Virginia Waterways and the Underground Railroad

The past several years have seen a new energy and heightened scholarly attention to many diverse aspects of American race-based slavery. Details of the economic complexities of the slave trade, for example, have been studied intensely. This general movement has brought many new and old conversations into the mainstream—some for the first time—and reemphasized the centrality of slavery to the American experience before, during, and after the Civil War. However, there still remain many myths, problematic archetypes, and stereotypes associated with American slavery and its component parts. Perhaps the greatest of the myths are those that persist about the system itself

The Use of Embark in Teaching About Genetic Relatedness

Because of the increasing importance of precision medicine, it is vital that future healthcare providers master concepts related to genetic variation taught during their undergraduate classes. However, studies have shown that physicians often lack an adequate understanding of genetics, which serves as a hindrance to effectively caring for their patients. To address this issue, we created a collaborative active-learning protocol to improve pre-health students\u27 comprehension of key concepts such as genetic relatedness and the source of genetic variation between siblings. Our worksheet guides students to compare the genetic profiles of two canine siblings using the Embark DNA genotyping platform. Embark direct-to-consumer tests provide curated genetic information about an individual dog’s health conditions, traits, breed composition and DNA relatives. The target audience for our worksheet is an advanced genetics course at the University of Mississippi

Christian Education and Constructivism: Learning through the Adult Sunday School Class

Religious education has been the foundation of the Christian church. Sunday school has been an integral part of the teachings in the Christian church. However, little research exists, which examines adults’ learning in Sunday school classes. In this paper, we use the constructivist learning theory as a framework to examine learning experiences of adults in Sunday school

Morphological Properties of PPNs: Mid-IR and HST Imaging Surveys

We will review our mid-infrared and HST imaging surveys of the circumstellar dust shells of proto-planetary nebulae. While optical imaging indirectly probes the dust distribution via dust-scattered starlight, mid-IR imaging directly maps the distribution of warm dust grains. Both imaging surveys revealed preferencially axisymmetric nature of PPN dust shells, suggesting that axisymmetry in planetary nebulae sets in by the end of the asymptotic giant branch phase, most likely by axisymmetric superwind mass loss. Moreover, both surveys yielded two morphological classes which have one-to-one correspondence between the two surveys, indicating that the optical depth of circumstellar dust shells plays an equally important role as the inclination angle in determining the morphology of the PPN shells.Comment: 6 pages + 8 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference, "Post-AGB Objects (proto-planetary nebulae) as a Phase of Stellar Evolution", Torun, Poland, July 5-7, 2000, eds. R. Szczerba, R. Tylenda, and S.K. Gorny. Figures have been degraded to minimize the total file siz

Atmospheres of Hot Super-Earths

Hot super-Earths likely possess minimal atmospheres established through vapor saturation equilibrium with the ground. We solve the hydrodynamics of these tenuous atmospheres at the surface of Corot-7b, Kepler 10b and 55 Cnc-e, including idealized treatments of magnetic drag and ohmic dissipation. We find that atmospheric pressures remain close to their local saturation values in all cases. Despite the emergence of strongly supersonic winds which carry sublimating mass away from the substellar point, the atmospheres do not extend much beyond the day-night terminators. Ground temperatures, which determine the planetary thermal (infrared) signature, are largely unaffected by exchanges with the atmosphere and thus follow the effective irradiation pattern. Atmospheric temperatures, however, which control cloud condensation and thus albedo properties, can deviate substantially from the irradiation pattern. Magnetic drag and ohmic dissipation can also strongly impact the atmospheric behavior, depending on atmospheric composition and the planetary magnetic field strength. We conclude that hot super-Earths could exhibit interesting signatures in reflection (and possibly in emission) which would trace a combination of their ground, atmospheric and magnetic properties.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ

African American Male Initiative

The Kirwan Institute presents a call to action to close gaps in the literature on African-American males and to move forward with policy solutions based on what is already known. The paper summarizes findings from an extensive literature review, a national advisory board and a national conference, and a project on mapping opportunity