Bringing jobs to western Maine

Western Maine has been experiencing difficult times as the economic base transitions and many of the region’s past manufacturing jobs have been lost.Economic development - Maine ; Job creation - Maine ; Rural development - Maine

"Who Will Break The Deer?": Lord and Huntsman in Medieval English Hunting Ritual

Humanities: 2nd Place (The Ohio State University Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum)"Who Will Break The Deer?" Lord and Huntsman in Medieval English Hunting Ritual The Question: The association between the hunt and medieval nobility was so close that the "hunting lord" was a literary and social commonplace. Myth wavers before reality, however, and not all lords enjoyed hunting or were good at it. Nonetheless, the hunt had diplomatic, political and social purposes (one can compare it to the cultural role of golf in modern business practice). So often a lord had to hunt – and, what’s more, had to appear to be good at it. When hunting rituals have been discussed, scholars, such as Susan Crane, have asked what function they fulfill if done properly. What if we ask instead what happens when they are botched? The Method: This paper brings historical, literary, and technical sources on hunting together to answer how the amateur lord was accomodated, focusing especially on the ritual division of the animal carcass known variously as the "breaking," the "unlacing," and the "undoing." In the process, it engages with both anthropological (mainly Clifford Geertz) and rhetorical perspectives. The Argument: While medieval literary accounts and the general ideology of hunting consistently portray the lord as the active, central party in the hunt, particularly in the breaking, which is a microcosm of his maintenance of society, the hunting manuals belie this figuration, instead pointing out that the task of the breaking as well as many of the complicated procedures of the hunt were usually the responsibility of the professional huntsman. The manuals create a polite but powerful fiction to compensate for this disjunction, portraying the hunting lord as the one who instructs and supervises the huntsman, but who himself often stands back. The Conclusion: Through a portrayal of the lord as the supervisor of his huntsman in the hunting manuals, the hunting manuals create a polite fiction that allows the amateur, and perhaps bumbling, lord to maintain his theoretical and ideological superiority without having to display his own (lack of) skill.No embarg

Preceptor as Frontline Leader Utilizing Emotional Intelligence

Abstract Problem - This paper describes a DNP project implemented in an acute care hospital in 2020. The hospital implemented a nurse residency program, with an evidence-based preceptor role development (PRD) component, which proved to be beneficial in growing the nursing workforce and building infrastructure; however, nurse turnover increased. Context – Preceptors expressed feeling unsupported and not valued. The nurse executive team recommended the recognition committee expand its efforts to develop strategies to develop frontline leaders by building preceptor resiliency and increase retention. Preceptor development could positively impact the nursing workforce. Intervention - The DNP student, was the executive sponsor of the recognition team, and had oversight of the nurse residency program, integrated leadership and emotional intelligence training into the current PRD program by developing a training module to teach preceptors strategies to gain or improve the core skills of emotional intelligence (EI). Measures - In addition to measuring retention, a valid and reliable EI assessment tool was utilized per preceptor. Results - The project outcome was the reduction in nurse turnover, including preceptors, from 15.5% to 14.7%. Conclusion - As a result of the project implementation, the preceptors that received the training utilized the new skills during a crisis and remained employed with the hospital ninety days after completing the training. EI training is now incorporated into the PRD curriculum. There is consideration to provide EI training to all nurses in the future as a tactic to increase engagement and improve retention. Key words: nurse retention, preceptors, emotional intelligence, engagement, resilienc

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”: Regret in the Human Psyche - A Critical Essay

This critical essay argues that Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” is not a poem about taking a road less traveled but about regret and the state of the human psyche during the process of decision. Frost argues against indecisiveness and regret via the speaker’s battle to decidebetween two virtually identical roads—neither one more or less traveled than the other. Readers should look beyond the last two lines of Frost’s poem in order to develop a structured perspective concerning Frost’s point. Historical contextualization provides readers with a sense of the biographical elements of the poem, written in 1916 and inspired by his friend Edward Thomas. Thomas was indecisive about which path to take when they both proceeded into nature for a walk, giving Frost a beginning for the speaker in the poem. Close analysis of each stanza, reveals thatFrost’s “The Road Not Taken” has psychological implications of regret and uncertainty regarding decision-making and provides a solution by having the speaker immediately imagining himself in the future romanticizing his choice

Measles Vaccinaiton in Developing Nations: A Statistical Analysis Looking at Factors That Affect Measles Vaccination Percentages

Why do two developing countries in the same region have vastly different vaccination rates? What specific factors have the greatest influence on the vaccination rates in differing developing nations? This papers objective is to use a statistical model to try to determine what factors, education, healthcare system and infrastructure, play the largest role in impacting both positively the measles vaccination rate in 20 African countries. The results found only two of the six variables originally chosen to be statistically significant. These variables were the percentage of paved roads and the percentage of the GDP spent on education

Taking it to the Bank: Creating a New Constitutional Standard and Using Blue Carbon Banking to Compensate the Miccosukee Tribe for the Federal Taking of their Tribal Lands

The typical remedy for a property owner whose property interests have been diminished from government regulations—as is the case with the federal government\u27s regulation of the Miccosukee\u27s tribal lands—would be compensation sought under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The last clause of the Fifth Amendment— the Takings Clause—provides that private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation. The Supreme Court has explained that the purpose of the Takings Clause is to prevent the government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole. Arguably, this is exactly what the Miccosukee Tribe is being forced to do—bear the burden of the environmental degradation of their tribal lands for no other purpose than for the benefit of the majority of society. Unfortunately, Fifth Amendment protections have not been fully available to all American Indian tribes based on the unique land tenure rights of the native peoples. It accordingly remains unclear whether the Tribe would be successful in a claim for compensation under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment

Investigating 3D-Printability of a Maine-Based Bio-Ink

Biofabrication is the process of creating complex biologic products, such as artificial tissues, from raw materials such as living cells, biomaterials, and molecules. This can be done using 3D printed bio-ink, which is a combination of biomaterials and cells. However, the bio-ink must be a shear thinning fluid to allow for high-resolution and continuous printing, but also demonstrate post-printing mechanical integrity to self- support the structure, which is challenging to achieve. The research conducted here investigates how to improve the mechanical functionality of bio-ink using additives available in Maine. Chitosan, sodium alginate, and TEMPO nano fibrillated cellulose were chosen as the candidate biomaterials due to their biocompatibility. The printability of the bio-ink can be determined by considering the rheological properties and printing parameters for numerous mixtures. This research focuses on how the mixture ratio affects the printability of the bio-ink, while also investigating the individual material contributions. Rheological data of four ink compositions were compared, and a “design of experiments” approach was used to determine which hydrogel ink produced the smallest filament width, and therefore best quality, when printed. The four ink compositions used were 2:1:0.1 w/v%, 2:1:0.5 w/v%, 2:1.5:0.1 w/v%, and 2:1.5:0.5 w/v% of Alginate:TEMPO-NFC:Chitosan. A flow curve, amplitude sweep, and thixotropy test were conducted for each ink to gather viscosity and modulus values data, and all tests indicated that the tested inks would be successful in printing. Each ink was then 3D printed to analyze filament width, which revealed the ink of highest solid content resulted in the smallest width. Lastly, the design of experiments approach was applied to filament width and viscosities to reveal chitosan changes had the most effect on filament width, but T-NFC changes had the most effect on viscosity changes. Equations were also developed that can be used to predict the outcome variables of inks that could be tested in the future