Preparing Higher Education Tutors for Delivering Online Courses

This paper identifies that academic staff need to be suitably prepared to deliver wholly online courses, and outlines the steps taken towards achieving this, at one Higher Education institution in the UK. E-learning, whether partially (blended) or wholly online, is not simply about the technology, but also requires an understanding of the pedagogical considerations, and the skills that are needed, to effectively facilitate them. Through the use of a formal questionnaire, and collation of informal comments made on a social network, evaluation is made of a staff development course designed specifically to promote effective facilitation of high quality online courses. The results determined that the course is fit for purpose and achieves its aims. Future cohorts are already over-subscribed as a result of positive commentary by participants. Further developments will be made, based upon constructive feedback by participants. Whilst possibly not unique, this course demonstrates action being taken in an educational institution to recognise that effective online delivery requires specific knowledge and skills that are different from those used in the traditional classroom

Evaluation of Maxillary Molar Furcations, Clinical Measurements versus Cone Beam Computed Tomography

BACKGROUND: The use of three-dimensional imaging has shown to provide advantages to the clinician in assessing bone morphology. The aim of this study will be to compare the diagnostic efficacy of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) versus diagnostic clinical measurements in patients presenting with furcation involved maxillary first molars. METHODS: The study population included 20 patients with 34 maxillary first molar teeth with furcation involvement. Clinical horizontal and vertical probing measurements were compared to CBCT measurements taken by two calibrated examiners. RESULTS: Horizontal measurements showed a significant difference between Glickman class II and class III. There were no statistical significant differences with the horizontal measurements between clinical probing, bone sounding and CBCT measurements. CBCT vertical measurements were statistically greater than clinical probing measurements. CONCLUSION: The CBCT can provide similar horizontal measurements to standard clinical horizontal probing measurements and will provide a greater vertical dimension of a furcation defect to standard vertical probing measurements

What About Me: Understanding the Relationship Between Gender Identity and Social Anxiety

Anxiety disorders have been researched primarily in cisgender populations until very recently. A clear gap in the literature exists for gender diverse individuals in this research. Through analysis of transgender and gender-diverse individuals’ accounts of their experiences with social anxiety, this study developed a scale specifically aligned with these encounters, titled the Allen Scale. Further, this study examined whether body dysmorphia symptoms have any correlation with social anxiety symptoms in either gender-diverse or cisgender populations. Results uncovered no clear statistical difference between the gender diverse group and the cisgender group on ratings of experienced discrimination, social anxiety or body dysmorphia as they were measured on the Allen Scale. There was no relationship uncovered between the body dysmorphia and social anxiety sections of the Allen Scale in this sample. There was also no relationship between the previously established scales relating to body dysmorphia and social anxiety. Further research should examine the relationship between body dysmorphia and social anxiety more in depth. Additionally, research should continue to examine the impact that certain types of experienced discrimination have on the health and well-being of gender minorities

Contested understandings: The Lansbury estate in the post war period.

PhDThe Lansbury estate was the LCC's first post-war reconstruction area, it formed the Exhibition of Architecture during the Festival of Britain, and received considerable media, political, architecutral and planning attention. This coverage articulated hegemonic post-war ideas about the future, the East End and communities. I have examined this material and the representation and understandings about the estate from non-hegemonic groups. My intention has been to explore these representations and emphasise the complexity associated with the creation and negotiation of understandings about places. While the research is concerned with understandings of the Lansbury estate,I have examined the ways those meanings and understandings are created,and based my work around a conceptual critique of cultural geography. I argue that cultural geography has overly relied on hegemonic discourses produced by the powerful and neglected less powerful groups' understandings. As a result of this, some cultural geographers have over-simplified the complex ways meanings about places are created,reproduced and contested,and failed to address the range of meanings about places. This work, therefore is offered as a response to these limitations, and aims to show that to appreciate the meanings of places it is necessary to examine the understandings of hegemonic and nonhegemonic groups, and emphasise the relationships between those groups

Lichen Conservation in Eastern North America: Population Genomics, Climate Change, and Translocations

Conservation biology is a scientific discipline that draws on methods from diverse fields to address specific conservation concerns and inform conservation actions. This field is overwhelmingly focused on charismatic animals and vascular plants, often ignoring other diverse and ecologically important groups. This trend is slowly changing in some ways; for example, increasing number of fungal species are being added to the IUCN Red-List. However, a strong taxonomic bias still exists. Here I contribute four research chapters to further the conservation of lichens, one group of frequently overlooked organisms. I address specific conservation concerns in eastern North America using modern methods. The results of these studies provide insight into lichen conservation in each situation, implications for the broader ecosystems within the study regions, and advancement of methods for the study of lichen conservation and biology. The first research chapter (Chapter 2) is a population genomics study based on whole genome shotgun sequencing of Cetradonia linearis, an endangered, lichenized fungus. These data were used to 1) assemble and annotate a reference genome, 2) characterize the mating system, 3) test for isolation by distance (IBD) and isolation by environment (IBE), and 4) investigate the biogeographic history of the species. Approximately 70% of the genome (19.5 Mb) was assembled. Using this assembly, only a single mating type was located, suggesting the species could be unisexual. There was strong evidence for both low rates of recombination and for Isolation by Distance, but no evidence for Isolation by Environment. The hypothesis that C. linearis had a larger range during the last glacial maximum, especially in the southern portion of its current extent, was supported by Hindcast species distribution models and the spatial distribution of genetic diversity. Given the findings here, it is recommended that C. linearis remain protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act and listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red-List. The third chapter is an estimation of the impacts of climate change on high-elevation, endemic lichens in the southern Appalachians, a global diversity hotspot for many groups, including lichens. Extensive field surveys in the high elevations of the region were carried out to accurately document the current distributions of eight narrowly endemic species. These data were compared with herbarium records, and species distribution modeling was used to predict how much climatically suitable area will remain within, and north of, the current range of the target species at multiple time points and climate change scenarios. Fieldwork showed that target species ranged from extremely rare to locally abundant and models predicted average losses of suitable area within the current distribution of species ranging from 93.8 to 99.7%. The results indicate that climate change poses a significant threat to high-elevation lichens, and illustrates the application of current modeling techniques for rare, montane species. In the fourth chapter, a dataset of \u3e13,000 occurrence records for lichens in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain (MACP) of eastern North America was used to model distributions of 193 species. The resulting models were used to quantify the amount of each species’ distribution that is occupied by unsuitable land use types, along with the potential area that will be lost to sea-level rise (SLR). These analyses showed that species have likely already lost an average of 32% of their distributional area to development and agriculture, and are predicted to lose an average of 12.4 and 33.7% of their distributional area with one foot (~0.3 m) and six feet (~1.8 m) of SLR, respectively. Functional and taxonomic groups were compared to identify specific effects of SLR. Species reproducing with symbiotic propagules were found to have significantly larger distributions than species that reproduce sexually with fungal spores alone, and the sexually reproducing species were predicted to lose greater distributional area to SLR. Cladonia species occupy significantly less area in the MACP than Parmotrema species and were predicted to lose more of their distributions to SLR. Patterns of total species diversity showed that the area with the highest diversity is the Dare Peninsula in North Carolina, which was also predicted to lose the most land area to SLR. The workflow established here is flexible and applicable to estimating SLR impacts worldwide and can provide essential insights for local conservation planning. The fifth chapter describes the results of three experiments conducted to test new and established methods for lichen transplantation. First, small fragments of Graphis sterlingiana, Hypotrachyna virginica, and Lepraria lanata were placed on medical gauze attached to each of the species’ most common substrate to test the feasibility of transplanting narrowly endemic species. Second, burlap, cheesecloth, medical gauze, and a plastic air filter were directly compared for their use as artificial transplant substrates with Lepraria finkii as the test lichen. Third, transplants of Usnea angulata were established to test its amenability to transplantation via hanging fragments on monofilament. The first two experiments were established on Roan Mountain, North Carolina and the third experiment at Highlands Biological Station, North Carolina. In the first two experiments medical gauze did not withstand local weather conditions and nearly all pieces fell from the trees within 6 months. The plastic air filter and burlap performed best as artificial substrates for transplants, with a 100% and 80% success rate, respectively. Cheesecloth remained attached to the trees, but only 20% of lichen fragments remained attached to the substrate after one year. In the third experiment U. angulata grew 3.5 ± 1.4 cm in 5 months, exceeding previously reported growth rates for this species. These results advance methods for conservation-focused lichen transplants, and expand established methods to a new region and new species

Family Ties: Women, their Friendships, and Intellectual Kinship in Early Modern France

This thesis begins with a brief account of recent developments in scholarship pertaining to early modern friendship and gender, before shifting in focus to intellectual kinship, an area of friendship studies about which there is relatively little material in comparison to other areas of the field. I then introduce the authors on which my argument focuses, Madeleine (1520 – 1587) and Catherine des Roches (1542 – 1587) and Marie de Gournay (1565 – 1645). My overarching argument reveals how these three figures adapted aspects of the male-dominated friendship tradition in their writing in order to forge a place for themselves in learned culture and to form relationships with other writers and intellectuals. The first chapter considers the des Roches’s use and publication of correspondence in order to interact with a wide range of figures, including, notably, their publisher, Abel l’Angelier. Their position as a mother-daughter pair is a contrast to that of Gournay, a single woman, who uses correspondence to form familial alliances with Michel de Montaigne, Justus Lipsius, and Anna Maria van Schurman. This is the subject of the second chapter. In the third chapter, I examine all three authors together, looking at their poetry in the context of the love poetry of Louise Labé. In doing so, I emphasize that modern ideas about poetry have resulted in Labé’s work becoming much more well known than the occasional poetry of the des Roches and Gournay. Their poems contain interesting references to their intellectual kin, which provide further insight into their relationships which might be classified under this umbrella term. My conclusion uses the examples I analyse in order to attempt to provide a clearer definition of the idea of early modern intellectual kinship and to indicate the direction that future scholarship in this area might take

Who’s Your Perfect Person? A Study about Dating and Dating Factors

This Honors Thesis discusses the historical and present-day patterns of dating and dating factors. Dating has evolved throughout the years, and the factors women seek in potential partners have also shifted. The question this Honors Thesis plans to examine is; what are the current factors women seek in potential partners, and what possibly could have caused the various shifts in dating factors. These questions are examined by researching historical surveys and patterns from the 1930s to present-day. Starting in 1930, the thesis looks at the factors women in college looked for in a potential partner. The goals of dating or the purpose of dating are examined to see why women date. Wars and social movements are examined in this thesis as possible causes for the shift in dating norms. The thesis then discusses the creation of new social norms, and theorizes how “traditional dating” ended, and the creation of open relationships shifted the factors women looked for. The analysis portion of this thesis will inform the reader how the dating atmosphere has shifted throughout history, and what the current factors and goals are for present-day college women

Transnational Narrativity and Pastoralism in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. by Washington Irving

Washington Irving’s collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819-20), was one of the earliest and most influential texts to have achieved acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Its most famous stories, which include “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” are considered to be classics in their own right and are still popular. At the heart of the collection, however, is its narrator Geoffrey Crayon, a New Yorker travelling to England, and especially London, for the first time in order to experience its grand museums and libraries, its stunning architecture, and the sedate yet rarified country house lifestyle of the landed gentry: in short, all of the things he could not have experienced in contemporary America. Once in England, however, Crayon is struck by his increasing feelings of exile and loneliness, and retreats into his artistic intentions as solace. Notably, the collection’s most enduring stories in the collection are set in America: even as Crayon distances himself physically from his homeland he is drawn to it as an artistic subject, as though he cannot really see America until he leaves it. This feeling of artistic exile, as presented in The Sketch Book, is strikingly modern in tone for a text which is over 170 years old, and not only precedes later literary expatriations but anticipates developments in narrative studies, with respect to short-story theory and the composite novel. Irving negotiates the preferences, assumptions, and historical experience of each audience by steeping his social and cultural criticism in the universal realms of storytelling and mythology. In an age of emergent cultural nationalism, Irving seeks to establish both himself and his narrator as transatlantic writers. His desire to craft a truly transatlantic work, however, becomes a blatantly pastoral act, which turns the very presence of narrative into an anachronism. In our own time of emergent cultural nationalism, recent critical revival of Irving has explored his position as a postcolonial writer, but without the fullest realization of the narrative theories that bring to the fore precisely how Irving’s work manages the diverse needs of its transatlantic audiences, or without much consideration of its fictive author. A reading of specifically transnational sketches from The Sketch-Book from the perspective of contemporary narrative theory, but informed by their place in time, identifies and foregrounds the significance of the sociopolitical narrativity and literary pastoralism that emerges from Irving’s – and Crayon’s – transatlanticism

How I Live Now: The Project of Sustainability in Dystopian Young Adult Fiction

It is impossible to ignore the enduring and sweeping popularity of young adult novels (YA) written with a dystopian, or even apocalyptic, outlook. Series such as Th e Hunger Games, Th e Maze Runner, and Divergent present dark and boding worlds of amplifi ed terror and societal collapse, and their vulnerable protagonists must answer constant environmental, social, and political challenges, or risk starvation, injury, and various formsof pain and suff ering. More frequently than not, the tensions of the dystopian YA universe turn to the natural world, one of sustenance and renewal, for resolution. The continued popularity of dystopian fi ction written expressly for young adult readers requires critical examination, as teachers must prepare themselves to deal with the questions raised by these texts. Th e trend toward the dystopian seems like rather a bleak expression of political and social hopelessness, but it does off er certain insights into what young readers want from the world around them. Much of the appeal of the dystopian comes from imagining not just problems, but how to solve them. The ingenuity and resourcefulness displayed in dystopian YA novels is not only appealing, but becomes a bold and ultimately optimistic statement on the need for environmental and social sustainability. The optimal incorporation of dystopian YA into the English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum relies on the preparation of instruction as understood by Wolfgang Klafki in a mode and format that feels fresh and encourages student-led engagement, genuine multimodality, and an organic progression from the closed circle of the classroom to the open arena of adult civilization