Exhibition, Narrative, and Civil War Memory: The History of the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama

In the summer of 1886, the American Panorama Company hired seventeen artists to produce The Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama, a 360-degree painting depicting the Civil War battle on July 22, 1864. This paper explores and analyzes the history, exhibition, and narratives of the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama. The goal of this study is to understand how the Cyclorama’s exhibition and narrative have changed over time while engendering an authentic and historical relationship with different audiences for 135 years. My research is contingent on theories of narrative, exhibition, and Civil War memory, as well as previous works written about the Cyclorama, newspaper articles, and archival materials and transcripts from the Cyclorama narrations of the 20th century. I conclude that the Cyclorama is an immersive spectacle where the audience holds the power to cocreate and reinforce meaning for and about the Cyclorama

Critical Reflection: A Foundation for Civic Engagement

Educators who engage in and advocate for experiential learning have long taken it as a given that reflection is an essential component of any experiential learning cycle. The standard assumptions around this approach to learning is that students come to a context with unexamined beliefs about how the world is or works, engage in an experience and related content which alters (or perhaps confirms) their understanding of the world, and that that understanding becomes knowledge when the student reflects on and represents the experience. What becomes key in this set of assumptions, then, is to understand the role that reflection plays and what types of understandings we hope to promote through the practice of reflection. If we prompt students to “reflect” on their experience, we often are asking them to describe what they believe they have learned in order to confirm for them and demonstrate for us that there was, in fact, learning occurring. But, we would like to understand the activity of reflection itself as a learning process. Here we would like to explicate a framework for critical reflection that engages students in a meaning-making process to synthesize their experiences in a way that invites feedback and dialogue as it orients them toward future action. Such an approach to reflection, we argue, is rooted in a methodology that works from a critical, ethical foundation of praxis

RP-1 and JP-8 Thermal Stability Experiments

This work experimentally investigates the effect of fuel composition changes on jet and rocket fuel thermal stability. A High Reynolds Number Thermal Stability test device evaluated JP-8 and RP-1 fuels. The experiment consisted of an electrically heated, stainless steel capillary tube with a controlled fuel outlet temperature. An optical pyrometer monitored the increasing external temperature profiles of the capillary tube as deposits build inside during each test. Multiple runs of each fuel composition provided results on measurement repeatability. Testing a t two different facilities provided data on measurement reproducibility. The technique is able to distinguish between thermally stable and unstable compositions of JP-8 and intermediate blends made by combining each composition. The technique is also able to distinguish among standard RP-1 rocket fuels and those having reduced sulfur levels. Carbon burn off analysis of residue in the capillary tubes on the RP-1 fuels correlates with the external temperature results

The Impact of Giving Together

Giving circles are made up of individuals who pool their resources and then decide together where these should be distributed. They also include social, educational, and engagement components that seem to engage participants in their communities and increase members’ understanding of philanthropy and community issues. This study examines if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ behaviorrelated to giving, volunteering, and civic engagement. In addition, we asked if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ awareness or knowledge about philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, and community issues. Finally, we wanted to know if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ perceptions or attitudes about philanthropy, community issues, citizen, government and nonprofit roles and responsibilities or political and social values. To address these areas, data were gathered through a survey of 341 current and past members of 26 giving circles of various types, sizes, and identity groups across the U.S., as well as a control group of 246 donors and public service graduate students and practitioners; semi-structured interviews with 30 giving circle members and past members from 11 giving circles; and participant observation in four giving circles.Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University University of Nebraska at Omaha School of Public Administratio

Candy Flavorings in Tobacco

Professor James F. Pankow reveals striking similarities between the patterns in the flavoring chemicals used in flavored tobacco products and those in popular candy and Kool-Aid products. The authors analyzed 12 artificially flavored candy and fruit drink products and compared them to 15 widely-available flavored tobacco products. They found significant overlap in the chemical signatures of the flavor chemicals. Several of the tobacco products contained flavor chemicals at much higher concentrations than in the non-tobacco products

Exploring Factors Associated with Nonchange in Condom Use Behavior following Participation in an STI/HIV Prevention Intervention for African-American Adolescent Females

To enhance future STI/HIV prevention efforts, this study examined factors associated with adolescents' failure to improve their condom use behaviors after participating in an STI/HIV prevention intervention. African-American adolescent females (N = 205; M age = 17.9) in an STI/HIV prevention intervention trial completed ACASI interviews and provided self-collected vaginal swabs to assess two prevalent STIs at baseline and 6 months after intervention. Analyses compared those who increased condom use after intervention (change group) to those whose condom use did not increase (nonchange group). 43.4% did not increase their condom use after the intervention and were more likely to have an STI at followup (χ2 = 4.64, P = .03). In a multivariate logistic regression model, the nonchange group was more likely to have (a) higher sensation seeking (AOR = .91, P = .023), (b) a boyfriend (AOR = .32, P = .046), and/or (c) a physical abuse history (AOR = .56, P = .057). There were also differences in the extent to which psychosocial mediators changed between the two groups. Findings highlight the need to tailor STI/HIV interventions to adolescents with a greater degree of sensation seeking and address key relationship characteristics and trauma histories to bolster intervention efficacy

Snapshot: The Impact of Giving Together

Donors in giving circles give more, give more strategically, and are more engaged in their communities, according to a new study by Dr. Angela Eikenberry and Jessica Bearman with research assistance from Melissa Brown, Hao Han, and Courtney Jensen. ever since giving circles—groups of individual donors who pool their money and other resources and decide together where these should be distributed—emerged as a philanthropic trend, we have speculated about their impact. Do donors give more or give differently because they are involved in a giving circle? Do they become more engaged and active in their communities? Are they more politically active? Until now, the evidence of giving circles’ impact on donors was mainly qualitative. Now, this new study examines, in a more comprehensive and quantitative manner, the impact of giving circles on their members’ giving and civic engagement.

The Impact of Giving Together: Giving Circles’ Influence on Members’ Philanthropic and Civic Behaviors, Knowledge and Attitudes

Giving circles are made up of individuals who pool their resources and then decide together where these should be distributed. They also include social, educational, and engagement components that seem to engage participants in their communities and increase members’ understanding of philanthropy and community issues. This study examines if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ behavior related to giving, volunteering, and civic engagement. In addition, we asked if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ awareness or knowledge about philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, and community issues. Finally, we wanted to know if and how participation in a giving circle has changed members’ perceptions or attitudes about philanthropy, community issues, citizen, government and nonprofit roles and responsibilities or political and social values

A Brain-Machine Interface for Control of Medically-Induced Coma

Medically-induced coma is a drug-induced state of profound brain inactivation and unconsciousness used to treat refractory intracranial hypertension and to manage treatment-resistant epilepsy. The state of coma is achieved by continually monitoring the patient's brain activity with an electroencephalogram (EEG) and manually titrating the anesthetic infusion rate to maintain a specified level of burst suppression, an EEG marker of profound brain inactivation in which bursts of electrical activity alternate with periods of quiescence or suppression. The medical coma is often required for several days. A more rational approach would be to implement a brain-machine interface (BMI) that monitors the EEG and adjusts the anesthetic infusion rate in real time to maintain the specified target level of burst suppression. We used a stochastic control framework to develop a BMI to control medically-induced coma in a rodent model. The BMI controlled an EEG-guided closed-loop infusion of the anesthetic propofol to maintain precisely specified dynamic target levels of burst suppression. We used as the control signal the burst suppression probability (BSP), the brain's instantaneous probability of being in the suppressed state. We characterized the EEG response to propofol using a two-dimensional linear compartment model and estimated the model parameters specific to each animal prior to initiating control. We derived a recursive Bayesian binary filter algorithm to compute the BSP from the EEG and controllers using a linear-quadratic-regulator and a model-predictive control strategy. Both controllers used the estimated BSP as feedback. The BMI accurately controlled burst suppression in individual rodents across dynamic target trajectories, and enabled prompt transitions between target levels while avoiding both undershoot and overshoot. The median performance error for the BMI was 3.6%, the median bias was -1.4% and the overall posterior probability of reliable control was 1 (95% Bayesian credibility interval of [0.87, 1.0]). A BMI can maintain reliable and accurate real-time control of medically-induced coma in a rodent model suggesting this strategy could be applied in patient care.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Director's Transformative Award R01 GM104948)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Pioneer Award DP1-OD003646)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH K08-GM094394)Massachusetts General Hospital. Dept. of Anesthesia and Critical Car