A Material Education: The Art & Science of Stanton Sears - Intersections Series by the DeWitt Wallace Library

Interactive version of A Material Education: The Art & Science of Stanton Sears Edited by Beth HillemannDigital Book Design by Magdalena Panetta This series of e-books, entitled Intersections, will serve to highlight the interdisciplinary approaches of our faculty and students. Each e-book will feature Macalester faculty members who embody the interdisciplinary nature of the liberal arts in their teaching and scholarship. A Material Education: The Art and Science of Stanton Sears is the exciting inaugural book of the series. The studio of Stan Sears gives us the ideal start to our exploration of the critical connections between arts and sciences at Macalester. As a teacher and artist, Sears employs mathematics, geometry, physics, biology, architecture, and engineering, along with his artistic vision. In one of many examples highlighted in A Material Education, students see first-hand how a fundamental understanding of the anatomy of a dragonfly and the physics of structural engineering were necessary inputs to the design and creation of a dragonfly-inspired street gate. They learn the importance of the theoretical grounding they receive in their mathematics and physics courses to creating beautiful and functional art.https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/books/1002/thumbnail.jp

Social Justice through Social Media: The Use of Twitter as a Tool for Activism in the #MeToo #BlackLivesMatter Era

This study focuses on social justice and how people on Twitter chose to talk about it. The rise of social media has allowed Twitter users to speak more freely in more spaces than one. The study compared two different sexual assault cases between Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Professor Christine Blasey; and Virginia’s Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax and Vanessa Tyson. Applying the social responsibility theory, which allows free press without any censorship, I then can see the tone of which Black Twitter users have when talking about two separate sexual assault cases. This study compares the use of the #BlackTwitter hashtag and #MeToo hashtag while using the social justice-related terms such as gender, race/ethnicity, credibility, sexual assault, privilege, social justice (variable combination of marginalized, equal, and rights) and lgti (variable combination of lying, guilty, truth, and innocent). Furthermore, the study also called for comparison between the Ford’s case when Ford first came forward with sexual assault accusations before the case had a hearing (pre) and after the hearing (post); and Tyson’s assault accusation surfacing (pre) and after she made her first public appearance (post). In this study, a content analysis survey method was used to assess how blacks express public opinion via twitter to find that blacks use the #BlackTwitter to discuss social justice issues. Individually, the Twitter community as a whole played it safe by only talking about social justice issues moderately on and off Twitter for the Ford case. For Tyson’s case, Black Twitter users talked about social justice more significantly. This study showed hot two different movements can work toward a similar goal. Both Ford and Tyson’s cases allowed marginalized groups and movements such as the MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter movement to create an alliance for the greater good of sexual assault victims. Additionally, there are several social media platforms this study could have used to gather results from but using Twitter as the platform has many benefits because Twitter serves as an unofficial platform for an individuals’ freedom of speech. Overall, this study looks at the bigger issue, is not just about protection, it is about the change

The socially inclusive role of curatorial voice: a qualitative comparative study of the use of gatekeeping mechanisms of curatorial voice and the co-creation of identity in museums

Museums, and museum professionals engage in a significant role within society. This poster visually represents new work within museum informatics: a qualitative exploratory study of the ways in which museum professionals promote or hinder the social inclusivity of a museum through curatorial voice. Through a series of exhibit evaluations and intensive interviews, I investigated the mechanisms used to craft curatorial voice within museums handling contested subject material. This research seeks to broaden the understanding of curatorial voice, as viewed through the theoretical lenses of gatekeeper theory and co-creation of identity, with the explicit purpose of aiding in the development of professional guidance to help make museums more socially inclusive. Preliminary analysis, aided by the curator participants, suggests that are multiple vantage points for viewing the socially inclusive role of curatorial voice, the co-construction of identity, and the gatekeeping mechanisms at play within museums

JMC Deans of Color Lead With a Purpose: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative study contextualized the leadership experiences of journalism and mass communication (JMC) deans who self-identified as persons of color. While anonymously participating in a virtual focus group, these deans expressed bringing a higher purpose to leading their programs. This study aims to elucidate the benefits of increasing the diversity of JMC leadership and illuminate the need to improve the working environment for current and future JMC leaders of color

Gaining Insight into Transition and Progression of Students on the Autism Spectrum - DISCOVER a Transition Programme with a Difference

Autism is a neurodevelopment condition that is ‘characterised by qualitative impairments in social communication and social interaction across contexts and a repetitive or restricted pattern of interest, behaviour and activity’ (Lambe, 2019:1531). According to the autistic rights movement, ‘autistic people are not disconnected from the world around them, they are differently connected to it’ (Leveto, 2018 :3). Over the last number of years, there has been a move away from defining autism as a ‘disorder’ and towards redefining it as a ‘difference’ (Ring et al, 2018). In this paper, the terms ‘autism’ or ‘on the spectrum’ will be used. The Moving to Further and Higher Education Report (Guckin et al, 2013) recommended the development of targeted access initiatives to support the academic and social needs of students with a disability in transition and progressing through further education. Targeted orientation programmes are used to allow students from under-represented groups to meet other students, visit the campus, tour the library and get essential information that will support the student’s transition to higher education. Disability Support Services (DSS) are keenly aware of the importance of the transition from second-level education into third level education. Year on year there is an increase in the number of students with disabilities who are accessing third-level education. Students with disabilities now make up approximately 6.2% of the total student population (AHEAD, 2019). Since 2016, there has been a 25% increase in the number of students accessing higher education who are on the spectrum

Nothing is Permanent but Change: The Journey to Consolidation and Back

Responding to a staffing shortage and assessment of usage data, eight of Hale Library's nine service desks were consolidated into one service point. Fourteen months later, the Libraries conducted an assessment of the consolidation using reference transaction data, responses to a survey administered to Libraries’ staff, and responses from a student focus group. The assessment revealed many logistical and staffing challenges with the new desk. As a result, a separate service point for reference was created directly outside the consolidated desk. Our statistics indicate that this was a successful change

Bacterial ‘histone-like protein I’ (HLP-I) is an outer membrane constituent?

AbstractThe nucleoid-associated ‘histone-like protein I’ (HLP-I) protein of E. coli was found to be homologous with the cationic 16-kDa outer membrane protein OmpH of Salmonella typhimurium. Deduced from the nucleotide sequence, the HLP-I protein has 91% identical residues with the OmpH protein. Both proteins have very similar cleavable signal sequences. The nucleotide sequence similarity between the corresponding genes hlpA and ompH is 87%. The ompH gene is located in a gene cluster resembling the hlpA-ORF17 region of E. coli which is close to the Ipx genes involved in the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharides. The localization of the OmpH/HLP-I protein in the cell is discussed

Defining a Zeroth Homotopy Invariant for Graphs

We define a zeroth homotopy π0(G) for a graph G. Our definition is a variation on the usual set of connected components and has the structure of a graph, and not just a set. We prove that our π0 is functorial and respects products: π0(G x H) ≅ π0(G) x π0(H), a property that the set of components fails to have

Which indicators of early cancer diagnosis from population-based data sources are associated with short-term mortality and survival?

BACKGROUND: A key component of recent English cancer policy is the monitoring of trends in early diagnosis of cancer. Early diagnosis can be defined by the disease stage at diagnosis or by other indicators derived from electronic health records. We evaluate the association between different early diagnosis indicators and survival, and discuss the implementation of the indicators in surveillance of early diagnosis. METHODS: We searched the PubMed database and grey literature to identify early diagnosis indicators and evaluate their association with survival. We analysed cancer registrations for 355,502 cancer patients diagnosed in England during the period 2009-2013, and quantified the association between each early diagnosis indicator and 30-day mortality and five-year net survival. RESULTS: Each incremental difference in stage (I-IV) predicts lower 5-year survival, so prognostic information is lost in comparisons which use binary stage indicators. Patients without a recorded stage have high risk of death shortly following diagnosis and lower 5-year survival. Emergency presentation is independently associated with lower five-year survival. Shorter intervals between first symptoms and diagnosis are not consistently associated with improved survival, potentially due to confounding from tumour characteristics. INTERPRETATION: Contrary to current practice, we recommend that all the stage information should be used in surveillance. Patients missing stage should also be included to minimise bias. Combined data on stage and emergency presentation could be used to create summary prognostic measures. More work is needed to create statistics based on the diagnostic interval that will be useful for surveillance

The HSV-1 Latency-Associated Transcript Functions to Repress Latent Phase Lytic Gene Expression and Suppress Virus Reactivation from Latently Infected Neurons

open access articleHerpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) establishes life-long latent infection within sensory neurons, during which viral lytic gene expression is silenced. The only highly expressed viral gene product during latent infection is the latency-associated transcript (LAT), a non-protein coding RNA that has been strongly implicated in the epigenetic regulation of HSV-1 gene expression. We have investigated LAT-mediated control of latent gene expression using chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses and LAT-negative viruses engineered to express firefly luciferase or β-galactosidase from a heterologous lytic promoter. Whilst we were unable to determine a significant effect of LAT expression upon heterochromatin enrichment on latent HSV-1 genomes, we show that reporter gene expression from latent HSV-1 genomes occurs at a greater frequency in the absence of LAT. Furthermore, using luciferase reporter viruses we have observed that HSV-1 gene expression decreases during long-term latent infection, with a most marked effect during LAT-negative virus infection. Finally, using a fluorescent mouse model of infection to isolate and culture single latently infected neurons, we also show that reactivation occurs at a greater frequency from cultures harbouring LAT-negative HSV-1. Together, our data suggest that the HSV-1 LAT RNA represses HSV-1 gene expression in small populations of neurons within the mouse TG, a phenomenon that directly impacts upon the frequency of reactivation and the maintenance of the transcriptionally active latent reservoir