Edible Learning: School Food Service Programming and Experiential Education that Promote Sustainable Agriculture and Better Nutritional Health

The typical American diet, which involves the consumption of processed foods high in saturated fats, sodium, and refined sugar, is known to be unhealthy. Millions of students in the U.S. suffer from symptoms of malnutrition, making them susceptible to compromising health conditions such as type 2 diabetes that may persist into adulthood. Well-designed school nutrition programs and action learning that promotes sustainable agriculture have the potential to enhance students’ nutritional well-being as well as their understanding of the ecological systems needed to support good nutrition. This dissertation uses documentary film as an exploratory, qualitative research method to investigate approaches used in school nutrition programs and nutrition-related education that can have a positive impact on students’ lives. The result is a documentary film called Edible Learning: Promoting Better Nutrition in Schools. Several themes emerged from this study suggesting that experiential lessons to educate students about sustainable food systems should permeate throughout a school–in the cafeteria, in garden learning environments, and through school-community partnerships. Supportive, non exploitative partnerships can be leveraged to overcome institutional challenges faced in promoting greater nutritional health. Recommendations are given for optimal practices in school food service programs and curricula, including courses of study such as agroecology, in order to positively impact students’ health and their understanding of the importance of optimal nutrition and the ecology of food systems

An Annotated Bibliography of Dance/Movement Therapy Appraoches to Eating Disorders

This thesis is an annotated bibliography of dance/movement therapy approaches to eating disorders. The leading question of this research was: What information exists on dance/movement therapy approaches to eating disorders? Through data collection of articles, book chapters, online interviews, and the suggestions of therapists in the field, a total of twenty-six sources were annotated in this bibliography. The bibliography is organized by the author’s last name and each citation provides the author’s qualifications, analysis of content, and assessment of strengths and weaknesses. During the research process, the writer discovered that the selection of sources, such as master’s theses, were not accessible. The limitations this lack of access caused in creating a complete bibliography are addressed in the discussion and conclusion chapter

Noble Testimony

This sermon, on Mark 14:3-8, was preached while Grasty was serving as pastor of the Fincastle Presbyterian Church in Botetourt County, Virginia.https://mds.marshall.edu/grasty_johnsharshall/1000/thumbnail.jp

Preliminary Analysis of Towed Camera Video Data from the eastern Gulf of Mexico for Derelict Fishing Gear Distribution and Concentration

Trial analysis for evidence of discarded fishing gear and marine debris was accomplished using datasets previously collected by the C-SCAMP team. The purpose of this trial was to assess the potential for the C-BASS platform to provide useable data on the distribution, concentration and composition of marine debris, in particular DFG, for future research and possible remediation measures. Thirteen transects were chosen based off previous analysis of fish density, year and habitat characterization on the Gulfstream Pipeline, Madison-Swanson MPA, the Elbow, Steamboat Lumps MPA, the Florida Middle Grounds HAPC and the SW Florida Middle Grounds.Funded by Ocean Conservanc

Sin and Its Wages

This sermon was preached while Grasty was serving as pastor of the Fincastle Presbyterian Church in Botetourt County, Virginia.https://mds.marshall.edu/grasty_johnsharshall/1001/thumbnail.jp

Continental shelf seafloor mapping, benthic habitat surveys, and reef fish assessments in the eastern Gulf of Mexico

In April 2010, The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill originated in the deep sea 1,500 m below the ocean surface at the edge of the continental shelf off Louisiana. Surface and sub-surface dispersal of the oil eventually encompassed an area of over 200,000 km2. Impacts of DWH on biota of the Gulf of Mexico were severe, wide-spread, and are ongoing even a decade after the spill. Because of its offshore origin, the spill caused injury to many resources on the continental shelf, including important reef fish species (e.g., snappers and groupers, etc.) and protected species including sea turtles. Habitats which these species occupy were oiled which resulted in the loss of key supporting plant and animal species. Because so little of the offshore habitat of reef fish species and sea turtles was mapped and characterized prior to the spill, restoration efforts aimed at improving degraded habitats and strengthening species populations proved difficult. This project was specifically developed to discover additional, high conservation value, habitats of reef fishes and sea turtles on the continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico off Florida (the West Florida Shelf, WFS). The goal of the project was to map such habitats and quantify the density and biodiversity of species occupying them, and to facilitate additional conservation management decisions to enhance their long-term sustainability. The project resulted in mapping and classifying and characterizing 2,350 km2 of heretofore unmapped habitats, the development of new methods to extrapolate habitat types from a sub-sample from video surveys, and new technologies to automate the counting and identification of fish species and habitat features using artificial intelligence. Project personnel have presented these materials to the competent management authorities responsible for fish and sea turtle management. Here we provide technical detail on the methods, procedures and findings from this project.Funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (2015 - 2020

Usage of statistical modeling of lightning leader advancement process in the last stroke phase for determination of lightning protection system parameters

In the paper, the experimental data on the electrical physical characteristics of long spark gaps and lightning are used to create a lightning leader development model in the last stroke phase. The model is verified by comparison of the calculated probabilities of lightning attachments to air terminals and protected objects with normalized level. In order to determine the influence of ground system resistance on protection ability for lightning air terminals, lightning attachments with different ground system resistances have been modeled. The proposed method has been implemented for the calculation of lightning strokes probability to objects of an extended facility with oil storage tanks