Options for demonstrating the use of solar energy in california buildings

Three programmatic options for demonstrating the most economically attractive applications of solar energy to buildings located in California are formulated. The unique characteristics of solar energy demonstration programs and the involvement of key decision makers are discussed in detail. The demonstration programs are related to specific purposes. The priority structure used to select the generic projects making up each program is discussed in relationship to the purposes of the program. In addition, some implications of the nature of the demonstration program for management are outlined

Harry Potter and Queering the College Classroom

This dissertation reimagines the college classroom through a queer pedagogical practice that, I argue, results in a queer space. Through a mixed method study that utilized duoethnography and student survey, I find that queer pedagogy, or the resistance of heteronormativity, challenging binaries, welcoming the student’s lived experience as fodder for learning academic concepts, paired with a beloved fantasy text such as Harry Potter, can be a medium with which to deconstruct the traditional college classroom and reconstruct a queer space that encourages student self-authorship and questioning of the traditional hierarchy in higher education. The data suggests that queering the college classroom in these ways increases students’ feeling of belonging and ownership of their education, encourages sitting in discomfort and not-knowing, invites student-led discussion and revelation, increases learning and retention, and is pedagogically effective in addressing societal concepts around marginalization, biases, oppression, and socially constructed binaries. This dissertation is an invitation to students to own their learning process, and for faculty to re-evaluate their pedagogical practices and choice of text

What Does it Mean to Teach Interpretively?

The ‘interpretive turn’ has gained traction as a research approach in recent decades in the empirical social sciences. While the contributions of interpretive research and interpretive research methods are clear, we wonder: Does an interpretive perspective lend itself to – or even demand – a particular style of teaching? This question was at the heart of a roundtable discussion we organised at the 2014 Interpretive Policy Analysis (IPA) International Conference. This essay reports on the contours of the discussion, with a focus on our reflections upon what it might mean to teach ‘interpretively’. Prior to outlining these, we introduce the defining characteristics of an interpretive perspective and describe our respective experiences and interests in this conversation. In the hope that this essay might constitute the beginning of a wider conversation, we close it with an invitation for others to respond

High enthalpy hypersonic boundary layer flow

A theoretical and experimental study of an ionizing laminar boundary layer formed by a very high enthalpy flow (in excess of 12 eV per atom or 7000 cal/gm) with allowance for the presence of helium driver gas is described. The theoretical investigation has shown that the use of variable transport properties and their respective derivatives is very important in the solution of equilibrium boundary layer equations of high enthalpy flow. The effect of low level helium contamination on the surface heat transfer rate is minimal. The variation of ionization is much smaller in a chemically frozen boundary layer solution than in an equilibrium boundary layer calculation and consequently, the variation of the transport properties in the case of the former was not essential in the integration. The experiments have been conducted in a free piston shock tunnel, and a detailed study of its nozzle operation, including the effects of low levels of helium driver gas contamination has been made. Neither the extreme solutions of an equilibrium nor of a frozen boundary layer will adequately predict surface heat transfer rate in very high enthalpy flows

Renée Crown University Honors Program Advertising Campaign

The advertising campaign that I created for the Renée Crown University Honors Program is intended to raise awareness for the program across Syracuse University’s campus. This campaign is also intended to alter the common stereotype of the program as “pretentious” and “overrated.” The ideas behind each of these advertisements and their intended meaning were adapted from research that I conducted in the fall of 2010 with current Renée Crown University Honors Program students and faculty. Though these advertisements will most likely not be used for the Renée Crown University Honors Program due to budget constraints it is possible that core concepts may be simplified and implemented for their advertising in the future. When first brainstorming about what this Capstone project would entail there were various essential components that were taken into consideration. Many of these components surrounded what creative elements would be used throughout this campaign. One of the core components I decided was necessary to include throughout my creative executions was to ensure that I utilized various media to help establish widespread awareness of the program. This was a very important element I kept in mind when creating these advertisements as I felt that medium diversity was essential to the success of this campaign. Without having a mix of social media, print, and ambient advertisements I feared that much of the student population would be overlooked and the campaign would not prove effective if actually put into production. Another important aspect that I made sure to include in my creative executions was straying from the straightforward, information-based style flyers and other advertisements that the Renée Crown University Honors Program traditionally uses to promote their program. Though it is important to inform students of the program I concluded that it would be more effective to reach them with a broader, more intriguing message that would in turn lure them to the program’s website and social media sites. If students are successfully drawn to the program’s social media sites and official website they will be able to read about any and all information of interest to them. After drafting creative executions I took my rough drafts to the Honors faculty where my ideas were discussed and reviewed through various meetings over the past six months. These meetings were used to ensure that the program’s core ideas were not being lost in my creativity. My interaction with the Renée Crown University Honors Program faculty throughout this process was also intended to imitate that of an advertising agency and client relationship. After meeting with Eric Holzwarth I felt invigorated and excited to continue with my creative process, moving my executions into more detailed sketches and eventually designing them graphically. Through faculty members feedback I was able to successfully convey my creativity while also working with them to make sure that their ideas remained instilled throughout the art direction. !

Autobiography as Counter-Narrative: An Empirical Study of How Race Enters and Structures the Stories of Our Lives

Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a lens through which to examine learning autobiography, and counter-storytelling as a method of CRT, this study offers a view of the world from the perspective of adult students’ racialized experiences

Autobiography as Counter-Narrative: An Empirical Study of How Race Enters and Structures the Stories of Our Lives

The primary purpose of this study was to learn about how race enters and then structures the narratives of our life experiences. Critical Race Theory (CRT) was used as a lens through which to examine learning autobiographies and the CRT methodology of counter-storytelling was used to illustrate the ways in which race enters and structures the stories of our lives. The data consist of personal narratives written by adult students who were not asked to consider their life experiences from a racialized perspective. That resulted in a level of authenticity of their voices. Analyzing the learning autobiographies through a CRT lens and then employing the CRT method of counter-storytelling made issues of race, racism and white supremacy immediately evident in the juxtaposition of a story and a counter-story. The findings are presented as stories and counter-stories using a compilation of the data. They suggest subtle yet very significant ways in which our experiences are racialized, the results of which often lead to very different subsequent experiences. Using Bell’s idea of applying allegory to present what I had learned, I created two chronicles, one of an African American woman and the other a White woman. The point/counter-point illuminated a look at seemingly normal, seemingly non-racialized, everyday experiences that played out in extraordinarily different ways, with race being the only significant difference between the two narratives

Xenopus Drf1, a Regulator of Cdc7, Displays Checkpoint-dependent Accumulation on Chromatin during an S-phase Arrest

We have cloned a Xenopus Dbf4-related factor named Drf1 and characterized this protein by using Xenopus egg extracts. Drf1 forms an active complex with the kinase Cdc7. However, most of the Cdc7 in egg extracts is not associated with Drf1, which raises the possibility that some or all of the remaining Cdc7 is bound to another Dbf4-related protein. Immunodepletion of Drf1 does not prevent DNA replication in egg extracts. Consistent with this observation, Cdc45 can still associate with chromatin in Drf1-depleted extracts, albeit at significantly reduced levels. Nonetheless, Drf1 displays highly regulated binding to replicating chromatin. Treatment of egg extracts with aphidicolin results in a substantial accumulation of Drf1 on chromatin. This accumulation is blocked by addition of caffeine and by immunodepletion of either ATR or Claspin. These observations suggest that the increased binding of Drf1 to aphidicolin-treated chromatin is an active process that is mediated by a caffeine-sensitive checkpoint pathway containing ATR and Claspin. Abrogation of this pathway also leads to a large increase in the binding of Cdc45 to chromatin. This increase is substantially reduced in the absence of Drf1, which suggests that regulation of Drf1 might be involved in the suppression of Cdc45 loading during replication arrest. We also provide evidence that elimination of this checkpoint causes resumed initiation of DNA replication in both Xenopus tissue culture cells and egg extracts. Taken together, these observations argue that Drf1 is regulated by an intra-S-phase checkpoint mechanism that down-regulates the loading of Cdc45 onto chromatin containing DNA replication blocks