Fraternity and Sorority Thriving: A Residential Perspective

When provided with the space and resources common to residential learning communities, fraternity and sorority residences are often viewed as synonymous to the risky behaviors associated with fraternal organizations. The purpose of this study was to compare the levels of thriving of fraternity and sorority members in various living environment to their nonaffiliated peers using the Thriving Quotient. Fraternity and sorority members’ type of residence was not found to be associated with student thriving, although living closer to campus was positively associated with Social Connectedness and negatively associated with Engaged Learning. Fraternity and sorority membership overall was positively associated with Academic Determination and Social Connectedness, and negatively associated with Engaged Learning. Implications for intentionally creating living-learning communities and maximizing the residential experience of fraternity and sorority residences are discussed

Passing Through the Impasse: The Figure of Aporia in the Works of Coleridge, Tennyson, and Stevens

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Matthew Vetter on April 16, 2010

Seeing the world like Wikipedia – what you should know about how the world’s largest encyclopedia works.

Wikipedia has become focal point in the way in which information is accessed and communicated within modern societies. In this post, Zachary J. McDowell and Matthew A. Vetter discuss the principles that have enabled Wikipedia to assume this position and how at the same time these governing principles, formulated early in the Wikipedia project, have embedded particular forms of knowledge production and biases within the platform

Poem at Sulphur Hollow

Poe

The Shapes of Leaves

Poe

The Willow

Poe

Decoding natural sounds in early “visual” cortex of congenitally blind individuals

Complex natural sounds, such as bird singing, people talking, or traffic noise, induce decodable fMRI activation patterns in early visual cortex of sighted blindfolded participants [1]. That is, early visual cortex receives non-visual and potentially predictive information from audition. However, it is unclear whether the transfer of auditory information to early visual areas is an epiphenomenon of visual imagery or, alternatively, whether it is driven by mechanisms independent from visual experience. Here, we show that we can decode natural sounds from activity patterns in early “visual” areas of congenitally blind individuals who lack visual imagery. Thus, visual imagery is not a prerequisite of auditory feedback to early visual cortex. Furthermore, the spatial pattern of sound decoding accuracy in early visual cortex was remarkably similar in blind and sighted individuals, with an increasing decoding accuracy gradient from foveal to peripheral regions. This suggests that the typical organization by eccentricity of early visual cortex develops for auditory feedback, even in the lifelong absence of vision. The same feedback to early visual cortex might support visual perception in the sighted [1] and drive the recruitment of this area for non-visual functions in blind individuals [2, 3]

Twine Game

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This group project asks students to create a choose-your-own-adventure game that engages “gender politics, identity, and narrative in the writing classroom” using Twine. Students propose an original game addressing a gender studies issue, perform research, then develop the game. The purpose of the assignment is to create a narrative that reveals the complex, potential dangers of gender-related issues in a navigable text where players can make choices and reach different outcomes. This assignment can also be adapted to a range of gender studies topics including trans narratives, which are exemplified in the work of Merritt Kopas, who curated such a selection in TransWomen and the New Hypertext, and genre narratives, as anna anthropy has demonstrated with her queer horror and science fiction twine games http://www.auntiepixelante.com/games/

Investigating electric field induced molecular distortions in polypropylene using Raman spectroscopy

Polymeric electric insulators are an integral part of many electronic circuits and systems. Changes induced by an electric field can affect various mechanisms; including electrical polarisation and electromechanical properties. Changes in the dielectric material can be tracked using spectroscopic methods. This study has shown that analysing polypropylene under electric field stress using Raman spectroscopy in combination with principal component analysis allows small changes in the non-crystalline phase to be identified. We have observed that for polypropylene, vibrational motion and changes in conformation occur mostly within the tie molecules connecting the overall cluster network. Amorphous molecular chains in the spherulites were also found to orient and form into a smectic mesophase. These electromechanical changes at the micro- and macromolecular level were found to be generally reversible once the stress is removed. However, with increased aging, these changes may lead to adverse structural changes and thus, in the future, this information may be used to inform faults and defect detection within polymeric dielectric materials