Collective Compositions: From Spaces of Silence to Empowerment

Feminist studies have demonstrated that co-education can be disempowering for young women. From the onset of puberty, male voices gain ascendency in classrooms, clubs, and co-curricular activities (Bell and Golombisky, 2004). This paper explores the techniques of discursive empowerment created by Speak Out: Exploring Womanhood, a student organization at Rutgers University created to help university women develop voice and agency. The group meets weekly to discuss events that affect the lives of college-aged women. Each meeting features a writing workshop through which members individually and collectively create poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction. Emphasizing cultural production as a means to engage male/body/race privileges, Speak Out publishes a newsletter both in print and online. By analyzing a selection of these texts, I will examine how writing contributes to an “empowered” or “vocal” self, one which addresses race and gender-based restrictions and injustices, while reimagining and articulating her rightful place in the world

High School Mathematics Teachers\u27 Positioning within the Culture Of Blame: A Case Study

Overemphasis on high-stakes testing in mathematics, particularly in schools with economically disadvantaged students, has led to the formation of a culture of blame (Lau, 2009) and inconsistent instructional practices (Kitchen, Ridder, & Bolz, 2016). However, there are teachers who have been successful at ensuring deep mathematics learning takes place in spite of the demands of high-stakes testing instruction (Ladson-Billings, 2009; Leonard & Martin, 2013). The purpose of this study was to explore how high school mathematics teachers position themselves within the culture of blame that is manifested in the high-stakes testing environment. This qualitative holistic, multiple-case study was guided by the following research questions: In what ways do mathematics teachers position themselves within a culture of blame in ways that they can support student learning? The sub-questions that supported the overarching research question are: How do high school mathematics teachers position themselves within a culture of teacher blame and how does the culture of blame affect the creation and attainment of student learning goals? Data collection included surveys, a two-hour group interview of four participants, six, hour-long individual interviews, the collection of participant-provided artifacts, and artifacts collected from DuBois High Schools and Clinton County Public Schools. Positioning theory was used as the lens through which I examined the data. Findings suggest that teachers’ instructional decisions are highly influenced by high-stakes testing and that the culture of blame created by the overemphasis on test scores. Although the DuBois High School mathematics department fosters a community of care for their students, it is not enough to overcome the misalignment with the school administrators’ goals for their students

Regulation of Transcription and Stress Response by CarD in Mycobacteria

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of Tuberculosis, infects over one third of the world\u27s population. To control this epidemic, we must develop new chemotherapeutic strategies for treatment, which requires further insight into the physiology of this bacterium. Previous studies have identified CarD as a transcriptional regulator essential during both acute and persistent infection. Depletion of CarD sensitizes strains to a diverse panel of stresses and deregulates several hundred genes and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) which suggested that CarD may be a transcriptional regulator. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing experiments showed that CarD was localized to promoters throughout the genome, suggesting that CarD regulates transcription initiation. In collaboration with the Darst Lab, we published the first crystal structure of a CarD homolog. CarD\u27s N-terminal domain was homologous to a known RNA polymerase (RNAP) interacting domain and C-terminal domain with a novel fold. Modeling CarD onto initiation structures of RNAP position CarD\u27s C-terminal domain to interact with DNA. We identified three independent activities of CarD: binding RNAP, binding DNA, and the activity of a highly conserved tryptophan residue that we predict stabilizes the transcription bubble. Using a panel of single mutations in carD that attenuate one of these three activities, I characterized the roles of each of CarD\u27s activities in vivo and in vitro. All three of CarD\u27s activities are necessary for optimal growth, antibiotic resistance, stabilizing RNAP-promoter complexes, and activating transcription from rRNA promoters. This work contributed to a model in which CarD slows the rate of transcription initiation DNA bubble collapse and accelerates DNA opening. In further studies of CarD, I discovered a correlation between the cellular concentration of CarD and growth rate and showed that this growth rate dependence is not due to an effect on the rRNA content of the cell. This separated CarD\u27s effect on growth rate from its effect on rRNA content for the first time, which indicates that this growth defect is a result of deregulation of non-rRNA promoters. Additionally, I elucidated a new mechanism of regulating CarD activity through turnover of free protein. Most recently, I discovered the extent of CarD regulation in mycobacteria through RNA sequencing experiments. These studies revealed that more than 80% of the transcripts in the genome are significantly affected by alterations in CarD activity. Furthermore, there are transcript-dependent effects of CarD that imply that CarD is responsive qualities of the promoters but showed that the promoter sequence only partial explains this specificity. My thesis work has dramatically advanced our understanding of the mechanism of transcriptional regulation by CarD. CarD\u27s activity at transcription initiation complexes is an entirely novel mechanism of transcriptional regulation, creating a new paradigm of transcriptional regulation in prokaryotes. Furthermore, as CarD is conserved in many bacteria, its function has broad implications for bacterial transcription beyond mycobacteria. Finally, since CarD is essential in mycobacteria and absent from eukaryotes, my work will inform the development of new strategies to inhibit CarD activity as novel therapies to treat tuberculosis

Using Long Term Risk Factors from the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System (OMHRS) dataset to predict suicide admission and suicide severity among acute psychiatric inpatients in Ontario, Canada

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between multidimensional long term suicide risk factors (LTRF) and short-term suicide related outcomes known as early warning signs (EWS) among a cross-section of psychiatric inpatients in Ontario between 2005 and 2019. This study conducted a secondary data analysis with statistical methodology using the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System (OMHRS) dataset. This study found a diverse range of LTRF from multiple domains related to a person’s health and wellbeing to be predictive of EWS. These findings indicate that suicide is a complex phenomenon with multiple interrelated contributing factors, and therefore the whole person should be treated with a multi-disciplinary approach to ameliorate suicide potential, rather than focusing on individual or a particular group of LTRFs

Mycobacterium tuberculosis transcription machinery: Ready to respond to host attacks

Regulating responses to stress is critical for all bacteria, whether they are environmental, commensal, or pathogenic species. For pathogenic bacteria, successful colonization and survival in the host are dependent on adaptation to diverse conditions imposed by the host tissue architecture and the immune response. Once the bacterium senses a hostile environment, it must enact a change in physiology that contributes to the organism's survival strategy. Inappropriate responses have consequences; hence, the execution of the appropriate response is essential for survival of the bacterium in its niche. Stress responses are most often regulated at the level of gene expression and, more specifically, transcription. This minireview focuses on mechanisms of regulating transcription initiation that are required by Mycobacterium tuberculosis to respond to the arsenal of defenses imposed by the host during infection. In particular, we highlight how certain features of M. tuberculosis physiology allow this pathogen to respond swiftly and effectively to host defenses. By enacting highly integrated and coordinated gene expression changes in response to stress, M. tuberculosis is prepared for battle against the host defense and able to persist within the human population

P3_3 Around the World in 82Pb

Hot air balloons are often made of lightweight material in order to improve the performance of such a craft. In this paper we discuss whether a hot air balloon made of lead could fly. We considered the lift generated by the heated air inside the balloon and concluded that a lead balloon could fly providing that the lead shell was less than 0.011mm thick

P3_10 Red-shifted Speed Cameras

This paper investigates whether a car could travel fast enough to be red-shifted out of a speed cameras range of vision. It also calculates the observed length contraction of such a car if it could go at this velocity. It was calculated that a car would need to travel at 0.178 times the speed of light to avoid being caught by the speed camera via the Doppler Eect. It was also calculate that a Ferrari 458 would contract by 7.3cm at this velocity

P3_9 Stopping the Earth

This paper examines the possibility of stopping or slow the Earth's natural rotation by considering the Earth's angular momentum via human methods. This was done by considering the angular momentum generated by humans and vehicles moving around the equator. The Earth's rotation period was found to be 0.153ns shorter if all living humans ran, and 3.70ns shorter if all vehicles drove around the equator

P3_1 The Power of the Mediterranean Sea

This paper investigates the potential hydro-electricenergy that could be generated from draining the entire Mediterranean Sea.We assumed that it is possible to drain the entire sea and calculated that it could supply the Globe with its current electrical power consumption for the next 102 years. However, the subterranean infrastructure required for such a feat is non-existent and as such this project is unfeasible

P3_5 I Will Blow Your House In

The Three Little Pigs fable describes the disastrous fate of three pigs houses caused by a wolf will well-endowed lungs. This paper models the pigs houses as a simple aerofoil roof upon a house structure and discusses the wind speed required to blow the houses down. We concluded that the wind velocities to blow a straw, wood, and slate roof o are 624m/s, 861m/s and 1070m/s respectively. We then compared these to typical tornado velocities