Retelling Mecca: Shifting Narratives of Sacred Spaces in Volga-Ural Muslim Hajj Accounts, 1699–1945

This article examines how Volga-Ural Muslims narrated their encounters with the sacred spaces visited during the hajj. It examines nine accounts hajj composed from the 1690s to the 1940s, to consider how changes in international politics, Russia’s domestic politics, and the culture of Islamic learning within the Volga-Ural Muslim community led to writers to revise narratives of why the sacred spaces of Mecca were sacred, how best to experience the power of these sacred spaces, and how these sacred spaces fit into the local culture of Volga-Ural Islam under Russian and Soviet rule

Method development and validation for drug identification and confirmation by LC/MS-MS for limited-specimen cases.

Driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) cases represent the largest portion of cases handled in most forensic toxicology laboratories. Blood is a commonly used specimen and is often analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). A common extraction for this method requires two milliliters of blood. If more than one extraction is necessary, a larger volume of blood is required. Recently, laboratories have started using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) to obtain a lower limit of detection and extractions which require less blood to complete. Currently, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) Laboratory operates LC-based extractions which require 250 to 500 microliters (??L) of sample to complete, but these are limited to specific drug classes. A general drug screen for forty drugs has been developed and validated using 250 microliters of blood. Even with this reduction of volume requirements, there are still instances in which less than one milliliter (mL) of blood is available for use by the analyst. An additional validation has been completed which required 100 microliters of sample to confirm the presence of thirty-nine drugs. A comparison between these methods was completed to verify the sensitivity of the 100 microliter method

Asset Building in Low-Income Communities of Color, Part 1

Examines practices and policies in states rated high on the Corporation for Enterprise Development's scorecard for asset building in poor communities of color. Analyzes socioeconomic, legislative, and other factors believed to support asset building

Examining Pre-Service Science Teachers' Developing Pedagogical Design Capacity for Planning and Supporting Task-Based Classroom Discussions

Teachers face many challenges as we move forward into the age of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (Achieve, Inc., 2013). The NGSS aim to develop a population of scientifically literate and talented students who can participate in the “innovation-driven economy” (p. 1). In order to meet these goals, teachers must provide students with opportunities to engage in science and engineering practices (SEPs) and learn core ideas of these disciplines. This study followed pre-service secondary science teachers as they participated in a secondary science teacher preparation program intended to support the development of their pedagogical design capacity (Brown, 2009) related to planning and supporting whole-class task-based discussions. Teacher educators in this program designed an intervention that aimed in supporting this development. This study examined a particular dimension of PDC – specifically, PSTs effective use of resources to plan science lessons in which students engage in a high demand task, participate in SEPs, and discuss their work in a whole-class setting. In order to examine the effectiveness of the intervention, I had to define PDC a priori. I measured PDC by documenting how/whether PSTs engaged in the following instructional planning practices: developing Learning Goals, selecting and/or designing challenging tasks, anticipating student thinking, planning for monitoring student thinking, imagining the discussion storyline, planning questions, and planning marking strategies. Analyses showed a significant difference between baseline lesson plan scores and Instructional Performance scores. These findings suggest these patterns and changes were directly linked to the teacher preparation program. The mean increase in Instructional Performance scores during the course of the teacher preparation year further supports the effect of the teacher preparation coursework. Pre-service teachers with high pedagogical design capacity continually integrated the ambitious planning practices they learned in their coursework. In contrast, pre-service teachers with low pedagogical design capacity appeared to appropriate the vocabulary and language they learned in coursework, but did not integrate these practices at a high level. This study suggests that pre-service teachers who receive intensive instruction on ambitious planning practices for task-based discussion effectively develop the pedagogical design capacity to plan for task-based discussion lessons

Autonomous Golf Cart

The Cedarville University autonomous golf cart senior design team has built on the success of previous teams to add functionality and robustness towards the goal of a fully autonomous golf cart for campus use. This poster outlines this year\u27s accomplishments, centering around obstacle avoidance and improvements in sensing and decision making algorithms

Fuel Loads, Fire Severity, and Tree Mortality in Florida Keys Pine Forests

In fire dependent forested ecosystems, fire managers are greatly interested in predicting the consequences of their management-oriented prescribed burnings on post-fire tree mortality. While fire intensity is believed to be a strong predictor of tree mortality, fire behavior itself largely depends on fuel characteristics, including both their structure and spatial distribution. We examined the type and distribution of fuels, their effects on fire behavior, and the effects of fire on tree mortality in slash pine forests in the Florida Keys. We conducted a burning experiment in six blocks, and burned eleven plots, three in winter and eight in summer, over a four-year period from 1998 to 2001. Post-fire slash pine mortality was investigated annually for one, two or three years in seven burn plots, three winter burn and four summer burn plots. We used linear regression to model the effects of fuel types on fire severity, and logistic regression to model the effects of burn season, fire severity and tree dimensions on tree mortality. Fire severity increased with surface fuel loads, but was negatively related to the quantity of hardwood shrub fuels. Tree mortality was significantly higher in summer burn than in winter burn plots, and was strongly related to tree size and crown scorch percent. This study suggests that pine tree mortality can be minimized by burning in winter. However, in pine forests where the burning objective is to suppress the growth of hardwoods, winter burning involves a trade-off, in that hardwood shrub fuel consumption is reduced

The Urban Wildlife Conservation Program: Building a Broader Conservation Community

The National Wildlife Refuge System of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a long history of connecting people with nature. Increased conservation challenges coupled with societal changes pose challenging new questions for the Refuge System. The future success of conservation in America ultimately depends on the ability to inspire its citizenry to connect with the outdoors and to become stewards of the environment. With over 80% of Americans living in urban areas, spending less time outdoors, and becoming more ethnically and racially diverse, how do refuges become relevant in their daily lives? While challenging, urban areas present a strategic opportunity to reach new audiences. The goal of the Urban Wildlife Conservation Program is to engage urban communities in wildlife conservation as partners. The Urban Wildlife Conservation Program defines excellence in existing urban refuges, establishes the framework for creating new urban refuge partnerships, and is implementing a refuge presence in demographically and geographically varied cities across America. This paper outlines the Service’s approach to achieve this goal, the social science that is informing these efforts, and lessons learned thus far from research findings at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge