Watermark : a short-story cycle with an introduction to the genre and scholarship including a close reading of the text

Watermark, a short story cycle, as defined by Forest Ingram, Susan Garland Mann, and James Nagel, consists of twenty-five individually complete and interrelated stories and vignettes. Along with common characters and settings, the individual stories within Watermark resonate with themes of violence, love, cyclical behavior, amputated potential, self-denial, poverty, and imagination as escape. Through a process that Ingram calls recurrent patterns of development, these themes, amplified through repeated intertextual imagery, shape a larger narrative that conveys the developing artistic potential of Liz, one of many recurring characters. Typical of the short-story cycle, the title serves as a central unifying symbol. It recurs through water motifs and images of physical and emotional markings. The critical introduction conducts a broad survey of the genre’s defining scholarship and analyzes Watermark’s unifying structure by focusing on recurrent imagery, signposted themes, narrative patterns of bildungsroman and kunstlerroman, revealing a critical aesthetic that parallels the central tension between “the one and the many” found within the short-story cycle genre

Mediating Multi-Party Disputes: Reflections on Leadership in Mediation

Leadership in mediating multi-party matters is imperative. In my work as Claims Administrator for one of the largest ever personal injury/bankruptcy settlements ($2.3 billion, net present value), I am charged with four primary areas of responsibility: (1) the efficient and fair evaluation of claims consistent with provisions of the Joint Plan of Reorganization; (2) the efficient delivery of payments to all approved claimants pursuant to the provisions of the Joint Plan; (3) the management and custody of the assets paid to the Settlement Facility; and finally (4) the faithful execution of the provisions of the Joint Plan in all respects. In my daily work I must mediate (and arbitrate) but, most important, I must LEAD. When I assumed my present position, I identified several important skills I felt a Claims Administrator needed. The skills I have identified as core competencies for this position are the same leadership skills that must be considered by mediators in multi-party mediation - dealing with ambiguity, business or industry knowledge, conflict management, ethics and values, organizing, managing and measuring work, building effective teams, written and oral communications, process management, patience, perseverance and managerial courage

Systemic Change for RTI: Key Shifts for Practice

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The original publication is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2010.510696.RTI has the potential to meet the challenges of increasing diversity in student populations and the need for increasingly complex systems of instructional design. Three fundamental shifts in understanding systems and systems change must ground RTI policy and implementation work. First, RTI must be seen as an activity system nested within a larger system of influences and practices. Second, change is context-sensitive and, therefore, systems must invest in multiple strategies for implementing RTI. Third, local education agencies (LEAs) and state education agencies (SEAs) must invest in system and school improvement so that RTI aligns at multiple levels of the system to bridge the significant gap between research and practice. Consequently, a deep understanding of RTI models can only be obtained through the careful examination of both LEA and SEA system demands and investments

A Comparison of the mammalian and reptilian tecta

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49930/1/900780303_ftp.pd

Active subseafloor microbial communities from Mariana back-arc venting fluids share metabolic strategies across different thermal niches and taxa

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Trembath-Reichert, E., Butterfield, D. A., & Huber, J. A. Active subseafloor microbial communities from Mariana back-arc venting fluids share metabolic strategies across different thermal niches and taxa. Isme Journal, 13(9), (2019): 2264-2279, doi: 10.1038/s41396-019-0431-y.There are many unknowns regarding the distribution, activity, community composition, and metabolic repertoire of microbial communities in the subseafloor of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Here we provide the first characterization of subseafloor microbial communities from venting fluids along the central Mariana back-arc basin (15.5–18°N), where the slow-spreading rate, depth, and variable geochemistry along the back-arc distinguish it from other spreading centers. Results indicated that diverse Epsilonbacteraeota were abundant across all sites, with a population of high temperature Aquificae restricted to the northern segment. This suggests that differences in subseafloor populations along the back-arc are associated with local geologic setting and resultant geochemistry. Metatranscriptomics coupled to stable isotope probing revealed bacterial carbon fixation linked to hydrogen oxidation, denitrification, and sulfide or thiosulfate oxidation at all sites, regardless of community composition. NanoSIMS (nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry) incubations at 80 °C show only a small portion of the microbial community took up bicarbonate, but those autotrophs had the highest overall rates of activity detected across all experiments. By comparison, acetate was more universally utilized to sustain growth, but within a smaller range of activity. Together, results indicate that microbial communities in venting fluids from the Mariana back-arc contain active subseafloor communities reflective of their local conditions with metabolisms commonly shared across geologically disparate spreading centers throughout the ocean.This work was funded by the NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) Program, the NSF Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) (OCE-0939564), and NOAA/PMEL and JISAO under NOAA Cooperative Agreement NA15OAR4320063. ETR was supported by a NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship with the NASA Astrobiology Institute and a L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship. The data collected in this study includes work supported by the Schmidt Ocean Institute during cruise FK161129 aboard R/V Falkor. We thank the captains and crews of the R/V Falkor and ROV SuBastian. Critical support in cruise planning and sampling at sea was carried out by Andra Bobbitt, Bill Chadwick, Bob Embley, Ben Larson, and Kevin Roe. Caroline Fortunato, Connor Skennerton, Rika Anderson, Karthik Anantharaman, Jaclyn Saunders, Hank Yu, Lewis Ward, Elaina Graham, and Ben Tully aided bioinformatics pipeline development and Victoria Orphan and Yunbin Guan aided with NanoSIMS analysis. This is C-DEBI Contribution 470, JISAO Contribution 2018-0173, and PMEL Contribution 4867

Patterns of Sulfur and Carbon Biogeochemistry in Three Wetland Types Across an Alpine Landscape, Niwot Ridge, Colorado

Wetlands serve as important locations of disproportionately high biogeochemical activity and plant productivity in many lowland regions. However, little is known about the function of alpine wetlands, or about how their biogeochemical cycling compares with the broader alpine landscape, which is usually composed of thin, rocky soils and tundra vegetation. In my thesis research, I compared the soil and water biogeochemistry among three types of alpine wetlands at Niwot Ridge, CO: alpine wet meadow (AWM), periglacial solifluction lobe (PSL), and subalpine wetland (SAW). Each wetland type exhibited unique biogeochemical characteristics. SAWs had high organic matter, high carbon concentrations, and low bulk density. Mean loss on ignition from SAW samples (70%) was significantly higher than AWM and PSL samples (17% and 13%, respectively), mean soil %C and DOC in surface water from SAW samples (37.2% and 12.8 mg L-1, respectively) was higher than in AWMs (9.4% and 6.5 mg L-1), and in PSLs (7.0% and 7.3 mg L-1), and soil bulk density was lower in SAWs (0.16 g cm-3) than in AWMs (0.48 g cm-3) and PSLs (1.06 g cm-3). PSLs had very high sulfur concentrations in soil and water as sulfate, at 0.603 mg S g-1&nbsp;dry soil and 16.4 mg S L-1, compared to 0.016 mg S g-1&nbsp;dry soil and 0.5 mg S L-1&nbsp;in AWMs and 0.042 mg S g-1 dry soil and 0.2 mg S L-1&nbsp;in SAWs. PSLs also had low soil pH, with a mean pH of 3.95 in interior soil samples from PSLs, compared to 4.56 and 4.23 in the AWMs and SAWs, respectively. Compared to surrounding alpine dry meadow, all wetlands had higher water content, higher organic matter, lower pH, and higher soil extractable sulfur as sulfate in interior pools, and AMWs and SAWs had higher total soil carbon. These findings suggest that wetlands may have a disproportionate effect on biogeochemical and ecological processes in alpine landscapes.</p

Academic Libraries on Social Media: Finding the Students and the Information They Want

Librarians from Purdue University wanted to determine which social media platforms students use, which platforms they would like the library to use, and what content they would like to see from the library on each of these platforms. We conducted a survey at four of the nine campus libraries to determine student social media habits and preferences. Results show that students currently use Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat more than other social media types; however, students responded that they would like to see the library on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Students wanted nearly all types of content from the libraries on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but they did not want to receive business news or content related to library resources on Snapchat. YouTube was seen as a resource for library service information. We intend to use this information to develop improved communication channels, a clear libraries social media presence, and a cohesive message from all campus libraries

The financial burden of juvenile idiopathic arthritis: A Nova Scotia experience

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common childhood rheumatic illness. There is little published data on the financial burden of this illness. The primary objective of this study was to determine the annual costs borne by families of a child with JIA living in Nova Scotia (NS).Methods: All families in NS with a child followed in the Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic at the Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre (IWK) in 2009 were mailed a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire evaluated disease related costs, gross household income and perceived financial burden. Dillman\u27s method was used to optimize return rates. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize results. Spearman\u27s correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship of distance from the IWK and cost. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare median costs between groups.Results: Of 172 possible respondents, we received 54 completed questionnaires and 11 blank questionnaires (overall response rate 31.4%). Approximately one third (35.9%) of parents rated the financial burden as moderate or large and 36% rated financial resources available as poor. The median annual total cost per patient was $619.50 CAD (range 0,$5535) which was a median 0.7% (range 0, 37%) of gross household incomes. The largest expense for families was visit related costs. There was not a significant relationship between total annual costs and distance from the IWK (rs = 0.18, P = 0.2). Families of a child with oligoarthritis had significantly lower costs than the families of a child with another subtype of JIA ($359.00 CAD vs.$877.00 CAD, P = 0.02).Conclusions: The costs associated with having a child with JIA in NS are on average modest, but may be considerable for some families. Oligoarticular JIA is associated with smaller costs. Many families perceive the burden to be at least moderate and the availability of financial resources to be poor. Supports should be targeted to those families most in need. © 2013 Ens et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

The financial burden of juvenile idiopathic arthritis: A Nova Scotia experience

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common childhood rheumatic illness. There is little published data on the financial burden of this illness. The primary objective of this study was to determine the annual costs borne by families of a child with JIA living in Nova Scotia (NS).Methods: All families in NS with a child followed in the Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic at the Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre (IWK) in 2009 were mailed a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire evaluated disease related costs, gross household income and perceived financial burden. Dillman\u27s method was used to optimize return rates. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize results. Spearman\u27s correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship of distance from the IWK and cost. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare median costs between groups.Results: Of 172 possible respondents, we received 54 completed questionnaires and 11 blank questionnaires (overall response rate 31.4%). Approximately one third (35.9%) of parents rated the financial burden as moderate or large and 36% rated financial resources available as poor. The median annual total cost per patient was $619.50 CAD (range 0,$5535) which was a median 0.7% (range 0, 37%) of gross household incomes. The largest expense for families was visit related costs. There was not a significant relationship between total annual costs and distance from the IWK (rs = 0.18, P = 0.2). Families of a child with oligoarthritis had significantly lower costs than the families of a child with another subtype of JIA ($359.00 CAD vs.$877.00 CAD, P = 0.02).Conclusions: The costs associated with having a child with JIA in NS are on average modest, but may be considerable for some families. Oligoarticular JIA is associated with smaller costs. Many families perceive the burden to be at least moderate and the availability of financial resources to be poor. Supports should be targeted to those families most in need. © 2013 Ens et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Time-series transcriptomics from cold, oxic subseafloor crustal fluids reveals a motile, mixotrophic microbial community

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Seyler, L. M., Trembath-Reichert, E., Tully, B. J., & Huber, J. A. Time-series transcriptomics from cold, oxic subseafloor crustal fluids reveals a motile, mixotrophic microbial community. Isme Journal, (2020), doi:10.1038/s41396-020-00843-4.The oceanic crustal aquifer is one of the largest habitable volumes on Earth, and it harbors a reservoir of microbial life that influences global-scale biogeochemical cycles. Here, we use time series metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data from a low-temperature, ridge flank environment representative of the majority of global hydrothermal fluid circulation in the ocean to reconstruct microbial metabolic potential, transcript abundance, and community dynamics. We also present metagenome-assembled genomes from recently collected fluids that are furthest removed from drilling disturbances. Our results suggest that the microbial community in the North Pond aquifer plays an important role in the oxidation of organic carbon within the crust. This community is motile and metabolically flexible, with the ability to use both autotrophic and organotrophic pathways, as well as function under low oxygen conditions by using alternative electron acceptors such as nitrate and thiosulfate. Anaerobic processes are most abundant in subseafloor horizons deepest in the aquifer, furthest from connectivity with the deep ocean, and there was little overlap in the active microbial populations between sampling horizons. This work highlights the heterogeneity of microbial life in the subseafloor aquifer and provides new insights into biogeochemical cycling in ocean crust.The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation sponsored most of the observatory components at North Pond through grant GBMF1609. This work was supported by NSF OCE-1062006, OCE-1745589 and OCE-1635208 to J.A.H. E.T.R. was supported by a NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship with the NASA Astrobiology Institute and a L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship. The Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI OCE-0939564) also supported the participation of J.A.H. and B.T. This is C-DEBI contribution number 548