Cultivating Community: Experiences of African Refugee Gardeners

Past and present, community gardening has been used as a response to poverty, a way to supplement healthy foods, and a mechanism for community involvement. For thirteen refugee families living at the Housing Authority of Bowling Green, community gardening has become a way to recreate their traditional cult ure. Based on data collected through interviews during the summer of 2016, these refugee s identified gardening as a buffer against food insecurity, providing access to both healthy a nd culturally appropriate foods. Most importantly, the interviewees identified gardening as a mechanism for support and togetherness among the city’s refugee population. M ost refugees utilize the socialization and community as a response against cultural assimilati on. By surrounding themselves with supportive and similar community members, the refugees felt both comforted to practice their own culture and confident to learn the norms of their new home. With an evolving political climate and a possible influx in refugees in the region, understanding the importance of community gardening in refugee communities will help create a climate of acculturation and acceptance. More importantly, sustained opportunities for community gardening will ensure consistent access to culturally appropriate, healthy, and affordable foods for the city’s vulnerable refugee population

The Development of an Appalachian Regional Theatre for Young People

A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Bob Willenbrink on July 16, 1978

Policy Communication and the Influence of Agricultural Communities on Karst Landscapes: A Case Study In Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, Vietnam

Karst landscapes are vulnerable to human influence, especially agricultural practices. The interconnectedness between surface activities and subsurface environments make karst landscapes particularly susceptible to soil erosion and water contamination. The likelihood of these two phenomena happening increases when agricultural intensification, irrigation, or fertilizer application occurs. This situation arises frequently in Vietnam, where 18% of the country is karst terrain and 60% of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods (Farming First 2009). In order to mitigate the negative consequences of agriculture on karst landscapes, effective implementation of policy to regulate human activities and increased communication of these policies to appropriate communities is needed. This study occurred in Phong Nha- Kẻ Bàng National Park, Vietnam, a UNESCO World Heritage site dominated by karst landscapes, extensive agricultural communities, and minimal regulation efforts specific to karst terrains. Interviews, observation, and GPS analysis were used to analyze the effectiveness of policy communication and karst protection in PN-KB. The research revealed that karst protection policy in the region is minimally communicated and, when communicated, often delivered in an ineffective manner to the wrong individuals. Despite the known harm agriculture causes to karst landscapes, intensification, irrigation, and the use of fertilizers still occurs frequently and is often supported by government officials in PN-KB. Policy and karst landscape information is concentrated among park officials and rarely presented in an informal setting, leaving those in most frequent contact with the karst landscape—the farmers—without any information about the vulnerability of karst terrain to agricultural activities and the subsequent consequences to human health. Through analyzing the interactions between farmers and management officials in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, general conclusions on communicating policies to protect karst terrain in agricultural regions can be drawn. The communication of karst science and the implementation of policy to protect karst landscapes must be presented both formally to governing officials and local representatives, as well as through informal networks to general citizens. Through these means of communication, protection for karst landscapes and their inherent natural resources can successfully be implemented

Effects of a Mindfulness-based Program on Children’s Social Skills, Problem Behavior, and Emotion Regulation

This quasi-experimental wait-list control study examined the effects of a mindfulness-based program on students in two open-enrollment public charter schools located in a mid-sized urban city. Participants (n=176) were 3rd through 6th grade students. Students were identified as 54% Hispanic/Latino, 39% African American, and 7% other (e.g., White, Asian, American Indian). Three classrooms at each school served as the treatment group, and three classrooms at each school served as the control group, for a total of 12 participating classrooms. Students and teachers reported on students’ social skills, problem behavior, emotion regulation, and mindfulness before and after the program. The mindfulness program was taught twice a week for 10-weeks. Each session lasted approximately 20 minutes and was implemented in all six treatment classrooms by a trained mindfulness instructor. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were the primary methods of analyses. After controlling for pre-treatment levels of each variable, gender, and age, results indicated no significant differences in student-reported social skills, problem behavior, or mindfulness between the treatment and control groups. Teachers reported no significant differences between the control and treatment groups’ emotion regulation, empathy, engagement, self-control, externalizing, and internalizing at post-test. However, teachers did report significantly higher cooperation and significantly lower hyperactivity/inattention for children in the treatment group at post-test. Interaction effects of gender by treatment group indicated males in the treatment group appeared to benefit significantly more than females in the treatment group in terms of hyperactivity/inattention. In addition, the effects of problem type were analyzed in an exploratory manner. Implications of this study suggest mindfulness may have particular utility to improve children’s cooperation and reduce hyperactive and inattentive symptoms specifically for males. Although more research is needed, results also indicated that mindfulness may have particular utility as a universal intervention. After the implementation of the mindfulness program, children with externalizing and internalizing problems appeared to have levels of emotion regulation that were not significantly different from their typical peers

The Secret Houses: A Study in Theatrical Translation from Spanish to English

Theatrical works are distinguished from the rest of literature as a result of their unique context and intention. Drama is intended to be experienced live, not simply read, and is unique in that it calls for a specific space in which to be consumed. In the field of literary translation and adaptation, this poses an issue because even if the translated play is linguistically faithful to the original text on the page, this does not necessarily mean it will produce the same experience onstage for the viewing audience, due to inevitable cultural differences in reception. With data collected from immersion in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this study encompasses the process and necessary elements of dramatic translation, from the preliminary research to the actualized production. In this process, Las casas íntimas by Buenos Aires-born playwright Eugenia Pérez Tomas evolves into The Secret Houses, a contemporary Argentine work translated for an American audience. The findings of this foray into theatrical translation outline the complexity and depth required for the development of translated works and provide a preliminary guide for those in the United States delving into this less-explored area of its theatrical, which proves to become more and more essential as our nation evolves

Sites of synthesis and transport of photosynthetic products within the leaf cell

Abstract1.1. After illumination of leaves in the presence of 14CO2 for various times and subsequent freeze drying, chloroplasts were isolated using a nonaqueous procedure. The time-course of the distribution of a number of compounds between chloroplasts and the remainder of the cell was calculated from the 14C-incorporation into the fractions obtained.2.2. Labelled ribulose diphosphate, sedoheptulose diphosphate and sedoheptulose monophosphate occurred, at least during the first minutes of photosynthesis, solely in the chloroplasts. At the beginning of photosynthesis phosphoglyceric acid, fructose diphosphate, fructose monophosphate and glucose monophosphate appeared first in the chloroplasts, but were found later also in the non-chloroplastic part of the cell. The major part of glucose diphosphate, uridine diphosphoglucose, sucrose, malic acid and citric acid was always located in the non-chloroplastic part of the cell.3.3. From the results it is concluded that the photosynthetic carbon cycle operates exclusively in the chloroplasts. Sugar phosphates, which are not needed in the cyclic regeneration of the CO2-acceptor, are directly translocated into the cytoplasm. The synthesis of uridine diphosphoglucose takes place mainly in the cytoplasm. Glucose diphosphate and possibly also sucrose seem to be formed in the cytoplasm of the leaf cell

Safeguarding Curricular Self-Experiences in Undergraduate Music Therapy Education and Training

The purpose of this paper is to put forth a model to support the psychological safety of undergraduate students as they engage in a form of experiential learning called self-experiences. Self-experiences pair active engagement in learning episodes with learner self-inquiry. The need to safeguard curricular self-experiences is grounded in the American Music Therapy Association’s Professional Competencies and Code of Ethics and the Certification Board for Music Therapists’ Board Certification Domains. We first explicate several types and benefits of self-experiences and identify potential risks and contraindications that may compromise learners’ psychological safety and even cause harm. Next, we describe the steps we took in developing the model and gaining administrative approval. We outline major tenets and describe specific safeguarding practices at various levels of implementation. We offer a hypothetical vignette to contextualize the information, address certain challenges in implementing this model, and offer recommendations for future research related to undergraduate experiential learning. Educators, clinical trainers, and supervisors who employ self-experiences are encouraged to implement safeguards toward upholding professional ethics and supporting learners’ personal and professional development

The Impact of Group Music Therapy on Negative Affect of People with Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders and Mental Illnesses

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of group music therapy on levels of self-reported negative affect (NA) among men and women on a residential unit of an integrated dual diagnosis treatment program. More specifically, we sought to determine if and to what degree engagement in composition, receptive (listening), re-creation (performing), and improvisation experiences would result in a shift—namely, a decrease—in the intensity of self-reported NA. Participants were adults in residential treatment who had been diagnosed with co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs) and mental illnesses (MIs), predominantly mood and anxiety disorders. Twenty group-music-therapy sessions were held on the unit. Three researcher-developed visual analogue scales were used to assess pre- and postsession levels of anxiety, anger, and sadness. In total, 89 surveys were analyzed. Results indicate that nearly a third of the participants who were involved in the treatment groups reported a decrease in anxiety, sadness, and anger combined, with more than half of the responses in each of these three emotional states indicating a decrease. While these are encouraging results, generalization of findings is limited primarily by the use of a nonstandardized measurement tool, the absence of a control group, the possibility of intentional deceit, and the potential for researcher bias in the collection and compilation of the data