Ephemeral media, persistent action: public pedagogies of collective resistance

In Ephemeral Media, Persistent Action: Public Pedagogies of Collective Resistance, I argue that representations of contemporary activism against corporate globalization, as analyzed in three different sites of commercially-driven media texts—newspapers, film, and websites—teach people to move away from public forms of collective activism and towards privatized and institutionally-sponsored forms as part of the larger project of neoliberalism. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on the representations of, and responses to the representations of, two events—the protests against the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Seattle, Washington in 1999 and the protests during the Republican National Convention in 2004 in New York City—as moments that simultaneously capture the burgeoning movement in the United States against corporate globalization and the development of digital tools for citizen and social media. I analyze digital media interventions in these representations and give examples of how composition teachers might use these same digital tools and what I call an ethos of tactical ephemerality to encourage students to compose not just in response to, but in dialogue with, multiple and precarious publics and counterpublics

A millennial mindset: how modal shift affects the transportation choices of university students

Master of Regional and Community PlanningDepartment of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community PlanningBrent ChamberlainGrowing urban populations and the increasing prevalence of the millennial generation are profoundly changing personal travel behaviors and patterns. As a result, cities, planners, and developers must understand and act upon the shifting preferences and expectations of these public transit users in order to align costly public transit services with user needs in efficient ways. While public transit systems are becoming an increasingly vital part of urban life, few jurisdictions have considered the need to tailor these systems to millennials – those most likely to incorporate public transit into their daily lives. This paper examines the travel behaviors of University Students engaged in a forced travel intervention caused by a sudden relocation of their work site. The change in work location encouraged the use of a free public transit system as means of commuting. Longitudinal survey results, taken pre and post-intervention, indicate statistical differences between transit preferences and actual habits related to transit use and other modes of travel. Survey findings suggest that there is a statistically significant difference between the stated willingness and actual travel behaviors of public transit users and of drivers, and that modal shifts can assist in overcoming the attitude/behavior split related to personal travel among millennials

Improving kochia (Kochia scoparia L.) and wild oat (Avena fatua L.) management in cultivated oat (Avena sativa L.)

Saskatchewan is the largest producer of oat (Avena sativa L.) in Canada, producing 54% of Canadian oats. Weeds such as kochia (Kochia scoparia L.) and wild oat (Avena fatua L.) are problematic in oat and require improved chemical and cultural control practices. The objectives of this thesis were two-fold: 1) to determine the tolerance of oat to pre- and post-emergence herbicides and their efficacy for controlling kochia (field study), and 2) to determine the relative effect of seed size and seed treatment on oat competitive ability (greenhouse and phytotron studies). In the field study, fluthiacet-methyl, flumioxazin, florasulam + bromoxynil, acifluorfen, and topramezone were applied POST, while tembotrione and sulfentrazone were applied PRE, to evaluate kochia control and oat tolerance. Pyrasulfotole+ bromoxynil, flumioxazin, tembotrione, and fluthiacet-methyl provided excellent kochia control (>88% biomass reductions). Oat tolerance to pyrasulfotole+ bromoxynil and fluthiacet-methyl was commercially acceptable. In the greenhouse and phytotron studies, two seed sizes (large and small), four seed treatments (pyraclostrobin, pyraclostrobin + thiamethoxam, thiamethoxam, control) and two competitive environments (weed-free and weedy) were evaluated. Under cool growing conditions, seed treatments lead to an increase in shoot production up to 15 and 18%, respectively, for both large and small seeds. Oat plants derived from large seeds produced 23 and 24% more root and shoot biomass, respectively, compared to plants established from small seeds at early developmental stages. The seed size advantage persisted until physiological maturity as plants established from large seeds produced 38% more shoot biomass and 12% more panicles than oat plants derived from small seeds. Regardless of seed size, oat plants produced 78% less shoot biomass and 32% fewer panicles when wild oat competition was present compared with no pots having no wild oat competition. Results presented in this thesis show that pyrasulfotole+ bromoxynil and fluthiacet-methyl are potential herbicides for control of kochia in oat, as they provided excellent control and acceptable crop tolerance. In addition to chemical control, oat producers should consider the use of seed treatments and large seed to improve early season oat vigour and competitive ability

Mammalian cells in culture actively export specific microRNAs

The discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) as a new class of regulators of gene expression has triggered an explosion of research, but has left many unanswered questions about how this regulation works and how it is integrated with other regulatory mechanisms. A number of miRNAs have been found to be present in blood plasma and other body fluids of humans and mice in surprisingly high concentrations. This observation was unexpected in two respects: first, the fact that these molecules are present at all outside the cell at significant concentrations; and second, that these molecules appear to be stable outside of the cell. In light of this it has been suggested that the biological function of miRNAs may also extend outside of the cell and mediate cell-cell communication^[1-5]^. Such a system would be expected to export specific miRNAs from cells in response to specific biological stimuli. We report here that after serum deprivation several human cell lines tested do export a spectrum of miRNAs into the culture medium. The export response is substantial and prompt. The exported miRNAs are found both within and outside of microvesicles and exosomes. We have identified some candidate protein components of this system outside the cell, and found one exported protein that plays a role in protecting miRNA from degradation. Our results point to a hitherto unrecognized and uncharacterized miRNA trafficking system in mammalian cells that may involve cell-cell communication

Prozessschritte einer evidenzbasierten Angebotsentwicklung

Das Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekt „Bildung als Exponent individueller und regionaler Entwicklung - Evidenzbasierte Bedarfserschließung und vernetzte Kompetenzentwicklung“ (kurz: E-hoch-B) hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die gesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftlichen Wandlungstendenzen der Region in und um Kaiserslautern zu untersuchen und evidenzbasiert Weiterbildungsangebote zu entwickeln. Während die Entwicklung wissenschaftlicher Weiterbildungsangebote bisher zumeist dem Ansatz einer Angebotsorientierung folgt (vgl. Hanft 2014), zielt das Projekt auf den Ansatz der Nachfrageorientierung (vgl. Seitter 2014, Wolter & Banscherus 2016). Dazu wurde ein Prozessmodell evidenzbasierter Angebotsentwicklung erarbeitet, auf dessen Grundlage den einzelnen Angebotsentwicklungsschritten spezifische Bezüge zu empirisch erhobenen Daten zugeordnet werden. Mithilfe dieser Daten soll aufgezeigt werden, wie Angebote im Rahmen des Projektes bedarfsorientiert entwickelt werden. Die einzelnen Prozessschritte von der Planung bis zur Implementierung eines Weiterbildungsangebots werden im vorliegenden Arbeits- und Forschungsbericht am Beispiel des Teilprojekts an der Technischen Universität Kaiserslautern ausgeführt

Sr-isotope analysis of speleothems by LA-MC-ICP-MS: High temporal resolution and fast data acquisition

Speleothems are well established climate archives. A wide array of geochemical proxies, including stable isotopes and trace elements are present within speleothems to reconstruct past climate variability. However, each proxy is influenced by multiple factors, often hampering robust interpretation. Sr isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) can provide useful information about water residence time and water mixing in the host rock, as they are not fractionated during calcite precipitation. Laser ablation multi-collector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) has rarely been used for determination of Sr isotope signatures in speleothems, as speleothems often do not possess appropriately high concentrations of Sr to facilitate this analysis. Yet the advantages of this approach include rapid data acquisition, higher spatial resolution, larger sample throughput and the absence of chemical treatment prior to analysis. We present LA-MC-ICP-MS Sr isotope data from two speleothems from Morocco (Grotte de Piste) and India (Mawmluh Cave), and we compare linescan and spot analysis ablation techniques along speleothem growth axes. The analytical uncertainty of our LA-MC-ICP-MS Sr data is comparable to studies conducted on other carbonate materials. The results of both ablation techniques are reproducible within analytical error, implying that this technique yields robust results when applied to speleothems. In addition, several comparative measurements of different carbonate reference materials (i.e. MACS-3, JCt-1, JCp-1), including tests with standard bracketing and comparison of the 87Sr/86Sr ratios with a nanosecond laser ablation system and a state-of-the-art femtosecond laser ablation system, highlight the robustness of the method

GENOMIC SIGNATURES OF ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION

Comparative genomics has revolutionized virtually all fields of biology including the study of evolution. In this dissertation, I used next-generation sequencing to explore the evolutionary histories and adaptive evolution of a diverse set of taxa. Comparisons ranged across time scales, from population-level genetic diversity studies to questions spanning the deepest branches of the metazoan lineage. Whole genome sequencing of 50 unrelated Korean individuals revealed that Koreans have a distinct genetic history from the Chinese and Japanese populations. Our Korean-specific variome database was used to identify novel disease-causing variants in the Korean population, highlighting the value of high-quality ethnic variation databases for the accurate interpretation of individual genomes and genetic variations. Using multi-species comparative genomics of mammals, I identified signatures of high-altitude adaptation in the endangered long-tailed goral (Naemorhedus caudatus) in the mountains of Korea, and in a separate study in three species of closely-related montane guinea pigs in the Andes of South America. Phylogenomic analyses were used to confirm that the source species of the domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) was the high-altitude species Cavia tschudii, not the lowland Cavia aperea. Finally, the first jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai) and shark (Rhinocodon typus) genomes were assembled and used to identify genetic features unique to those lineages. Large scale genomic comparisons of over 80 metazoans revealed correlations between a number of physiological and genetic traits. Taken together, this dissertation shows the power of comparative genomics to address fundamental biological questions across evolutionary time and diverse non-model systems

The Use of Twitter in Everyday Life Information Seeking

This study is concerned with information seeking behaviors and strategies on Twitter, a microblogging social network of some 75 million registered users. Data was collected using an electronic survey distributed to SILS listservs in February 2010. Responses from 126 active Twitter users were analyzed. Findings indicate that Twitter is not used as a search engine so much as a 'serendipity engine'. Rather than actively seeking information, most users report they are passive participants in the network, picking and choosing tweets of interest among the constant flow of data. Users enjoy the immediacy of real-time information which is contextualized by a community of diverse individuals. System recommendations are suggested, particularly as they pertain to advanced search features and filtering to reduce noise and locate accurate results in cases where specific information is sought. The exploratory nature of this work lays a foundation for future study while providing insights to scholars and system designers

Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity disorder in children

In the past ten years, many people have become aware of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This sudden increase in awareness has been good, since more children with ADHD are now being properly diagnosed and treated. Furthermore, classroom teachers and parents are beginning to understand this disorder and how to manage it. Fewer parents feel the issues their children are having are their fault because they did not have a good parenting style (Phelan, 2000). The purpose of this paper is to continue to increase awareness about ADHD, the effects it has on children, and the treatments and interventions used to maintain or control the symptoms of the disorder. This will be accomplished through an overview of the definition, symptoms, prevalence, treatment, and interventions relative to ADHD