The Blue Ridge Railroad: Letters of Mr. George A. Trenholm and Mr. William Gregg on That Subject - Accession 1208 - M575 (628)

The collection consists of a booklet of letters to the editor from George A. Trenholm and William Gregg concerning The Blue Ridge Railroad. This railroad was to be built to complete the connection of the line that was to run from Charleston, SC to Cincinnati, Ohio. This line would have run from Anderson, SC to Knoxville, TN. Construction began in 1854 and ceased just before the beginning of the Civil War. The railroad was never completed. The letters appeared in the Edgefield Advertiser, Charleston Courier, and Charleston Mercury in 1860.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/manuscriptcollection_findingaids/1961/thumbnail.jp

LOCO : the 88-million-word language of conspiracy corpus

The spread of online conspiracy theories represents a serious threat to society. To understand the content of conspiracies, here we present the language of conspiracy (LOCO) corpus. LOCO is an 88-million-token corpus composed of topic-matched conspiracy (N=23,937) and mainstream (N=72,806) documents harvested from 150 websites. Mimicking internet user behavior, documents were identified using Google by crossing a set of seed phrases with a set of websites. LOCO is hierarchically structured, meaning that each document is cross-nested within websites (N=150) and topics (N=600, on three different resolutions). A rich set of linguistic features (N=287) and meta-data includes upload date, measures of social media engagement, measures of website popularity, size, and traffic as well as political bias and factual reporting annotations. We explored LOCO’s features from different perspectives showing that documents track important societal events through time (e.g., Lady Diana’s death, Sandy Hook school shooting, coronavirus outbreaks) while patterns of lexical features (e.g., deception, power, dominance) overlap with those extracted from online social media communities dedicated to conspiracy theories. By computing within-subcorpus cosine similarity, we derived a subset of the most representative conspiracy documents (N=4,227), which, compared to other conspiracy documents, display prototypical and exaggerated conspiratorial language and are more shared on Facebook. We also show conspiracy website users navigate to websites via more direct means than mainstream users, suggesting confirmation bias. LOCO and related datasets are freely available at https://osf.io/snpcg/

Nitrosamines in pilot-scale and full-scale wastewater treatment plants with ozonation

Ozone-based treatment trains offer a sustainable option for potable reuse applications, but nitrosamine formation during ozonation poses a challenge for municipalities seeking to avoid reverse osmosis and high-dose ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Six nitrosamines were monitored in full-scale and pilot-scale wastewater treatment trains. The primary focus was on eight treatment trains employing ozonation of secondary or tertiary wastewater effluents, but two treatment trains with chlorination or UV disinfection of tertiary wastewater effluent and another with full advanced treatment (i.e., reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation) were also included for comparison. N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR) were the most prevalent nitrosamines in untreated (up to 89ng/L and 67ng/L, respectively) and treated wastewater. N-nitrosomethylethylamine (NMEA) and N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) were detected at one facility each, while N-nitrosodipropylamine (NDPrA) and N-nitrosodibutylamine (NDBA) were less than their method reporting limits (MRLs) in all samples. Ozone-induced NDMA formation ranging fro

Investigating undergraduate mathematics learners’ cognitive engagement with recorded lecture videos

The use of recorded lecture videos (RLVs) in mathematics instruction continues to advance. Prior research at the post-secondary level has indicated a tendency for RLV use in mathematics to be negatively correlated with academic performance, though it is unclear whether this is because regular users are generally weaker mathematics students or because RLV use is somehow depressing student learning. Through the lens of cognitive engagement, a quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design study was conducted to investigate the latter possibility. Cognitive engagement was operationalised using the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F), which measures learning approaches on two major scales: surface and deep. In two mathematics courses at two universities, in Australia and the UK, participants were administered the questionnaire near the course start and finish. Overall findings were similar in both contexts: a reduction in live lecture attendance coupled with a dependence on RLVs was associated with an increase in surface approaches to learning. This study has important implications for future pedagogical development and adds to the sense of urgency regarding research into best practices using RLVs in mathematics

From multiple perspectives to shared understanding

The aim of this study was to explore how learners operating in a small group reach shared understanding as they work out joint research questions and build a theoretical framework and to identify the resources and tools they used in the process. The learners’ own interpretations of their group activities and learning were also taken into account. The data, consisting of group discussions and the documents produced by the group, were subjected to a qualitative content analysis. The group members employed a variety of resources and tools to exchange their individual perspectives and achieve shared understanding. Summaries of relevant literature laid a foundation for the group’s theoretical discussions. Reflective comparisons between their book knowledge and their personal experiences of online interaction and collaboration were frequent, suggesting that such juxtapositions may have enhanced their learning by intertwining the content to be mastered and the activities entailed by this particular content

Development of surrogate correlation models to predict trace organic contaminant oxidation and microbial inactivation during ozonation

The performance of ozonation in wastewater depends on water quality and the ability to form hydroxyl radicals ( OH) to meet disinfection or contaminant transformation objectives. Since there are no on-line methods to assess ozone and OH exposure in wastewater, many agencies are now embracing indicator frameworks and surrogate monitoring for regulatory compliance. Two of the most promising surrogate parameters for ozone-based treatment of secondary and tertiary wastewater effluents are differential UV254 absorbance (ΔUV254) and total fluorescence (ΔTF). In the current study, empirical correlations for ΔUV254 and ΔTF were developed for the oxidation of 18 trace organic contaminants (TOrCs), including 1,4-dioxane, atenolol, atrazine, bisphenol A, carbamazepine, diclofenac, gemfibrozil, ibuprofen, meprobamate, naproxen, N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), para-chlorobenzoic acid (pCBA), phenytoin, primidone, sulfamethoxazole, triclosan, trimethoprim, and tris-(2-chloroethyl)-phosphate (TCEP) (R2 = 0.50–0.83) and the inactivation of three microbial surrogates, including Escherichia coli, MS2, and Bacillus subtilis spores (R2 = 0.46–0.78). Nine wastewaters were tested in laboratory systems, and eight wastewaters were evaluated at pilot- and full-scale. A predictive model for OH exposure based on ΔUV254 or ΔTF was also proposed

Disrupting the Ethical Imperatives of “Junior” Critical Qualitative Scholars in the Era of Conservative Modernization

In this article, we wrestle with the core issue of how early career researchers translate central tenets and core concepts of critical theory and critical methodology into their research practice. By way of creative representation, we draw from bell hooks and Cornel West’s (1991) written rendition of their verbal dialogue in Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life. Their hope was to offer the book in a dialogic format in such a way that mirrored the synergy in their verbal discussions as friends and intellectual colleagues. In a similar vein, we hope to share with readers the synergy and depth of the narratives that have transpired during our ongoing discussions on the important topic of critical praxis as part of a collaborative research group called the Disruptive Dialogue Project (Gildersleeve, Kuntz, Pasque & Carducci, 2010; Kuntz, Pasque, Carducci, & Gildersleeve, 2009).Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S

The United States ranks first among developed nations in rates of both teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. In an effort to reduce these rates, the U.S. government has funded abstinence-only sex education programs for more than a decade. However, a public controversy remains over whether this investment has been successful and whether these programs should be continued. Using the most recent national data (2005) from all U.S. states with information on sex education laws or policies (N = 48), we show that increasing emphasis on abstinence education is positively correlated with teenage pregnancy and birth rates. This trend remains significant after accounting for socioeconomic status, teen educational attainment, ethnic composition of the teen population, and availability of Medicaid waivers for family planning services in each state. These data show clearly that abstinence-only education as a state policy is ineffective in preventing teenage pregnancy and may actually be contributing to the high teenage pregnancy rates in the U.S. In alignment with the new evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative and the Precaution Adoption Process Model advocated by the National Institutes of Health, we propose the integration of comprehensive sex and STD education into the biology curriculum in middle and high school science classes and a parallel social studies curriculum that addresses risk-aversion behaviors and planning for the future

A retinal code for motion along the gravitational and body axes

Self-motion triggers complementary visual and vestibular reflexes supporting image-stabilization and balance. Translation through space produces one global pattern of retinal image motion (optic flow), rotation another. We examined the direction preferences of direction-sensitive ganglion cells (DSGCs) in flattened mouse retinas in vitro. Here we show that for each subtype of DSGC, direction preference varies topographically so as to align with specific translatory optic flow fields, creating a neural ensemble tuned for a specific direction of motion through space. Four cardinal translatory directions are represented, aligned with two axes of high adaptive relevance: the body and gravitational axes. One subtype maximizes its output when the mouse advances, others when it retreats, rises or falls. Two classes of DSGCs, namely, ON-DSGCs and ON-OFF-DSGCs, share the same spatial geometry but weight the four channels differently. Each subtype ensemble is also tuned for rotation. The relative activation of DSGC channels uniquely encodes every translation and rotation. Although retinal and vestibular systems both encode translatory and rotatory self-motion, their coordinate systems differ

Abstinence-only-until-marriage : An Updated review of U.S. policies and programs and their impact

Adolescence is marked by the emergence of human sexuality, sexual identity and the initiation of intimate relations; within this context, abstinence from sexual intercourse can be a healthy choice. However, programs that promote abstinence-only-until-marriage (AOUM) or sexual risk avoidance (SRA), are scientifically and ethically problematic and—as such—have been widely rejected by medical and public health professionals. Although abstinence is theoretically effective, in actual practice, intentions to abstain from sexual activity often fail. Given a rising age at first marriage around the world, a rapidly declining percentage of young people remain abstinent until marriage. Promotion of AOUM policies by the United States (U.S.) government has undermined sexuality education in the U.S. and in U.S. foreign aid programs; funding for AOUM continues in the U.S. The weight of scientific evidence finds that AOUM programs are not effective in delaying initiation of sexual intercourse or changing other sexual risk behaviors. AOUM programs, as defined by U.S. federal funding requirements, inherently withhold information about human sexuality and may provide medically inaccurate and stigmatizing information. Thus, AOUM programs threaten fundamental human rights to health, information, and life. Young people need access to accurate and comprehensive sexual health information to protect their health and lives