Earth stories: a narrative understanding of farmlife in Pokhara, Nepal

Humans love to tell stories. The purpose of this Creative ISP is to collect stories, of the plants and of the earth, render them through quotations and summary, and then discuss and reflect on how these stories could describe the relationship between people and the land. I hope a narrative understanding of our dependence on agriculture can bridge the gap in modern society that separates us so fundamentally from the earth that we live on

Storytelling & Holistic Mental Health: A Fiction Collection

In this collection, I have used fiction to explore my academic focus on the holistic perception of mental health and healing. In my time at Skidmore College, I have explored all kinds of perspectives– religious/spiritual, psychosocial, medical, anthropological– what I have found is that the only generalizable thing is our need to tell a story about what we’re going through. My collection strives to show the value in the experiences of people with mental illnesses and addictions: how these experiences are often sidelined or seen as inferior/incorrect/out of touch with reality, but how these “alternative” realities can create inspiration, excitement, and enrich the world just as much as the experiences of neurotypical people and non-drug users. These narratives propose many ways to view mental illness and addiction: falling on spectrums between biological/spiritual, physical/mental, trauma-based and genetic. These stories suggest the origin of mental difference isn’t something that can be unanimously explained, and is entirely individual in the way that it is perceived, managed and expressed

Fit for human consumption? A descriptive study of Wambizzi pig abattoir, Kampala, Uganda

German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentDeutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbei

Investigating Consumer Concept in a Niche Retail Market

This paper examines the relationship between self-concept, store image, service quality, loyalty, and share of wallet in a high-end niche retail market. Data was obtained from a high-end outdoor retail store customer email database. Partial Least Squares (PLS), was used to assess the psychometric properties of the measurement model and to test the hypotheses. A significant positive relationship was found between actual self-concept and store image; store image and loyalty; service quality and loyalty; and loyalty and share of wallet. This research suggests service quality perceptions, and particularly store image will enhance loyalty and increase share of wallet. The concurrent examination of the constructs in a niche retail context provides unique insights into the importance of self-concept, store image, and service quality as drivers of loyalty and share of wallet. Store image was the most substantial driver of loyalty behavior, followed by self-concept and service quality perceptions, respectively

Certain Effects of Aesthetic Development upon First-grade Pupils in the Travis School of Mineral Wells, Texas.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether emphasis on aesthetic development appeared to foster educational growth and desirable behavior development to a greater degree than did participation in a traditional-type program

Predator cognition and the evolution of deimatic displays

PhD ThesisDeimatic displays are a unique form of prey defence where prey perform a complex display including any combination of movements, postures and visual, auditory, vibratory and/or olfactory stimuli. There is some evidence supporting the idea that displays deter predators, however, it is unclear why. The evolutionary route via which these complex displays evolve is not well understood. Using a novel experimental paradigm, naïve domestic chicks (Gallus gallus domesticus) were presented with computer-generated moth-like deimatic prey to investigate how deimatic displays may have evolved, factors influencing their success, and when prey should produce them. Prey that flicked their forewings to reveal cryptic hindwings deterred predators (when forewing movement was fast), but predators were deterred even more when the hindwings revealed were conspicuously coloured. These results demonstrate that deimatism could evolve if fast movement evolved first, followed by the evolution of conspicuous colouration. Since deimatic displays are widely considered to startle predators, I tested whether factors known to influence the magnitude of startle responses also influence the efficacy of deimatic displays (specifically, hunger, background noise, and affective state). I did not find any effect of hunger on the responses of predators to deimatic displays. Background noise was found to influence the distance at which predators were positioned during the time interval when they decided to attack prey. Although unaltered by an anxious-like state, predators in a depressive-like state were found to attack deimatic prey much faster than conspecifics in a neutral affective state. Finally, I investigated whether temperature influenced the likelihood that live Peacock butterflies (Aglais io) would perform deimatic displays. They displayed more often and for longer durations at cooler temperatures. Thus, in this thesis I provide the first evidence of a viable evolutionary route to deimatism, and establish the factors likely to influence the efficacy and production of deimatic displays. In doing so, I have increased the understanding of the conditions under which deimatism is likely to evolve

Effect of an infant stimulation program on children

A planned stimulation program for infants with developmental problems utilizing individual program plans has greater beneficial effects than does traditional periodic follow-up care alone

Valuing Adjuncts as Liaisons for University Excellence (VALUE) Program

Adjuncts are increasingly becoming more important in higher education and make up nearly onethird of VCU’s teaching faculty. While VCU has made strides in increasing the number of tenuretrack and term professors, the size and needs of certain departments will always make adjunct instructors necessary. A number of schools on both the Monroe Park and MCV campuses utilize professionals from the Richmond community to enhance experiential learning, thereby making a university investment in adjunct faculty a means by which to elevate VCU’s strategic mission. Adjuncts often provide a community perspective that comes from the professional work they do outside of the university setting and as a whole are reflective of VCU’s diverse student population. As a result, they serve a critical role in student success and diversity initiatives. Keeping adjuncts connected with campus resources and engaged with the larger VCU community is also an important step in making the university more inclusive. This project will study opportunities associated with the orientation and support of adjunct faculty at VCU on both Monroe Park and MCV campuses. This project is research-oriented and will serve as an important foundation for developing and implementing a plan for institutionalized adjunct support. To develop a detailed proposal for implementation, our team consulted with several key stakeholders including: academic leaders who hire and support adjuncts in the current decentralized process students who have taken classes with adjunct instructors adjunct faculty who have recently taught at VCU Through a combination of methods, we aim to determine how adjuncts are utilized across the university, identify resources currently provided, and assess additional resource needs in an effort to inform a new orientation and support program for adjunct faculty at VCU

The making of resource frontier spaces in the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia: A critical analysis of narratives, actors and drivers in the scientific literature

Forest frontiers are rapidly changing to sites of commodity agriculture throughout the tropics, with far-reaching transformations in landscapes and livelihoods. Many of the dynamics that drive frontier commodification are well-rehearsed since colonial times. Policies to deregulate markets, privatize or formalize land tenure and open borders to trade have stimulated resource exploitation. The accompanying territorial interventions such as new enclosures, reconfigured property regimes and claims are purposefully employed to create space and labor, and have radically reconfigured the relationships of millions of people to land and rule. Narratives of what is an opportunity for whom, who should benefit from these spaces, and what is a problem in need of a solution have shaped policies and development choices in frontiers over time. Science plays a critical role, by putting forward particular knowledge and understandings, contributing to problematisations and promoting or legitimating certain solutions. In this paper, we review how science has portrayed forest frontiers in the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. We analyse storylines put forward in the scientific literature and find three dominant narratives that intersect and reinforce each other to legitimate colonial exploitation of forest and land resources, and the enactment of colonial forest and land codes that have laid a deep-seated path in post-colonial policies. The narratives focus on imaginings of frontier regions as spaces that are “idle” or “empty”, and where possibilities for extraction, conservation and development appear unlimited; the problematization of smallholder and shifting cultivation farming as practices in need of change; and the legitimation of capitalist and market-based rationales as solutions. We find these narratives to be largely similar across both the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia and persistent in contemporary policies and global development strategies. This analysis allows for a deeper understanding of how commodification of frontiers came about, and what role science can play for a more just development.Peer reviewe

Cold atmospheric plasma for selectively ablating metastatic breast cancer cells

Traditional breast cancer treatments such as surgery and radiotherapy contain many inherent limitations with regards to incomplete and nonselective tumor ablation. Cold atomospheric plasma (CAP) is an ionized gas where the ion temperature is close to room temperature. It contains electrons, charged particles, radicals, various excited molecules, UV photons and transient electric fields. These various compositional elements have the potential to either enhance and promote cellular activity, or disrupt and destroy them. In particular, based on this unique composition, CAP could offer a minimally-invasive surgical approach allowing for specific cancer cell or tumor tissue removal without influencing healthy cells. Thus, the objective of this research is to investigate a novel CAP-based therapy for selectively bone metastatic breast cancer treatment. For this purpose, human metastatic breast cancer (BrCa) cells and bone marrow derived human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were separately treated with CAP, and behavioral changes were evaluated after 1, 3, and 5 days of culture. With different treatment times, different BrCa and MSC cell responses were observed. Our results showed that BrCa cells were more sensitive to these CAP treatments than MSCs under plasma dose conditions tested. It demonstrated that CAP can selectively ablate metastatic BrCa cells in vitro without damaging healthy MSCs at the metastatic bone site. In addition, our study showed that CAP treatment can significantly inhibit the migration and invasion of BrCa cells. The results suggest the great potential of CAP for breast cancer therapy