal fraud and malfeasance committed by church officials. The poems in Cult Baby explore the shift in consciousness experienced by the speaker and her eventual psychological freedom post-deconstruction.Publication Open Access Bootstrap-Based Directed Acyclic Graphs for Computational Inference of Mutation Gene Order(2026-05-01)Understanding the temporal order of driver gene mutations is essential for modeling cancer progression and improving diagnostics. In colorectal cancer, tumor development is a multistep evolutionary process, yet mutation ordering varies across samples. This thesis proposes a graph-based approach for identifying mutation order relationships using binary mutation data. Directed edges are established based on statistical support calculated across 200 bootstrap datasets. Cycles are removed using multiple support strategies to construct a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), from which the longest path identifies the most likely mutation sequence. An alternative correlation-based graph is generated for comparison. The inferred mutation orders are evaluated against other approaches, including mutation frequency, established order score method, the densest subgraph, correlation-based orders, and generative AI (ChatGPT). Results show that the bootstrap-based DAG method effectively captures meaningful mutation relationships while accommodating diverse tumor evolutionary patterns, providing a robust framework for studying colorectal cancer progression.
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