Drawn to the Sea: Charles Bradford Hudson (1865-1939), Artist, Author, Army Officer, with Special Notice of His Work for the United States Fish Commission and Bureau of Fisheries

The biography of Charles Bradford Hudson that follows this preface had its seeds about 1965 when I (VGS) was casually examining the extensive files of original illustrations of fishes stored in the Division of Fishes, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. I happened upon the unpublished illustration of a rainbow trout by Hudson and was greatly impressed with its quality. The thought occurred to me then that the artist must have gone on to do more than just illustrate fishes. During the next 20 years I occasionally pawed through those files, which contained the work of numerous artists, who had worked from 1838 to the present. In 1985, I happened to discuss the files with my supervisor, who urged me to produce a museum exhibit of original fish illustrations. This I did, selecting 200 of the illustrations representing 21 artists, including, of course, Hudson. As part of the text for the exhibit, Drawn from the Sea, Art in the Service of Ichthyology, I prepared short biographies of each of the artists. The exhibit, with an available poster, was shown in the Museum for six months, and a reduced version was exhibited in U.S. and Canadian museums during the next 3 years

The Living and the Dead: Funeral Work in New York City

Status and stigma are fundamental to understanding the organization of social groups, including the forces that create and perpetuate inequality along multiple axes - race, ethnicity, and class, among others. One of the challenges in the discipline of sociology is that these deeply enmeshed processes are studied separately, rather than in relation to each other. This dissertation bridges the study of status and stigma through ethnographic examination of the affective, situational, and contextual interplay of status and stigma processes in urban spaces that are both exceptional and ubiquitous: the neighborhood funeral home. To study these processes, I observed and participated in the day-to-day activities of three New York City funeral homes over four years. The project contributes to three areas: ethnographic design, the literature on status and stigma processes, and to urban and cultural sociology. Whereas most ethnographic projects focus on a single subject – a community, a workplace, a profession - in isolation or a multi-sited framework, this project has different approach. The three focal funeral homes were selected based on a process rather than a population – all are located in neighborhoods in the midst of dramatic demographic transitions. To better understand and contextualize these micro interactions, I collected data and participated in activities at other levels of the funeral industry: national, state, and local. I attended funeral directors trainings and conventions, including with the largest national association, the historically black funeral directors association, and New York State’s convention. For other perspectives on New York City, I interviewed over forty funeral directors and allied professionals throughout the five boroughs. This project strives to avoid static and categorical explanations for status and stigma processes, the binaries of black and white, elite and poor, and explores life both in the middle and at the intersection. Using this multi-site design, it contributes to the research on neighborhood change and demographic transition as I distinguish between experiences common to the general process of neighborhood change while isolating those that emerge from the variation in changes specific to particular processes. This project is not only one of the most in-depth studies of the funeral industry, it also more broadly contributes to our understanding of the dynamic relationship of status and stigma, and the process and business of the monetization of cultural practices

Young Children\u27s Nutrition, Growth, and Cognitive Development in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The first few years of life are viewed as a critical period for development. Children who do not grow and develop well in these early years can experience life-long negative implications. Many children under the age of five in Ecuador suffer from high rates of malnutrition, stunting (low height-for-age), and delayed cognitive development. This dissertation aims to better understand why children from Ecuador, specifically from the Amazon region, are experiencing such high rates of delayed development. Fifty children and their mothers living in the Amazon region of Ecuador participated in this research study. First, interviews were conducted by an Ecuadorian member of the research team with mothers to better understand the types of diets they feed their children, as well as any strengths and barriers they face in feeding their children a healthy diet. Parents discussed how almost every child was breastfed for at least six months, a practice that is known to help reduce the risk of developmental delays in children. Mothers did not follow any routines when feeding their children. For example, they did not eat a certain number of meals per day or at a certain time of the day. Strengths parents talked about included knowing what should be included in a healthy diet, having children who were independent and could eat on their own, and being supportive and responsive to their children’s needs. Parents also discussed how they lacked knowledge of what foods they should be feeding their child, they did not always have access to healthy foods to feed their child, they did not have enough money to always feed their child a diverse diet, and that their child sometimes had illnesses or health issues that made it difficult for them to eat a diverse and healthy diet. All of these were related to the poverty these families experience, which in turn impacted how difficult of an eater their child was. Next, I found a very high rate (32%) of children were stunted in growth, meaning that they were shorter than expected for their age. These children also had low levels of cognitive development. In fact, 74% had a cognitive delay, indicating that they could not understand, process information, and problem solve to the level that is expected of a child their age. Child gender, maternal education, and domestic violence were related to children’s physical growth (their stunting levels) and/or cognitive development. Female children had better growth than male children, and children whose mother reported lower levels of domestic violence also had better growth. Lastly, children whose mother had completed higher levels of education had higher levels of cognitive development. When thinking about the interviews with mothers and the results from questionnaires they completed, improving maternal education seems to be one of the most impactful and best ways to help improve these children’s physical growth and development so they can grow to their full potential

Listening to Juvenile Corrections School Teachers: A Step-By-Step Process for Interview Studies Guided by Hermeneutics

The act of interviewing is a complex endeavor, and there are many pathways a researcher can take when designing their interview study. This becomes particularly critical when embarking on a study that will require participants to talk about subjects that may be sensitive in nature. In this paper, I share how I utilized a hermeneutic perspective to guide my interview study with teachers from juvenile corrections schools. I explicitly define and walk through why I selected hermeneutics. Then, I provide detailed step by step descriptions of how my data collection and analysis process was informed by the hermeneutic circle. The process is illuminated through the inclusion of findings from one juvenile corrections school teacher

Lessons We Learned from Avatars: Cultivating Meaningful Preservice Teacher Online Experiences During COVID-19 and Beyond

Like flight simulators used to train airline pilots prior to flying an actual airplane, mixed reality simulations provide an opportunity to interact with avatars in order to practice newly learned behaviors in an online environment. As teacher educators, we have used mixed reality simulations as a part of our coursework for the past five years. In this article, we discuss implications and lessons learned for teacher education practice and research in the online environment during COVID-19 and beyond based on our experiences using mixed reality

Determining the benefits and designing an externship program for medical office students at Marshalltown Community College

The focus of this paper is to explore the potential benefits of and best design for an externship experience for the Medical Office program at Marshalltown Community College (MCC) in Marshalltown, Iowa. To that end, this paper provides background on Marshalltown Community College\u27s Medical Office program; defines extemship education; highlights the value of extemships to the community college, students, instructors, and employers, as well as potential benefits specific to MCC\u27s Medical Office program; discusses the design/setup factors that influence an effective externship program; and provides recommendations based on the findings for pursuing and implementing an externship program at MCC in the future

A Two-test Protocol for the Precise Determination of the Maximal Lactate Steady State

International Journal of Exercise Science 11(4): 681-695, 2018. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a two-test method for precisely identifying the Maximal Lactate Steady State (MLSS). Eight male competitive cyclists performed two bouts on a cycle ergometer. Following a maximal oxygen consumption (O2max) test (66.91 ± 5.29 mL∙kg-1∙min-1) we identified the lactate deflection point using the visual deflection (TVis), Log-Log (TLog), Dmax (TDmax), RER = 1.00 (TRER), ventilatory threshold (TVent), and the 1.0 mmol·L-1 increase above baseline (T+1) methods. The second incremental test (SIT) consisted of 6-7 stages (5 min each) starting 20-30 W below to 20-30 W above the predetermined deflection point, in 10 W increments. Comparison of the two tests yielded different threshold estimates (range 11-46W) for all methods (P = 0.001-0.019) except the TLog (P = 0.194) and TRER (P = 0.100). The SIT resulted in significantly (P = 0.007) more narrow range of thresholds (27.5 ± 11.01W) compared to the O2max test (70 ± 42.51W). The TVis from the SIT was identified as the MLSS and was verified using three 45-minute steady-state exercise bouts at 95%, 100%, and 105% of MLSS intensity (average increment 12.8 W). Blood lactate and O2 were recorded every 5 minutes and differed between the three intensities at every time point (P \u3c 0.001). O2 increased from the 5th to the 45th minute by 7.02 mL∙kg-1∙min-1 (100% MLSS), 3.63 mL∙kg-1∙min-1 (95% MLSS) and 7.5 mL∙kg-1∙min-1 (105% MLSS, to the 30th minute). These results indicate that the MLSS was identified correctly by the SIT, the single incremental test overestimated the MLSS intensity, and the TVis provides a very accurate determination of the lactate breakpoint. The use of a second submaximal test is required for a precise identification of MLSS

Retina: Helping Students and Instructors Based on Observed Programming Activities

t is difficult for instructors of CS1 and CS2 courses to get accurate answers to such critical questions as 'how long are students spending on programming assignments?', or 'what sorts of errors are they making?' At the same time, students often have no idea of where they stand with respect to the rest of the class in terms of time spent on an assignment or the number or types of errors that they encounter. In this paper, we present a tool called Retina, which collects information about students' programming activities, and then provides useful and informative reports to both students and instructors based on the aggregation of that data. Retina can also make real-time recommendations to students, in order to help them quickly address some of the errors they make. In addition to describing Retina and its features, we also present some of our initial findings during two trials of the tool in a real classroom setting

Education and rehabilitation of incarcerated youth during COVID-19 : Views of state level administrators

The present study addresses the complexities of providing education and rehabilitation to incarcerated youth during the COVID-19 crisis. A total of three state-level administrators, one supervisor for juvenile residential services health care, and one medical director of state detention centers from three states completed a survey focusing on the key domains of education, physical safety, mental health support, social support, support for physical health, and information sharing. With each domain, respondents were queried on the adequacy and basis of policies, as well as monitoring of compliance with policies and barriers to compliance. The state officials then each participated in two 45-minute interviews. Results indicate that the survey respondents found policies to be adequate across domains. Interview findings yielded across-state themes of learned capability and collaboration and/or cooperation. Additional results, as well as implications for research and practices, are discussed.Peer reviewe