Patent Externship at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

STEP Category: InternshipsWith the assistance of STEP, I will be working in an externship program for the U.S. Patent Trademark Office in the Office of the Commissioners for Patents in Alexandria, VA. I began working May 20, 2019 and ended August 9, 2019 for a total of 12 weeks. This externship allowed me to experience a professional governmental workplace and teach me about the patent decision-making processes. This opportunity was very beneficial in striving towards my personal and professional goals because it will give me a new and exciting experience in Alexandria and as an engineer, I will gain insight on how to develop and patent medical devices. With the help of STEP, I will be able to transform as a learner and as a professional because I will be able to work in such an innovative environment and witness the cutting-edge work of the nation’s technological progress and achievement.The Ohio State University Second-year Transformational Experience Program (STEP)Academic Major: Biomedical Engineerin

The Degeneration of the Human Mind: An Analysis of Alzheimer’s Disease, A Kuhnian Perspective

In 1906, a German physician, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, specifically identified a collection of brain cell abnormalities (and the formation of plaque in the brain) as a disease, which forever changed the way scientists view degenerative cognitive disorders. Today, this brain disease bears his name, and is one of the most common diseases among the aging population. The discovery of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) can be seen as a revolutionary, paradigmatic shift in regards to scientific discovery from a Kuhnian perspective. In that vein, the discovery presents philosophical implications for the notion of personhood and how those suffering from AD are treated in society

Community Influences on Individual Philanthropy: The Impact of Social Capital, Perception, and Demographics on Charitable Giving

Why do people donate money? The phenomenon of donation is rarely questioned, and yet remains an integral part of society. Studying philanthropy, described as “private action for the public good” by Brown and Ferris (2007:85), is informative because it shows how well individuals can identify and fight social problems. With 1 million charities in the United States in 2008, the nonprofit sector employing 7 percent of the workforce, and donations making up 2.2 percent of the GDP, philanthropy is a visible presence in US society (NPT 2008). Because of this, it is important to call into investigation the elements that influence financial donations, such as social, human and financial capital, as well as perceptions of donation behavior demographics. The concept of social capital, defined by Dillon (2010) as “individuals’ ties or connections to others” (255), is essential to understanding how donation occurs (Brown and Ferris 2007). Additionally, perceptions of others donation behaviors are also important in influencing an individual’s participation in donation as well as how much they donate. Human and financial capital are associated with ability to donate. Demographics like education and gender have also been shown to be strongly associated with philanthropic behavior (Andreoni Brown and Rischall 2003; Lee and Chang 2007). I hypothesize that in order for donation to occur, a person needs both inclination and capacity to give, inclination to give being formed by social capital and perceptions of other’s donation behaviors, and capacity to give coming from human and social capital. I also believe that social capital will have the strongest influence on donation behavior. Finally, I hypothesize that certain demographics will have higher associations with donation behavior than others

Censorship's Distortion of Narrative and Marital Relationships in Japanese War Period Fiction

The purpose of this paper is to challenge the notion that most Japanese writers only wrote nationalist fiction during the Pacific War with America. I analyzed two short stories published shortly after the start of the Pacific War, “December 8th” by Dazai Osamu and “A Wife’s Letters,” by Uno Chiyoi, with Gérard Genette’s theory of narratology and voice as a frame. I establish that censorship perverts the traditional relationship between narrator and narratee, intradiegetic or extradiegetic, within the story and without the story. In each story, a housewife takes the role of author, one of her diary and the other of letters to her husband. Both of these cases should be examples of natural thoughts, uncensored, particularly a diary. However, both stories have censors, within and without the story. The presence of the censor changes how the story is told, and even the diegetic relationships within the story. The necessity of being over patriotic to appease censors causes a lack of connection between the husband and wife of “December 8th,” in how they express their emotions. And in “A Wife’s Letters,” the war and censorship cause physical and emotional separation between husband and wife. In conclusion, these authors appease censors with nationalist prose, yet subvert censorship through author characters, thus revealing not only their true feelings about the war, but also on the effects of censorship on relationships and writing.Ope

Teacher Educators under Surveillance at a Religious University

The purpose of this paper is to examine how institutional norms are enforced through surveillance and self-discipline among teacher educators at a religious university. The study builds on prior research regarding university norms and surveillance, as well as religious orientation and prejudice. Eight teacher educators met as part of a larger study on white racial identity and praxis. Focus groups and personal interviews were transcribed and analyzed using situational mapping, a postmodern form of grounded theory. Participants discussed four themes that illustrate surveillance and self-discipline: the university, academic culture, religion and whiteness, and sexism. The data reveal participant responses as highly structured by university norms about what one can and cannot say about particular topics. The results confirm the function of surveillance and norms in a university setting and illuminate the process in a religious context. Data reveal how fear played a part of the process, as participants disciplined themselves to fit university norms and censored themselves when they began to exercise agency

Broken Borders, Broken Laws: Aligning Crime and Punishment Under Section 2L1.1(b)(7) of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines

Despite the intensifying militarization of the United States’ borders, roughly 4,000 undocumented immigrants attempt to cross into the U.S. each day. Increased border security has not stopped the flow; rather, it has diverted migrants’ journeys into the most perilous stretches of borderlands and coastlines. In response, migrants increasingly rely on human smugglers to guide them across the border, even in the face of the well-known risks of injury and death. Under section 2L1.1(b)(7) of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, defendants convicted of smuggling illegal immigrants are subject to a sentence enhancement for any bodily injury or death that occurs. The Guidelines are silent as to the issue of causation, however. As a result, circuits are split over what causal connection section 2L1.1(b)(7) requires between the defendant’s conduct and the resulting harm. This Note discusses the continuing importance of the Guidelines in the post-Booker era, and examines the circuits’ differing interpretations of section 2L1.1(b)(7). This Note concludes that a section 2L1.1(b)(7) enhancement is predicated on only a loose causal connection to the defendant’s overall criminal conduct. It advocates for an amendment to the Guidelines that would require a section 2L1.1(b)(7) enhancement to be contingent on a finding that the defendant recklessly or intentionally created a serious risk of bodily harm. Further, this Note proposes that, even before the Sentencing Commission enacts a formal amendment, judges should exercise their post-Booker sentencing discretion to require a causal connection that will best achieve the goals of retribution and deterrence

The Audience of Siblings

Literature has the unique ability to create an environment where one can address specific issues and hard questions in a comfortable way and at a relevant level. Children’s literature specifically plays a valuable role at a crucial time in the development of children and through this is privy to being used to explore the issues that most children deal with. In reference to the importance of children’s literature acting as a mirror for children, Sims Bishop stated that “literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection, we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience” (Bishop qt. Kiefer, 2014, p.16). For many children though, there is a significant deficit in the number and quality of books that they can see themselves and their situation in. This is especially true about the siblings of children with special needs. In a unique and often complicated situation, the siblings of children with special needs may look to children’s literature and find that most characters do not experience what they do, reinforcing emotions of isolation and hostility. An even greater tragedy though, is the discovery of a book that they may be able to relate to, only to face disappointment by the presentation of children with special needs or their siblings. This literature review will analyze a sampling of fifteen children’s books in order to determine how they approach the audience of siblings of children with special needs, with special emphasis on picture books because of their transcendency and the importance of early emphasis on understanding for the sibling

Inward, Outward, Onward: Autoethnography of a Dissertation in (Qualitative) Transitional Space

This article presents the connection of a personal dissertation process to the wider world of qualitative research. Using the concept of transitional space as a metaphor, the author chronicles her theoretical transition from critical race theory to poststructural theory to emerging questions about material feminism. This transition is mapped to three major qualitative research moments within the field: modernist, crisis of representation, and the future. Autoethnography and found text are used to present the micro and macro telling of the dissertation process. White racial identity development among Christian teacher educators at a religious university was the original dissertation focus. Ethical dilemmas emerged during the data collection process, presenting the researcher with a theoretical crisis that needed to be addressed