An Analytical Study Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Spanish Language and Literatures at Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI

ix, 33 p.A theatrical stage manager cannot be easily defined or understood, however, for the most part, the essential function of a stage manager is to “run rehearsals and meetings, facilitate communication between members of the production team and cast, enforce rules and schedules, create and maintain the prompt book, call the show, and take overall responsibility for a seamless production from start to finish.” (Carmody, 2015, pp. 5-6). The stage manager and their team is meant to manage the communication and overall production process, from before auditions take place, until way after performances is finished, all to ensure that the process of a production runs as smoothly as possible. In this paper, I will be explaining the benefits of applying linguistic knowledge of Politeness Theory to conflict resolution skills in order to better the communication competence of a stage manager. I have chosen to include sections explaining, what theatrical stage managers are, basic linguistic knowledge and how it funnels into Speech Act’s Politeness Theory, basic conflict resolution tactics, and how such knowledge allows stage managers to maintain face during conflicts, maintain disagreements between two or more parties and delegate tasks effectively. Key words: Stage Manager, competence, communication, linguistics, benefits, basic, conflict resolution, tactics, maintain, face, effectively

Mitochondrial DNA copy number decreases with adenine-induced CKD in rat kidney tissue

v, 26 p.Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and cases are on the rise globally due to the increasing prevalence of risk factors. Despite its growing prevalence as an international health issue, a major problem with CKD diagnosis is that clinical symptoms do not appear until after severe kidney damage has occurred. The proximal tubule is the major cell type in the kidney cortex, necessitating a large number of mitochondria to satisfy its metabolic demands. Chronic kidney disease is associated with proximal tubule injury, which can lead to reduced mitochondrial function and decreased mitochondrial number. Direct measurement of mitochondrial DNA copy number (mt-CN) in the kidney is a potential biomarker of proximal tubule function and CKD progression because it reflects capacity for oxidative phosphorylation. However, most research focuses on mt-CN quantification in blood samples using insensitive methods like qPCR. It is unclear if mt-CN levels in blood are related to mt-CN in the kidney, or if methods like qPCR are sufficiently accurate. This paper utilizes kidney tissue samples and the adenine-induced model of CKD (with diets of 0%, 0.25%, 0.50%, and 0.75% adenine) as well as dPCR for quantification of mt-CN using mitochondrial-specific loci overlapping ND1 and ND4. Low mt-CN in the kidney was significantly associated with adenine-induced CKD for both loci (p < 0.0001). mt-CN did not significantly differ between the 0.25%, 0.50%, and 0.75% diets. Additionally, there was an age-dependent decrease in mt-CN. The results of this study validate mt-CN as a potential biomarker of CKD, and the absolute quantification of mt-CN may have prognostic value in screening and monitoring CKD in the clinical setting

Investigation of Maleimide-Tryptamine Hybrids as Antimicrobial Agents on Antimicrobial-Resistant Bacteria

v, 29 p.The rise in bacteria that are resistant to many classical antibiotics, i.e., antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria, poses a growing problem with infections, sometimes leading to deaths. Multiple avenues are being pursued as solutions, including antimicrobial peptides and hybrid compounds, to combat the increase in hospital infections and deaths. For this study, two hybrid compounds made in the lab of Dr. Williams by molecular hybridization methods were tested with cultures of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter hormaechei, Staphylococcus aureus (the ESKAPE pathogens), Proteus vulgaris, and Escherichia coli. Although neither hybrid compound showed inhibition of bacterial growth, signs of metabolic action on the compounds were observed. The compounds, EG 2-31, yielded an orange product after 24 hours in cell cultures, indicative of the production of a metabolic product. UV/vis spectroscopic analyses revealed the presence of a new molecule in the growth media. SDS-PAGE analyses did not indicate that a metabolic enzyme activity was differentially regulated, suggesting that the metabolite was made by an existing enzyme. HPLC analysis did not reveal any differences between treatments. Future analyses are needed to pinpoint what is acting on the compounds and producing the metabolite

Sociability in greylag geese : the effects of hand-rearing vs. wild-rearing on animal personality

iii, 22 p.This study investigates the influence of hand-rearing on animal personality, specifically focusing on sociability. A free-flying flock of 108 greylag geese (Anser anser) at the Konrad Lorenz Research Center in Austria was used. This research compared the sociability of human-reared individuals against the sociability of wild-reared individuals. Sociability scores were determined through scan sampling of resting geese, defining the score as the number of conspecifics within a 2-meter radius of a focal goose. Initial t-test analyses indicated that hand-reared geese were significantly more social than wild-reared geese. However, more robust Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs), which accounted for individual identity, birth year and rearing type, revealed a more complex relationship: rearing method itself had no significant independent effect on sociability. Instead, birth year emerged as a primary driver, with geese becoming significantly less sociable as they aged. Crucially, the study found a significant interaction between birth year and rearing type, demonstrating that while both groups become less social over time, hand-reared geese lose sociability at a faster rate than wild-reared geese

IT-Onboarding Internship at SelectQuote : Data, Systems, and Learning

v, 11 p.This Senior Integrated Project reflects on my summer internship with SelectQuote as an IT-Onboarding Intern. My work focused on tracking data systems, streamline onboarding processes, and developing reporting tools using platforms such as Google Sheets, SmartSheets, Absolute, ServiceDesk and Zapier. I will reflect on my original goals, what I accomplished, challenges faced, and the broader significance of my internship experience in the context of my education at Kalamazoo College

The Interwar Years : Threats to Masculinity and World War I Veterans’ Political Repercussions Within the German Weimar Republic

75 p.While veterans made up a small segment of society proportionally, they were a unique group that had a distinctive effect on Weimar’s politics. In response to growing resentment and anxiety towards working women and the shifting of traditional gender roles and norms in the middle-class workforce, some veterans informed their politics through a lens of a ‘female invasion and takeover of the labor market’ that was being presented to them by newspapers, critics, and political elites. Veterans' political engagements were based on perceived threats to masculinity, as they worried how these shifts would affect and change the greater German society. Some veterans also reacted politically to generated myths, such as the stab-in-the-back legend, through protest and political violence, as resentments with the newly established government festered. Some of these groups of veterans found political asylum in the right and with the growing Nazi Party. Their involvement within elections is central to understanding the rise of the Nazi Party and the catapulting of Adolf Hitler into power. While multiple other elements may have shifted veterans to the right, such as the effects of massive inflation, the Great Depression, and fears of communism— potentially sparked by communists effects on a national scale in Russia— all of these effects and how they spurred political action within veteran groups cannot be studied simultaneously in a small case review. Focus on the traumatic experiences veterans received from the war as well as the shift in gendered labor in post-war Germany will provide unique insights into the politics of resentment that groups of veterans practiced in Weimar Germany that ultimately led to the internal rise in right-extremist political parties

The Effects of Geographic Origin on Ovary Development in Osmia lignaria

iii, 21 p.Osmia lignaria, more commonly known as the Blue Orchard bee, is a species of native bee that plays a vital role in agriculture across the continental United States. Highly regarded for its ability to efficiently pollinate fruits such as almonds, apples, peaches, pears, and plums, it is one of the few native bee species that are managed for agricultural pollination in North America. However, as heat waves continue to increase in temperature and frequency as a result of climate change, the reproductive efficiency of this bee has come into question. Previous studies have focused on O. lignaria in the context of larval development and consequences on survival at high heatwave temperatures, which failed to show the developmental effects into adulthood. To test the effects of heatwaves during development on adult success, we designed an experiment with bees from three geographically distinct regions: California, Utah, and Washington, to explore the unique regional responses to both low and high heatwave temperatures during larval development. Contrary to the findings of previous studies that showed catastrophic outcomes for O. lignaria exposed to heatwaves during larval development, our study found no significant effect on the reproductive capacity (oocyte size) of O. lignaria as a result of heatwave exposure, and there was no difference in tolerance between bees of the three distinct regions

Emotional Closeness in Adulthood : How Adolescent Communication and Relational Climate Shape Parent-Child Relationships

38 p.This study examined the roles of communication quality and relational climate between an adolescent and their parents in predicting emotional closeness in adulthood, and whether these interactions were affected by family structure and attachment style. There were 5,114 participants from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Communication quality, relational climate, family structure and attachment style were assessed during adolescence, while emotional closeness was reported in adulthood. Findings showed that relational climate in adolescence was a stronger predictor of adult emotional closeness than adolescent communication quality. Family structure moderated the role of communication quality but not the one of relational climate. Relational climate remained a strong predictor of emotional closeness even after attachment style was accounted for, whereas communication quality did not. Overall, these findings emphasize the key role of relational climate in fostering strong parent-child bonds into adulthood and note the need for future research that explores wider family and social factors that shape closeness over time

Religion as a Support System for Mental Health

28 p.Research demonstrates that religion and its community can used to be an aid. Religion can provide comfort in times of distress (Sen et al., 2022), and can provide security to soften grief and death anxiety (Brown et al., 2004; Fortuin et al., 2018). It can also provide community to discourage loneliness, and to build supportive atmospheres that have been thought to promote not just better mental health, but better physical health too (Chan et al., 2018). The present study therefore recognizes the potential positive relationship between mental health and religion and uses a combined version of two datasets from surveys conducted by Add Health (About – Add Health, n.d.), to assess a potential relationship between religiosity and mental health. Contrary to my hypothesis, the results revealed no significant relationship between mental health and religiosity, and although there was a positive correlation as expected, it was weak. Future research should narrow down the field of religion, perhaps investigating mental health within separate religions first, or on an even narrower scale, investigating the mental health within specific religious communities/places of worship. It is also recognized that religious groups are not always supportive environments, particularly to marginalized groups, and this too must be considered for future research

Appreciating p-adics, the Fake Numbers

66 p.What does the phrase “Fake Numbers” mean? For me, the origins are in the semantics of food. If you will bear with me for a moment, please consider the term real food and its implied opposite, fake food. Taken literally fake food would refer to a plastic apple. However, that is not the comparison that is being made when real food is brought up. It references healthy food, natural food, or perhaps the food that people have been eating for most of history. Therefore, we know that the implied fake food is the modern, in this case processed and industrialized food. However, we can note that the latter is still edible. It still has calories, and by most definitions would qualify as food. Let this then inform our understanding of “fake numbers”. Much of the early if not full mathematical journey of many of my peers has been to learn about the real numbers (R). I content the p-adic numbers are the implied, albeit often omitted, fake number counterpart to R. A more modern construction, one with quite the overlap and enticing features that fake food has, yet not necessarily a full substitute for the original and all of its properties. With some semantics and analogies over with, we can discuss the layout what this paper and what we wish to accomplish over its duration. On a personal level it has been the culmination of my undergraduate experience with mathematics. A chance for me to appreciate much of what I have learned, apply past concepts to new landscapes, finally get my head around some key ideas, left me with a clearer picture of how little I know, and has been a continued exploration my newly kindled love of seeing math1. Therefore, I have a goal for us to accomplish. We will enjoy looking into the interesting, weirdly shaped, sometimes counterintuitive, yet also very accessible world of the p-adics. Along the way we will make several comparisons with R. We should also not believe in the above analogy so much as to begin viewing the p-adics as unhealthy or as a full replacement for R. To accomplish this goal, we will start at the beginning, what are the p-adics