Interview : Heather Christle

PodcastHeather Christle is the author of What is amazing (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), The difficult farm (Octopus Books, 2009), and The trees the trees (Octopus Books, 2011), which won the 2012 Believer Poetry Award. Her poems have appeared in publications including Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The New Yorker, and The Best American Poetry. She has taught poetry at Antioch College, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Emory University, where she was the 2009-2011 Poetry Writing Fellow. She is the web editor for jubilat and frequently a writer in residence at the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. A native of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, she lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Heather Christle is interviewed by Della Rainey

Wallpaper Everywhere Even the Ceiling

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The Influence of Mission Valence and Intrinsic Incentives on Employee Motivation

Worker motivation is relevant to public sector leaders because motivated workers are more efficient and productive, demonstrate positive behaviors, and are happier. Scholars have focused on differing approaches on how to incentivise public service employees using extrinsic or intrinsic incentives. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the value and effectiveness of mission valence and other intrinsic means used to influence employee motivation and productivity. Using Festinger\u27s cognitive dissonance theory as a guide, a homogeneous group of key participants was interviewed with the intent of answering research questions. The research questions focused on mission valence deployment and on the incentive preferences of 11 purposely selected members of a public sector executive management team. The study incorporated the Giorgi method of data analysis. Following inductive coding procedures, the findings were synthesised into five themes. Findings suggested that mission valence has theoretical appeal to public service leaders, but the antecedent conditions, such as current mission statements have not been implemented. Thus, mission valence within PSGD is a conceptual intrinsic incentive at this point in time. Public service leaders prefer fluidity in crafting blended extrinsic and intrinsic incentive models that are unique to each employee. Consequently, opportunities exist for development of targeted skills development training to supplement existing leadership skills. This aligns with the implications for positive social change because the findings of this study yielded information concerning social, psychological, and motivational nuances and learning that may shape the next generation of public service leaders

The beleaguered individual : a study of twentieth-century American war novels

This study examines twentieth-century American war novels. Many American writers use the battlefield as the stage upon which to work out their explorations of what it means to be an individual in the twentieth century, an individual mired in the mass culture of the modern industrial world. Thus, I argue that for these authors war is a sort of intensified experience of and an allegory for the world at large. The novelists I have discussed all seem to believe that our modern technological society tends to diminish and reify individuals, thus alienating them from one another. To combat this tendency many of the authors are searching their materials for any signs that our society might be capable of achieving better communication between individuals, more cooperation, and a recognition of the interdependence that binds humanity together while affirming the value of the individual. I claim that their novels tend to reduce human aspirations to either naturalistic or existential dramas—naturalistic in that individuals are at the mercy of circumstance or existential in that isolated individuals accept the responsibility of their own freedom. Responses to the plight of the modern individual range from totally hopeless to cautiously optimistic. These novelists often obscure the role of community in the creation and maintenance of individual identity and posit an ambivalent freedom, at best. Some, though, do attempt to provide a model of what constitutes a genuine community. Ultimately, I argue that a significant amount of hope for the future of the individual can be found in twentieth-century American war novels. Beleaguered individuals are portrayed holding positive values and taking positive action often enough to give the reader something to ponder and reason to hope

Quantifying the Relationship Among Ground Penetrating Radar Reflection Amplitudes, Horizontal Sub-Wavelength Bedrock Fracture Geometries, and Fluid Conductivities

Accurate characterization of subsurface fractures is indispensible for contaminant transport and fresh water resource modeling because discharge is cubically related to the fracture aperture; thus, minor errors in aperture estimates may yield major errors in a modeled hydrologic response. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been successfully used to noninvasively estimate fracture aperture for sub-horizontal fractures at outcrop scale, but limits on vertical and horizontal resolution are a concern. Theoretical formulations and field tests have demonstrated increased GPR amplitude response with the addition of a saline tracer in a sub-millimeter fracture; however, robust verification of existing theoretical equations without an accurate measure of aperture variation across a fracture surface is difficult. The work presented here is directed at better verification of theoretical predictions of GPR amplitude and phase response. For sub-vertical resolution features, the response of a 1000 MHz PulseEKKO Pro transducer to a fluid-filled bedrock fracture analog composed of two plastic (UHMW-PE) blocks was measured, where fracture aperture ranged from 0-40 ± 0.3 mm and fluid conductivity from 0-5700 ± 5 mS/m. The GPR profiles were acquired down the centerline of the block, horizontally stacked to reduce errors, normalized to the control response at zero aperture, used to calculate reflection coefficient by dividing by the magnitude of the direct wave, and used to calculate the instantaneous phase. For sub-horizontal resolution features, lateral fracture extent ranged from 0-20 cm and fluid conductivity from 20-5700 ± 5 mS/m. GPR profiles were acquired parallel and perpendicular to the fracture. Comparison of the measured GPR response to analytical and numerical modeling suggests that numerical modeling best predicts both amplitude and phase variations due to changes in fracture aperture and conductivity. The Widess equation combined with an empirically derived scaling factor also predicts GPR amplitude response but not phase. Future applications to inversions of field data to map subsurface fracture networks will rely on easily invertible models, and numerical modeling using GPRMax2D can help develop a theoretical model for computationally effective and accurate inversion

The Mau Mau Rebellion

The colonialization of Africa was long underway by the time the British moved into Kenya in the late 1800s. Rather Africa was opened for colonialization for some time, “the story of pacification and effective occupation of Kenya was no different from what happened all over Britain’s empire at the close of the nineteenth century.” Indeed the occupation of African states had transformed the continent into a hodgepodge of differing colonies. The occupation of spaces as defined by European imperialist created conflict between the indigenous peoples and those sent in to occupy the space and such conflicts were plentiful. The anti-colonial rebellion of the Mau Mau led the British to engage in torture in order to suppress the rebellion. What is not as well known or perhaps what is not well discussed is whether the use of torture was an effective strategy in suppressing the complicated trajectory of this anti-colonial rebellion. This paper will lay the foundation for the conflict between the British and the Mau Mau and will be followed by a discussion of the torture practices employed by the British and whether or not said torture practices were effective.Christle MillerCunningham Memorial Library, Terre Haute, Indiana State Universit

Rebuilding community connections through experiential professional development

The authors argue that the narrowing of the K-12 curriculum in the past twenty years has changed the relationship between K-12 schoolteachers and the community. Using an ecological perspective as the theoretical lens, the article describes these changes as well as an effort by an economic development organization in Indiana to help rebuild those relationships through an experiential learning professional development activity. The article also includes sample teacher developed work plans for teaching economic concepts and skills through community based experiences

Measurement and Control of Single Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Spins above 600 K

We study the spin and orbital dynamics of single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond between room temperature and 700 K. We find that the ability to optically address and coherently control single spins above room temperature is limited by nonradiative processes that quench the NV center's fluorescence-based spin readout between 550 and 700 K. Combined with electronic structure calculations, our measurements indicate that the energy difference between the 3E and 1A1 electronic states is approximately 0.8 eV. We also demonstrate that the inhomogeneous spin lifetime (T2*) is temperature independent up to at least 625 K, suggesting that single NV centers could be applied as nanoscale thermometers over a broad temperature range.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, and 14 pages of supplemental material with additional figures. Title change and minor revisions from previous version. DMT and DJC contributed equally to this wor

Personality, dietary identity, mental and sleep health in vegans and vegetarians: a preliminary cross-sectional study

Background and Aims: Plant-based diets have gained popularity over the past decade. However, research regarding mental and sleep health benefits of following plant-based diets are conflicting. As there are associations between mental/sleep health and various personality traits, and personality may differ between individuals who follow different diets, in this preliminary study, we examined the associations between mental and sleep health and (i) personality and (ii) dietary identity in individuals who follow vegan and vegetarian diets. Methods: Cross-sectional data on sociodemographic, personality traits, dietarian identity, overall mental health, depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep quality were collected from 57 vegan/vegetarian participants between the ages of 18–40. Results: After controlling for various sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, linear regression models revealed that (i) higher dietarian private regard was a significant predictor of better overall mental health, (ii) lower levels of extraversion and higher levels of empathy predicted depression, (iii) higher levels of neuroticism and empathy predicted anxiety, (iv) higher levels of neuroticism, dietarian centrality, and neuroticism × centrality predicted stress, (v) higher levels of conscientiousness, lower levels of dietarian centrality, but higher levels of personal motivation and dietary strictness, as well as conscientiousness × centrality, conscientiousness × personal motivation, and conscientiousness × strictness predicted better sleep quality. Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that not only personality traits, but also dietary identity was indeed related to mental and sleep health in individuals who follow plant-based diets