The New Scarlet Letter A: An Exploration of the Power of Online Informational Websites to Influence and Brand Those Impacted by Autism Spectrum Disorders

Technical communication is often perceived by the public as containing objective information that is supported by scientific data. Audiences of such products are unaware of the rhetoric employed within its content that works to perpetuate social constructions of dominant ideologies, including digital texts such as informational websites. This article presents a comparison of the rhetoric employed on two national websites, Autism Speaks and Generation Rescue that convey similar information on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), but present ASDs differently in terms of language, tone, and lens. Through the acknowledgement of these differences, I posit that web sites affiliated with the medical/scientific community such as Autism Speaks work to perpetuate damaging biases toward and prejudices about the ASD community, while operating under the commonplace of being objective. This article argues for identifying, interrogating, and tearing down the walls of marginalization and prejudice that continue to stand between society and those impacted by disability. These walls are strengthened by the refusal to acknowledge the voices of the community, those with lived experiential information regarding the world of ASDs. Thus, instead of perpetuating the rhetoric that those with disabilities should work to overcome and accommodate, I encourage technical communicators to interrogate their normalizing practices in order to challenge hegemonic notions of disability as a means to project positive imagery that could result in increased notions of possibility and recognition of those with ASDs

The Rise of AI: Why the American Workforce Must Inevitably Change

This paper explains the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the American workforce with particular attention given to the manufacturing, service, and white-collar sectors. First, the conventional wisdom on this advancing technology is presented and analyzed. Then, using qualitative methodology in the form of case study research, this paper explores alternative solutions that demonstrate the rise of AI and the present and encroaching changes on the American workforce. According to this research, the American workforce will experience incredible transformations that must be met head on. The potential political and social consequences of this massive job loss are revealed, and suggestions of necessary social change and political regulation are presented. While the potential impacts of Artificial Intelligence have been discussed by mainstream media, this paper offers an in-depth, scholarly look into who exactly will be affected and how much they will be impacted

Implementing Restorative Justice Programs in the Cal Poly Community

This paper is the result of a year-long senior project for the Liberal Arts and Engineering program at California Polytechnic State University. This paper attempts to educate the reader on what Restorative Justice is, why it faces challenges in the United States, and how it has been implemented, both in the United States and outside of it. In addition, this paper describes my own experience with implementing Restorative Justice Programs with both the city of San Luis Obispo and California Polytechnic State University. This experience includes the challenges that I faced along the way, and how these challenges are indicative of challenges faced throughout the state of California and the United States. To conclude, this paper touches on future work to be accomplished by the end of a two-year graduate program

Compressive Biomechanics of the Reptilian Intervertebral Joint

This study compared the pre-sacral intervertebral joints of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) with those from specimensof Varanus. These two taxa were chosen because they have similarnumber of pre-sacral vertebrae and similar body weights; however,Varanus can move bipedally and has diarthrotic intervertebral joints,whereas Alligator has intervertebral discs and cannot move bipedally.This study consisted of three objectives: (1) to document the anatomyof the intervertebral joint, (2) to quantify the compressive biomechanicsof the intervertebral joints and explore which features contributed tocompression resistance, and (3) to quantify the impact of compressionon the intervertebral foramen and spinal nerves in these two taxa. Theexperimental results revealed that the diarthrotic intervertebral jointsof Varanus were significantly (4x) stiffer than the intervertebral disc ofAlligator, and that a significant component of this increased stiffnessarose from the facet joints. Compressing the intervertebral joints of thetwo taxa caused a reduction in foraminal area, but the magnitude of thisreduction was not significantly different. We hypothesize that the mainfactor preventing spinal nerve impingement in Varanus during gravitational compression is the relatively small size of the spinal ganglion/nerve relative to the foraminal area

Temporality, Subjectivity, and the Gaze in the Early Writings of Mina Loy

The early writings of poet and painter Mina Loy (1882-1966) have received some scholarly attention, usually in reference to feminism or Loy\u27s connection to Italian Futurism. This study engages gender and feminist theory as its starting point and is particularly interested in two elements of Loy\u27s work: her treatment of the gaze and the metaphors of temporality and spatiality engaged throughout her work. Loy\u27s framing of the gaze reveals the tension between the shifting subjectivity of her narrators and their attempts to maintain a unified self The narrators in Loy\u27s work who appear to be the most individuated, and the most forceful, are also the most unstable. These speakers (such as that of The Feminist Manifesto and The Effectual Marriage ) have difficulty delineating boundaries between themselves and their objects of study, and they are often implicated by the unindividuated women they narrate. Other narrators in Loy\u27s work (such as that of Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots and The Sacred Prostitute ) reference the power of the male gaze although these works also subtly comment on the way in which women play a complicit role in their own subjugation. Loy\u27s strongest portrait of a developed female consciousness ( Parturition ) reveals that a loss of self-control, not entirely dissimilar from the one experienced by the narrators of The Feminist Manifesto and The Effectual Marriage, is necessary for consciousness to be reconfigured. Attempts to control the consciousness of others, as seen in Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots and The Effectual Marriage, are thereby destined to fail. Thus Loy\u27s narrators make futile attempts to manipulate the consciousness of Loy\u27s female personae through the framing of the gaze. Loy\u27s poetic project is one that focuses on the development of the self although a great deal of effort in her early writings is spent on granting others the opportunity to redevelop their own consciousness. This focus can be seen in both Loy\u27s framing of the gaze and in her imagery of time and space. Both the gaze and time often function as normative and heterosexual frameworks. But while the gaze can be appropriated, time and space are outside the control of either women or men, despite the fact that the male figures in Loy\u27s poems often operate as if they can control time. While this illusion of control is itself problematic, the real difficulty occurs when women are willing to unify social and material time by embodying the demands that men make of them. Mina Loy\u27s early writings contain many examples of the problematic normativity pursued by women but Loy offers only one example of a developed female consciousness ( Parturition ). This reveals both her frustration with the women of her era and also the limitations of h y 7 s vision. While Mina Loy is adept at critiquing normativity, she offers no real vision of what an alternative to the norm might look like

Applying a Feminist Disability Methodological Framework in Technical Communication by Interrogating Access & Deconstructing Social Barriers of Exclusion

My dissertation, examines the intersections of technical communication, disability studies, feminist theories and medical rhetorics. Specifically, I look to extend the current focus on accessibility and inclusion within the field and discipline of technical communication, by proposing the development and application of a feminist disability methodological framework. I hope to demonstrate how this framework can be applied to both research and pedagogical approaches in order to increase the apparency and accountability for furthering socially informed access and inclusion in multiple environments, including the classroom and the public sphere. In order to demonstrate the pedagogical and research benefits of applying this framework, I will discuss case studies in Chapters III, IV, and V. Within Chapter III I will present a research focused case study that explores how technical communication in the healthcare industry can perpetuate traditional hierarchical power dynamics. This case study will engage with digital, qualitative rhetorical research methods to analyze the technical communication documents within a specific breast cancer clinical trial: the Herceptin trials. Then, I will place the results of the initial rhetorical analysis of the clinical trial technical documents from the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) into a conversation with texts that depict the embodied experiential knowledges (qualitative data) of the participants of the clinical trial. The next case study, presented in Chapter IV argues for curricular and pedagogical strategies that are informed by a feminist disability studies framework by examining the impacts of the required American\u27s with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation statements within university course syllabi on students and faculty. The final case study, presented in Chapter V, explores the benefits of applying an intersectional pedagogical framework that is situated within a technology-focused course. Specifically, this chapter will trace the findings from a pedagogical case study that I conducted within a course at Illinois State University entitled Multimodal Composition: Texts, Modes, and Inclusion. In addition, this chapter will also demonstrate how this pedagogical case study (in a multimodal composition course) extends and transfers to a technical communication course Ultimately, my dissertation works to: 1) Make more apparent the benefits of intersectional methodologies (combining lenses of inquiry), such as a feminist disability methodology, that can, I hope to prove, further the pursuits of social justice, and 2) create a stronger focus on deconstructing social barriers of exclusion through an emphasis on the valuing of embodied experiential knowledges and patient narratives

Investigation of small break loss-of-coolant phenomena in a small scale nonnuclear test facility. [PWR]

A small-scale nonnuclear integral test facility designed to simulate a pressurized water reactor (PWR) system was used to evaluate the effects of a small break loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) on the system thermal-hydraulic response. The experiment approximated a 2.5% (11-cm diameter) communicative break in the cold leg of a PWR, and included initial conditions which were similar to conditions in a PWR operating at full power. The 2.5% break size ensured that the nominal break flow rate was greater than the high pressure injection system (HPIS) flow rate, thus providing the potential for a continuous system depressurization. The sequence of events was similar to that used in evaluation model analysis of small break loss-of-coolant accidents, and included simulated reactor scram and loss of offsite power. Comparisions of experimental data with computer code calculations are used to demonstrate the capabilities and limitations of integral system calculations used to predict phenomena which can be important in the assessment of a small break LOCA in a PWR

Allogeneic stem cell transplant for myelofibrosis patients over age 60: likely impact of the JAK2 inhibitors

Photograph of a scene at the Meers General Store