Meaningful Urbanism: A human-centered approach to placemaking using form-based zoning codes

The professional perspectives that planners, designers, government officials, real estate developers, and other trained ‘experts’ have on urban space are often very different from the lived experiences of the people who actually live in communities. This results in the need for planning methods that not only accommodate people’s everyday perspectives, but center them in the process of designing the urban landscape. This thesis examines how the creation and conception of place are central to people’s experiences and considers form-based zoning as a potential mechanism for implementing human-centered values in actual built environments. It examines the emergence of zoning as a way of exerting control over space, phenomenological perspectives on urban placemaking, and how the conveyance of meaning in the built environment shapes people’s lives. It finds that form-based coding can facilitate meaningful placemaking in a way that conventional zoning frameworks do not. The coding process and outcomes of two form-based developments in the Austin area, the Mueller neighborhood and the Leander transit-oriented development, are then outlined as examples of implementation.Humanitie

Conodonts, microfacies and palaeoenvironment during the mid-Tournaisian Event - comparison of platform and basin (lower Mississsippian, Germany and Belgium)

The globally traceable mid-Tournaisian Event (lower Carboniferous, Mississippian) was the result of glacio-eustatic sea-level fluctuations and its formation a matter of ongoing discussions. Two opposing sides postulate either a formation during a transgression or during an episode of a waxing ice sheet. Here, an attempt is made to clarify the formation mechanisms, employing conodont biostratigraphy, conodont biofacies zonation, microfacies analysis and sequence stratigraphy. A review of the existing conodont biozonation models for the lower Carboniferous visualizes the differences that are the result of varying accumulation realms, and allows the correlation between the models. Sequence stratigraphy is used to support the correlation. The review also questions the usefulness of "standard" biozonation models as they cannot be applied to conodont faunas originating from shallow-water environments. Three studies from the Rhenish Mountains (Riescheid, Gladenbach, Wettmarsen) and one from the eastern Belgian Namur-Dinant Basin (Dolhain) represent different settings along a platform-basin transect and were used to reconstruct the conditions during the mid-Tournaisian Event. The section Riescheid, that is situated within the Herzkamp Syncline in the western Rhenish Mountains exposes middle Famennian to Upper Viséan strata of the Kulm facies (basin facies). The middle Tournaisian Kahlenberg Fm consists of dark shales and a package of intercalated calciturbidites and was accumulated during the Transgressive Systems Tract (TST) and Highstand Systems Tract (HST) of Sequence 2. The retrieved very poor conodont fauna indicates the affiliation to the isosticha-Upper crenulata Zone and the Siphonodellid Biofacies that represents lower slope to basin environments. The microfacies analysis allows the reconstruction of the sedimentational conditions. They reveal the accumulation of hemipelagic calciturbidites in distal, lower slope environments. The Gladenbach section, situated in the eastern Rhenish Mountains, exposes middle Tournaisian strata. They differ from the “normal” facies due to their origin from the allochthonous Hörre Nappe. The Gladenbach Fm, equivalent to the Kahlenberg Fm and the lower part of the Hardt Fm, consists of dark, bituminous limestones and intercalated dark shales, representing many turbiditic fining upward cycles. These can be assigned to the Transgressive Systems Tract (TST) and HST of Sequence 2 and the lower part of Sequence 3. The rich conodont fauna allows the recognition of the Lower crenulata, isosticha-Upper crenulata and Lower typicus zones and the assignment to the Siphonodellid-Polygnathid Biofacies (lower slope and basin) of the Gladenbach Fm. The microfacies analysis reveals an accumulation realm in a deep basin close to the lower slope. The section Wettmarsen is situated in the Remscheid-Altena Anticline in the Rhenish Mountains and exposes middle Famennian to middle Tournaisian strata of the Kulm type facies. It contains a depositional gap between Upper Devonian and lower Carboniferous. Sequence 2 as well as the Lowstand Systems Tract (LST) and undifferentiated TST/HST of Sequence 3 can be recognized. The calciturbidite bed of the Kahlenberg Fm originated from a high rising intrabasinal swell on top of the former Devonian Balve reef complex southwest of the section. A rich conodont fauna could be retrieved from this calciturbidite bed, allowing the assignment to the isosticha-Upper crenulata Zone. An allocation to middle to upper shelf slope areas was possible, based on the gnathodid-dominated conodont fauna and the microfacies analysis. The recently cut (2010), hardly studied eastern Belgian Dolhain section is situated in the Verviers Syncline within the Vesdre-Aachen sedimentation area and exposes uppermost Famennian to Ivorian strata. The Pont d'Arcole Fm is composed of a variety of shales and limestones, representing Sequence 2 together with the pure limestone succession of the overlying Landelies Fm. Dark shales in the middle part of the Pont d’Arcole Fm represent the maximum flooding interval (mfi). Strongly increasing percentages of limestone beds above indicate the beginning of the HST. A single rich conodont fauna directly above the mfi indicates the Lower crenulata Zone. The polygnathid-pseudopolygnathid dominated fauna, as well as microfacies and sequence stratigraphy indicate deep (outer) shelf below wave base. In the studied sections from the Rhenish Mountains the middle Tournaisian Kahlenberg Fm and the Gladenbach Fm represent accumulations of deep basins or deep distal slope areas that in part were fed by calciturbidites deriving from deeper water and lower, middle and upper slope deposits. The studied section of the Pont d’Arcole Fm is a deep open-shelf succession. In summary, the results of this study support an exaggerated transgression resulting in the mid-Tournaisian Event

Theatre as Education: Creating and Performing a Play with Elementary School Students

This paper is an exploration of the concept of theatre as education and what I learned about teaching, transformation, and failure through my thesis project. In order to explore these ideas, I reflect on my experience creating and performing a short play with a group of eight 2nd and 3rd grade students over the span of nine weeks. I pinpoint the parts of the process that worked well and discuss how these techniques and activities could be used to enhance curriculum and learning in the classroom. I also discuss which parts of the process failed and what I learned from those experiences. I hope that the paper may serve as a guide for teaching artists undertaking similar work and a resource for teachers looking to incorporate theatre arts into their curriculums

Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota

Explores mental health needs of Native women working as prostitutes; their experience of sexual or physical violence and homelessness; use of shelters, rape crisis centers, and substance abuse treatment; and role of culture. Makes policy recommendations

The attachment of children in foster care

The purpose of the study was to examine the association between foster care children and the behaviors they exhibit particularly in attachment outcomes. The study was also an informative tool that addressed the impact of children with attachment issues currently in the foster care system. Examining the relationship between the two variables may be able to help parents and their children, by providing future resources necessary to both parties in case separation and loss occurs

Understanding Spatial Ability through a Neural Efficiency EEG Study

The purpose of this research is to understand the neural efficiency of undergraduate engineers while they solve spatial ability and Statics (sophomore-level engineering) problems. Spatial ability is the measurement of one’s aptitude to reason and remember the spatial relations between objects or space. In engineering, spatial ability is found to be predictive of engineering success, but there is little information as to why or how spatial ability impacts engineers. The neural efficiency hypothesis states that individuals who excel in a given field will experience lower-energy related brain activity in that field whereas those who are unfamiliar with a given field experience higher-energy brain activity in certain frequency bands of neural activity. In this study, participants brain activity was observed using an electroencephalogram (EEG) while each of the participants completed spatial ability assessments (the PSVT:R and MCT) and Statics problems. The analysis of the EEG data provides insight into student expertise in spatial ability and basic engineering skills by comparing the neural efficiency levels of each participant with the results of the spatial and Statics assessments. This research will allow for greater understanding of the applicability of neural efficiency in engineering and aptitude research studies, which will be used in further studies to find ways of understanding and improving the spatial ability of engineers

Applying Liberation Psychology Tenets to the Career Trajectory of the First Chicano Psychologist

The authors of this paper use a liberation psychology framework to explore the career trajectory of Alfredo Castañeda (1923-1981), the first Latinx individual to earn a Ph.D. in psychology and the first Mexican American to hold a full professorship in the United States. Castañeda experienced a prolific career in teaching and research that began by investigating universal elements in children’s learning and anxiety and ultimately transformed into an emphasis on multiculturalism, cultural strengths, advocacy, and social justice. A combination of data was used to inform the current project, including interviews from Castañeda’s former graduate students, published obituaries and memorial tributes, and Castañeda’s published and unpublished works. Liberation psychology tenets are applied to his career trajectory to highlight the underlying parallel process of psychological liberation, particularly in the realm of accessing cultural strengths inherent within traditional Latinx values