Utilizing Jicarilla Apache knowledge to enrich the watershed watch program curriculum for the benefit of the Jicarilla Apache youth

The thesis explores the notions of decolonization, Indigenous knowledge, and empirical knowledge of place as a foundation for implementing Jicarilla Apache knowledge into the Watershed Watch Program. Two lesson plans were created utilizing Jicarilla Apache stories and knowledge to teach Jicarilla Apache youth about the water cycle, plants, and culture. By connecting Indigenous teachings with western scientific teachings Jicarilla Apache youth will gain a greater understanding of the natural environment with relevance to their heritage

Student\u27s Perception of Teacher Immediacy Behaviors on Student Success and Retention

This investigation tested the relationship and the fit for a causal model between both verbal and nonverbal teacher immediacy behaviors in the classroom and affective learning, cognitive learning, and student success and retention. Data was collected from two distinct populations, a large Midwestern university and a Midwestern community college. Results indicate that both verbal and nonverbal teacher immediacy behaviors independently predict or cause a level of affective learning and cognitive learning, and affective learning predicts or causes cognitive learning, further supporting that path model. Practical implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for areas of future research development are advanced

Understanding Elements Involved in Active Racial and Ethnic Minority Recruitment Practices for Biopharmaceutical-Sponsored Clinical Trials: A Socio-Ecological Qualitative Inquiry

Inequitable participation in clinical trials continues to be a problem, and trial populations do not always reflect the demographics of the population that the investigational product will ultimately be treating. Because genetic differences between racial and ethnic groups affect the safety and efficacy of new treatments, it is important that standard of care decisions are made based on a representative population. The purpose of this study is to understand the socio-ecological elements that are involved in the active implementation of racial and ethnic minority recruitment practices for biopharmaceutical-funded trials in the United States. This general qualitative study was both descriptive and exploratory in nature and utilized semi-structured, in-depth interviews for data collection. The socio-ecological model was utilized as the conceptual framework guiding this study (McLeroy, Bibeau, Stecker, & Glanz, 1988). The interview guide was designed to explore the perceptions, practices and experiences of 15 clinical research site professionals related to recruiting racially and ethnically diverse trial participants. Data analysis utilized a coding process in which data were coded inductively. Codes were classified according to the socio-ecological model. Following data analysis, 20 themes emerged from information pertaining to the actual implementation of minority recruitment practices. These 20 themes represent each level of the socio-ecological model and provide explanations for intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community and policy components. A holistic view that facilitates a comprehensive understanding of effective minority recruitment practices is offered after considering the interaction of the components at all levels of the socio-ecological model. These multi-faceted findings reveal that an ecological perspective offers insight into improving access to clinical trials by focusing on environmental change initiatives, rather than individual change on a patient level. This study’s findings offer practical guidance for the implementation of change initiatives in minority recruitment practices at research sites. The results of this study demonstrate that environmental change can provide a premise for improving access to clinical trials among minority populations

Archeota, Fall 2015

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/saasc_archeota/1001/thumbnail.jp

National Endowment for the Humanities Grant: Dana Dorsey

Presented at the 5th Annual Library Symposium by the Peer Review & Research Committee:This brief presentation will highlight our current work on the recently awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Enhancing Access and Research Possibilities through Critical Engagement with Historical Data. The goal of this initiative is to produce a set of open data resources, based on the papers of Dana A. Dorsey (1868 - 1940). The papers record Dorsey’s business transactions and consists of warranty deeds, mortgages, legal documents, and correspondence, which detail the properties and locations of what were the newly created Miami sub-divisions from around 1900 through 1940. Dorsey was regarded as a successful Black businessman of his time and known as the first Black millionaire in Miami. This initiative will help us to better understand the interpersonal networks, community building, and investments and paths of success for Black people in this community during the pre-redlining era. The core values of this work include addressing the significant gaps in our historical record, critical engagement in data collection processes that are rooted in humanity through the histories of individuals and establishing a model for future human centered data work. During this presentation, we will share our progress in the development of data resources in the form of text, tabular data, and geospatial assets. To read more about the project visit https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/86ee1e8760dc43d0abc7e7afcf8cd80

‘The scene of our constant negotiation’: tracing the development of Kathleen Jamie’s ecopoetic sensibility

This thesis traces the development of an ecopoetic sensibility in Kathleen Jamie’s works from The Golden Peak: Travels in North Pakistan (1992) to Surfacing (2019). Close readings of key poems and essays will be carried out in order to examine the continuities and developments that form this sensibility, showing that the overtly ecological themes of Jamie’s later work grow out of and are informed by her earlier work, and that the socio-political issues (primarily regarding gender and nationality) that are central in the earlier work are still present in the later work and form an important part of her ecopoetic sensibility, departing from a critical tendency to separate Jamie’s oeuvre into discrete stages. Attention will be paid throughout to the ways in which Jamie uses language to mediate with the non-human, with a particular focus on her ever-evolving use of Scots in this process. This thesis will draw upon contemporary discourses of ecopoetics and ecocriticism as well as the writings of twentieth-century philosopher Martin Heidegger which have influenced these fields. Timothy Morton’s theory of the ecological mesh will emerge as a particularly useful framework through which to understand Jamie’s work, with its prioritisation of points both of interconnection and difference between the human and the non-human. Jamie has been quoted as saying, ‘People sometimes say writing is about “expressing oneself”, which is ridiculous. It is the scene of our constant negotiation.’ This thesis seeks to prioritise the many negotiations Jamie undertakes, and her commitment to reengaging with these negotiations, over any kind of rigid conclusions or endpoints. This is reflected in its title, which identifies a fluid, shifting ecopoetic ‘sensibility’ in Jamie’s output, rather than a fixed methodology. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that a reading of Jamie’s work that prioritises interconnection, negotiation, tension, and open-endedness, as her writing does, is more fruitful than readings that attempt to impose fixed arguments upon it

Investigating the hydration of C3A in the presence of the potentially toxic element chromium–a route to remediation?

Pollution by hexavalent chromium is a growing, global problem. Its presence in public water systems is often the result of industrial activities, both past and present. In this study, tricalcium aluminate (C3A, Ca(3)Al(2)O(6)) is added to solutions of varying concentrations of potassium chromate (K(2)CrO(4)) and samples of both the solid and liquid are taken at various time intervals to monitor the removal of chromium from the solutions. Solution concentrations of 0.2 M, 0.1 M, 0.02 M, and 0.01 M are used, and the chromium concentration is found to reduce in all cases. For the 0.02 M solution the chromium concentration is reduced from 1040 ppm to 3.1 ppm in 1 week, and the chromium concentration of the 0.01 M solution is reduced from 520 ppm to 0.26 ppm in only one day of reaction with the C3A. The chromium removed from solution is identified in the solid products, which were fully characterised as being a mixture of ettringite (Ca(6)[Al(OH)(6)](2)(CrO(4))(3)·26H(2)O) and monochromate (Ca(4)[Al(OH)(6)](2)CrO(4)·8H(2)O) phases from analysis of Powder X-ray Diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy data. The work presented here is a proof of concept study to investigate C3A as a potential material for the removal of hexavalent chromium from solution. The results from this study are initial steps towards development of this as a technology for hexavalent chromium remediation

Biodeposition and Biogeochemical Processes in Shallow, Mesohaline Sediments of Chesapeake Bay

Stocks of the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, have been declining in Chesapeake Bay since the late 19th century, and current strategies involve restoring culture of Crassostrea virginica on-bottom and in devices suspended within the water column. Sub-tidal suspension culture of Crassostrea virginica in Chesapeake Bay occurs mostly in sheltered inlets and tidal creeks and, thereby, has the potential to influence shallow water biogeochemical processes. To assess the influence of Crassostrea virginica biodeposits and benthic microalgae on sediment nitrogen and phosphorus exchange, field studies with Crassostrea virginica held in aquaculture floats and laboratory experiments were conducted. Enhanced organic nitrogen deposition from Crassostrea virginica biodeposits led to gradual increases in surface sediment nitrogen and pore water ammonium concentrations; however, modifications to pore water concentrations were not always expressed at the sediment-water interface. Benthic microalgae often modulated the influence of biodeposits on sediment nitrogen exchange but, as observed in laboratory experiments, the supply of nitrogen from Crassostrea virginica biodeposits may exceed their biological demand. Organic carbon from biodeposits had varying influences on aerobic respiration but consistently stimulated anaerobic metabolism. Shifts in net phosphorus exchange were driven by this anaerobic remineralization and concentrations of iron and manganese oxy(hydr)oxides, with transitions in fluxes coinciding with changes in benthic photosynthesis and oxidation of surface sediments. Manganese and iron oxy(hydr)oxides from biodeposits supported incorporation of added phosphorus and prevented exchange at the sediment-water interface in the absence of iron-sulfide mineral formation. Differences in the response of shallow water sediments to Crassostrea virginica biodeposits were due to the quality and quantity of biodeposits supplied, as well as the spatial and temporal variability within these sediments. Initial conditions and corresponding reference sediments illustrated the potential for sediment biogeochemistry and nutrient exchange from tidal creek sediments to vary spatially and temporally on relatively small scales. Factors influencing variability within tidal creek sediments were related to shifts in riverine freshwater inputs, macroalgal blooms, nutrient concentrations in overlying waters, and bioirrigation from the clam, Macoma balthica