Digital Commons Network^™

Lessons Learned From Developing A Learning–Focused Classroom Observation Form: Learning-Focused Observation Form, Steven K. Jones, Kenneth S. Sagendorf, D. Brent Morris, David Stockburger, Evelyn T. Patterson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

At the United States Air Force Academy, we are attempting to go through a cultural transformation, making an overt shift toward a more learning-focused paradigm. In this chapter, we describe the nature of this transformation, as well as why we have chosen to move in this direction. We also describe one specific initiative we have undertaken: the development of a new learning-focused classroom observation form. We conclude by sharing a baker’s dozen lessons we have learned about classroom observation, effective teaching, and faculty development in general as a result of having developed this form.

Teaching Learning Processes—To Students And Teachers, Pamela E. Barnett, Linda C. Hodges

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Our teaching and learning center serves faculty and graduate students as teachers and undergraduates as learners. Here we share the experiences of graduate student facilitators whom we trained to lead problem-solving skills workshops for undergraduates. Our aim was to help these graduate students see themselves as teachers of disciplinary thinking as much as of disciplinary content. However, they also began to reexamine their teaching beliefs and practices, recognize and respond to the needs of novice learners, and become more conscious of the demands of learning their disciplines. We offer this program as a model for developing future facuity.

Networking An Honors Community Out Of Fragmentation, Karlyn Koh, John Chaffee, Edward Goodman

Honors in Practice Online Archive

What makes an honors program a community? And how does one build a vibrant honors community at a commuter community college? In the City University of New York’s LaGuardia Community College Honors Program, we have been grappling with such questions especially because ours is an urban, non-residential campus that serves a diverse, non-traditional student population. Our student population is roughly 38% Hispanic, 21% Asian, and 20% Black; in 2007, 58% of our students were foreign born, 19% took evening classes, and 46% were part-time students. How can we provide the program with a sense of cohesion without the infrastructure of …

Separate But Equal: Will It Work For Professional Honors Programs?, Beata M. Jones, Peggy W. Watson

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Developing honors opportunities for students in professional schools can be difficult, as noted by, for example, Giazzoni (2007), Bishop and Sittason (2007) and Noble and Dowling (2007) and also as demonstrated by honors program statistics at Texas Christian University (TCU). Despite the difficulty, high achieving students in professional schools should have the opportunity to benefit from an honors education. According to Bruce (2008), “honors education looks different from other types of education. . . . Honors pushes our comfort zones . . . [and] . . . challenges us to . . . be open to new ideas” (19–29). This …

Making Live And Letting Die: The Biopolitical Effect Of Navajo Nation V. U.S. Forest Service, Jessica M. Erickson

Seattle University Law Review

The philosophies of Michel Foucault have long been applied to various cultures and social movements in hopes of gaining insight into how power operates within a societal framework. One philosophy, Foucault’s conception of “biopolitics,” refers to the state’s regulatory control over the population as a whole, or its ability to control the life and death of the citizenry. Instead of exercising power at the level of each individual, “biopower” is exercised on the level of the population; it is the power to make live and let die.

Indian nations have been battling for sovereignty—freedom from external control in determining the …

Identification Of Multiple Oscillation States Of Carbon Nanotube Tipped Cantilevers Interacting With Surfaces In Dynamic Atomic Force Microscopy, Mark Strus, Arvind Raman

Birck and NCN Publications

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have gained increased interest in dynamic atomic force microscopy (dAFM) as sharp, flexible, conducting, nonreactive tips for high-resolution imaging, oxidation lithography, and electrostatic force microscopy. By means of theory and experiments we lay out a map of several distinct tapping mode AFM oscillation states for CNT tipped AFM cantilevers: namely, noncontact attractive regime oscillation, intermittent contact with CNT slipping or pinning, or permanent contact with the CNT in point or line contact with the surface while the cantilever oscillates with large amplitude. Each state represents fundamentally different origins of CNT-surface interactions, CNT tip-substrate dissipation, and phase contrast …

Nurses [Sic] Knowledge Of Mass Casuality Emergency Situations, Disasters And Related Laws Regulating Nursing Practice In Michigan And Ohio, Ashley Elizabeth Sandmann

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

A survey was conducted among 51 emergency department nurses in both Michigan and Ohio from 2008 to 2009. A comparative design was used to analyze the surveyed data. The purpose of the study was to describe and compare the knowledge level of emergency department nurses with regards to disaster nursing, emergency preparedness, and correlating related nursing laws in their respective states of licensure. Results showed that there is no significant correlation between knowledge level of emergency and disaster preparedness and related laws to the state in which a nurse is licensed, but nurses in Michigan reported having more instruction in …

The Effects Of Goldshield Antimicrobial On Bacillus Anthracis Sterne And Clostridium Difficile, Victor Petreca

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Clostridium difficile, a non-aerobic spore former, is currently one of the most serious causes of nosocomial infections and antibiotic associated diarrhea (AAD). Due to the resilient nature of spores, its propagation can be difficult to control. Preventing infections through efficient and durable disinfection of hospitals’ facilities would result in diminished contaminations. This project was based on testing the efficacy of a new substance called Goldshield® Antimicrobial (a patented nano-molecular-assembly technology developed at Emory University) against Clostridium difficile. The tests were also done with the aerobic spore forming Bacillus anthracis Sterne.

Goldshield’s active reagents were tested against the …

The Invisiblity Of White Privilege, Michael T. King

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

People in our society can go through life without knowing about white privilege or realizing they themselves, may have this privilege. The white or lighter skin color of a person has automatic benefits, right from birth, them not ever having to do anything to attain this privilege. The consequences are mostly good and outweigh the bad, for the ones that have white privilege. However, skin that is not white has far more injustices, they are oppressed and they are the ones that suffer, not having this same privilege. This study will recognize awareness, barriers, and successful ways to treat people …

Possibilities Of A Third Epidemiological Occurrence, Sue A. Bentley

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibilities of a third epidemiological occurrence. An epidemiological occurrence is where large segments of population and culture have been adversely affected either by disease or through manmade causes of disease. According to World Health Organization an epidemic is an outbreak of a disease that attacks many people at the same time and may spread through more than one community. An endemic outbreak is a disease that exists permanently in a region or within a population. A pandemic is an epidemic that spreads throughout the world.

Exemplar, Winter 2009, Eastern Michigan University

Alumni News: Eastern Magazine

No abstract provided.

Nitrogen Isotopic Evidence For Deglacial Changes In Nutrient Supply In The Eastern Equatorial Pacific, Rebecca S. Robinson, P. Martinez, L. D. Pena, I. Cacho

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) is a high nutrient–low chlorophyll region of the ocean. Downcore nitrogen isotope records from the EEP have been previously interpreted as a direct reflection of changes in nutrient consumption. However, the observed changes in sedimentary δ¹⁵N since the last glacial maximum have no coherent relationship with export productivity or an inferred variation in the iron‐to‐nitrate ratio of the surface waters. Rather, downcore N isotope records in the EEP strongly resemble changes in the extent of water column denitrification as recorded in nearby sedimentary δ¹⁵N records along the western margin of the …

Effects Of Open Marsh Water Management On Numbers Of Larval Salt Marsh Mosquitoes, Mary-Jane James-Pirri, Howard S. Ginsberg, R. Michael Erwin, Janith Taylor

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Open marsh water management (OMWM) is a commonly used approach to manage salt marsh mosquitoes than can obviate the need for pesticide application and at the same time, partially restore natural functions of grid-ditched marshes. OMWM includes a variety of hydrologic manipulations, often tailored to the specific conditions on individual marshes, so the overall effectiveness of this approach is difficult to assess. Here, we report the results of controlled field trials to assess the effects of two approaches to OMWM on larval mosquito production at National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). A traditional OMWM approach, using pond construction and radial ditches was …

Regulation Of Transglutaminase By 5-Ht2a Receptor Signaling And Calmodulin, Ying Dai

Dissertations

Transglutaminase (TGase), nature’s biological glue, catalyzes the post-translational modification of proteins by formation of intra- and intermolecular protein cross-links or by primary amine incorporation. TGase has various physiological functions, such as skin-barrier formation and blood clot stabilization, whereas increasing evidence indicates they may also involved in neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington’s disease (HD), Alzheimer disease’s, and progressive supranuclear palsy. Mutant huntingtin (htt) and small G proteins (e.g. Rac 1) are potential substrates of TGases. The purpose of this dissertation was to characterize the mechanisms by which 5-HT2A receptor signaling and calmodulin (CaM) regulate TGase-catalyzed transamidation of Rac1 and htt in cultured …

A Kernel For Open Source Drug Discovery In Tropical Diseases, Leticia Ortı, Rodrigo J. Carbajo, Ursula Pieper, Narayanan Eswar, Stephen M. Maurer, Arti K. Rai, Ginger Taylor, Matthew H. Todd, Antonio Pineda-Lucena, Andrej Sali, Marc A. Marti-Renom

Faculty Scholarship

Open source drug discovery, a promising alternative avenue to conventional patent-based drug development, has so far remained elusive with few exceptions. A major stumbling block has been the absence of a critical mass of preexisting work that volunteers can improve through a series of granular contributions. This paper introduces the results from a newly assembled computational pipeline for identifying protein targets for drug discovery in ten organisms that cause tropical diseases. We have also experimentally tested two promising targets for their binding to commercially available drugs, validating one and invalidating the other. The resulting kernel provides a base of drug …

Marginal Value Of Irrigation Water Use In The South Saskatchewan River Basin, Canada, Antony Samarawickrema, Suren Kulshreshtha

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The allocation of water is part of water management. In order to achieve maximum benefits to society, water should be allocated toward uses that have the highest value, followed, as an alternative, by the next highest level or one with equal value. Such decisions require knowledge of water value at the last unit of use. Within agriculture, irrigation is important. Irrigation water must be allocated to various crops; therefore, producers require knowledge of the marginal value of water among alternative crops. This study estimates marginal value product for irrigation water within the southern areas of the Canadian Prairie Provinces using …

Book Review: Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies For Governance And Development Edited By Miriam Jorgensen, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Rebuilding Native Nations is a powerful restatement and reconsideration of American Indian self-determination, a federal policy approaching five decades in age. Its essays draw upon more than a decade of tribal success stories collected and celebrated by the Harvard Project. Individual chapters focus on particular subject areas such as tribal economic development, intergovernmental relations, and tribal constitutional and tribal court development. The authors draw out commonalities about successful nation building in tribal communities, theorizing an underlying basis, and leading readers to understand how to replicate that success. The chapter on tribal courts by Judge Joseph Thomas Flies-Away, Judge Carrie Garrow, …

Historical Changes In The Occurrence And Distribution Of Freshwater Mussels In Kansas, Robert T. Angelo, M. Steve Cringan, Eva Hays, Clint A. Goodrich, Edwin J. Miller, Mark A. Vanscoyoc, Bryan R. Simmons

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The surface waters of eastern and central Kansas once supported an impressive variety of native freshwater mussels, but a widespread decline in species richness accompanied the urban, industrial, and agricultural development of this region. Statewide mussel surveys implemented during the past two decades have shed new light on the scope and severity of this decline. Of the 48 mussel species originally known from Kansas, six are now extirpated, one lacks reproductively viable populations (i.e., faces imminent extirpation), and 38 others have suffered evident range reductions or a widespread thinning of former populations. Soil erosion and stream siltation, other forms of …

Causes And Impacts Of Salinization In The Lower Pecos River, Christopher W. Hoagstrom

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

River salinization is a byproduct of water resource development that results from cumulative impacts of flow-regime modifications and crop irrigation. However, historical salinization in the Lower Pecos River is often attributed to natural, high-salinity groundwater. Here, evidence from literature and U.S. Geological Survey gaging stations is reviewed to summarize historical changes associated with water development that potentially contributed to Pecos River salinization. A suite of hydrological changes, initiated in the 1880s, likely contributed to streamflow salinization: (1) reduced flood frequency and magnitude, (2) diminished streamflow, (3) increased evapotranspiration, and (4) increased prevalence of natural, high-salinity groundwater. Salinization is presently highest …

Book Review: Grasses Of Colorado By Robert B. Shaw, Stephan L. Hatch

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This comprehensive, systematic treatment of the grasses of Colorado is going to become the standard for new floras in the state. With this book the “student of grasses” will be able to more accurately identify and key the species within this economically important and unique family. Users will need to read the introductions and follow the author’s excellent instructions in how to use the book to be most successful. There are brief but adequate discussions of physiography and ecoregions that place Colorado’s grass vegetation in the proper context with surrounding states. The section on the “grass plant” is particularly well …

Great Plains Research: A Journal Of Natural And Social Sciences Volume 19, Number 1 (Spring 2009): Table Of Contents

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Social Sciences

Socioeconomic Impacts of Developing Wind Energy in the Great Plains (F. Larry Leistritz and Randal C. Coon) .............. 3

Archeological Interpretation of the Frontier Battle at Mud Springs, Nebraska (Peter Bleed and Douglas D. Scott) .............. 13

Natural Sciences

Causes and Impacts of Salinization in the Lower Pecos River (Christopher W. Hoagstrom) .............. 27

Near-Surface Soil-Water Monitoring for Water Resources Management on a Wide-Area Basis in the Great Plains (Hubbard, You, Sridhar, Hunt, Korner, and Roebke) .............. 45

Precipitation Event Size Controls on Long-Term Abundance of Opuntia Polyacantha (Plains Prickly-Pear) in Great Plains Grasslands (Lauenroth, Dougherty, and Singh) …

Book Review: Rare Plants Of Texas By Jackie M. Poole, William R. Carr, Dana M. Price, And Jason R. Singhurst, Amy K. Buthod

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The botanical diversity of Texas has been well documented, so it is surprising that few books focusing on the state’s endangered and threatened plants have been published. According to the authors of Rare Plants of Texas, this is because “most of these plants are too rare to be mentioned, much less pictured, in standard guidebooks.” Their book, attempting to remedy this situation, succeeds with photos, drawings, and descriptions of 225 taxa considered rare within the state.

Expanding on Poole and Riskand’s Endangered, Threatened or Protected Native Plants of Texas (1987), the majority of Rare Plants of Texas’s 640 …

Book Review Of Texas Rattlesnake Roundups By Clark E. Adams And John K. Thomas, Carl J. Franklin

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

I am a bred and born Texan and can personally attest that rattlesnake roundups have been an iconic event for the Lone Star state and will likely continue to be for years to come. So ingrained have these events become that I remember having roundup representatives visit my high school and teach us how to locate and gas dens, collect rattlesnakes, and possibly profit from their harvesting.

As a herpetologist I can also add that these events have been the source of controversy for many people in and out of the state of Texas with concerns regarding the sustainability of …

General Permits Under Section 404 Of The Clean Water Act, Steven A.G. Davison

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Medical Hope, Legal Pitfalls: Potential Legal Issues In The Emerging Field Of Oncofertility, Gregory Dolin, Dorothy E. Roberts, Lina M. Rodriguez, Teresa K. Woodruff

All Faculty Scholarship

The article will begin its discussion by identifying the values at stake in the field of oncofertility. These values include the constitutional protection of the rights of women and minors to bear children and to use reproduction-assisting technologies, as well as the feminist critique of gendered expectations that may pressure women to use these technologies.

Part III will focus on the medical options of oncofertility. It will also discuss some conditions that may lead otherwise fertile and young patients to lose their ability to bear children as a side-effect of necessary medical treatment. The article will then proceed to discuss …

Problem Solving And Prevention By General-Jurisdiction Judges ©, Thomas D. Barton

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

State court systems have done much in recent years to deepen their “problem-solving” qualities. Across the country, courts have adopted court-annexed mediation programs and developed a variety of specialty courts tailored to drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, mental health, homelessness, and sexual offenders. These innovations have broadened the scope in which legal problems are understood and deepened the level of engagement between legal system personnel and claimants/defendants. They have spawned thoughtful reflections by judges and lawyers about the impact and effectiveness of legal institutions and methods as exemplified by the Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Comprehensive Law movements.

“Preventive Law” could …

Beyond Minimum Standards: Federal Requirements And State Interpretations Of The Indian Child Welfare Act, Kathryn E. Fort

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Awoman comes to state court with a tribal custody order, seeking to modify its provisions. The state removes a child from her home and her mother is a tribal citizen. A couple seeks a divorce in state court but both are tribal citizens. When these cases appear in state courts, practitioners need to know how and where family law and Indian law intersect, and how that intersection shifts the cases out of the majority of family law cases in state courts. Because family law is such a large portion of the civil docket, it is easy for certain procedures to …

Making Good On Good Intentions: The Critical Role Of Motivation In Reducing Implicit Workplace Discrimination, Katharine T. Bartlett

Faculty Scholarship

Discrimination in today’s workplace is largely implicit, making it ambiguous and often very difficult to prove. Employment discrimination scholars have proposed reforms of Title VII to make implicit discrimination easier to establish in court and to expand the kinds of situations to which liability attaches. The reform proposals reflect a broad consensus that strong legal norms are crucial to addressing the problem. Yet it is mistaken to assume that strengthening plaintiffs’ hands in implicit discrimination cases will necessarily achieve the long-term goal of reducing its occurrence. This Article brings together several strands of social science research showing that (1) implicit …

Theorizing And Generalizing About Risk Assessment And Regulation Through Comparative Nested Analysis Of Representative Cases, Jonathan B. Wiener, Brendon Swedlow, Denise Kall, Zheng Zhou, James K. Hammitt

Faculty Scholarship

This article provides a framework and offers strategies for theorizing and generalizing about risk assessment and regulation developed in the context of an on-going comparative study of regulatory behavior. Construction of a universe of nearly 3,000 risks and study of a random sample of 100 of these risks allowed us to estimate relative U.S. and European regulatory precaution over a thirty-five-year period. Comparative nested analysis of cases selected from this universe of ecological, health, safety, and other risks or its eighteen categories or ninety-two subcategories of risk sources or causes will allow theory-testing and -building and many further descriptive and …

Parallel Reactive Molecular Dynamics: Numerical Methods And Algorithmic Techniques, Hasan Metin Aktulga, Joseph C. Fogarty, Sagar A. Pandit, Ananth Y. Grama

PRISM: NNSA Center for Prediction of Reliability, Integrity and Survivability of Microsystems

No abstract provided.