Global Ambassadors Returnee Program: Can We Change Campus Culture?

The Education Abroad office at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is in a growing phase, quickly expanding and working conscientiously to increase the numbers of students studying abroad. In the midst of VCU’s transition from a commuter school to a residential campus, the administration seeks to internationalize the university, citing study abroad as one of its main goals. While VCU consistently works to create affordable program options for students of all majors, what VCU lacks is an institutional culture and awareness of study abroad. The Global Ambassadors returnee program seeks to create returned student programming that provides reflective opportunities and professional development for all returned study abroad students at VCU as well as structured activities in which to share their experiences with the VCU campus community and larger Richmond community. The program will provide constructive spaces to share stories, assist in readjustment to U.S. culture and to use low-cost methods to recruit prospective students using the stories and experiences already at the Education Abroad office’s disposal. The program endeavors to slowly affect change at VCU as on-campus student culture continues to grow and evolve in the coming years. There are countless students who begin their study abroad only after hearing about the experience from a friend. Knowing this, VCU will employ a word-of-mouth marketing technique to encourage study abroad to become an integral piece of the VCU student experience

TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL CONNECTIVITY AND THE IMPACTS OF HYDROPOWER IN THE MAGDALENA RIVER BASIN, COLOMBIA

Tropical regions hold untapped hydropower potential, but dam construction often adversely impacts multiple dimensions of connectivity in river systems, rigorous evaluation of which is often lacking. This study investigates temporal and spatial dimensions of longitudinal and lateral connectivity in the Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, a region with ongoing and planned hydropower projects. Limited in-situ monitoring data is a common challenge in tropical rivers. To address this, we utilized satellite imagery from Landsat (via Google Earth Engine) and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) data. We examined alterations in the flow regime over time and relative to dam construction. We also quantified and investigated the surface water area of a floodplain lake (Ciénaga Barbacoas) for relationships over time and with main channel discharge to determine potential factors influencing the surface water area changes. We found that discharge in our study area decreased from 1936–2023 (which includes pre-dam construction time). High and lows flows were dampened at the dam site investigated and downstream in our study area, however the dam has minimal impacts on the flow regime in our study area, considering the distance and a variety of other natural and anthropogenic factors also influencing the area. We did not observe a change in surface water area of the floodplain lake between 2014–2023, but we did observe a moderate monotonic relationship between surface water area of the floodplain lake and main channel discharge, indicating main channel discharge may influence the surface water area of the wetland, but is not the only factor involved. Continued research on tropical-river connectivity, supported by new technologies like SWOT, is essential to inform sustainable hydropower practices and management toward safeguarding the ecological health of rivers

Mis-Education and the Crisis in Male Subjectivity: William Godwin’s Middle Novels, 1799–1817

In the tumultuous period of the 1790s, the English anarchist philosopher William Godwin was a seminal figure whose 1793 Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness stood as a touchstone for the reform movement in Britain. Godwin is primarily known today as the author of Political Justice and Things As They Are; Or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, a 1794 novel which many readers, past and present, have regarded as a fictionalized allegory of the philosophical claims outlined in Political Justice. Although his fame as a novelist largely rests on this one popular novel, Godwin wrote and published five more novels after Caleb Williams: St. Leon (1799); Fleetwood (1805); Mandeville (1817); Cloudesley (1830); and, finally, Deloraine (1833). Other than Caleb Williams, however, Godwin’s novels are little read today, even by specialists in the literature of the period. Moreover, relative to Caleb Williams, these other novels have received only marginal critical attention. The bulk of the scholarly work on Godwin still tends to focus on either his Political Justice or Caleb Williams. Furthermore, most earlier studies of Godwin’s novels have placed his texts in an almost exclusive dialogue with the radical “jacobin” political climate of 1790s England, or with the philosophical rationalism of Political Justice. My own examination of Godwin’s fiction differs in emphasis from most of these earlier studies in its sustained focus on the development of masculine identity within the context of personal agency, language, and modes of self-expression. I take as my starting point Godwin’s Enquirer. Reflections on Education, Manners, and Literature, a 1797 collection of essays in which he puts forth an educational theory for the proper development of virtue, benevolence, and rational potential in the young mind. In the Enquirer, Godwin details the pedagogical and social conditions necessary for the creation of an “active” and “well regulated” mind committed to benevolence and reason. He also acknowledges, however, the blighting effects of “unfavourable circumstances” in childhood-the range of unpropitious pedagogical and social conditions that conspire to produce a mind that is not “well regulated.” As I argue in this study, Godwin’s educational theory carries within it a model of ww-education that serves as a productive framework for examining his fiction. In this study, I provide readings of four of Godwin’s novels—Caleb Williams, St. Leon, Fleetwood, and Mandeville—examming how this model of “mis-education” operates in all four texts in distinctly different ways, shaping the psychological development of the protagonists in such a way that their later years are marked by crises in their experience of identity and, more specifically, in their sense of masculine authority. Although a handful of critics have briefly examined the forms of “miseducation” experienced by each of these Godwinian heroes, none has explored the effects of such mis-education within the context of identity formation-that is, on the hero’s ability to self-actualize without the experience of profound personal and social alienation. This study thus offers a detailed examination of a cluster of interdependent themes that has received little or no critical attention in the scholarly examinations of these four novels: the central role that education, as the totalizing effect of one’s childhood lessons and experiences, has on the moral and psychological development of the subject, and-more specifically-how unfavourable circumstances conspire, in these texts, to create forms of “mis-education” that lead to later crises in identity and subjectivity; the importance of personal agency in the development of the subject-specifically, the ability to have “authorship” over the narratives of one’s life; the roles that language, self-expression, the imagination, and social convention play in the development of such agency and in the formation of an especially masculine identity; and, finally, the mediating function of women in the development of this masculine identity. The readings offered in this study should enrich the critical discussion of Godwin’s fiction, especially as such discussion relates to themes of gender and identity formation

The Power of Visual Approaches in Qualitative Inquiry: The Use of Collage Making and Concept Mapping in Experiential Research

The burgeoning interest in arts-informed research and the increasing variety of visual possibilities as a result of new technologies have paved the way for researchers to explore and use visual forms of inquiry. This article investigates how collage making and concept mapping are useful visual approaches that can inform qualitative research. They are experiential ways of doing/knowing that help to get at tacit aspects of both understanding and process and to make these more explicit to the researcher and more accessible to audiences. It outlines specific ways that each approach can be used with examples to illustrate how the approach informs the researcher's experience and that of the audience. The two approaches are compared and contrasted and issues that can arise in the work are discussed

Musical Memos in Qualitative Inquiry: Creating Artful, Embodied and Salient Reflections

This article presents musical memoing as an arts-based reflective process and as a way to engage with and represent data in qualitative inquiry. Used in conjunction with more well-known approaches to data analysis (constant comparison and narrative analysis), musical memos serve to pull forth and highlight salient understandings emerging in the analyses. Moreover, musical memoing allows for the creation of concise yet holistic representations of the data, which can be performed in an embodied manner to enhance understanding of phenomena. The role of musical memoing is discussed within the context of a research study carried out at McGill University entitled, “Exploring a University Teacher’s Approach to Incorporating Music in a Cognition Psychology Course.” A brief overview of the research findings is presented, as well as the methodological implications musical memoing has for future research

Deepening Understanding in Qualitative Inquiry

In this paper the authors describe how the use of multiple methods of qualitative data collection over a two-year period, including interviews, concept maps and journals, and the analysis of data through visual inquiry, categorizing (constant comparison thematic analysis), and connecting (narrative analysis) provided a more comprehensive understanding of the process of evolution in college teachers’ perspectives on teaching and learning within a professional development program than would have emerged with only a single method . Concept maps provided an initial visual footprint of teachers’ emerging perspectives. Categorization revealed four major patterns across teachers’ perspectives. Connecting the data through narrative summaries exposed a contextualized rendition of aspects of individual teachers’ perspectives. Each of these three approaches offers a unique lens into qualitative data analysis, and when used together, they clarify important aspects of the phenomenon under investigation

In situ anticaries efficacy of dentifrices with different formulations – A pooled analysis of results from three randomized clinical trials

Objectives Data generated from three similar in situ caries crossover studies presented the opportunity to conduct a pooled analysis to investigate how dentifrice formulations with different fluoride salts and combinations at concentrations of 1400–1450 ppm F, different abrasive systems and in some cases, carbomer (Carb), affect enamel caries lesion remineralization and fluoridation. Methods Subjects continuously wore modified partial dentures holding two gauze-covered partially-demineralized human enamel specimens for 14 days and brushed 2×/day with their assigned dentifrice: Study 1: sodium fluoride (NaF)/Carb/silica, NaF/silica, NaF + monofluorophosphate (MFP)/chalk; Study 2: NaF/Carb/silica, NaF + MFP/dical, amine fluoride (AmF)/silica; Study 3: NaF/Carb/silica, NaF + stannous fluoride (SnF2)/silica/hexametaphosphate (HMP). All studies included Placebo (0 ppm F) and/or dose-response controls (675 ppm F as NaF [675F-NaF]) ±Carb. Specimens were evaluated for percentage surface microhardness recovery (SMHR) and enamel fluoride uptake (EFU). Results All 1400–1450 ppm F dentifrices except NaF + SnF2/silica/HMP provided significantly greater lesion remineralization than Placebo (p < 0.0001): differences in SMHR ranged from 17.46% (NaF + MFP/dical) to 26.66% (AmF/silica). For EFU (back-transformed log EFU), all 1400–1450 ppm F dentifrices gave significant fluoride uptake compared to Placebo (p < 0.0001): increases in EFU ranged from 4.95 μg F/cm2 (NaF + SnF2/silica/HMP) to 16.32 μg F/cm2 (NaF/carb/silica). Dentifrices containing NaF or AmF as sole fluoride source provided the greatest remineralization and fluoridation; Carb addition did not alter fluoride efficacy; some excipients appeared to interfere with the cariostatic action of fluoride. Treatments were generally well-tolerated with ≤4 treatment-related adverse events per study. Conclusion Commercially available fluoride dentifrices varied greatly in their ability to remineralize and fluoridate early caries lesions. Clinical significance Fluoride dentifrices are the most impactful anticaries modality worldwide. While clinical caries trials have not consistently shown the superiority of one formulation over another, these findings using a sensitive in situ caries model indicated that dentifrices containing NaF or AmF as the sole fluoride source provided the greatest remineralization and fluoridation benefits

Study of Employment Opportunities and Characteristics Desired for Gainful Employment in Ornamental Horticultural Occupations in Oklahoma

Department of Agricultural Education, Communications, and Leadershi

Proteomics in thrombosis research

A State of the Art lecture titled “Proteomics in Thrombosis Research” was presented at the ISTH Congress in 2021. In clinical practice, there is a need for improved plasma biomarker-based tools for diagnosis and risk prediction of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Analysis of blood, to identify plasma proteins with potential utility for such tools, could enable an individualized approach to treatment and prevention. Technological advances to study the plasma proteome on a large scale allows broad screening for the identification of novel plasma biomarkers, both by targeted and nontargeted proteomics methods. However, assay limitations need to be considered when interpreting results, with orthogonal validation required before conclusions are drawn. Here, we review and provide perspectives on the application of affinityand mass spectrometry-based methods for the identification and analysis of plasma protein biomarkers, with potential application in the field of VTE. We also provide a future perspective on discovery strategies and emerging technologies for targeted proteomics in thrombosis research. Finally, we summarize relevant new data on this topic, presented during the 2021 ISTH Congress