In Pursuit of Distant Horizons

Our lasting human desire to rationalize the phenomena of nature manifests as ceaseless attempts to fix fluid landscapes within the rigid boundaries of an image. Each landscape with its own physical language, rooted in the temporal and subjective particularities of sense—taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight—requires a lived immersion to be read and as such, eludes static interpretation or expression. The physical horizon provides both a physical and metaphorical reminder of the limits we constantly find ourselves confronted with—those limits of perception, language, and knowledge—as we seek to expresses the immediate experience and profound vastness of a world far exceeding our human reach. Acknowledging these limits, yet still longing to move beyond them, the exquisite space of poetics offers a foundation from which we can, at the very least, grasp towards the ineffable. The potential for metaphorically understanding landscapes through the filter of comprehensible human experiences, terms, or qualities allows us to move beyond the boundaries of language and knowledge into what we could imagine—hinting at what we cannot know. Anchoring the physical language of landscapes to ephemeral landscapes of collective human longing, desire, and emotion emphasizes a translation revealing more about human nature than nature itself. Valuing the infinite meditations of a humanly expressed landscape subtly brings to light a more elusive, shifting interior horizon—the invisible boundaries of self. Drawn towards extremes of landscapes and self, we perpetually redefine human boundaries in the blank space of sublime repose, the cavernous echo between immediate experience and the stilled distance of expression

Editorial: Health care in times of crisis

No Abstrac

Behavioral and physiological responses of a freshwater turtle to anthropogenic activity

The way an animal perceives and reacts behaviorally to its environment is mediated largely by its physiology. For example, in vertebrates, glucocorticoids are released in response to a perceived stressor and help to keep the animal in a heightened state of awareness to enable an appropriate response to the perceived threat. It is also possible for organisms to react in non-adaptive ways to novel stressors. For example, an organism could perceive novel species, such as humans, as threats, when in fact the humans are engaging in recreational activity. This incorrect assessment could lead to wasted energy (particularly detrimental in poor-quality habitats) or the desertion of quality habitat, often to species that react less strongly to the presence of humans. It could potentially even lead to chronic elevation of glucocorticoids, reducing ability to mount a stress response to actual life-threatening stressors. Additionally, chronically elevated glucocorticoid levels may affect the fitness of the offspring of stressed individuals. These physiological responses can alter fitness sub-lethally. Such sub-lethal effects could reduce population fitness more than lethal impacts because more individuals might experience acute stress that interferes with reproduction. Thus, understanding organismal physiology and how it is modified in response to novel stressors, including habitat loss, human recreational activities, or even invasive species, is a key way to examine individual and population-level reactions to anthropogenic activities. Using the widespread freshwater turtle, Chrysemys picta, as a model system, I identified responses to anthropogenic stressors and consequences of transgenerational transmission of stress effects. The research presented here quantifies these stress responses across several levels of biological organization: measures of multiple traits within individuals as well as repeated measures over time, comparisons of different populations to understand how the stress response varies across an urban-rural gradient, and degrees of individual differences in physiology and behavior in offspring exposed to varying levels of simulated maternal stress at oviposition to understand the consequences of heightened maternal stress on fitness. In the first study, I measured an important biomarker of the stress response, plasma corticosterone (CORT), in two populations of C. picta that differed primarily in the level of human recreational activity to which they were exposed during the reproductive season. Individuals from both populations exhibited similar levels of circulating CORT despite drastic differences in the number of humans they encountered while performing critical behaviors such as basking, mating, and nesting. In the second study, I measured differences in an important behavioral measure, flight initiation distance, between these same two populations of C. picta. Turtles from the population exposed to few humans had longer flight initiation distances than the population exposed to thousands of humans engaged in common recreational activities in the area. That is, turtles less familiar with humans did not allow researchers to approach as closely as did turtles that encountered humans on a regular basis. In the final study, I topically applied CORT to recently laid C. picta eggs as a proxy for three levels (low, medium, and high) of maternal stress. I measured important markers of hatchling fitness, such as survivorship to hatch, size, and mass, performance in righting trials (to replicate predation events), and dispersal ability. Elevated levels of CORT at oviposition decreased probability of embryos surviving to hatch. Furthermore, hatchlings from CORT-treated eggs did not right themselves as often as their conspecifics, but were quicker when they did. However, these behavioral differences did not translate into differential survivorship in the release experiment. This body of work provides insight into how freshwater turtles may react to increasingly human-modified environments

A Follow-up Study of the Graduates of the Gettysburg High School for the Years 1950 and 1951

The demand for more and better qualified workers has risen sharply in the past decade. The changing technology of civilization is demanding less unskilled jobs and more professional and skilled jobs. It is the school’s responsibility to try to locate the vocational choice of students by the time they graduate from high school, so they need not waste their immediate years after graduation trying to figure out what vocational choice they plan to follow. It is understood that people may change their occupational choice in later life because of technical changes, illness, accident, or because their job may be a young man’s job in which age may limit progress and earnings. School systems have more and more come to recognize an obligation to inform themselves of what happens to students after they graduate, and to use this knowledge in guiding the student to meet his future needs. Since counseling is a requirement in all first class schools, follow-up is a responsibility which high schools must assume. The schools have often been confronted with the many types of preparation for their students. Considerable interest has been raised concerning the type of training to be offered. Many benefits may be deprived from the findings reported here. High schools may use the information for comparison and evaluation of their own programs. Statement of the problem: The plan of this study is to answer some of the questions asked about our high school graduates: (1) How has the high school curriculum of four years influenced the choice of vocation? (2) What high school subjects should be added or dropped from the curriculum based on findings from the educational preparation and choice of vocations? (3) What differences in higher education and choice of vocations occurred between the above average, the average, and below average ranks in scholarships? It is necessary to present the findings in a manner as helpful as possible and to offer suggestions where possible for the improvement of guidance in schools

Stress hormone levels in a freshwater turtle from sites differing in human activity

Glucocorticoids, such as corticosterone (CORT), commonly serve as a measure of stress levels in vertebrate populations. These hormones have been implicated in regulation of feeding behaviour, locomotor activity, body mass, lipid metabolism and other crucial behaviours and physiological processes. Thus, understanding how glucocorticoids fluctuate seasonally and in response to specific stressors can yield insight into organismal health and the overall health of populations. I compared circulating CORT concentrations between two similar populations of painted turtle, Chrysemys picta, which differed primarily in the level of exposure to human recreational activities. I measured basal CORT concentrations as well as the CORT stress response and did not find any substantive difference between the two populations. This similarity may indicate that painted turtles are not stressed by the presence of humans during the nesting season. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of CORT concentrations in freshwater reptiles, a group that is historically under-represented in studies of circulating hormone concentrations; specifically, studies that seek to use circulating concentrations of stress hormones, such as CORT, as a measure of the effect of human activities on wild populations. They also give insight into how these species as a whole may respond to human recreational activities during crucial life-history stages, such as the nesting season. Although there was no discernable difference between circulating CORT concentrations between the urban and rural populations studied, I did find a significant difference in circulating CORT concentrations between male and female C. picta. This important finding provides better understanding of the sex differences between male and female painted turtles and adds to our understanding of this species and other species of freshwater turtle

Junior Recital, Emma-Claire Polich, soprano

The presentation of this junior recital will fulfill in part the requirements for the Bachelor of Music degree in Performance. Emma-Claire Polich studies voice with James R. Smith-Parham and receives vocal coaching from Melanie Kohn Day

Senior Recital, Emma-Claire Polich, soprano

The presentation of this senior recital will fulfill in part the requirements for the Bachelor of Music degree in Performance. Emma-Claire Polich studies voice with James R. Smith-Parham and receives vocal coaching from Melanie Kohn Day