Community Needs Assessment – Kinkel Center

As the national population of students in need of academic accommodations continues to rise, the Kinkel Center at Fontbonne University will need to work to support and meet the different needs of many students. We conducted a Community Needs Assessment to better understand what academic support the Fontbonne community needs and to learn more about the resources that are currently in place to meet these needs. The questions asked by the community assessment: 1. What are the academic needs of the Fontbonne Community? 2. How is the Kinkel Center meeting the needs of the Fontbonne Community? 3. Does the Kinkel Center have the resources to meet the needs of the Fontbonne Communit

Factors Leading to Foster Youth Obtaining Higher Education

Former foster youth face many challenges in obtaining higher education. This research project gathered data through face to face, qualitative interviews with seven former foster youth and two former child welfare workers. The purpose of this study was to identify various contributing factors that the participants identified as positive or negative reasons for obtaining higher education. This study utilized an interview questionnaire, using open ended questions to gather personal insight and develop a better understanding from the perspectives of the nine participants. Each former foster youth shared their own personal experiences of being in the foster care system. Both former child welfare workers provided personal data, expressing some of the contributing factors leading to former foster youth success in obtaining higher education. For this study, the researchers utilized 3rd party transcription services to transcribe each individual interview. The researchers coded the data independently and compiled the results of the interviews to identify the various themes that emerged in each interview. The themes that emerged in our data representing positive factors for obtaining higher education consisted of having a mentor or good support network, self-determination, funding, and being informed about the various steps that go into applying, getting into, and succeeding in college. The negative themes that were identified as a contributing factor for not obtaining higher education consisted of multiple placement changes, financial struggles, lack of support, lack of knowledge about college, and lack of confidence in future success. This study found that former foster youth experienced challenges and difficulties in obtaining higher education. The former child welfare social workers identified strategies in obtaining higher education such as stable schools, a strong support network, positive mentorship, recruitment, and self-determination. Through understanding the factors that play a role in helping or hindering former foster youth in obtaining higher education, we can help contribute to bringing awareness to the issue of better serving foster youth

Analyzing the impact of regular participation from at-risk students enrolled in a 21st century community learning center after-school tutoring program /

The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the impact of regular participation from atrisk students enrolled in a 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) after-school tutoring program based on attendance and achievement. The program evaluation specifically identified at-risk students as regular program attendees or non-regular program attendees. Participant data for each of the five-years was collected on regular school day attendance and core course GPA. Study results found a statistically significant relationship between regular attendance of a 21st CCLC program and regular school day attendance for three of the five years. Study results found a statistically significant relationship between regular attendance of a 21st CCLC program and core course GPA for each of the five years. Implications for this research include the continuation of operating the 21st CCLC program and continuing to seek out at-risk students and encourage them to participate in the program.Dr. David Stader, Dissertation Supervisor.Includes bibliographical references

Effects of sex, sexual orientation, infidelity expectations, and love on distress related to emotional and sexual infidelity

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of participant sex, sexual orientation, infidelity expectations, and love (intimacy, passion, commitment) on emotional responses (distress, anger, anxiety, jealousy, humiliation) to emotional and sexual infidelity. A mixed sample of undergraduate students and community members currently involved in committed romantic relationships completed a demographic form, continuous emotion ratings in response to hypothetical infidelity scenarios, the Infidelity Expectations Questionnaire (IEQ), and the Triangular Love Scale. Data were analyzed using multiple regression and mixed ANOVA statistical techniques.Findings and Conclusions: Sex, sexual orientation, commitment, and intimacy among partners were significant predictors of some, if not all, emotional responses to sexual and emotional infidelity. On the other hand, passion and expectations about a partner's likelihood of committing infidelity were not significant predictors of emotional reactions to infidelity. Overall, sexual infidelity elicited more negative feelings than emotional infidelity. Women's and heterosexuals' emotion ratings in response to emotional and sexual infidelity were significantly higher than men's and lesbian and gay individuals' emotion ratings, respectively. These sex differences lend only marginal support to the evolutionary hypothesis and may have diminished due to the inclusion of lesbian and gay individuals and/or the use of continuous instead of forced-choice questions. Sex and sexual orientation differences were also found regarding the degree to which specific emotions were reported in response to sexual and emotional infidelity. For example, females were much more humiliated than men in response to sexual infidelity, and heterosexuals reported significantly more humiliation than lesbian and gay individuals in response to both types of infidelity. Overall, the sex and sexual orientation differences that were found may reflect Westernized views of infidelity along with societal norms that vary based on gender and sexual orientation. Mental health professionals can use these findings to help clients' cope with the negative effects of infidelity on romantic relationships

Be Part, Play the Game! Proposal for a Model on Education in Digital Cultures

Im Text wird der Zustand von Bildung in digitalen Kulturen aus der Konstitution von Kritik in diesen hergeleitet. Auffällig wird dabei eine ‹posthumane› Wende, denn eine automatische ‹Daten-Kritik› unterläuft die Vorstellung, dass Kritikfähigkeit allein Menschen vorbehalten sei. Zudem drängt Kritik – statt Distanznahme und Reflexion zu gewährleisten – als Exzess zur Immersion in technologische Umwelten. Diese Funktionen werden als Verweis auf eine paradoxale Aufgabe von Kritik in digitalen Kulturen gelesen: die Erzeugung von Unmittelbarkeit in ungleichen techno-humanen ‹Ko-Operationen›. Dieser Umstand wird zum Anlass genommen, die Untersuchung aktueller sowie historischer Ausprägungen von Kritik medienwissenschaftlich tieferzulegen. Sie erscheinen nun als Kulturtechnik zur operativen Vermittlung von Differenzen und Lücken, die ob der unterschiedlichen Konstitution von menschlicher und technischer Welterfassung und -verarbeitung in medientechnologischen Verhältnissen immer vorhanden sind. ‹Digitale Kritik› überwindet die Differenzen, indem diese schlicht zum Zweck optimaler Konnektivierung an technische Umwelten ausgeblendet werden. In diesem Kontext wird auch Bildung als Anpassung an Medienkulturen lesbar. Anstelle von Kritik und vermeintlich emanzipatorischen humanistischen Bildungszielen werden deshalb medienwissenschaftlich informierte ‹Kulturen der operativen Vermittlung› als ‹posthumane Bildung› in digitalen Kulturen vorgeschlagen, bestehend aus: (1) einem diskursanalytischen Zugang zu Bildung, (2) ‹Daten-Bildung›, (3) einem Training für ein engagiert-zauderndes Mitspielen in techno-humanen Performances.In this text, the state of education in digital cultures is deduced from the constitution of critique within them. A ‹posthuman› turn becomes obvious, because an automatic ‹data-critique› undermines the idea that the ability to critique is reserved exclusively for humans. Moreover, instead of ensuring detachment and reflection, excessively practiced critique pushes for immersion in technological environments. These functions are read as the paradoxical task of critique in digital cultures: the generation of immediacy in unequal techno-human ‹co-operation›. This constitution is taken as a hint to delve deeper into the tasks of current as well as historical forms of critique from the viewpoint of media studies. They now appear as a cultural technique for an operative mediation of differences and gaps, which are always present in media-technological relations due to the different constitution of human and technical understanding and processing of the world. ‹Digital critique› overcomes these by simply fading them out for the purpose of optimal connectivity to technological environments. In this context, education can also be read as an adaptation to media cultures. Instead of critique and supposedly emancipatory, humanistic educational goals, ‹cultures of operative mediation› are proposed as ‹posthuman education› in digital cultures, consisting of: (1) a discourse-analytical approach to education, (2) ‹data-education›, (3) training for an engaged-hesitating playing along in techno-human performances

Astroculture – Figurations of Cosmology in Media and Arts

Astroculture is a testament to the literary imagination and theoretical innovation of the late Sonja A.J. Neef, who devised the term as an expanding horizon of collaborative research – into the powerful gravitational force exerted on culture by astronomical phenomena and imagery. It is also the name of a conference on the topic inspired by Neef and held at the Center for Advanced Studies Morphomata at the University of Cologne in November, 2011. Indeed, Astroculture is a perfect instance of a morphome, the overall target of the Cologne College’s ongoing symposia: a persistent trope or topos of cultural fascination and transcription appearing across a gamut of civilizations and historical periods. Commentary in this volume ranges from Claudius Ptolemy’s mapping of the universe and the emergence of a pluralistic cosmology in seventeenth-century Europe to the spread of planetariums, the Whole Earth Catalog, and the contemporary artwork of Ingo Günter. With interventions by David Aubin, Lucía Ayala, Monika Bernold, Dietrich Boschung, Bruce Clarke, Gerd Graßhoff, Hans-Christian von Hermann, Martina Leeker, Patricia Pisters, and Henry Sussman

Superresolution imaging of human cytomegalovirus vMIA localization in sub-mitochondrial compartments

The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) viral mitochondria-localized inhibitor of apoptosis (vMIA) protein, traffics to mitochondria-associated membranes (MAM), where the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) contacts the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM). vMIA association with the MAM has not been visualized by imaging. Here, we have visualized this by using a combination of confocal and superresolution imaging. Deconvolution of confocal microscopy images shows vMIA localizes away from mitochondrial matrix at the Mitochondria-ER interface. By gated stimulated emission depletion (GSTED) imaging, we show that along this interface vMIA is distributed in clusters. Through multicolor, multifocal structured illumination microscopy (MSIM), we find vMIA clusters localize away from MitoTracker Red, indicating its OMM localization. GSTED and MSIM imaging show vMIA exists in clusters of ~100–150 nm, which is consistent with the cluster size determined by Photoactivated Localization Microscopy (PALM). With these diverse superresolution approaches, we have imaged the clustered distribution of vMIA at the OMM adjacent to the ER. Our findings directly compare the relative advantages of each of these superresolution imaging modalities for imaging components of the MAM and sub-mitochondrial compartments. These studies establish the ability of superresolution imaging to provide valuable insight into viral protein location, particularly in the sub-mitochondrial compartments, and into their clustered organization