Digital Commons Network^™

Creating Community Outside Of The Classroom: Strategies For Integrating Second Life Into The Interpersonal Communication Course, Elizabeth Tolman

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The educational opportunities for Second Life across various courses have been well documented in the literature. However, instructors new to teaching online may not have explored Second Life as an instructional resource and may perceive using Second Life as overwhelming. For this assignment, students create an avatar and interact with other avatars in Second Life. This assignment can be used in the online or face-to-face communication course. Second Life provides a context where students can participate in interactions with other avatars, their classmates, and the instructor. Students observe and analyze self-disclosure, interpersonal deception, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, and additional interpersonal …

Mission Statement Creation And Dissemination In Service Organizations: Reaching All Employees To Provide Unified Organizational Direction, Julie L.G. Walker

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Scholars extol the virtues of crafting effective mission statements and the importance of its frequent communication. Especially in nonprofit business settings, mission statements can be an important way to provide goals and purpose for an organization’s staff. Creating and conveying mission statements to unify a staff whose tasks span a broad range is a difficult but important part of visionary leadership. This study explored mission statement dissemination at a university to understand its impact on staff whose tasks included limited academic work with students. Analysis of questionnaires found nonacademic staff members were not exposed to the mission statement often and …

Tornadoes Of Utterances: A Theoretical Approach To Studying Discourse, Power And Knowledge, Terri L. Russ

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

This paper expands upon our current understanding of the nexus between discourse and power by presenting an alternative theoretical approach to studying the intertextual workings of various discourses and how they work independently and interdependently to create power. Using Bakhtin’s theories of language, the paper first shows how all discourse is heteroglot and intertextually related to other discourses. The paper then shows how this intertextuality works to increase the connection between discourse, power and knowledge as discussed by Foucault. Taking this knowledge, the tornado model of discourse and power is presented as a theoretical and methodological tool to be used …

Constitutional Rights In Post-9/11 America, Meredith Aby

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

On September 21, 2011, Meredith Aby accepted an invitation to speak on the subject of freedom of speech and association in ten years after 9/11. Her speech, which was sponsored by the Department of Communication Studies at Minnesota State University, the Kessel Peace Institute, and the Mankato Area Activist Collective, is more than a powerful defense of free speech the right to dissent. It is the personal account of an ordinary person of extraordinary conviction—an activist, a mother, a partner, a teacher, and a debate coach—for whom standing up for right to oppose one’s government is more than an abstract …

The Semiotics Of Teaching With Reality Tv: A Theory-Based Approach To Teaching And Modeling Communication Theory, Rita L. Rahoi-Gilchrest

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

This article begins by establishing a rationale for not only teaching with reality television in the communication classroom, but also taking a theory-based approach to doing so. A theoretical framework for the pedagogical use of reality TV—semiotic theory, based on the work of Peirce— is presented. The discussion then moves to a specific outline of a sample classroom activity that demonstrates a semiotic approach, using the BRAVO TV website as a means of illustrating and teaching Cultural Studies Theory. The author concludes by qualifying the case for using reality TV as one—but not the only—means of teaching communication, and offers …

"A Land Of Make Believe That Don’T Believe In Me": Dissent By Incongruity In Green Day’S "Jesus Of Suburbia", Jansen B. Werner

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks there were increased demands in America for patriotism. This attitude of hyper-patriotism, in accordance with the Bush Administration’s appropriation of the American civil religion, precluded many discursive possibilities for dissent. Yet there were some who still utilized the available outlets of public discourse to dissent from Bush Administration policies. Green Day’s 2004 song, “Jesus of Suburbia,” is just such an exemplary dissent discourse. What follows is divided into four sections. First, I analyze the ideological circumstances which preceded the release of “Jesus of Suburbia.” Second, I reflect on the respective conceptual insights of Ivie’s …

Functional Characterization Of Altered Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms In Autism Using Patient-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, Brooke Alisen Derosa

Open Access Dissertations

To date, numerous candidate genes have been associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with many of these genes known to have important roles in synaptic function and the development of neural circuits. This suggests that certain neurobiological processes could be commonly altered in ASD. Therefore, although there is a great deal of clinical and genetic heterogeneity in ASDs, there may be convergent deficits in key molecular mechanisms which underlie the disease. Although this is encouraging, a lack of appropriate human-based models of complex neurodevelopmental disorders has greatly hindered investigations of convergent neurobiology in ASD. Patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) …

2015-11 Cmd 586 Multisensory Instruction In Language And Literature, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

Library Impact Statement submitted in response to new course proposal for CMD 586 Multisensory Instruction in Language and Literature. This course was supported with no need for additional resources. Responding library faculty member: Joanna M. Burkhardt. Requesting faculty member: Geraldine Theadore.

The Importance Of Being Proactive: Suicide Clusters, Prevention Programs, And Postvention Methods In The High School Setting, Lindsay Farmer

University Honors Program

The purpose of this paper is to explain the phenomenon of suicide clustering and suicide contagion in relation to teenagers and the education system and to provide detailed recommendations for both the prevention and postvention of youth suicide in the school system. Due to the prevalence of mental health issues in teenagers, especially depression, it is important for educators to be aware of the risks of youth suicide attempts and completion, as well as the inherent dangers of clustering that may occur. The phenomenon of suicide clustering will be explained, including the methods by which clustering occurs, as well as …

Creating Environmental Education For Children: Focusing On The Vigo County/Terre Haute Community, Jordanna Bilyeu

University Honors Program

This study is an attempt to create an action plan to improve environmental education for children within a community. It evaluates the reach and sophistication of this type of education that currently exists in the Vigo County/Terre Haute community, diagnoses weaknesses in the system, and finds ways to develop it. Data was collected through surveys given to elementary school teachers in Vigo County Public schools, interviewing community educators, making onsite visits to educational locations, online research, and speaking with political figures. Environmental education lacks sophistication in schools and can be improved through hands-on, sustainability standards and resources. Community sources outside …

Foucault And Damnatio Memoriae: An Introduction To The Mnemo-Government Of Cinema, Yang Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Foucault published several interviews and articles about cinema in 1970s, and he took the cinema as one of the dispositifs codifying the popular memory. The working class in 19th century invented many ways to write their own memory, but the cinema, by way of popular historical narration, ended the history of the people from the lower depths to write their memory. Foucault analyzed how the controversial (retro and erotic) films in 1970s represented desire and power in historical narration. This paper tries to combine Foucault's "dispositif of popular memory" with the biopolitics, and claims that the memory is also the …

The Role Of Mentoring Programs, Ashley Haack

University Honors Program

The prevention of delinquency and rehabilitation of delinquent youth has been discussed, researched, and attempted over and over again, yet more and more youth seem to be entering the justice system or returning to it. This study aims to look at prevention and rehabilitation using a different lens, the lens of social connection. In my research, I have found that positive social connection is not only helpful in the development of individuals, but is also a crucial part of one’s identity and one’s future. In order to not only hypothesize, but also to apply these findings, I also researched mentoring …

Pregnant Women's Navigation Of Information On Everyday Household Chemicals: Phthalates As A Case Study, Justin M. Ashley, Alexandra Hodgson, Sapna Sharma, Jeff Nisker

Paediatrics Publications

Background: Current developments in science and the media have now placed pregnant women in a precarious situation as they are charged with the responsibility to navigate through information sources to make the best decisions for her pregnancy. Yet little is known regarding how pregnant women want to receive and use health information in general, let alone information regarding the uncertain risks to pregnancy in everyday household products such as phthalates found in cosmetics and canned food liners. Using phthalates as an example, this study investigated how pregnant women obtain, evaluate, and act on information regarding their pregnancy. Methods: Pregnant women …

Win With Us!, St. Petersburg Arts Alliance

Marketing, Presentations & Publications

No abstract provided.

Progressive Hearing Loss In Mice Carrying A Mutation In Usp53, Marcin Kazmierczak, Suzan L. Harris, Piotr Kazmierczak, Prahar Shah, Valentin Starovoytov, Kevin K. Ohlemiller, Martin Schwander

Open Access Publications

UNLABELLED: Disordered protein ubiquitination has been linked to neurodegenerative disease, yet its role in inner ear homeostasis and hearing loss is essentially unknown. Here we show that progressive hearing loss in the ethylnitrosourea-generated mambo mouse line is caused by a mutation in Usp53, a member of the deubiquitinating enzyme family. USP53 contains a catalytically inactive ubiquitin-specific protease domain and is expressed in cochlear hair cells and a subset of supporting cells. Although hair cell differentiation is unaffected in mambo mice, outer hair cells degenerate rapidly after the first postnatal week. USP53 colocalizes and interacts with the tight junction scaffolding proteins …

The Cia And The Jfk Assassination, Pt. 2, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

In the 1970s several Congressional investigations discovered there had been a disturbing pattern of misconduct by the CIA in regard to the Warren Commission’s investigation of the JFK assassination. The Agency had engaged in a cover-up by suppressing information it should have disclosed to the Commission, and in still other ways it had impeded the Commission’s investigation.

CIA documents subsequently released under the Freedom of Information Act or the 1992 JFK Assassination Records Act expand our awareness of the Agency’s misconduct.

Public Ethics As A Canadiana “Theologica Publica”, David G. A. Pfrimmer

Consensus

This paper explores how a paradigm of the “public commons” can describe the relationship and contribution of various ‘public’ actors. The paper will explore how we might think differently about ‘public(s)’ and why “public ethics” could serve as a distinctively Canadian ‘public theology’ of ‘belonging.’ Paper presented as “Capital Theology: Religion and Politics in the 21st Century” at the Canadian Theological Society. Ottawa, June 2015.

Religious Perspectives Being Marginalized In Canada, John Milloy

Consensus

This article was a lecture delivered at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Waterloo, Ontario Canada, April 8, 2015 at a reception welcoming John Milloy as Co-Director of the Centre for Public Ethics and Assistant Professor of Public Ethics at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary as well as the inaugural Practitioner in Residence in the Department of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Global Citizenship: The Role Of Faith Communities In The Public Space, Martin Junge

Consensus

Article given as a public lecture at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada 11 June 2015.

Fatigue Modeling Via Mammalian Auditory System For Prediction Of Noise Induced Hearing Loss, Pengfei Sun, Jun Qin, Kathleen Campbell

Articles

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) remains as a severe health problem worldwide. Existing noise metrics and modeling for evaluation of NIHL are limited on prediction of gradually developing NIHL (GDHL) caused by high-level occupational noise. In this study, we proposed two auditory fatigue based models, including equal velocity level (EVL) and complex velocity level (CVL), which combine the high-cycle fatigue theory with the mammalian auditory model, to predict GDHL. The mammalian auditory model is introduced by combining the transfer function of the external-middle ear and the triple-path nonlinear (TRNL) filter to obtain velocities of basilar membrane (BM) in cochlea. The …

The Importance Of Being Proactive: Suicide Clusters, Prevention Programs, And Postvention Methods In The High School Setting, Lindsay Farmer

University Honors College

The purpose of this paper is to explain the phenomenon of suicide clustering and suicide contagion in relation to teenagers and the education system and to provide detailed recommendations for both the prevention and postvention of youth suicide in the school system. Due to the prevalence of mental health issues in teenagers, especially depression, it is important for educators to be aware of the risks of youth suicide attempts and completion, as well as the inherent dangers of clustering that may occur. The phenomenon of suicide clustering will be explained, including the methods by which clustering occurs, as well as …

Creating Environmental Education For Children: Focusing On The Vigo County/Terre Haute Community, Jordanna Bilyeu

University Honors College

This study is an attempt to create an action plan to improve environmental education for children within a community. It evaluates the reach and sophistication of this type of education that currently exists in the Vigo County/Terre Haute community, diagnoses weaknesses in the system, and finds ways to develop it. Data was collected through surveys given to elementary school teachers in Vigo County Public schools, interviewing community educators, making onsite visits to educational locations, online research, and speaking with political figures. Environmental education lacks sophistication in schools and can be improved through hands-on, sustainability standards and resources. Community sources outside …

The Role Of Mentoring Programs, Ashley Haack

University Honors College

The prevention of delinquency and rehabilitation of delinquent youth has been discussed, researched, and attempted over and over again, yet more and more youth seem to be entering the justice system or returning to it. This study aims to look at prevention and rehabilitation using a different lens, the lens of social connection. In my research, I have found that positive social connection is not only helpful in the development of individuals, but is also a crucial part of one’s identity and one’s future. In order to not only hypothesize, but also to apply these findings, I also researched mentoring …

Bfs News Online, Georgia Southern University

Art: News & Publications (2008-2023)

• Larson’s Work Exhibited; Class Creates Commercials for Boys & Girls Club

Volume 53, Number 15: November 25, 2015, University Of North Dakota

University Letter Archive

No abstract provided.

An Ambulance Made Of Whiskey, Maria Victoria Mejia Yepes

Theses

An Ambulance Made of Whiskey is the story of Sven, a famous writer who loses his inspiration. He becomes a target of bullying by his fans and falls into a deep depression, shutting himself off completely from the public and from his family. He tries to commit suicide several times with no success.

Suddenly, after overdosing on a mixture of drugs, he enters into a surreal world in which he is confronted with his own death. While he is hallucinating, he is traveling in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. This affects his perception, mixing with the parallel …

Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom (2006-2023)

• Georgia Southern student publications win awards at National College Media Convention

Twenty-Three Days: An Autoethnographic Account Of The Washington, D.C. Sniper Shootings, Chelsea Jordan Gutshall

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Our lives are often defined by the struggles we confront because in facing these trials we must reflect upon experiences and the power others have in shaping our reactions. The Washington, D.C. sniper shootings of October 2002 are one case of such terror. My own experiences with two shootings in my hometown and living extremely close to others serves as the background for this autoethnography, detailing what I and my family faced during that single month. The focus, however, is not the snipers but family communication and how parents help children cope during unimaginable crises. This autoethnography is divided into …

Explaining The Revolution: Vernacular Discourse And The Tipping Point In America’S 2006 Midterm Election, Ryan Michael Shepard

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The 2006 midterm election marked perhaps the first time that the American public held the Bush administration accountable for its controversial actions. Various explanations have been offered for the backlash, ranging from public concern about the war to disgust over sex scandals involving prominent conservatives. In this essay, through analysis of vernacular discourse appearing in letters to the editor from USA Today, I argue that the election results stemmed from Bush’s weakening credibility – in respect to the dimensions of honesty, competence, and moderation – which limited the effectiveness of his rhetoric that was so powerful since September 11th.

Paws, Pathos And Presidential Persuasion: Franklin Roosevelt’S "Fala Speech" As Precursor And Model For Richard Nixon's "Checkers Speech", John Llewellyn

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

In autumn 1944 Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential campaign was losing momentum. Then, in Congressional debate, U. S. Representative Harold Knutson of Minnesota accused Roosevelt of extravagance, claiming he sent a Navy destroyer to the Aleutian Islands to retrieve his Scottish terrier. FDR parried these charges with "the Fala speech," a mocking and acerbic attack on Republicans ("No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala") that reenergized his campaign. "The Fala speech" also indirectly rescued Richard Nixon. Under attack in the 1952 campaign, Nixon saved his vice presidential aspirations and political career with the "Checkers" address. However, the …