On Learning and Unlearning

I remember passing our lunch lady–the nice one with a big bleach-blond afro. She was perched on an elementary-school-sized desk, eyes fixated to the television. I glanced at the screen on the way into my classroom while my teacher hesitated in the hallway, whispering to the other adults. She reentered the room a few minutes later to explain. In the following months, my television provided me with one of the most formative, practical and comprehensive educational experiences of my life. First it was vocabulary building, with the words like “hi-jacker,” and “terrorist.” Then it was physics, learning that inertia is the reason for absolute devastation when your plane crashes into a building. Soon, “Al-Qaeda,” “the Taliban,” and “Osama bin Laden” became part of my reality, as I watched a broadcast of young men in the “Middle East” (I was learning geography too!) burning American flags. [excerpt

An Equal Opportunity Rejection

Let’s talk about applications. We’ve all been there. You write your application, work on draft after draft and then you send it all off to the college or job of your dreams. And you wait…and wait…and wait. You wait for some sort of letter or phone call that says something along the lines of, “We love you! You’re awesome, and smart and special, and we think you’d be a great asset!” And maybe you’re lucky and you do get that letter, but let’s be real - that doesn’t always happen. It can be frustrating to receive a rejection letter (or nothing at all), because in all honesty, who wants to be told that they’re “not good enough”? Not me. [excerpt

I Don\u27t Want to Save Your Children

A few weeks ago, the moment that I’ve been dreaming of for almost half of a year finally arrived. I started the Heston Summer Experience as an intern in Gettysburg. An embarrassing amount of my winter break was devoted to writing and rewriting my applications. After receiving an invitation for an interview, I convened my roommates to help me choose an outfit and ask me practice questions, which is not something I do…ever. Getting my acceptance letter in the mail was the ultimate highlight of a long and difficult year. When I was home for the first few weeks of summer and people were asking me about my plans, I was initially really excited to share. (Who wouldn’t be?) The more time I spent explaining the internship to my friends and family though, the more embarrassed I became. [excerpt

Sexism - LMFAO

So I have a confession to make, one that I’m really not proud of, but part of being a mature person is acknowledging, accepting, and learning from your past mistakes. Here it is: I told a sexist joke. [excerpt

Patterns of local mobility in an Iban community of West Kalimantan, Indonesia

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on October 2, 2009).Thesis advisor: Dr. Reed Wadley.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2008.This study examines the concept of mobility in relation to small-scale, subsistence-oriented societies, in which groups and individuals create complex resource networks in order to satisfy physical and social needs. Mobility is multi-dimensional and is defined as the capacity or ability to move over a landscape. The purpose of this study was to examine the mobility patterns of the West Kalimantan Iban community of Sungai Sedik, answering the following questions: (1) Where and how often did people travel? (2) At what time during the observed year did people travel? (3) Are there differences in travel patterns, dependent upon gender and age? (4) What are the relationships between the visited and the visitor, and how do the relationships affect the frequency and purpose of travel episodes? (5) How do social relationships affect travel for exchange? Dr. Reed Wadley of the University of Missouri-Columbia, detailed the movement of one Iban longhouse community by conducting a local mobility study among the thirteen households between April/May of 1993 and February/March of 1994. The observations in this study answer these questions and illustrate the importance of the interrelationship between the multi-dimensional mobility patterns of the Sungai Sedik community and their network of natural, economic, and social resources.Includes bibliographical references

Supramolecular Hydrogels for Drug Delivery Applications

Low molecular weight gelators (LMWGs) form gels through a series of non-covalent interactions, creating a network that traps solvent, preventing flow. Due to the reversible nature of the interactions, these materials are typically highly responsive to external stimuli, making them attractive for high-tech applications, particularly in the biomedical field. Despite significant progress in this area, it is still challenging to design a gelator with the required properties for an application from scratch. This research therefore aims to develop novel materials, focussing on drug delivery applications, exploiting multiple strategies to achieve this. We initially focussed on the dibenzylidene sorbitol derivative DBS-CONHNH2, a hydrogelator capable of interaction with additives – but mechanically weak. This was therefore combined with a novel hydrogelator MBS-CO2Me – which increased the robustness of the material. Both the mechanical and thermal properties could be tuned by varying the proportions of the two gelators. Additionally, the gel was capable of pH responsive release of naproxen, as well as encapsulation and release of atorvastatin. The impact of sugar chirality on the behaviour of the gelators was then investigated, with DBS-CONHNH2 synthesised using the ʟ-sorbitol in place of the natural ᴅ sugar. This was shown to have the same properties as the ᴅ-DBS-CONHNH2, as would be expected, with the exception of response to polarised light. The effect of encapsulating chiral additives within each enantiomer was then investigated, with small effects on the properties of the materials observed. Finally, further characterisation of a previously reported gelator, based on glutamine amide, was carried out – with particular attention paid to the self-healing rheological properties of the gel. This investigation was carried out both for the gel alone, and for the gel with L-DOPA incorporated. As part of a collaboration, these gels were tested in early stage in vivo, for nasal delivery of L-DOPA to the brain, as a treatment for Parkinson’s Disease. These early-stage tests indicated promise of these hydrogels as delivery vehicles for delivery of active agents to the brain

Establishing a Research Framework to Assess Permeable Pavement Sites at Ohio State

ENR 2367Ohio State has several permeable pavement sites, but university officials are not convinced that permeable pavement is right for campus. This project is a framework for student-led research that will assess permeable pavement's durability and impact on soil quality at Ohio State.Academic Major: Environment, Economy, Development, and SustainabilityAcademic Major: Environmental Scienc

A rapid appraisal case study of South Australia's Social Inclusion Initiative

This Rapid Appraisal Case Study of South Australia’s Social Inclusion Initiative was undertaken to contribute to the work of the Social Exclusion Knowledge Network (SEKN) of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH). The CSDH was established in 2005 by the World Health Organisation to investigate ways in which international, national, regional and local bodies could take action on the social determinants of health. The knowledge networks are one of the main mechanisms by which the CSDH is gathering evidence. This report provides a rapid assessment of the ways in which South Australia’s Social Inclusion Initiative has originated and operated. The report’s layout follows guidelines developed by the SEKN and draws on documentary and interview evidence. The project was conducted between March and June 2007 by researchers at Flinders University of South Australia, in conjunction with senior staff at South Australia’s Social Inclusion Unit, Department of the Premier and Cabinet. South Australia is a State within a federal system of government and has a population of 1.6 million. The population’s average health and well-being are high by world standards but the State continues to record significant levels of inequality for certain groups and areas, and particularly for its Aboriginal population

Partnership in knowledge creation: lessons learned from a researcher–policy actor partnership to co-produce a rapid appraisal case study of south australia’s social Inclusion Initiative

This paper describes a partnership between researchers and policy actors which was developed within a short time-frame to produce a rapid appraisal case study of a government policy initiative - South Australia’s Social Inclusion Initiative - for the Social Exclusion Knowledge Network of the international Commission on Social Determinants of Health. The paper does not focus on the case study findings or content, but rather on the researcher-policy actor partnership which developed in the process of producing the case study and its report. The paper is set against the broader literature on researcher-policy collaboration and is written to share lessons that may help others quickly establish or improve researcher-policy partnerships. It sets out six key elements for success in a framework for partnership which can meet policy rather than academic time frames and which can effectively co-produce knowledge that meets both research and policy objectives

Testing the Limits of Temporal Stability: Willingness to Pay Values among Grand Canyon Whitewater Boaters Across Decades

We directly compare trip willingness to pay (WTP) values between 1985 and 2015 stated preference surveys of private party Grand Canyon boaters using identically designed valuation methods. The temporal gap of 30 years between these two studies is well beyond that of any tests of WTP temporal stability in the literature. Comparisons were made of mean WTP estimates for four hypothetical Colorado River flow level scenarios. WTP values from the 1985 survey were adjusted to 2015 levels using the consumer price index. Mean WTP precision was estimated through simulation. No statistically significant differences were detected between the adjusted Bishop et al. (1987) and the current study mean WTP estimates. Examination of pooled models of the data from the studies suggest that while the estimated WTP values are stable over time, the underlying valuation functions may not be, particularly when the data and models are corrected to account for differing bid structures and possible panel effects