A Feminine Future: Isabel Allende, Feminism, and Latin American Culture

Undergraduate Textual or Investigativ

Instropection: Another World

For 20 years I experienced physical, emotional, verbal, and mental abuse at the hands of my biological mother. At an early age I had to face the harsh reality of my situation and develop skills that helped me survive day-to-day, but that left me with a very skewed idea of who I was as a person. But the one thing that I knew for certain about myself was that I loved to create. I would write stories and draw characters as an escape, and as I got older I would build bigger and more elaborate worlds to explore until it turned into my passion. Writing and drawing were an intertwined part of me that I could never be without; everything I wrote had to be drawn and everything I drew had to have a story behind it. Introspection: Another World, is my exploration into who I am, both as a person and as an artist. The central piece in this show is a book, entitled “Introspection”, which features a collection of short stories and illustrations that explore themes of identity, family, self-discovery, and trauma. Some illustrations are a visual representation of what is happening in their story while others are more figurative as an emotional response to their story. These illustrations and these stories serve as a place of healing for me, allowing me to look inside myself and explore who I am and what I once was. As an artist, I’m inspired by the world around me, with things like music, and culture, but movement is a big inspiration for me. I find it interesting seeing movement in texture and trying to create a texture out of movement itself. Junji Ito’s illustrations are what I strive for when I’m creating a piece, something that’s very detailed and that’s moving in some way with the lines. Bob Masse is a designer who’s posters combine Art Nouveau and Psychedelic styles with influence from Alphonse Mucha. His line art and figures have been a major inspiration to my practice. With all this inspiration and a mind full of never ending worlds and stories to explore, I’m putting my true self on display in another world.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/1115/thumbnail.jp

Application of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy for Determining Some Trading Parameters of Palm Oil

Malaysia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil products. For trading purposes, iodine value (IV), free fatty acid (FFA), peroxide value (PV) and anisidine value (An V) are some parameters used to check the quality of palm oil. They are normally analyzed based on the chemical methods. However, many of these standard methods are time consuming. Therefore, simpler and faster methods, such as IR spectroscopy are necessary. In this study, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) calibration models have been developed to correlate the IV, FFA content, PV and AnV in palm oil, that were obtained from the standard methods. In IV determination, a calibration standard was prepared by blending palm stearin and palm superolein. A validation approach yielded a good coefficient of determination (.R2). Subsequently, 42 palm oil samples with IV ranging from 53 to 65 were also investigated using partial least squares (PLS) and principle component regression (peR). The results gave .R2 of 0.94443 to 0.98853. In the FFA determination, a calibration set was prepared by spiking different amount of oleic acid to a series of palm olein. The cross-validation procedure gave R2 of 0.997. In the fourth study, FTIR method to determine PV of palm olein was studied. A wide calibration range of PV was prepared by adding oxidized palm oil into the unoxidized palm olein. The SEP and J?2 gave 0.172 and 0.996, respectively. In the final study, the FTIR spectroscopy was described to predict An V of palm olein. The calibration set was prepared by mixing the thermally oxidized palm olein and the unoxidized palm olein. The precision of this method was shown to he comparable to chemical method used for measurement of AnV. The results of this study showed that FTIR methods can be used as alternative to measure a number of trading parameters m palm oil to replace the tedious, time-consuming chemical method

\u3ci\u3eCapturing Quarantine: Student Pandemic Experience\u3c/i\u3e Journal

Journal submitted from the first Public History 2020 summer session class at Columbia College Chicago reflecting on aspects of the global pandemic from the student perspective.https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/journals/1016/thumbnail.jp

Reunification: The Child Protection Worker’s Perspective

Family reunification is the preferred permanency option, and is the most common goal for families that have been separated. The purpose of this study was to explore various child protection workers’ perspectives on family reunification. This project intended to gain an insider perspective using a qualitative research design. A semi- structured interview was used with six child protection worker’s that participated in this study. These interviews revealed four major themes from the data collected: family factors, worker influence/bias, one size doesn’t fit all, and the system prevents reunification. Within these themes there were many subthemes including: lack of parent involvement, trauma, safety, reunification barriers, lack of resources, after-care services, and outside professional resources. After analyzing the data and existing literature, suggestions for further research focused on the need for more after-care services and working within child protection timelines with parents struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues

Hazing Prevention: The Advisor Perspective

There has been extensive research conducted on students’ perceptions and understanding of hazing in fraternities and sororities (Allen & Madden, 2008; Allen & Madden, 2012; Alexander, 2018; Cokley et al., 2020). Despite preventative efforts and existing research, hazing continues to occur and continues to threaten the future of fraternity and sorority life. There is little to no research on chapter advisors’ understanding of hazing and hazing prevention in their roles. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the role that fraternity advisors play in the education and prevention of hazing, through interview with the advisors. The study looks at the training and resources provided to chapter advisors from national headquarters and institutions to assist them in successfully overseeing their organizations. Results show that there is an overwhelming need for more training, better support, and resources to be provided to chapter advisors. The results indicate that chapter advisors are excellent candidates to educate members on hazing and hazing prevention, but they are not adequately trained on how to do so

Excavating the Catacomb of Santa Lucia

In 733 B.C., Archias (a Corinthian) founded the city of Syracuse in Sicily. This began Syracuse’ history as a Greek colony, and also a history of cultural influences and changes produced by different occupations. The catacomb of St. Lucy is located in Syracuse, and contains evidence for the Greek, Roman Christian and Byzantine cultures. Excavations have been occurring here since 1916, beginning with Paolo Orsi, and most recently occurring in 2015 with Dr. Davide Tanasi. St. Lucy is an excellent case study for examining how different cultures have used this site as a burial location for centuries. The research done here identifies some of the changes that took place at St. Lucy through an examination of frescoes, artifacts, and tombs as well as a spatial analysis of these datasets