Plimoth Plantation: Producing Historical Knowledge Through Performance

As one of the earliest living history museums, Plimoth Plantation has recently been criticized by museum and performance theorists for maintaining its reliance on first-person role playing. It has been suggested that these practices help codify the history that Plimoth represents to visitors. The Mayflower II, Hobbomock’s Homesite, and the Seventeenth Century English Village are the three distinct museum sites that Plimoth Plantation uses to help present an important period of European colonization in American history to their visitors. Each of these three sites uses interpretive methods differently to reflect their individual goals. First-person interpretation works to bring history alive for museum visitors, allowing them the opportunity to touch the crumbling walls of a replicated seventeenth century Colonist’s home and to help its owner grind meal to make dinner. Third-person interpretation and guides work differently to present historical information. Unlike role-players, third-person interpreters are able to present information from our contemporary understanding of history, and this new perspective changes visitors’ ideas of the past. Second-person interpretation allows visitors to become role-players and historians, as they help create their own interpretations of history, for the duration of their visit. It is a more active kind of learning which allows visitors to not only become aware of historical construction as a process, but also to participate in it. Then visitors can take the critical skills they have learned and their experiences with them as they visit other museum sites around the world

Oops I Drank It Again: Predictors Of Emerging Adults’ Unplanned Drinking

Heavy alcohol consumption in college increases risk for sexual assault, decreases academic performance, and can lead to future development of alcohol-related problems or negative developmental outcomes. Given these potential negative consequences, it is critical to investigate ways emerging adults at colleges are using and abusing alcohol. Previous research has shown that unplanned drinking is related to negative outcomes; therefore, examining predictors of unplanned drinking is important for determining at-risk groups. The current study investigated variables that are established predictors of alcohol use and misuse in emerging adults, including impulsivity, caregiver problem drinking, and age of onset alcohol use. These variables served as predictors in a model of unplanned drinking. Unplanned drinking was captured through participation in a 10-day daily diary study. Heaviest alcohol consumption day during the 10-day period was examined for each participant. This day chosen as it represents a participant’s riskiest day of consumption. An unplanned drinking score was computed by subtracting a participant’s planned consumption from reported actual consumption. By controlling for age and gender in a sample of emerging adult alcohol consumers, I sought to identify predictors of unplanned drinking that can be characterized as unplanned overconsumption, planned alcohol use, and unplanned drinking moderation (i.e., drinking less than planned). Results did not support hypotheses; however, descriptive statistics revealed characteristics specific to the unplanned overconsumption group. Participants consumed more alcohol than planned when they began drinking regularly at an earlier age. Gender differences were evident with respect to patterns of overconsumption, met alcohol plans, and unplanned moderation. The current study attempted to fill a gap in current alcohol use literature by focusing on unplanned alcohol consumption, capitalizing on data from an intensive longitudinal design. Although findings were not consistent with hypotheses, other results demonstrated differences in how emerging adults were consuming alcohol on their riskiest day of consumption. These differences have the potential to educate emerging adults of risks associated with unplanned drinking and support alcohol prevention strategies at Universities

A Review Of Mental Health Screening Tools Used In Disaster Research

Introduction: The effects of disasters are widespread and heavily studied. While attention to disasters’ impacts on mental health is growing, knowledge about these effects is fragmented due to the wide variety of assessment tools used in post-disaster settings. The purpose of this study is to review mental health assessment tools and their use in populations affected by disasters. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar for commonly-used tools that assess PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance use disorder, and general mental health in disaster settings. Next, a search for scientific studies that used the selected tools in disaster-affected populations was conducted to collect the data for analysis. Data were extracted on study outcomes produced from these tools as well as study characteristics and then analyzed to compare across tools within each symptom assessed. Findings: Ten assessment tools for analysis were identified. Seventy-eight studies using these tools were collected. Most of the tools did not have a suggested cutoff score for determining probable diagnosis. Most of the studies identified were conducted in Asia and used the Impact of Events Scale - Revised (IES-R). The outcomes, including prevalence, sample size, sample type, disaster type, and continent did not significantly vary across all of the tools, with the exception of PTSD tools, which were significantly more likely to be used in studies with non-representative samples. Studies in North America disproportionately used the IES-R to study hurricanes. Conclusion: Although the studies show similar results across tools, the variety of tools and cutoff scores still prevent adequate synthesis of the mental health effects of disasters. It is recommended that researchers and humanitarian workers consider the context of the tool that they plan to use and use a tool with a specified cutoff that has been successfully used in similar settings

The Effects of Using GeoGebra on Student Achievement in Secondary Mathematics

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), in 2010 approximately 30% of 12th grade United States (U.S.) students were proficient or advanced in mathematics, 38% were basic in mathematics, and 32% were below basic (NCES, 2013). The U.S. adopted the curricula of higher performing nations through the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The CCSS for mathematics advises teachers to integrate technology into the classroom as a manipulative to help students engage in high-level mathematical concepts. The purpose of this study was to determine if integrating GeoGebra, an iPad application, would have a positive effect on student understanding of High School Geometry. This is an experimental quantitative study with a nonequivalent pre-test and post-test design using a treatment (i.e., using GeoGebra) and a control group (i.e., not using GeoGebra). During the five-week intervention, the treatment group used GeoGebra while the control group had normal instruction. Independent and paired t-tests were conducted to determine if significant differences were found between the treatment and the control groups scores on the Module 5 math test. Based on the results, student scores improved when using the application (i.e., treatment group); however, not statistically higher than the control group. Therefore, future studies need to be conducted to continue to assess the effectiveness of using iPads during instruction

The Rhetoric of Big Data: Collecting, Interpreting, and Representing in the Age of Datafication

Rhetorical studies of science, technology, and medicine (RSTM) have provided critical understanding of how argument and argument norms within a field shape what we mean by “data.” Work has also examined how questions that shape data collection are asked, how data is interpreted, and even how data is shared. Understood as a form of argument, data reveals important insights into rhetorical situations, the motives of rhetorical actors, and the broader appeals that shape everything from the kinds of technologies built, to their inclusion in our daily lives, to the infrastructures of cities, the medical practices and policies concerning public health, etc. Big data merits continued attention from RSTM scholars as our understanding of its pervasive use and its ethos grows, but its arguments remain elusive (Salvo, 2012). To unpack the elusivity of big data, we explore one particularly illustrative case of big data and political, democratic influence: the Cambridge Analytica scandal. To understand the case, we turn to social studies of data to explore the range of ethical issues raised by big data, and to examine the rhetorical strategies that entail big data

Inferring ecological interactions from dynamics in phage-bacteria communities

Characterizing how viruses interact with microbial hosts is critical to understanding microbial community structure and function. However, existing methods for quantifying bacteria-phage interactions are not widely applicable to natural communities. First, many bacteria are not culturable, preventing direct experimental testing. Second, “-omics” based methods, while high in accuracy and specificity, have been shown to be extremely low in power. Third, inference methods based on time-series or co-occurrence data, while promising, have for the most part not been rigorously tested. This thesis work focuses on this final category of quantification strategies: inference methods. In this thesis, we further our understanding of both the potential and limitations of several inference methods, focusing primarily on time-series data with high time resolution. We emphasize the quantification of efficacy by using time-series data from multi-strain bacteria-phage communities with known infection networks. We employ both in silico simulated bacteria-phage communities as well as an in vitro community experiment. We review existing correlation-based inference methods, extend theory and characterize tradeoffs for model-based inference which uses convex optimization, characterize pairwise interactions in a 5x5 virus-microbe community experiment using Markov chain Monte Carlo, and present analytic tools for microbiome time-series analysis when a dynamical model is unknown. Together, these chapters bridge gaps in existing literature in inference of ecological interactions from time-series data.Ph.D

Boundary Notions: A Sonic Art Portfolio

I offer this dissertation as a survey and a story: a survey of my work across the field of sonic art and a story of my progressive compulsion toward sound that conveys touch. This haptic sensibility sharpens from Susurrus (2006) through Soma (2012), manifesting in a fixation on the impact of sound on bodies and the impact of bodies on sound. Both the visceral sensation of hearing and the manner in which movement imprints onto acoustic phenomena concern me. My musical forms are conceived not as abstract arrangements of objects (or notes) but as complex physical confrontations that produce audible byproducts. I compose primarily with chaotic spectra, mixing raw noise from found objects with extended instrumental techniques. These timbres front an acoustic wildness intentionally abated in conventional instrumental practice. And yet, the precision of classical instruments opens avenues of transformation closed to unmediated noise. Virtuosity and crudeness face-off in my work, circling an aesthetic region between embellishment and fact, between sound as a carrier of aesthetic intent and sound as a subsidiary effect of action. The ten works presented in this portfolio include eight compositions scored for a range of ensembles, from soloist to orchestra, with and without electronics, as well as two interactive multimedia installations. Dramatic links between physical movement and musical form arise across this output. In my installations, I posit causal relationships between visible stimuli (spinning strings, spatial structures, moving bodies) and resultant sounds. In my electroacoustic works, I attend to the implied weight of spatialized sound – as though a gesture’s trajectory through arrayed speakers were informed by gravity. In my acoustic music, I bring the muscular strain behind instrumental technique to the perceptual fore. My professional activities shift regularly between concert music and installation art and between acoustic and electroacoustic contexts. Passing between these genres stretches the boundaries of my creative practice and forces me to consistently reframe notions of ritual and form. Within each platform, I aim to stage visceral aesthetic encounters that, as Francis Bacon once hoped for his paint, bypass the brain and go directly to the nervous system.Musi