Creating a Healthy Space: Forensic Educators\u27 Sensemaking about Healthy Tournament Management Practices

Organizations are increasingly becoming concerned with the health and well-being of their members. To address these issues, organizations are creating wellness initiatives. One organization concerned with the well-being of its members is collegiate forensics. Forensic organizations have been working since the late 1990s to create formal and informal wellness initiatives to address the health of students and educators at forensic tournaments. The purpose of this study is to explore how collegiate forensic educators understand and implement these initiatives and the tensions they encounter. Collegiate forensic educators who host tournaments completed an open-ended qualitative questionnaire about formal and informal wellness initiatives. The findings suggest that educators struggle with the costs and logistics of tournaments and implementing these initiatives

Utilizing the Television Series Chasing Life to Develop a Deeper Understanding about the Complexities of Providing Social Support

Teaching students to think critically about social support and to apply it to their personal and professional lives can be challenging. This activity facilitates deeper learning about the communication processes involved with social support as well as the implications of social support. Instructors are given specific scenes from a recent television series; the scenes depict some complexities of providing social support. These scenes prompt a lively discussion as well as a critical reflection about what makes social support effective and the consequences of ineffective social support for coping, identity, and relational closeness. Instructors are provided with a lesson plan (that can be utilized for one 75-minute class period or for two class periods) and materials which facilitate this critical reflection and discussion

Forensics as a Correlate of Graduate School Success

Forensics is an extremely popular extracurricular activity in the communication discipline and often provides competitors with skills required for success in graduate school. This exploratory study examines the relationships between forensics competition and success in graduate school. Through a survey of 169 graduate students, we compare graduate students with a forensics background (n = 35) and those without a forensics background (n = 134). The study generates several important findings. First, graduate students who competed in forensics report higher levels success in graduate school and are more likely to present conference papers and publish in academic journals. Second, the level of participation and level of success in forensics plays a major role in determining graduate student success. Students who participated more in forensics and reported higher levels of success in forensics reported even higher levels of success in graduate school and participation in conferences and publications than their counterparts without a forensics background. The implications of this study as well as how this study can be used by faculty and coaches to help forensics students transition to graduate school are discussed

Combined effect of wind-forcing and isobath divergence on upwelling at Cape Bathurst, Beaufort Sea

Cape Bathurst is at the northeastern end of the Canadian Beaufort Shelf in the southeastern Beaufort Sea where the continental shelf abruptly ends at Amundsen Gulf. In this area, the steep slope east of the cape joins the relatively flat shelf immediately north of the cape leading to strong isobath divergence at the cape. Hydrographic and satellite data show upwelling of nutrient-rich, Pacific-origin water to the surface at Cape Bathurst when surface stress is upwelling-favorable for the Canadian Beaufort Shelf. We suggest that this enhanced upwelling is forced by the adjustment of the along-shelf flow (that is part of upwelling circulation) to the isobath divergence at the cape. Mooring and drifter data near Cape Bathurst also support this, showing swift, surface-intensified along-isobath flow during upwelling-favorable surface stress. Benthic samples near the cape show high numbers and diversity of organisms which suggest that nutrients brought to the surface by upwelling allow additional primary production in the region that ultimately feeds the benthos

A Little Help from My Friends: A Relational Health Communication Competence Approach to Social Support for Forensic Educators

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that impact forensic educators’ perceived social support, including communication competence, job stress, and job burnout. Communicatively competent educators reported higher levels of administrative and family support than forensic educators who did not report high levels of communication competence. Educators who reported high levels of stress and burnout report lower levels of support from supervisors, coworkers, and family compared to educators who reported low levels of stress and burnout. Female coaches reported lower levels of support from supervisors, coworkers, and families, compared to male coaches. Educators with a large coaching staff reported high levels of coworker support; educators with small or no coaching staff did not report high levels of coworker support. These findings offer insight into the support networks of forensic educators and the impact of these networks on stress and burnout

Development and Validation of the Communication Apprehension About Death Scale

Two studies (N=621) were conducted to develop and initially validate the Communication Apprehension About Death Scale (CADS). In Study 1, 302 general public participants completed a preliminary list of 66 items. An exploratory factor analysis identified two distinct dimensions of communication apprehension about death: communication anxiety and communication avoidance. A different group of participants (n=319) participated in Study 2. Participants in Study 2 completed the CADS measure, a fear of death measure, and a general communication apprehension measure. Concurrent validity support was provided through the significant positive correlations between communication apprehension about death and fear of death as well as communication apprehension about death and general communication apprehension. Collectively, the results suggest that the CADS is a reliable and valid self-report measure of communication apprehension about death. We conclude with a discussion of the findings as well as future directions needed to more critically examine CADS

Stress, Burnout, Job Satisfaction, and Intent to Leave Among Collegiate Forensic Educators

The purpose of this study is to explore how burnout, stress, and job satisfaction impact coaches‘ intention to leave forensics. Some 111 collegiate forensics educators completed a survey examining workplace stress, burnout, job satisfaction, and perceived intent to leave forensics. Coaches who had thought about leaving forensics reported being more emotionally exhausted than coaches who had not thought about leaving. Female coaches also reported more stress than male coaches. Although many educators feel stressed, burned out, and have thought about leaving, they were still satisfied with their jobs as educators. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and implications of the research

Communication Apprehension about Death, Religious Group Affiliation, and Religiosity: Predictors of Organ and Body Donation Decisions

Communication willingness has previously been identified as an important communication factor in influencing individuals’ decisions to become an organ donor. Missing from this conversation is the role of communication apprehension about death and its impact on donation decisions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between communication apprehension about death, religiosity, and religious affiliation, and donation decisions. Three hundred and thirty-three individuals participated in an online survey. Findings suggest that communication apprehension about death, especially communication avoidance about death, negatively impact donation decisions. Additionally, religiosity and affiliation with a specific religion also negatively impact donation decisions. These variables were also predictors of organ and body donation. The findings show a need for more research on what prevents conversations about donation. Additionally, the stark difference between organ donation likelihood and body donation likelihood underscore the need for communication scholars to examine communication about body donation

Novel Mutations That Affect Stomata Development in \u3cem\u3eArabidopsis thaliana\u3c/em\u3e

Located on the epidermal surface of plants, stomata are small, pore-like structures that act as channels to exchange gas and water vapor between plant cells and the environment. Concentrations of gases and water within the plant cell are regulated through opening and closing of the stomata by turgor-driven movements. In Arabidopsis thaliana, development and differentiation of cells is controlled by the ERECTA (ER) family of genes (ERECTA, ERL1, and ERL2) which encode leucine-rich repeat-receptor-like kinases (LRR-RLKs). Acting synergistically, they direct cell division in different tissues and formation of stomata in epidermis. To better understand how ERECTA family genes regulate stomata development we conducted a forward genetic screen. Approximately 10,000 seeds of erl1erl2 were mutagenized using ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS). The M1 plants were grown and the M2 seeds were collected. Then, M2 seedlings were microscopically screened for stomata clustering. Two mutants, JMC19 and MC12 were chosen to pursue further because a high percentage of stomata in clusters was observed in their cotyledons. Both mutant lines were crossed with erl1erl2 in order to rid their genomes of other EMS induced mutations and to determine the nature of obtained mutations (recessive versus dominant; single or double). The phenotype of novel mutants (stomata index and stomata clustering) was compared to the erl1erl2. The two lines were also crossed with Col to see if the phenotype of novel mutations depended on erl1and/or erl2 mutations. After characterization of mutations, determining the location of the mutated JMC19 and MC12 genes through positional cloning is the next step. JMC19 and MC12 were crossed with Landsberg erecta (Ler) to analyze recombination frequency between mutant phenotype and a set of genetic markers. The frequency at which the mutant gene(s) recombined with markers on Ler chromosomes determined the location of the MC12. This method will also be used for JMC19 in the future. The overall goal of the study is to understand, through the use of forward genetics, the mechanism by which stomata are spaced and to identify the gene(s) that control this developmental process