An Intensive Phase I Cultural Resources Investigation Of The Proposed Southwest Independent School District Natatorium Project, Bexar County, Texas

On behalf of Southwest Independent School District (SWISD), Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. (Pape-Dawson) conducted an archaeological survey for the proposed SWISD Natatorium Project (Project) in southwestern San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. SWISD proposes to develop one of three plans for the natatorium complex on an approximately 2-hectare (5-acre) tract of land (Project Area). The Project Area is located within the City of San Antonio’s (COSA) jurisdictional boundary, necessitating compliance with the Historic Preservation and Urban Design Section of the COSA Unified Development Code (Article 6 35-630 to 35-634). As SWISD is a political subdivision of the State of Texas, compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas (ACT) is also required. However, as no federal funding or permitting is anticipated for the Project, compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act is not required. Fieldwork for the Project was conducted on January 16, 2020. Pape-Dawson archaeologist Adam Leroy served as the Principal Investigator for the Project and was assisted by archaeologist Mikayla Mathews. Pape-Dawson archaeologists performed a pedestrian survey supplemented by shovel testing investigation of the Project Area. Site 41BX2332 was identified and recorded as a result of the investigation. 41BX2332 is a surficial to subsurface twentieth century historic artifact scatter and burned trash pit. The site spans approximately 78.5 square meters (845 square feet) based on the horizontal and vertical extent of the surficial artifact scatter. Artifacts observed on the surface throughout the site included whiteware, stoneware, porcelain, colorless flat and bottle glass of varying thicknesses (some burned, some embossed with decorations), can fragments, wire nails, and unidentified ferrous metal (some burned). One shovel test (SST01) placed in the middle of the artifact scatter was positive for cultural materials. Two diagnostic artifacts, a Colt model 1908 handgun with loaded ammunition and a colorless bottle base with makers mark, were among the artifacts recovered from SST01. Site 41BX2332 contained no cultural features and yielded common artifacts that are well documented within the region. Soils within the site and surrounding Project Area were shallow and were typically terminated at gravel impasse prior to 30 centimeters (12 inches) below surface. Additional work at the site would likely only recover similar material unlikely to contribute additional information to the archaeological record. Furthermore, the site lacks an association with people significant to the local or regional development of the area. Due to these factors, site 41BX2332 is recommended Not Eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A, B, C, or D, and is recommended ineligible for designation as a State Antiquities Landmark under the ACT. Based on the results of the investigation, Pape-Dawson archaeologists recommend no further work for site 41BX2332. Should additional cultural materials be inadvertently encountered outside the current parameters of the Project Area during construction, it is recommended that all work in the vicinity should cease and that the COSA and Texas Historical Commission archaeologists should be contacted immediately. Following completion of the investigation, all recovered artifacts will be discarded, and the final report will be submitted to and permanently stored at the University of Texas San Antonio-Center for Archaeological Research

Ami-The Chemist's Amanuensis

Poster presented at the VSMF Symposium held at the Unilever Centre on 2011-01-17The Ami project was a six month Rapid Innovation project sponsored by JISC to explore the Virtual Research Environment space. The project brainstormed with chemists and decided to investigate ways to facilitate monitoring and collection of experimental data. A frequently encountered use-case was identified of how the chemist reaches the end of an experiment, but finds an unexpected result. The ability to replay events can significantly help make sense of how things progressed. The project therefore concentrated on collecting a variety of dimensions of ancillary data – data that would not normally be collected due to practicality constraints. There were three main areas of investigation: 1) Development of a monitoring tool using infrared and ultrasonic sensors; 2) Time-lapse motion video capture (for example, videoing 5 seconds in every 60); and 3) Activity-driven video monitoring of the fume cupboard environs. The Ami client application was developed to control these separate logging functions. The application builds up a timeline of the events in the experiment and around the fume cupboard. The videos and data logs can then be reviewed after the experiment in order to help the chemist determine the exact timings and conditions used. The project experimented with ways in which a Microsoft Kinect could be used in a laboratory setting. Investigations suggest that it would not be an ideal device for controlling a mouse, but it shows promise for usages such as manipulating virtual molecules.Ami was a six month project under the “JISC Rapid Innovation Grants 10/09” programme, Grants for the Virtual Research Environment - Rapid Innovation funding call. [http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2009/10/vreri.aspx

Humans, higher education and technology - a corpus-assisted discourse and genealogical analysis of the idea of a university

The idea and purpose of the university is contested both historically and in contemporary discourse. Moreover, imaginaries of the future of higher education are dominated by technological disruption. The aim of this thesis is to undertake an original analysis of this development from a social and technological perspective. This provides an original contribution to knowledge in analysing both the social and technological implications of the ongoing development of the university as a social institution. I conceptualise the genealogical development of the modern university as Mode 1 Elite Ivory Tower, Mode 2 Mass Factory and Mode 3 Universal Network. I trace the genealogy of the modern university through these modes and conduct an empirical study of the contemporary idea and purpose of the university through corpus-assisted discourse analysis (CADA) of UK university texts totaling over 18 million words. This analysis is structured around the relations between humans, higher education and technology. Key findings from each of these relations are drawn together to see the social and technological disruption of the idea of a university as not separate entities but relational in the Mode 3 Sociotechnical University. These findings indicate that current Human-Higher Education relations discourse is dominated by student employment outcomes and research activity of the university as a marker of quality. Moreover, education and research are at risk of being severed and unbundled from each other. Higher Education-Technology relations discourse shows that universities describe technological disruption of the undergraduate degree with technology as an end in itself or modest instrumental ‘fixes’ to pedagogical issues. Moreover, the three-year campus-based undergraduate degree at the age of 18 dominates despite the affordances of digital technologies and policy advocating widening of access. Human-Technology relations are often characterised as humans and education being determined by technology. This technologically deterministic position opposes society determining technology (social constructivism). I reject both of these extremes to fuse together the social and technological aspects of the university drawing upon the postdigital, postphenomenology and actor-network theory. This provides the conceptual framework for the development of the Mode 3 Universal Networked Sociotechnical University. The Mode 3 University opens the university socially and technologically to many more actors including private organisations, specialist roles, diverse students, technology, culture and the wider public. These all have an influence on constructing the idea of the present and future university. The challenge for universities is to articulate the idea and purpose of a university in these new and emerging social contexts. Based on empirical analysis of UK university texts I conclude that the idea and purpose of the current university is broadly still, the Mode 2 Mass Factory and Mode 3 is now beginning to emerge

Co-producing composite storytelling comics : (counter) narratives by academics of working-class heritage

This work was supported by the Society for Research into Higher Education, (grant number Davis NR2129).Composite storytelling as a social qualitative research method represents a growing spirit of creativity to explore themes of social injustice. This article discusses the potential methodological affordances and challenges of such approaches when used to collectively unsettle, interrogate and (re)imagine what it means to become an academic of working-class heritage. The participatory project discussed in this paper involved eight social science and humanities academics in UK-based elite higher education institutions. In a series of storytelling sessions, the participants created narrative encounters to foster moments of critique and analysis to explore the complex social realities of their routes into and through academia as people of working-class origins. Working alongside an illustrator, the participants used empirical insights to create composite stories in multimodal comic formats. Through this work, we seek to prompt further discussions about the generative possibilities of pursuing similar methods in the social sciences and beyond to challenge forms of social injustice.Peer reviewe

Law, Liturgy, and Sacred Space in Medieval Catalonia and Southern France, 800-1100

With the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom, the judges of Catalonia and southern France worked to keep the region’s traditional judicial system operable. Drawing on records of judicial proceedings and church dedications from the ninth century to the end of the eleventh, this dissertation explores how judges devised a liturgically-influenced court strategy to invigorate rulings. They transformed churches into courtrooms. In these spaces, changed by merit of the consecration rite, community awe for the power infused within sacred space could be utilized to achieve consensus around the legitimacy of dispute outcomes. At the height of a tribunal, judges brought litigants and witnesses to altars, believed to be thresholds of Heaven, and compelled them to authenticate their testimony before God and his saints. Thus, officials supplemented human means of enforcement with the supernatural powers permeating sanctuaries. This strategy constitutes a hybridization of codified law and the belief in churches as real sacred spaces, a conception that emerged from the Carolingian liturgical reforms of the ninth century. In practice, it provided courts with a means to enact the mandates from the Visigothic Code and to foster stability. The result was a flexible synthesis of law, liturgy, and sacred space that was in many cases capable of harnessing spiritual and community pressure in legal proceedings

“Now I know he's let me in…"Teaching Assistants’ Experiences of supporting Looked After Children: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Levels of teachers leaving the profession are high in the UK and globally, which may be partly due to the dual roles that teachers undertake both in teaching and pastoral roles and the psychological impact of these. This review aimed to examine the risk factors and mitigating factors of the psychological impact of teaching in particular relation to compassion fatigue (CF). Twelve studies were systematically identified, reviewed, and critically appraised using the Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool. Factors from these studies were grouped into three themes: demographic and personal factors, professional factors, and relationship factors. Although common factors were identified, there were also contradictions between studies, and no specific factor appeared to be the most prominent. Despite some contradictions, the review contributes tentative support to existing research on various factors that can help alleviate compassion fatigue. The findings support the effectiveness of self-care practices, specifically mindfulness, as well as certain professional relationships in mitigating CF. Furthermore, adopting a trauma-informed approach to teaching appears to be a protective factor against CF. The review also suggests that older and more experienced teachers may experience lower levels of CF and higher levels of compassion satisfaction (CS). By identifying risk and mitigation factors of compassion fatigue, educational institutions may be able to offer support and guidance to staff to improve well-being, absence, and attrition levels. Additionally, as research progresses, there is a possibility of reaching a greater consensus on how these concepts are defined and implemented