Fat People Exist

A couple weeks ago, I closed the stall door behind me in a Patrick Hall bathroom and was greeted by this sign. I quickly scanned the text, smiled at the picture, and had one of those warm, fuzzy, faith-in-humanity-has-been-restored kinds of moments

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**TRIGGER WARNING** You are walking to class when you feel someone grab your butt with both hands. You scream, swing around, and watch your assailant sprint away. You feel humiliated, disgusted, violated. You look over your shoulder with every step on the way home and cry yourself to sleep. [excerpt

Fearless Friday: Julie Davin

In this week’s edition of Fearless Friday, SURGE is honoring all of the amazing work that Julie Davin ’17 does for our community. Julie, originally from Newtown, Connecticut, is currently a senior at Gettysburg College majoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and minoring in English and Philosophy. Over the course of her college career, Julie has been involved with the Gettysburg Anti-Capitalist Collective (GACC), Students Against Sexual Assault (SASA), Outerspace (formerly Friend or Foe), SURGE, Gettysburg Cares, and the annual Vagina Monologues. This long list of activities does not faze Julie; she cares deeply about each and every cause and is glad to have time to dedicate to them. [excerpt

We control it on our end, and now it\u27s up to you -- Exploitation, Empowerment, and Ethical Portrayals of the Pornography Industry

Documentaries about pornography are beginning to constitute an entirely new subgenre of film. Big Hollywood names like James Franco and Rashida Jones are jumping on the bandwagon, using their influence and resources to invest in a type of audiovisual knowledge production far less mainstream than that in which they usually participate. The films that have resulted from this new movement are undoubtedly persuasive, no matter which side of the debate over pornography these directors have respectively chosen to represent. Moreover, regardless of the side(s) that audience members may have taken in the so-called “feminist porn debates,” one cannot ignore the rhetorical strength of the arguments presented in a wide variety of documentaries about pornography. However, the ways in which these filmmakers use audiovisual rhetoric to convey their respective arguments are far from simple. My research explores and analyzes the various types of rhetoric that filmmakers use when creating documentaries about pornography. I also investigate precisely how these types of rhetoric are used, and why viewers find them so persuasive. My visual analysis focuses primarily on Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus’s Hot Girls Wanted (2015), Bryce Wagoner’s After Porn Ends (2012), and Christina A. Voros’s Kink (2013) – the first offers a particularly negative view of pornography, the second a nuanced view, and the third a particularly positive view

Integrated payload and mission planning, phase 3. Volume 1: Integrated payload and mission planning process evaluation

The integrated payload and mission planning process for STS payloads was defined, and discrete tasks which evaluate performance and support initial implementation of this process were conducted. The scope of activity was limited to NASA and NASA-related payload missions only. The integrated payload and mission planning process was defined in detail, including all related interfaces and scheduling requirements. Related to the payload mission planning process, a methodology for assessing early Spacelab mission manager assignment schedules was defined

The relationship between teacher collaboration and student achievement

The purpose of this concurrent embedded mixed-methods study was to develop an instrument to measure principals\u27 perceptions of teacher collaboration in their schools. The study further examined the relationship between perceptions of teacher collaboration and student achievement as measured by the Indiana A-F Accountability Model. Four key components of teacher collaboration were identified through a review of the literature. Those key components of teacher collaboration included 1) Job-Embedded Collaboration Time; 2) Common Goals; 3) Results Orientation; and 4) Working Interdependently. ^ Using a survey, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 359 Indiana elementary and middle school principals. Quantitative data on the principals\u27 perceptions of the presence and effectiveness of the four key components of teacher collaboration were analyzed. In order to support the quantitative data and find stronger understanding of the research, qualitative data were analyzed on how principals described teacher collaboration at their schools, including what factors impeded teacher collaboration, what factors facilitated teacher collaboration, and what relationships they perceived to exist between the quality and extent of collaboration and student achievement. ^ Little variability was noted in the presence of the key components of teacher collaboration - a vast majority of the principals reported these components to be in their schools. As a result of this lack of variability, no statistically significant relationships were found between the presence of the first three key components of teacher collaboration and student achievement as measured by the Indiana A-F Accountability Model. However, a statistically significant relationship was found between principal ratings on the presence of teacher collaboration teams working interdependently and student achievement as measured by the Indiana A-F Accountability Model. Qualitative data revealed that having even just a few negative or difficult personalities on teacher teams can impede progress for the school. ^ When analyzing principal ratings on the effectiveness of the key components of teacher collaboration in their schools, an exploratory factor analysis enabled the researcher to find meaningful patterns within the effectiveness variables, simplify the data, and ultimately run a more meaningful multiple regression analysis. Three factors were extracted and identified as Developing and Monitoring Specific Goals, Trusting, Supportive Collegiality, and Sharing Resources and Practices and were tested in the three different hypotheses. ^ All three hypotheses tests on the relationships between the perceived effectiveness of key components of teacher collaboration and student achievement showed statistical significance. In spite of having limited variability in principal responses to the survey, all of the derived factors from the scale were significant predictors of student achievement. This study found a statistically significant relationship between principal ratings on the effectiveness of developing and monitoring specific goals and student achievement as measured by the Indiana A-F Accountability Model. Likewise, this study found a statistically significant relationship between principal ratings on the effectiveness of trusting, supportive collegiality and student achievement as measured by the Indiana A-F Accountability Model. Finally, it was also determined that there is a statistically significant relationship between principal ratings on the effectiveness of sharing resources and practices and student achievement as measured by the Indiana A-F Accountability Model. ^ An instrument with very high reliability was developed. This instrument can be used with principals to identify areas of weakness in teacher collaboration quickly and accurately. Although most principals endorsed most items, the tool clearly can be useful in self-evaluation of collaboration

Compassion: Wherefore Art Thou?

Compassion is a health professional value that has received a lot of attention recently. In this paper we consider the nature of compassion, its definition and its expression in practice. We further link compassion to patient-centred care. There is debate about whether compassion can be learned, and therefore assessed. There are similar discussions in relation to ‘professionalism’ and the effects of the hidden curriculum. We conclude that compassion is everyone’s business and that learners require early and sustained patient and client contact with time for reflection to enable the delivery of compassionate care

Modeling land-climate coupling in Europe: Impact of land surface representation on climate variability and extremes

Land-climate coupling has been shown to be important for European summer climate variability and extreme events. However, the sensitivity of these feedbacks to land surface model (LSM) choice has been little investigated up to now. In this study, we assess the impact of the LSM on the simulated climate variability in a regional climate model (RCM). The experiments were conducted with the COSMO-CLM2RCM. COSMO-CLM2can be run with two alternative LSMs, the 2nd-generation LSM TERRA_ML or the more sophisticated 3rd-generation LSM Community Land Model (CLM3.5). The analyzed simulations include control and sensitivity experiments with prescribed soil moisture (dry or wet). Using CLM3.5 instead of TERRA_ML improves the simulated temperature variability by alleviating an overestimation of temperature inter-annual variability in the RCM. Also, the representation of the probability density functions of daily maximum summer temperature is improved when using the more advanced LSM. The reduced climate variability is linked to a larger ground heat flux and smaller variability in soil moisture and short-wave radiation. The latter effect results from the coupling of the LSM to the atmospheric module. In addition, using CLM3.5 reduces the sensitivity of COSMO-CLM2to extreme soil moisture conditions. An analysis assessing the relationship between the standard precipitation index and the subsequent number of hot days in summer reveals a better representation of this relationship using CLM3.5. Hence, we find that biases in climate variability and extremes can be reduced and the representation of land-climate coupling can be improved with the use of the more sophisticated LSM

Exploring tutor perceptions and current practices in facilitating diagnostic reasoning in preclinical medical students: Implications for tutor professional development needs

Introduction: This study explores tutors’ experience of teaching diagnostic reasoning (DR) – a key component of clinical reasoning – to build understanding into the use of explicit strategies in facilitating development of DR skills in preclinical medical students. Methods: A qualitative, interpretive study was undertaken with 14 preclinical problem-based learning tutors who participated in semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify key factors that influence students’ learning of diagnostic reasoning. Results: Tutor dispositions towards facilitating learning of DR were variable in this study. Explicit strategies to teach DR were thought to exert positive influences on the development of DR skills, through improving student knowledge and reducing potential error. The advantages of using explicit strategies to teach DR outweighed the perceived difficulties identified in this context. Explicit strategies may need modification for preclinical students and the focus should be on building knowledge of classic presentations and developing metacognitive awareness. Conclusion: The use of explicit educational strategies will contribute to facilitating preclinical student learning of DR skills. Tutor professional development is a key component in the successful implementation of these strategies