Social Determinants of Conspiratorial Ideation

Scholars have recently become increasingly interested in understanding the prevalence and persistence of conspiratorial beliefs among the public as recent research has shown such beliefs to be both widespread and to have deleterious effects on the political process. This article seeks to develop a sociological understanding of the structural conditions that are associated with conspiratorial belief. Using aggregate Google search data to measure public interest in two popular political conspiracy theories, the findings indicate that social conditions associated with threat and insecurity, including unemployment, changes in partisan control of government, and demographic changes, are associated with increased conspiratorial ideation

Regulated bioluminescence as a tool for bioremediation process monitoring and control of bacterial cultures

An effective on-line monitoring technique for toxic waste bioremediation using bioluminescent microorganisms has shown great potential for the description and optimization of biological processes. The lux genes of the bacterium Vibrio fischeri are used by this species to produce visible light. The lux genes can be genetically fused to the control region of a catabolic gene, with the result that bioluminescence is produced whenever the catabolic gene is induced. Thus the detection of light from a sample indicates that genetic expression from a specific gene is occurring. This technique was used to monitor biodegradation of specific contaminants from waste sites. For these studies, fusions between the lux genes and the operons for naphthalene and toluene/xylene degradation were constructed. Strains carrying one of these fusions respond sensitively and specifically to target substrates. Bioluminescence from these cultures can be rapidly measured in a nondestructive and noninvasive manner. The potential for this technique in this and other biological systems is discussed

Mathematics, Writing, and Rhetoric: Deep Thinking in First-Year Learning Communities

Through the process of combining two seemingly unlikely bedfellows, mathematics and composition, two instructors explain how rhetoric connects the art of writing and the art of doing mathematics in an inquiry-based learning community. Combining these two courses in a learning community enables students and instructors to practice the deep thinking valued by each instructor and by a traditional liberal arts education while challenging both our and our students’ individual, disciplinary, and rhetorical conventions and beliefs. Using student writing from our course, our assignments from mathematics and composition, and survey evaluation results, we demonstrate how engaging in inquiry-based education provides unconventional (and conventional) learning opportunities for both students and instructors. Furthermore, through our discussions of the four iterations of our Learning Community, we examine some ways interdisciplinary learning challenges structural, individual, and disciplinary expectations, conventions, and learning

Finding our Place in the Third Space: The Authority of Not Knowing \u3ci\u3eas Becoming\u3c/i\u3e in School-University Partnership Work

School-university partnerships have been a space for simultaneous renewal and teacher development for decades (Darling-Hammond, 1994; Goodlad, 1994; Teitel, 2003). As a case in point, this article takes a deeper look at how school- and university-based teacher educators experience professional growth and negotiation of partnership contexts, roles, and responsibilities. Recognizing the complexity of teacher development across the professional lifespan, and the tensions of school-university partnership work, we explore the diverse roles and positions from which we come to the work of clinical supervision and school partnership work. To highlight the varied levels of development and professional growth in these hybrid teacher education spaces, we highlight two liaison cases – Hannah, a new tenure-track faculty liaison and Sara, a veteran school-based teacher educator, who is now a district instructional coach and university liaison. As liaisons, Hannah and Sara experience self-doubt, struggle to negotiate power, and strive to sustain relationships. Grappling with finding their place in school-university partnership work, the two liaisons accept the unknown and perceive their work as a process of becoming in teacher education