Eirene Mort: Artist, Artisan and New Woman

Eirene Mort: Artist, Artisan and New Woman Eirene Mort (1879 – 1977) was an Arts and Crafts practitioner and teacher whose work reflected transitions in twentieth century Australian art and culture, and in the opportunities available to women artists in changing patterns of taste, art markets and education. This thesis examines the factors that shaped Mort’s career and contribution as a – for a time – prominent artist and artisan who was emblematic of independent womanhood. I assess the ways in which her struggles and achievements extend our understanding of the significance of gender in the art world of twentieth century Australia. Analysing Mort’s wide-ranging body of art, together with her memoirs, family histories, financial documents, teaching records, social networks and contemporary reports of her life and work, I draw out the patterns that emerged in her life and work. Mort’s significance as an historical figure is twofold. Firstly, the course of her long career illustrates the interdependency of art with a range of social and political influences, including gendered identities, patronage, education, class-based networks and aesthetic movements. Secondly, the relative neglect of Mort’s work highlights the importance of restoring these dimensions to studies of artists in their context, and of dissolving an often-artificial distinction between ‘art’ and a range of craft- based practices in their social contexts. My biographical approach is informed by methodologies using qualitative and quantitative data – often fragmentary, but revealing even in that state – to reconstruct the social and personal contexts of her art practice, and to relate her work to changes in taste, patronage and education, and placing Mort in the wider cultural social, and economic patterns of her times

Characteristics of collaborative community college/economic development organization partnerships: A multiple case study

Doctor of EducationDepartment of Educational LeadershipMajor Professor Not ListedInconsistent prosperity across the country and a dearth of skilled workers for new middle-skills jobs have led to a rise in the importance of local workforce development and a consistent talent pipeline for employers. Over the past few years, the availability of a skilled local workforce has become the top concern of business executives and relocation consultants when evaluating locations for company expansion and economic growth. With over half of all jobs in the U.S. middle-skills jobs, and community colleges the primary educators and trainers of middle-skills workers, the need to marry economic development activity and community colleges is becoming clear. Some areas recognized this need and have taken steps to bring these two important community development endeavors together. Certain forward-looking states have been successful at developing employer-specific training programs and have successfully merged them into their state economic development programs. In these programs, community colleges act as the delivery platforms across the state for these employer training programs. On the local level, some economic development organizations (EDOs) and their local community colleges understand this need to deliver a consistent skilled workforce to business to build economic prosperity. These community colleges and EDOs work together to help local businesses grow and attract new business to expand or diversify the local economy. A number of researchers have examined the work between community colleges, EDOs, and local businesses to improve the local economy. Little has been done to understand what it takes for community colleges and EDOs to attract new businesses to an area. The purpose of this study is to understand the characteristics of the partnership between community colleges and EDOs that have a proven track-record in attracting new businesses to their area. Understanding the elements of successful partnerships may help communities wishing to expand their employer base and diversify their economy. This multiple case study examined community college/EDO partnerships using the lens of Kanter’s (1994) critical success factors for collaborative partnerships to determined commonalities across the partnerships and elements of the community colleges that may have contributed to their success. Participants in this study had a very consistent message on critical success factors for their productive, ongoing relationship: Work together across all critical areas of community development for the good of the community; communicate, collaborate, and trust the partner organization; build respect for and from your partner by delivering on promises, understanding your partner’s struggles, and working in innovative ways that help the partnership deliver on its goals. The commonalities across the partnership in regards to these critical success factors suggest their importance in local business attraction efforts, but it also indicates these critical success factors stretch across all community college/EDO partners employing a variety of economic and community growth tactics, as the participants integrated business attraction efforts with other community development activities. Expanding this research to a broader group of partners across the United States in a quantitative study may help further distinguish the critical success factors in community college/EDO partnerships

Quantitative laboratory measurements of biogeochemical processes controlling biogenic calcite carbon sequestration.

The purpose of this LDRD was to generate data that could be used to populate and thereby reduce the uncertainty in global carbon cycle models. These efforts were focused on developing a system for determining the dissolution rate of biogenic calcite under oceanic pressure and temperature conditions and on carrying out a digital transcriptomic analysis of gene expression in response to changes in pCO2, and the consequent acidification of the growth medium

Bakteri Tanah Sampah Pendegradasi Plastik dalam Kolom Winogradsky

Penggunaan plastik berupa kantong kresek hasil daur ulang dengan berbagai warna sangat diminati oleh masyarakat. Sifat plastik yang tidak mudah terdegradasi di alam mengakibatkan masalah lingkungan. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengisolasi dan mengkarakterisasi bakteri tanah sampah yang mampu mendegradasi plastik secara biokimia. Parameter biodegradasi plastik yang diukur adalah prosentase kehilangan berat kering, pengukuran densitas sel biofilm, densitas sel kolom air dan pH tiap bulan selama 4 bulan masa inkubasi. Dari penelitian didapatkan persentase kehilangan berat kerig plastk hitam lebih tinggi daripada plastik putih Bening. Hasil yang diperoleh menunjukkan bahwa isolat bakteri tanah sampah pendegradasi plastik yaitu Gram positif basil (PPs 2, PPs 7, PPs 9, dan PPs 11) dan Gram negatif basil (PPs 1, PPs 4, PPs 5, PPs 6, PPs 8, PPs 10, PPs 12 dan PPs 13 )dan hanya PPs 3 termasuk Gram negatif kokus

Witness: The Modern Writer as Witness

Editor\u27s Note [Excerpt] Magic can mean many different things, especially for writers. Magic can be an illusion, a sleight of hand designed to trick onlookers into believing the impossible. Or magic can be a supernatural force in a world of harsh reality, a set of beliefs that sits just outside the realms of organized religion and advanced technology. Wizards and demons, Las Vegas entertainers and houngans --they all practice a kind of sorcery. For poets and prose writers, though, magic affords an opportunity for us to stretch the limitations of the physical world in search of new themes, settings, and characters. Magic is a door we eagerly walk through to reach new lands. We at Witness have thoroughly enjoyed the process of selecting the themed works we have collected here, mainly because the idea of enchantment is inspiring. There is the possibility of positive charms; there is a chance for dark witchery. And sometimes the spell cast by a character is nebulous, difficult to categorize. It’s arguable that we cherish these incantations the most, since they leave us in a state of wonderment bordering on disorientation. Yes, magic can also leave us bewildered and thankful for the bewilderment.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/witness/1001/thumbnail.jp

Analysis of a STEM Education Professional Development Conference for Pre-service Educators

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines are attracting increased attention in education. The iSTEM 2017 conference was a professional development program designed to acquaint pre-service teachers with interdisciplinary, research-based STEM instructional strategies that can transform traditional classroom instruction into dynamic learning environments. The STEM Education Scholars (STEMES) is a Learning Community of Practice, housed in the College of Education, at a midsized mid-western public research university. The program of study focused on designing a professional development program for future Pre-K12 teachers. The iSTEM 2017 conference presented by the STEMES Community of Practice sought to inform pre-service teachers of STEM pedagogy, and focused on innovative classroom resources, hands-on learning and increasing content confidence when incorporating STEM into classroom instruction. iSTEM 2017 was held in February, 2017, and offered twenty refereed presentations and workshop sessions, a keynote address, and a closing session to over 200 pre-service teachers. Conference participants chose sessions, participated in game-like experiences and shared their learning with each other as well as with conference organizers. Results from participant self-reported surveys were analyzed to measure the impact of the conference on improving participants’ confidence in teaching STEM topics, and their attitudes about the instructional methods. These results were added to the conference proceedings, which also contain documentation of each iSTEM 2017 session. Findings suggest that the iSTEM 2017 conference had an overall positive impact on participants’ familiarity with STEM education, their belief in the importance of STEM education, and their confidence to integrate STEM education into future instructional practices

Understanding amine catalyzed silica polymerization : diatoms as bioarchitects.

Current state-of-the-art biomimetic methodologies employed worldwide for the realization of self-assembled nanomaterials are adequate for certain unique applications, but a major breakthrough is needed if these nanomaterials are to obtain their true promise and potential. These routes typically utilize a 'top-down' approach in terms of controlling the nucleation, growth, and deposition of structured nanomaterials. Most of these techniques are inherently limited to primarily 2D and simple 3D structures, and are therefore limited in their ultimate functionality and field of use. Zeolites, one of the best-known and understood synthetic silica structures, typically possess highly ordered silica domains over very small length scales. The development of truly organized and hierarchical zeolites over several length scales remains an intense area of research world wide. Zeolites typically require high-temperature and complex synthesis routes that negatively impact certain economic parameters and, therefore, the ultimate utility of these materials. Nonetheless, zeolite usage is in the tons per year worldwide and is quickly becoming ubiquitous in its applications. In addition to these more mature aspects of current practices in materials science, one of the most promising fields of nanotechnology lies in the advent and control of biologically self-assembled materials, especially those involved with silica and other ceramics such as hydroxyapatite. Nature has derived, through billions of years of evolutionary steps, numerous methods by which fault-tolerant and mechanically robust structures can be created with exquisite control and precision at relatively low temperature ranges and pressures. Diatoms are one of the best known examples that exhibit this degree of structure and control known that is involved with the biomineralization of silica. Diatoms are eukaryotic algae that are ubiquitous in marine and freshwater environments. They are a dominant form of phytoplankton critical to global carbon fixation. The silicified cell wall of the diatom is called the frustule, and the intricate silica structure characteristic of a given species is known as the valve. There are two general classes of diatoms, based on their overall morphologies, the pennate and centric. Diatoms achieve their silicified structures in exact fashion through genetically inspired design rules coupled with precisely directed biochemistry occurring at temperatures ranging from a few degrees Celsius (polar species) to temperatures just over room temperature (tropical species). Different species of diatoms produce markedly different structures. To start with, there are two basic types of frustule macromorphologies: pennate diatoms display bilateral symmetry and centric diatoms show radial symmetry. There are thousands of permutations of these two basic forms and the micromorphology of the valve can be quite complex with all types of pore arrangements and morphologies (Figure 1.1). The detailed morphology of the cell wall of a given diatom species is reproduced with exactness, because the process is genetically encoded. Three types of cell wall proteins have been identified in diatoms; the frustulins, pleuralins, and silaffins. Frustulins are cell wall proteins that form an organic coat to protect the silica structures from dissolution into the aqueous environment. Pleuralins are associated with a specific subcomponent of the frustule during cell division, and play a role in hypotheca-epitheca development. Silaffins from Cylindrotheca fusiformis are short chain-length peptides that play a direct role in the silica polymerization process, and possess unique biochemical post-translation functionalization. Larger proteins with silaffin activity have recently been described in Thalassiosira pseudonana. Frustulins and pleuralins play no role in silica polymerization or structure formation in diatoms, whereas the silaffins are one of the primary polymerization determinants. In addition to the silaffins, a class of long-chain polyamines associated with diatom silica has been identified, and shown to also be involved in the silica polymerization process. The silaffins and polyamines are likely to be the two major determinants of silica polymerization in diatoms. Their involvement in the formation of higher order structure is unclear; there have been suggestions that they self-assemble in various combinations to form the final frustule structure but these are highly speculative as there is no substantial data to support this. It is clear from a long history of electron microscopic observations that a major determinant of silica structure in diatoms is generated by growth and molding of the silica deposition vesicle (SDV), the specialized intracellular compartment were the frustule is made. Diatoms are the focus of research activity on several fronts, including the processes by which their distinct silica frustules are formed