Sacred and Profane: A Not-So-Southern Controversy

This thesis is proposing an alternative way to view the notions of sacred and profane that better facilitates conversation in public discourse. Currently, public conversation tends to not acknowledge that there can be competing notions of what is sacred. Instead, one group’s notion of sacred tends to be privileged, while another’s is vilified and seen as profane. I will analyze media reports covering the Confederate flag debate and the Charleston shooting to expose the tendency within public discourse to acknowledge one notion of sacred at a time. Exposing this tendency will provide me with the framework for discussing a needed shift in our thought process when it comes to the sacred. I argue that we should bring the notion of sacred back into public discourse not as a religious category but as a rhetorical category of analysis. As a rhetorical device, sacred is best understood through Kenneth Burke’s notion of “god-term.” He defines “god-term” as the main motivator for a person’s actions and understandings. Because the sacred is like a “god-term” there can be multiple notions of the sacred at once since each person is not motivated by the same factor. The rhetorical understanding of sacred allows for clearer conversation within public discourse

Increasing Obesity Education in an Underserved Latino Population

Obesity is a rapidly growing health problem in the United States. Certain populations are at high risk for developing obesity including the Latino population and underserved communities. This Quality Improvement project aimed to develop a more patient centered approach for primary care providers use to deliver obesity education to an at-risk Latino population. The project was completed at a clinic in southern Illinois where the majority of the population is underserved and Spanish speaking. Obesity education tools in both Spanish and English were given to the patients in order to decrease the language barrier and improve patient education and understanding about obesity. Nineteen patients were eligible and participated in the quality improvement project based on BMI. Each completed a survey before and after they were provided with the education tools. Results of the project showed that 52.5% of the participants marked the tool as very useful, and 47.4% marked somewhat useful. No participants marked the tool as not useful. All of the participants reported an increase in obesity knowledge

A Crow and a Hanger

A Crow and A Hanger is a body of work that explores and illustrates the nature of life and death through the use of mixed-media drawing and printmaking techniques. My intention for this work, and this thesis paper, is to explain my thought process and how the imagery came to be. For me it is not at all important for every viewer to fully understand each image and the thoughts that went into the body as a whole. I let the images and their titles lead the viewer in a general direction and allow for their personal history and biases to fill in the gaps. That being stated, the work for me is a kind of catharsis and coming of age tale. It is a metaphor for my acceptance and interpretation of our place in the cosmic scene. I sum up my thoughts with the affirmation that: You are potential…you are ephemeral…you are permanent

Nashville-basin tornadoes: using storm types to elucidate the local climatology and forecasting challenges

Early 3 March 2020 was a devastating night for many middle Tennessee residents. A strong EF-3 tornado tore through Nashville at 65 mph, and another EF-4 killed 18 in Baxter and Cookeville alone. Residents of the Southeastern United States are particularly vulnerable to tornadoes. This study aims to better understand local forecasting challenges by looking at the types of storms that produce tornadoes. Storm types, also known as convective modes, divide tornado-producing storms into categories by length, shape, multiplicity, and intensity. Distinguishing storms by these modes allows for a broader understanding of their occurrences and impacts. This study specifically evaluates three forecasting success metrics for the Nashville county warning area from 2012–2018. This includes probability of detection (POD), false alarm ratio (FAR), and average lead time for four convective modes: cell in line, cell in cluster, discrete supercell, and quasi-linear convective system (QLCS). Three models were created to predict warnings, false alarms, and lead time with convective mode, nocturnality, and multiple-tornado days as predictors. The results affirm current literature findings that QLCSs are far more common to the Nashville basin than its surrounding areas, and QLCSs tend to occur at night as outbreaks. For this study period, QLCSs also have the best POD, FAR, and lead time, compared to other convective modes, which creates a unique climatological tornado profile that centers around QLCSs.

Association between positive emotion regulation strategies and the reward positivity

Emotion regulation dysfunction is a core feature of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Recently, research has begun to focus on positive emotion regulation strategies such as dampening and savoring of positive emotion. Dampening has been associated with higher depressive symptoms, higher symptoms of anhedonia, higher negative affect, and lower positive affect, whereas savoring has been associated with well-being and lower depressive symptoms. A separate area of MDD research -- reward processing and its neural correlates -- has yielded a similar pattern of findings. A blunted response to rewards has beenrepeatedly associated with depression in both behavioral and psychophysiological studies. In Event-Related Potential (ERP) studies, this blunted response is captured by the ERP component, Reward Positivity (RewP). The current study aims to examine the psychophysiological underpinnings of depression and its association with dysfunctional reward processing by exploring the RewP's relationship with positive emotion regulation strategies. N=100 participants completed two computerized gambling tasks while ERPs were recorded, as well as a battery of questionnaires assessing a variety of depressive symptoms and emotion regulation strategies. Consistent with previous literature, dampening was associated with higher depressive symptoms, while savoring was associated with lower depressive symptoms. Interestingly, the RewP response was largely unassociated with depressive symptoms and emotion regulation strategies. However, there is some evidence that the RewP is malleable with a simple savoring intervention. Such findings may provide insight into the underpinnings of depression and have implications for clinical prevention and intervention efforts for MDD.Includes bibliographical reference

Sacred and Profane: A Not-So-Southern Controversy

This thesis is proposing an alternative way to view the notions of sacred and profane that better facilitates conversation in public discourse. Currently, public conversation tends to not acknowledge that there can be competing notions of what is sacred. Instead, one group’s notion of sacred tends to be privileged, while another’s is vilified and seen as profane. I will analyze media reports covering the Confederate flag debate and the Charleston shooting to expose the tendency within public discourse to acknowledge one notion of sacred at a time. Exposing this tendency will provide me with the framework for discussing a needed shift in our thought process when it comes to the sacred. I argue that we should bring the notion of sacred back into public discourse not as a religious category but as a rhetorical category of analysis. As a rhetorical device, sacred is best understood through Kenneth Burke’s notion of “god-term.” He defines “god-term” as the main motivator for a person’s actions and understandings. Because the sacred is like a “god-term” there can be multiple notions of the sacred at once since each person is not motivated by the same factor. The rhetorical understanding of sacred allows for clearer conversation within public discourse

Grouping dynamics of lowland woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha poeppigii) in Amazonian Ecuador

Predator avoidance, resource distribution, and reproductive strategies all play a crucial role in shaping the social structure of animal societies. The fission-fusion dynamics of some animal societies – where core social units are able to break apart or coalesce into parties of variable size and composition – can allow individuals to mediate the cost-benefit tradeoffs of varying party size according to particular environmental or social conditions. Here, I couple ecological, behavioral, and spatial data with molecular genetic methods and analytical techniques (Social Network Analysis) to examine spatiotemporal association patterns among woolly monkeys from four social groups at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (TBS) in Amazonian Ecuador. The woolly monkeys in this populations demonstrated relatively high degrees of fission-fusion dynamics, with groups dividing frequently into subgroups and showing temporally variable cohesion among group members. I found no evidence, however, that subgroups consistently and repeatedly comprised the same sets of individuals. Spatial associations and social interactions were not limited to members of a single social group, and tolerant associations between members of some social groups occurred with relatively high frequency. Genetic analyses revealed no difference in the average relatedness of male and female same-sex dyads, although, adult males tended to have more close relatives both within and between social groups than adult females. Regardless of sex, animals were no more likely to associate with genetic relatives than with to non-relatives. This study also corroborated earlier suggestions that woolly monkeys exhibit some degree of bisexual dispersal, with some males leaving their natal group, in contrast to the pattern that characterizes closely related species of primates. Genetic data also suggest that woolly monkeys live in a dispersed network of kin, where both males and females had first order relatives in neighboring groups. Kinship ties among animals in different groups may play a role in facilitating tolerant mixed group associations, which are common in the study population. As observed in other studies, home range overlap between neighboring groups was extensive, with particular pairs of groups showing higher degrees of overlap than others. Finally, woolly monkeys demonstrated strong reproductive seasonality, with births and conceptions confined to a few months out of the year. My finding that seasonal variation in group cohesion and ranging patterns was not related to fruit availability, but did covary with a behavioral index of mating opportunities, suggest that grouping and ranging dynamics in woolly monkeys may not primarily be driven by competition over food, but rather by competition over mates.Anthropolog

Use of Aperio Whole Slide Imaging System to Capture and Utilize Digital Virtual Slides for Pathology Education

poster abstractDigital whole slide imaging is the technique of digitizing an entire microscope slide at the highest resolution to produce a “digital virtual microscope slide” with high image quality. This digital image can be viewed in three to four fields, from low to high power, a feature commonly used by pathologists. This digital virtual slide can be used in conjunction with image processing software (both windows-based and browser-based) to view, manipulate, position, and specify the magnification of the image on a screen as if using a regular microscope to view the original glass slide. As the slide is captured in a virtual format, it is possible to use the image for archiving, copying, transferring over networks, distant consultation, as well as integration for educational use on the web and/or DVD. In this study, we captured all C603 and C604 sophomore pathology teaching slides in the general and systemic pathology course for viewing and learning through the Aperio ImageScope viewer. The resulting digital images possessed greater ease of use, were quicker to scan and allowed easier location of pathologic lesions in the slides. The ImageScope viewer allowed students to quickly zoom in and out of the slides at multiple fields of magnification. Instructors that have switched to the Aperio system from the old Bliss system found the Aperio system allowed the instructor to open up to 8 slides at one time, allowing side by side comparison to be completed on the same screen. The system also allows one to measure the size of the cells and to capture detailed images of tumor cells, inflammatory cells, and/or necrosis (cell death). This system is available for use on desktop, laptop, and most digital devices (such as smart phones or tablets). Compared to the old Bliss system, which is unable to perform these functions

Identifying Agriculturists\u27 Online Communication Tool Training Needs

Online communication tools, specifically social media, have provided new ways for agriculturists to promote and advocate for agriculture. Although agricultural producers find value in using social media to communicate about agriculture, many are not comfortable using these tools. The purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize training needs of agriculturists regarding use of various online communication tools. The USDA’s Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program provided funding to develop workshops that would help agriculturists learn to use online communication tools effectively. Members of seven agricultural organizations in three states were sent a link to an online questionnaire, and 185 completed responses were analyzed for this study. Across all tasks, the highest means for perceived importance dealt with website tasks while Twitter and blogging tasks had the lowest means for perceived importance. Many of the tasks respondents were most competent completing were the beginning steps and they were least competent completing more complex uses of social media. Using the Borich needs assessment model, respondents indicated a greater need for training on topics related to websites, other online communication tasks, and Facebook. These results were used to develop a daylong online communications training workshop in each of the states

Agriculturists Personal and Business Use of Online Communication Tools

New programs and efforts are being promoted to help American farmers and ranchers succeed in their efforts, both in their daily operations and in their attempts to reach consumers. Online communication tools may be one way agriculturists can share their stories and market directly to these audience members, but much is unknown regarding the extent to which these tools are being implemented. The purpose of this study was to determine agriculturists’ current use of online communication tools for both personal and business purposes. The target population for this study was members of organizations that serve young and/or beginning farmers and ranchers in three states. An online survey was administered electronically to members of seven organizations, and 185 completed questionnaires were analyzed. The findings indicated websites and Facebook are the commonly used online communication tools for personal and business use. Many tools are not used at all for either purpose. A significant correlation was found between the use of online communication tools in personal and business settings. Additional research is needed to further explore agriculturalists’ use of these tools for both purposes