Galvanizing Germantown: The Politicization of Louisville\u27s German Community, 1848-1855

This project interprets the Revolutions of 1848 and their ideological legacy through a transnational and transcultural context, highlighting the role of radical forty-eighters who imparted their republican messages to “Little Germanies” within the United States. Karl Heinzen serves as the primary example of the transient group that shared their radical visions with local German communities populated with political and cultural organizations, an active press and a commitment to civic engagement demonstrated through their involvement anti-slavery groups, labor reform, and improved rights for the immigrant population. The thesis traces the politicization of Karl Heinzen in the German Confederation and his involvement in the Revolutions of 1848 in Baden. Through an examination of his publications, it reveals his radical republican political beliefs shaped by the events in 1848. Once in the United States, Heinzen, now an émigré, edited a German press in Louisville, Kentucky, a slave state. In fact, slavery inflamed most revolutionaries, including Heinzen, and galvanized their reform agenda. It was here that he and other fellow radicals composed the Louisville Platform, a document that advocated reform based on a republican world view related to the goals of the 1848 Revolution in contrast to the individualist liberal republicanism evident in the United States. The Platform pointed out the weaknesses and corruption in the American political system and called broadly for expanded and equal human rights to immigrants, women, slaves, and free African Americans. This Platform and Heinzen’s work empowering the German community challenged the popular anti-immigrant Know-Nothing leaders of the city generating growing hostility and accusations of conspiracy and danger to the American Republic through the unreserved cultural and linguistic expression of their flourishing and self-sustaining community. As in Baden in 1848, the politicized German population of Louisville asserted their right to vote on August 6, 1855. Local Know-Nothing gangs retaliated by murdering and assaulting immigrants, as well as burning entire sections of their communities to the ground. The tragic events of this day represent fundamentally different views on the nature of the American Republic, one that highlighted human rights and another that advocated rights solely for the native born. This thesis reveals, in the person of Karl Heinzen, the transmission of a radical republican world view that stemmed from popular opposition to a corrupt and inept monarchy and that made its way to the United States with 1848 émigrés. In the United States, such reform goals become expressed in German communities in their press, organizational life and political agendas to reveal the republican legacy that immigrants brought with them to the United States from the aftermath of the uprisings in German Central Europe. Heinzen, who sought progressive reforms and republican ideals in another country, agitated a new nativist enemy that viewed German republicanism as fundamental threat to the American way of life

Student Persistence in Associate Degree Nursing Programs at Mississippi Community Colleges

The purpose of this study was to examine factors of student persistence and attrition in addition to strategies that may help students persist in associate degree nursing programs at community colleges. Data were collected from nursing students enrolled in first-year associate degree nursing programs at participating Mississippi community colleges and analyzed using multiple regression and repeated measures ANOVAs. Tinto’s Classic Model and Bean & Metzner’s Nontraditional Model of Student Attrition were utilized in this study. This mixed methods convenience sample yielded 564 participants, and the results were as follows: environmental factors and demographic factors of student persistence were found to be significant predictors with gender being significant, and there was a statistically significant difference between academic, social integration, and environmental factors with environmental factors having a greater difference. This should be examined with a degree of caution since the Cronbach alpha of environmental factors was lower than .70. Further research should be conducted at other institutions and care should be taken to not generalize

Effects of management and hydrology on vegetation, winter waterbird use, and water quality on wetlands reserve program lands, Mississippi

No evaluations of plant and wildlife communities in Wetlands Reserve Program wetlands have been conducted in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Therefore, I evaluated active and passive moist-soil management (MTYPE) and early and late draw-down on plant communities, waterbird use, and water quality on 18 WRP lands, Mississippi, 2007-2009. Active-early sites had greater waterfowl Vegetative Forage Quality (VFQI), percentage occurrence of grass, plant diversity, and structural composition than passively managed sites (P \u3c 0.10). I modeled variation in densities of wintering waterbirds; the best model included VFQI*MTYPE and decreased % woody vegetation (wi ≥ 0.79). Additionally, waterbird densities varied positively with active-late management (R2 ≤ 0.27), as did duck species richness with flooded area (R2 = 0.66). I compared water quality parameters among managed wetlands and drainage ditches but did not detect differences due to variability. Therefore, wetland restoration on WRP lands should focus on active management and maximizing wetland area

Diverse Education for Diverse Economies: The relevance of Rural Training Centres in the Solomon Islands

Education is considered the cornerstone of development, essential to achieving economic and social goals. Under the powerful global education agenda, the western model of formal education has been implemented hegemonically in developing countries. This model largely prepares young people for a role in the formal economy in an urban environment, overlooking fundamental questions of purpose and relevance for local context. In the Solomon Islands, where 85% of the population reside rurally, such opportunities often do not exist or reflect local livelihoods. Rural Training Centres (RTCs) are informal vocational institutions that sit outside of the dominant education paradigm by aiming to prepare young people for local livelihoods. Through informal and vocational learning, they offer an alternative to urbanisation, supporting self derived and locally based livelihoods. Paradoxically, for this very reasons they are often disregarded at the government and donor level. From a postdevelopment perspective, this thesis considers the roles and relevance of RTCs under a wider conceptualisation of economy and knowledge than is applied in mainstream development practice. Using qualitative and ethnographical methodologies, this research investigates local understandings of RTCs as an education alternative through the voices of young people, women and the wider community. The inter-related aspects: economy, education, and development, are considered in two case study communities, Gizo and Vatu, providing a semi-urban/rural comparison. Using a Diverse Economies Framework (Gibson-Graham, 2005), this thesis reveals a more realistic picture of the myriad of activities that support local livelihoods exists. The formal economy is found to play a secondary role to informal and direct economic practices. Similarly, under a pluralistic view of education that accepts the legitimacy of traditional, cultural and indigenous knowledge, the aspirations of young people are found to be deeply rooted ‘at home’. Yet, this research argues that they do not conform to a simplistic modern-traditional dichotomy. Rather they reflect cultural hybridity, a third space ‘in between’ where different knowledges are transformed and negotiated. Despite criticisms, RTCs were positively viewed at a community level. They were considered to fill a vital gap left by the formal education system, support local livelihoods and help stem the flow of urban migration. They also offer an opportunity to support women in existing gender roles, as well as expand existing cultural educational boundaries. However, RTCs are facing pressure to standardise and formalise in order to attract greater government and donor funding. This reflects wider tensions in development policy and practice that favour the universal and the global over the local, and brings to light the inherent power disparity in the aid relationship

Influence of Avian Malaria Infections on Morphological Characteristics in Migratory Songbird, the Mountain White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha)

Bird plumage is thought to serve many functions beyond warmth and protection. Ornithologists have proposed that feather color and quality facilitate communication among different members of a species by advertising an individual’s condition and health. Understanding how a bird’s plumage reflects its underlying health status can not only help us evaluate how avian communication functions, but can also open the door to assessing in a non-intrusive way the condition of a bird population. To test the relationship between health, nutrition and plumage, I investigated a population of White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. These birds live in a cold, food-limited environment and are infected by multiple species of vector-transmitted avian malaria. I used a combination of long-term observational data and short-term experimental field manipulations (food supplementation and antimalarial drug administration) to test if plumage traits would be reduced as a result of avian malaria infection, and if the benefits of food supplementation and antimalarial drugs would be reflected in increased plumage traits. I found that bird plumage traits (head crown whiteness, tail and wing length) reflect the status of a bird in several unexpected ways. The relationship between malaria infection and plumage characteristics varied based on a bird’s sex, the parasite species it was infected with, and the size of the parasite population in the blood. Whereas the most virulent pathogens do indeed diminish a bird’s plumage quality, other less pathogenic species appear to have the opposite effect -- in this case, plumage quality actually advertises a bird’s ability to survive with infection. I also found that food supplementation that consists mostly of enhancing caloric intake rather than nutrients does not appear to affect plumage traits.Master of ScienceSchool for Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of Michiganhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148651/1/Fleming_Kathryn_Thesis.pd

Lessons Learned from Incorporating Climate Considerations in the Three Rivers Watershed-Based Plan

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has recently incentivized planners to incorporate climate change projections into watershed-based plans. Methods for doing so vary by geography, specific basin-level conditions, and available resources. This short communication documents an early example developed by a collaborative team including a council of governments, private contractor, and university researchers. We outline steps taken to construct climate change scenarios, incorporate them into a basin-level model, and develop a holistic approach to climate adaptation and resilience for the Three Rivers Watershed-Based Plan in the Columbia, South Carolina, metropolitan area. We present lessons learned about integrating appropriate climate change scenarios with hydrological tools and incorporating a community development strategy that addresses freshwater pollution and integrates cobenefits and equitable adaptation frameworks into the watershed-based planning process

The science of sports surface interactions for synthetic turf surfaces

The introduction and acceptance of new (3rd) generation long pile filled synthetic turf surfaces in sports such and football and rugby has led to these surfaces becoming widely used at all levels of the game. The interaction of a sports person and/or ball with these surfaces is of great importance in terms of player safety, comfort and playing performance. The specification for these surfaces, and the constituent materials used, are known to vary within the industry. Recent field measurements of unfilled ‘water based’ pitches highlighted significant spatial and temporal changes in the playing characteristics both over the surface of a single pitch and between (similar) pitches, including the test results for traction. It has been suggested that synthetic turf surfaces increase the traction produced at the shoe-surface interface causing a greater number of sports specific injuries. However, as part of a PhD research programme at Loughborough University, a comprehensive review of published literature was performed which highlighted a significant lack of quantified research and data regarding the surface properties influencing the traction developed at the shoe-surface interface. There has been no attempt to date to measure and quantify the role of the individual components of a surface on the traction that can be achieved. If the underlying material science of the surface components were better understood, decisions and judgements based on the desired characteristics required for surfaces could be optimised. This paper reviews the available information regarding 3rd generation synthetic turf surfaces and establishes the primary parameters influencing traction during the interaction between a player and the surface, with a focus on the mechanics of the surface components and their interaction, and the influence of potential changes during the pitch lifetime, such as degradation. The proposed research and methods required to address these knowledge gaps is presented

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV among nursing students in Zambia

Access to voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) services has become an important tool in the treatment and prevention of HIV infection. A cross-sectional knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) study was conducted with 50 nursing students in Zambia. All students were aware of where to go for VCT, and 80% had reported using VCT services. However, the participants expressed concerns about privacy and confidentiality related to testing, with most students preferring to seek future VCT at a facility far from their workplace. This ongoing fear of stigma associated with HIV testing was similar to the findings of a recent KAP study conducted among young adults in Bo, Sierra Leone

Novel field equipment for assessing the stability of natural and hybrid turfs

Natural turf pitches are used for many outdoor sports. Turf is a complex network of interacting organic material, soil textures and water content. Turf is susceptible to damage under large surface forces, caused by intensive player movements in rugby union and football. To assess and monitor surface stability, there needs to be a reliable test method for ground staff and other stakeholders. At present, no turf stability mechanical test method exists that represents player–surface interaction, especially to represent a linear movement across the surface such as in a rugby scrummage. This paper describes the development of a novel device for assessing turf stability. Verification was undertaken in the laboratory on a variety of controlled soil samples, and during a field study. The device measurements were shown to be sensitive to the shear strength of a high clay content soil at varying water content and to the density and type of sandy soils. A programme of field data on high quality pitches suggested a large effect of the turf root reinforcement. A conceptual model of soil failure induced by the device was developed to identify the key soil variables and support experimental data interpretation