Human Language Origins: Icon for Evolution or a Higher Order?

In his text Icons of Evolution, Jonathan Wells endeavors to reveal some of the many discrepancies supported as scientific fact in current evolution literature. His goal, to discredit such falsely contrived theories as Haeckel’s embryos and Darwin’s finches, is successfully managed through the observance of clear, observational evidence. Meanwhile, Wells renders these so-called “icons” of evolution as nothing more than distorted data. The question of human language origins and the evolutionist’s response serves as another icon in the rhetoric of scientific evolution, yet observations pulled from current scientific research appear to disregard this notion altogether and instead, point towards a higher ordered design. Thus, it is the purpose of this study to reveal and examine the overt discrepancies surrounding the human language origins controversy, which for too long have been undermined by evolution theorists

The Man behind the Music: Beethoven’s Critical Early Years

The early years of Ludwig van Beethoven’s life are not usually emphasized as much as his later days writing symphonies, but they were critical in his development towards musical virtuosity. In fact, it was those years growing up under an unstable household with an alcoholic musician for a father that led Beethoven to form his characteristically dynamic mannerisms, which, in turn, revolutionized his musical career. His early years can be traced according to the various developments made in his musical education. Initially taught by his tyrannical father, Ludwig underwent physical abuse in order to learn correct fingerings and scales. Although his authoritarian style of teaching was not ideal, the situational environment it created was conducive for Beethoven’s early sense of rebellion towards authority—both social and musical. His aversion to musical authority was manifested in his early works including expanded sonatas and an array of quartets often involving two, sometimes three, different instruments. More characteristically, his wide use of tonal material significantly surpassed that of his musical contemporaries. Further along his journey to musical prowess, Beethoven suffers the impending loss of his hearing. Beethoven discovers in himself a will power to carry him through the dark days of his progressive hearing loss and in so doing, sets the stage for an entirely new era of music to begin

A Comparative Analysis on the Skill Acquisition of Music and Language

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate some of the shared cognitive processes, which seem to underlie both the acquisition of music and language. Since linguists have separated language acquisition studies into one of two major categories, that is, child versus second language acquisition, the following comparative study will predominantly focus on the similarities found between second language acquisition and music acquisition. This is due in large part to the fact that our current understanding of how child language acquisition works is still in its primitive stages, and it most likely follows a more intuitivist paradigm. Second language acquisition, however, has experienced a much more comprehensive body of research, and it is the results from these empirical efforts that have opened doors to a successful cognitive understanding of its function. Music, like language, has its researchers siding with one of two major subgroups—mainly tacit versus explicit acquisition. There is the undeniable factor of practice that largely plays into the degree of musical proficiency that is attained. This too relates with how L2 development is most optimally pursued i.e. via practice. For this reason and others, the following question will be observed within the construct of Skill Acquisition Theory: What are some of the developmental processes that both second language learners and musicians undergo in order to reach a certain level of skill automaticity within their respective areas of study

Variation of larval traits and copper tolerance in an invasive cryptic species complex (Watersipora: Bryozoa)

Many factors contribute to the potential of a non-indigenous species to invade an area and become established. For bryozoan colonies of the cryptic species complex Watersipora (Neviani, 1896), this may include larval characteristics such as settlement rate, competency of metamorphosis, swimming duration, and the ability to tolerate copper, a common component in marine anti-fouling paints. Two common groups of Watersipora that occur along the California coast are W. subatra Clade A and an undescribed new species, Clade N. The goal of this research work was to discover what differences, if any, exist in the larval traits and copper tolerances of these two clades. Colonies of Clade A and N were collected around Humboldt Bay and induced to release larvae. Individual larvae were pipetted into petri dishes with either a circle of copper paint or an unpainted control and placed in a common-garden experiment where larval characteristics were measured between species and experimental treatments. Both species had markedly different larval characteristics, with W. subatra settling faster and at a higher rate than Clade N in the control treatment. When exposed to copper anti-fouling paint, however, these trends reversed. This study is the first to investigate larval differences between these two species. A number of studies on bryozoans are presumed, but not verified, to be Watersipora subatra. This fact, coupled with the strong observed differences in larval behavior that these results show, suggests that a Watersipora species-specific approach needs to be taken in future work with this cryptic species complex

Optimizing Transitional Care Management

Since the institution of the Transitional Care Management billing codes by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2013, primary care practices nationwide have worked to meet expectations and provide high-quality care to patients upon discharge from hospitalization. In St. Albans, Vermont, the complexity of preparing for successful transitions of care has challenged family medicine providers and supporting staff. Thus, this project sought to provide a structured process by which the primary care team may communicate with inpatient staff, the patients, and each other and collect information required to ensure smooth transitioning of the patient back into the setting of their medical home.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1232/thumbnail.jp

Investigating routes for in vitro and in vivo data storage

PhD thesisComputing Science, Synthetic Biology and Nanotechnology are converging. Synthetic Biology and Nanotechnology compose the “hardware” platform, whilst Computing Science formulates the logic, data storage and processing pipelines in order to create complex yet controlled behaviour at the nanoscale. Although much work has been done on information processing at the nanoscale via in vivo constructs, e.g. logic gates in various organisms, relatively little has been done on implementing data structure, a fundamental building block for computation. This dissertation proposes and investigates methods to implement data structures by employing biological molecules via both a Synthetic Biology and a Nanotechnological approach. A data structure implemented at the nanoscale could help to substantially increase the complexity of behaviours that could be programmed and embedded in living cells or at the interface between living cells and other nano-substrates, with potential applications in intelligent drug factories and delivery nanosystems, biosensors, and environmental cleaning bionanotechnologies. This work explores the possibility of implementing via DNA constructs, both in vitro and in vivo, "list-like" data structure that can potentially hold an unlimited number of items. This has not been achieved before. Thus, the text describes designs and test prototypes. Firstly, this thesis focuses on an in vitro approach. This is achieved through a DNA-based machinery implementing a signal recorder based on DNA strand displacement reactions. Such DNA architecture can in principle implement a stack machine, capable of storing data providing a dynamic temporary memory capable of pushing and popping data-items encoded in DNA nanostructures (called DNA "bricks”). The "list-like" data is thus represented by a growing (or shrinking) chain of DNA bricks. iv Secondly, I introduce a potential design and initial experiments for an in vivo approach presenting, a synthetic genetic circuit designed to record and accumulate extracellular signals digitally within a "tape" DNA molecule inside a living cell. The core is based on the engineering of the self-splicing group II retrotransposon Ll.LtrB of Lactococcus lactis. Together, these two in vitro and in vivo routes expand our knowledge in the context of molecular memory devices and the biological operations we can compute

Vermont Restaurant Owner & Manager Perspectives on Creating Heart-Healthy Kids Meals

Introduction: The prevalence of sugar sweetened beverages and fried foods combined with a lack of healthy children’s menu options has contributed to the obesity epidemic among young Americans. Recent legislation in New York City and San Francisco instituted strict nutritional requirements on children’s menu items. We performed a cross-sectional study that focused on independently owned restaurants with printed children’s menus in Vermont. We investigated the nutritional content of children’s menu items, restaurant owner and manager perspectives on customer ordering habits, and barriers that restaurants would face if they made children’s menu items healthier.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1220/thumbnail.jp

Understanding “Understanding” in Public Understanding of Science

This study examines the conflation of terms such as “knowledge” and “understanding” in peer-reviewed literature, and tests the hypothesis that little current research clearly distinguishes between importantly distinct epistemic states. Two sets of data are presented from papers published in the journal Public Understanding of Science. In the first set, the digital text analysis tool, Voyant, is used to analyze all papers published in 2014 for the use of epistemic success terms. In the second set of data, all papers published in Public Understanding of Science from 2010–2015 are systematically analyzed to identify instances in which epistemic states are empirically measured. The results indicate that epistemic success terms are inconsistently defined, and that measurement of understanding, in particular, is rarely achieved in public understanding of science studies. We suggest that more diligent attention to measuring understanding, as opposed to mere knowledge, will increase efficacy of scientific outreach and communication efforts

Design of a miniature hydrogen fueled gas turbine engine

The design, development, and delivery of a miniature hydrogen-fueled gas turbine engine are discussed. The engine was to be sized to approximate a scaled-down lift engine such as the teledyne CAE model 376. As a result, the engine design emerged as a 445N(100 lb.)-thrust engine flowing 0.86 kg (1.9 lbs.) air/sec. A 4-stage compressor was designed at a 4.0 to 1 pressure ratio for the above conditions. The compressor tip diameter was 9.14 cm (3.60 in.). To improve overall engine performance, another compressor with a 4.75 to 1 pressure ratio at the same tip diameter was designed. A matching turbine for each compressor was also designed. The turbine tip diameter was 10.16 cm (4.0 in.). A combustion chamber was designed, built, and tested for this engine. A preliminary design of the mechanical rotating parts also was completed and is discussed. Three exhaust nozzle designs are presented