Beyond Words: Chronicling Spiritual Ecstasy and Experience in Sufi Poetry

The purpose of this research was to understand the primary form of expression within Sufism—poetry. I focused on two of the most famous Sufi poems in Morocco, the al-Burda and al-Hamziya, and investigated how these poems are used in ceremonies today, and to what extent and why they hold significance. Key components to this project were my visits to the Boudchichi zaouia in the Rabat medina to see how these poems invoke spirituality, community, faith and remembrance. I also considered the Western interest in Sufi poetry to explore how these poems shape Western perceptions of Islam today

Environmental Conscience and Comportment of Youth in Dakar

The natural environment is in a state of crisis in Dakar, in Senegal, in Africa and throughout the world. Humans are the primary contributors to environmental degradation, as their activities place stress on natural ecosystems, and this stress is often most acute in the urban setting. Dakar is one major West African city where inhabitants are particularly neglectful and disrespectful of their communal environment, illustrated by the oppressive presence of mismanaged waste that pollutes the public streets. Based on the hypothesis that the general population was either unaware or misinformed of the actual state of the environment, I aimed to study the sources of environmental education influential in the environmental conscience and comportment of Dakar’s youth. Instead of finding a concrete flaw in the educational system, I found that the characteristics of a progressive environmental conscience are often suppressed by concepts historically embedded in traditional Senegalese mentality. In order to steer Dakar toward a more ecologically conscious future, youth need to respectfully challenge the traditions prescribed by their sociocultural surroundings by claiming ownership of their city and encouraging their elders to adopt environmentally-sensitive practices

Investigating the Presence and Trophic Transfer of Microplastics in Ex- and In-Situ North American Otters Through Scat and Diet Analysis

While an increasing number of studies have examined the presence and effects of microplastics in aquatic organisms like invertebrates and fish, there is still a dearth of knowledge about their impact on mammals in higher trophic levels. Both sea and river otters act as valuable indicators of ecosystem health and consume prey items that have been shown to contain microplastics. As such, we are investigating the ingestion of microplastics by sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) in the North Pacific using scat. Our study includes samples from ex-situ and in-situ individuals and also analyzes otter prey items for microplastic particles in order to evaluate the role trophic transfer may have in microplastic ingestion by otters. Additionally, we are examining archived river otter scat samples from the same site over multiple years to observe how the presence of microplastics in otter scat may have changed over time. This analysis could provide opportunities to understand the current level of microplastic ingestion by wild sea and river otters using a non-invasive method, which may be beneficial to understanding sea and river otter population health. Beyond the impacts this knowledge could have for North American otter species, the results could provide information about the exposure of other species to microplastics that share ecosystems of interest

A New Downtown In Winston-Salem, NC: A Case Study Of The Intermediate Commercial District

The objectives of this study were to: (1) isolate one such "Intermediate Commercial District" (ICD), (2) develop a conceptual framework within which to assess the ICD as it is affected by changes in the commercial character of the total urban area over the period of the analysis, and (3) assess the future viability of the ICD

Zoop to poop: assessment of microparticle loads in gray whale zooplankton prey and fecal matter reveal high daily consumption rates

The ocean continues to be a sink for microparticle (MP) pollution, which includes microplastics and other anthropogenic debris. While documentation of MP in marine systems is now common, we lack information on rates of MP ingestion by baleen whales and their prey. We collected and assessed MP loads in zooplankton prey and fecal samples of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) feeding in coastal Oregon, USA and produced the first estimates of baleen whale MP consumption rates from empirical data of zooplankton MP loads (i.e., not modeled). All zooplankton species examined were documented gray whale prey items (Atylus tridens, Holmesimysis sculpta, Neomysis rayii) and contained an average of 4 MP per gram of tissue, mostly of the microfiber morphotype. We extrapolated MP loads in zooplankton prey to estimate the daily MP consumption rates of pregnant and lactating gray whales, which ranged between 6.5 and 21 million MP/day. However, these estimates do not account for MP ingested from ambient water or benthic sediments, which may be high for gray whales given their benthic foraging strategy. We also assessed MP loads in fecal samples from gray whales feeding in the same spatio-temporal area and detected MP in all samples examined, which included microfibers and significantly larger morphotypes than in the zooplankton. We theorize that gray whales ingest MP via both indirect trophic transfer from their zooplankton prey and directly through indiscriminate consumption of ambient MPs when foraging benthically where they consume larger MP morphotypes that have sunk and accumulated on the seafloor. Hence, our estimated daily MP consumption rates for gray whales are likely conservative because they are only based on indirect MP ingestion via prey. Our results improve the understanding of MP loads in marine ecosystems and highlight the need to assess the health impacts of MP consumption on zooplankton and baleen whales, particularly due to the predominance of microfibers in samples, which may be more toxic and difficult to excrete than other MP types. Furthermore, the high estimated rates of MP consumption by gray whales highlights the need to assess health consequences to individuals and subsequent scaled-up effects on population vital rates

On Divestment

Foreword to On Divestment The writings collected here are an online supplement to a class zine title On Divestment. The zine and online archive were conceived, written, and designed by the members of the Spring 2015 Literature and Environment course (ENGL 374) at the University of Puget Sound. Considerations of timeliness and sustainability encouraged us to keep the size of the printed zine compact by including only excerpts of each author’s work; the zine is in a sense an advertisement for the more substantial body of writing that you find here on Sound Ideas, which reproduces student creative work in its entirety. Informed by our study of works of ecocriticism such as Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard UP, 2011), which explores the role that imaginative writing can play in illuminating ecological issues, our class seized the opportunity of a collaborative final project to see how students’ own writing—whether creative, critical, or some combination of the two—might engage with a topical environmental concern. The selection of a final project was arrived at through a democratic process. Working in groups of five individuals, students presented proposals for a final project, arguing both for the primacy of the environmental concern they selected and the efficacy of the writing task they were asking the class to undertake. All the proposals were excellent, but the class had to settle on a single undertaking; the project that students ultimately selected was the fossil fuel divestment movement, currently a topic of debate on many university campuses, including the University of Puget Sound. Largely led by students, this ongoing environmental movement encourages colleges and universities to divest their endowment holdings from companies whose primary business is fossil fuel. Since we knew from recent reportage in The Trail that UPS’s own ECO Club is advocating for fossil fuel divestment, we invited ECO Club representatives to speak to the class. From their visit, we learned about the broad contours of the divestment movement. Observing that the majority of scientists understand anthropogenic climate change to be the result of burning fossil fuels, the divestment movement argues that colleges and universities should exert pressure on these companies by withdrawing their investments from them. Several universities have already made commitments to divest some component of their endowment, among them Stanford University, Pitzer College, and the University of Glasgow, and campaigns to do so are underway at other institutions of higher learning, as well as many cities and municipalities. In formalizing the class proposal into an assignment, the terms were intentionally crafted to remain open-ended and non-prescriptive. Students were invited simply “to create a work of literature or literary analysis that engages with the issue of university fossil fuel divestment.” (Students could also opt out of the zine and write a more conventional final essay). Here are some excerpts from an email that I sent to the class elaborating on this non-traditional assignment. There\u27s a quotation by W.B. Yeats that strikes me as relevant here: Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry. What I understand Yeats to mean is that honest creative writing explores its subject, rather than argues a pre-established position. (For his word poetry in that quotation, you could equally substitute drama, or fiction, creative nonfiction, etc.) Our goal is to write literature, not propaganda . . . . While the work you create should shed light on some aspect of the divestment issue, it needn\u27t do so directly. In fact, it’s possible to shed light on the issue without even mentioning the word “divestment.” Consider, for example, the first novel we read this semester, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. That novel engages with a host of environmental topics, among them global climate change, genetic engineering, population growth, the treatment of animals, and environmental justice. It doesn\u27t tell the reader what to do or think about any of these issues; rather, it explores them imaginatively, but it does so in a way that I believe encourages readers to be more reflective about each of those issues than they were before starting the novel. It sheds light on these issues. [K]eep in mind that this assignment does not expect that you will take a particular position. It does not assume that you will create a work of literature or literary criticism that is “for” fossil fuel divestment. (I\u27m not even sure that a work of art can ever be “for” or “against” a particular action. Is Oryx and Crake for or against the human manipulation of the environment? Who knows?—it\u27s a work of imaginative writing that tells a story. Readers can engage their own sense of values based upon the encounter with the imaginative work). I hope that this advice is helpful and that you feel authorized to write freely. I created the opportunity for the assignment because I believe that your voice—both individually and collectively—does matter and I wanted to facilitate a way for it to be heard, in however modest a fashion. What that voice says is entirely up to you. Those twenty voices from the class combine to form the collective voice you encounter here in the Sound Ideas archive On Divestment. On behalf of the writers and critics in ENGL 374, I invite you explore these remarkable poems, short stories, essays, and plays in their entirety. Best wishes, Prof. William Kupinse Department of Englis

The Role of CBL10 in Stamen Development in Arabidopsis thaliana

Flowering plants are a primary source of food for humans. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance for us to understand plant flower development. Recently a gene encoding a calcineurin-B-like protein (CBL10) has been shown to play a role in flower development in A. thaliana. Mutations in this gene cause a breakdown in the stamen development pathway, resulting in nonfunctional stamens. Leaf and open flower cDNA was used to optimize PCR conditions for 8 of the genes in the pathway. Then RT-PCR was used to compare expression in open flowers of WT and cbl10 recovered (cbl10R) plants. Preliminary data show that 4 of the genes are expressed equally in these flowers, indicating that CBL10 acts in a subsequent step or that normal gene expression has been restored in recovered cbl10 flowers. In the future, gene expression will be studied in 3 stages of flower development: open flowers, opening flowers, and bud clusters, in 3 A. thaliana types: WT, cbl10 phenotype 2, and cbl10R

A computer analysis of the plasma-boundary layer behavior over a positive electrode.

http://archive.org/details/computeranalysis00vanbNANAN