Individuals with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) require multiple levels of care and support for recovery. Aside from the myriad physical and psychological realms of recovery, people with SUDs are in need of adopting a novel lifestyle to sustain sobriety and prevent relapse. Twelve step programs provide people in recovery with the means of cultivating spiritual practices which when integrated, can provide foundations and support for living sober. Research suggests that spiritual practices and principles can foster a variety of beneficial outcomes for recovering individuals. Music therapy might be a helpful form of treatment for people with SUDs, though more research is needed to determine the efficacy of the modality for this population. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of research which examines music therapy’s potential to treat the spiritual needs of individuals with SUDs. A survey was conducted to learn more about how, and if music therapists in the United States are treating the spiritual health needs for people with SUDs. Music therapists reported that connection with others and exploring relationship with self were the most common spiritual health goals addressed in music therapy. Song discussion and lyric analysis were the most commonly used methods to address spiritual goals. Participant text responses indicated a variety of perspectives on what music therapists considered to be “spiritual goals,” as well as several views on scope of practice to address such needs. The present study can help to broaden the knowledge base of current trends in music therapy practice in meeting the spiritual health needs for persons with SUDs, as well as provide recommendations for future research.

The term “intersectionality” and related concepts have become popular throughout recent music therapy literature; however, there is minimal research on how music therapists are currently using intersectionality in their clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to investigate how music therapists are actively utilizing intersectional approaches with the individuals they are working with, and whether or not they are “practicing what they preach” in relation to an intersectional framework. Additionally, this study explored how music therapy education has prepared currently working music therapists to work in an intersectional capacity. Participants for this study included three board-certified music therapists that have been practicing full-time for at least five years and have experience working with clients that hold historically minoritized identities. Participants shared their experiences and beliefs in semi-structured, individual interviews. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). From the IPA, eight themes emerged: a) actively using an intersectional approach; b) intersectionality in context; c) safety; d) authenticity; e) self-reflexivity; f) values and intentions; g) social justice and activism; h) education. The data suggests that while music therapists are practicing in an intersectional capacity, they are doing so through their own self-reflexivity, authenticity, and self-sought education. Participants agreed that formal education on intersectionality is crucial to include in undergraduate music therapy courses in order to best prepare all-level clinicians to foster an anti-oppressive and inclusive practice. Other clinical implications, study limitations, and recommendations for educators and future research are discussed. Keywords: music therapy; intersectionality; cultures; identities; music therapy education; intersectional approach; intersectional framework; social justice; activism.

In this thesis, we introduce algorithms for creating deterministic (DFA) and nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) for some common types of regular languages. The motivation for this work comes from studying problems students taking theory of com-putation classes encounter. When working with finite automata, there are patterns in the structures of automata that arise. This thesis seeks to generalize a subset of common problems by creating step-by-step constructions based on the distinguishing properties of the given language. Along with these algorithms, software has been developed to generate these automata based on their dis-tinguishing properties. This thesis aims to be the foundation for developing an educational tool for theory of computation students. The goal is to highlight the similarities and logic behind these common constructions, while also providing the visual aid of the constructed automata through the accompanying software. The problems we consider are: the Maximum Prefix-Suffix Overlap problem, the Substring problems, the X followed by Y problem, the Consecutive Character problems, the Conditional Counting Modulo n problems, the Regularly Repeated Characters problem, and the Contains X but not Y problem. All algorithms presented in this thesis are polynomial in runtime, and polynomial in space complexity. The Maximum-Prefix-Suffix Overlap problem has a linear runtime, and the Contains X but not Y problem is of special interest due to its space reduction from the ‘usual’ solution.

The interdisciplinary nature of semiconductors engineering is undeniable, as electrical, chemical, and mechanical disciplines are all heavily involved in the design of integrated chips. The many specialties of integrated circuit manufacturing and design include the processes involved in fabrication, device testing, feature size metrology, defect analysis, and the list goes on. One notable subfield is integrated circuit reliability, the study of the physical degradation mechanisms of chips like hot-carrier injection, electromigration, and time-dependent dielectric breakdown. The research and seminal progress in this important field have been a mélange of both empirical results as well as first principle theoretical realizations. This paper studies the reliability of a basic BiCMOS emitter voltage follower comprised of several passive elements, as well as two MOSFET transistors and an NPN bipolar junction transistor. The modeling and circuit design was enabled by the GlobalFoundries open-source 180 nm microcontroller process design kit. Employing Xschem and Ngspice for schematic-level simulation, and KLayout for layout generation and design rule verification, the performance and physical model of the circuit were established using only open-source software. Thermal finite element modeling using SolidWorks was undertaken to predict the temperature distribution of the circuit due to Joule heating. A holistic consideration of circuit reliability is offered, with special credence given to the electromigration of the first- and second-level metal interconnects. This paper will assess the degradation of individual circuit components (mean-time-to-failure), propose strategies to mitigate potential reliability risks, and posit a final layout using BiCMOS circuitry and the open-source process design kit. Author Keywords: Hot carrier injection, metal oxide semiconductors, field effect transistors, front-end-of-line degradation, back-end-of-line degradation, layout, electromigration, microelectronics reliability, BiCMOS

The current study aims to integrate models of embodied and cognitive time perception by investigating the role of attention allocation, physiological arousal, and arm length on retrospective time estimations. We operationalize attention through an open monitoring meditation and physiological arousal through expansive and contractive yogic postures. Arm length was analyzed as a covariate. Participants (N=60) reported estimated time spent on a brief attention task after either listening to music or meditating and the adoption of an expansive or contractive yogic posture. We found that the expansive posture lengthened time estimations in comparison to the contractive posture, and that this effect was accentuated for individuals with longer arms. No significance was found for the effect of meditation on retrospective time estimations. Interactive effects of posture and arm length feed into embodied models of time perception, emphasizing the idea that our spatial relationship to the external world directly influences our internal perceptions.

We explored the relationship between the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) and prosocial behavior. We also investigated how this relationship may differ between cultural groups. We administered an online survey to participants in the U.S. and India using Amazon Mechanical Turk. This survey included a measure of basic psychological need fulfillment (Van der Kaap-Deeder et al., 2020), self- construal as an individual-level marker for cultural differences (Singelis, 1994) and a four-item measure of prosocial intentions (Baumsteiger & Siegel, 2019). We hypothesized that satisfaction of the basic needs would predict increased prosocial intentions. Keywords: prosocial behavior, basic psychological needs, self-construal, culture.

Bernardine Evaristo's artistic project includes establishing, uncovering, inventing, and expanding a Black British literary canon. While growing up, Evaristo did not encounter any Black British women "who were born or raised here and writing our stories from this perspective" (72). Instead, Evaristo's literary inspirations "came from African Americans: Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, and Alice Walker were foremost among them, and of course Ntozake Shange…These were the writers who foregrounded black women's lives and in so doing gave me permission to write" (72). This canon of African American feminist and womanist writers informs the purposeful tensions in Evaristo's novel, such as the struggle between collective power and individual subjectivity, and universality and particularity. Although these authors provide that foundation for Evaristo, their presence also denotes a significant absence of representations of Black British women in novels…Faced with the dismissal of her own experience, Evaristo is conscious that her writing must unsettle the difference between how the literary market conceives of Black British readers and how Black British readers interact with fiction. To address the precarious presence of Black British writers in the British literary market, Evaristo foregrounds activism in her writing career.