Mindfulness in the Writing Center: A Total Encounter

The use of mindfulness or contemplative-based approaches has escalated across many sectors and has been the subject of increasing research interest, so it’s not surprising it is now finding its way into education. This paper reports some key insights gained from a quarter-long mindfulness project implemented over eight weeks in a large community college writing center in Omaha, Nebraska. This paper will describe the initial professional development day when the writing center consultants learned about the pedagogical and theoretical value of mindfulness and its relevance to higher education. This paper will then present the quarter-long project, during which the theories behind mindfulness were put into daily practice in the writing center. Writing center consultants were asked to take part in weekly mindfulness exercises both in the writing center and at home. Questionnaires were administered by the Writing Center Coordinator to collect anonymous consultant feedback each week, in addition to a final questionnaire to measure the project’s effectiveness. This cowritten paper will describe each phase of the project from both the Writing Center Coordinator and the consultant perspectives. The findings of this project have led the Coordinator to incorporate a mindfulness-based foundation into their Writing Center philosophy and enforced their commitment to student-driven pedagogy.University Writing Cente

Enhancing the Jaquez k Nearest Neighbor Test for Space-Time Interaction

The Jacquez k nearest neighbor test, originally developed to improve upon shortcomings of existing tests for space-time interaction, has been shown to be a robust and powerful method of detecting interaction. Despite its flexibility and power however, the test has three main shortcomings: (1) it discards important information regarding the spatial and temporal scale at which detected interac- tion takes place; (2) the results of the test have not been visualized; (3) recent research demonstrates the test to be susceptible to population shift bias. This study presents enhancements to the Jacquez k nearest neighbors test with the goal of addressing each of these three shortcomings and improving the utility of the test. Data on Burkitt’s lymphoma cases in Uganda between 1961-1975 are employed to illustrate the modifications and enhance the visual output of the test. Output from the enhanced test is compared to that provided by alternative tests of space-time interaction. Results show the enhancements presented in this study transform the Jacquez test into a complete, descriptive, and informative metric that can be used as a stand alone measure of global space-time interaction.space-time interaction, Jacquez k nearest neighbor, visualization, space-time cube, population shift bias

The Malleus Maleficarum and King James: Defining Witchcraft

Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum was a medieval treatise on witchcraft, describing the nature of witchcraft and the appropriate punishment for accused witches. After disappearing into obscurity in the early sixteenth century, it resurfaced during the rise of the early modern witch hunts. The reprinting of the Malleus at this time has often led to the belief that the medieval text played a large role in this rise in witch hunts. However, a comparison of the Malleus to later works shows a shift in the definitions of witchcraft during the early modern era. This is especially evident in the work of King James I of England both in his own treatise the Daemonologie and in the 1605 case of Anne Gunter, in which James showed a particular interest. When compared to the work of King James, Kramer’s misogynistic definition of witchcraft no longer fits. Early modern witchcraft shifts away from the Malleus and develops the idea of possession, evident in the case of Anne Gunter, which is an entirely new concept never mentioned by Kramer

Obesity, Metabolic Hormone Signaling, and Granulosa Cell Gene Expression

It has become increasingly clear that female obesity is associated with a myriad of adverse side effects including abnormal female reproduction due, in part, to amenorrhea and anovulatory infertility. The lethal yellow (LY) mouse possesses a deletion mutation which results in ectopic expression of agouti and adult-onset obesity. Furthermore, LY mice exhibit premature loss of fertility, which has been associated with progressive obesity making the LY mouse line an excellent model to study the effects of obesity-dependent factors on ovarian function. In the current study blood serum and granulosa cells were obtained from LY (Ay/a) and age-matched B6 controls (C57BL/6J) to identify changes in metabolic hormone profiles and gene expression, respectively. As expected, LY females exhibited higher circulating levels of insulin and leptin compared to age-matched B6 controls. For the first time, we identified a significant increase in circulating insulin like-growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels in the LY compared to B6 at 6 weeks of age. Despite these differences in circulating hormone levels, there was little evidence that gene expression is altered in age-matched granulosa cells from LY and B6 females. However, age-dependent changes in the expression of several genes involved in follicular growth in both LY and B6 females were detected. Given that IGF-1 exhibited increased levels in LY compared to B6 mice at 6 weeks of age, the objective of our in vitro study was to determine the role of IGF-1 on granulosa cell gene expression. To this end, short-term granulosa cell cultures were treated with cAMP (the second messenger of both FSH and LH signaling), IGF-1, or a combination of both. IGF-1 had an additive effect on cAMP-dependent regulation of a subset of genes involved in follicular growth, bi-directional communication, steroidogenesis, and ovulation. Western blot analyses provided evidence that the additive effect of IGF-1 on cAMP regulation of gene expression is mediated by stimulation of Akt phosphorylation. Thus, the cooperative effect of IGF-1 on FSH- and LH-dependent signaling may enhance the expression of genes which are crucial for optimal follicular growth and ovulation. Furthermore, these collective data provide a plausible mechanism for age and obesity-dependent anovulatory infertility

The Importance of Broadband Provision to Knowledge Intensive Firm Location

Despite the volume of literature afforded knowledge work and innovations in information and communications technologies (ICTs), few studies have examined the importance of ICTs to knowledge industries and the impact of their availability on firm location decisions. This study will evaluate the relative importance of ICTs to knowledge intensive firm location for select US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Spatial econometric estimation techniques are used to construct models from ZIP code level data that describe the relative importance of broadband to knowledge intensive industries, as defined in this study. A global model is constructed for all relevant ZIP code areas across the continental U.S and the results are compared to metropolitan specific models. In addition to demonstrating variations by metropolitan area in the relative importance of broadband provision, the results suggest that broadband deployment initiatives will have varied outcomes on knowledge intensive firm growth and the subsequent change in the industrial composition of regional economies in future years.

Healing springs.

Introduction: The first snow of winter is falling outside my window as I leaf through the pages of Caroline Kirkland’s A New Home, Who’ll Follow? Published under the pseudonym of Mrs. Mary Clavers in 1839, A New Home is the account of early American pioneer Kirkland as she and her family attempt to settle an eight-hundred-acre village in Pinckney, Michigan. In the spring of 1836, Caroline Kirkland, with her husband and four young children, left their home in the East and headed west to unknown territory. The Kirklands were among the hopeful pioneers to go in search of a new home after reading the glamorized – and often fabricated – male adventure tales coming out of the West. Kirkland sarcastically joked of “penetrating the interior,” an expression often used in the male-dominated literature of the era. As Kirkland settled into her new home, she corresponded with friends and family back East. Enthusiasm for her letters, which retold storied from her pioneer experiences, turned into the novel, A New Home. Within three years, Kirkland’s book went into three editions, and by 1855 twelve editions had been published in England and America. Caroline Kirkland went from struggling pioneer to acclaimed author. Although during her lifetime Kirkland enjoyed critical and popular success (Edgar Allen Poe described Kirkland as “an undoubted sensation”), by the early part of the twentieth century, she has largely been left out of American literary histories. Only recently have scholars begun to revisit her timeless writings

The Impact of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) on Firm Location

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Geography, 2010Recent innovations in information and communications technologies (ICTs), particularly those related to the Internet, have fundamentally changed the environment in which businesses and regions compete around the globe. Despite widespread recognition of this change, several aspects of the manner in which ICTs have impacted business location and regional development remain unexplored. The papers that comprise this dissertation seek to provide some initial quantitative insights about ICTs, firm location, and regional development, to a literature that remains largely theoretical and speculative. The first paper explores the utility of short and mid-range broadband forecasts as potential tools for local economic development officials to flag problematic areas where broadband provision via traditional market mechanisms is doubtful. The piece finds short and mid-range spatial forecasts of broadband provision offer improved results over aspatial forecasts, which is especially important for ICT studies, given the historical lack of available data for use in empirical work. Forecasts can also be used by economic development officials to craft proactive rather than reactive intervention strategies to rollout broadband in unserved areas. The second paper examines similarities in the spatial distribution of broadband provision and firms in a variety of industries. Results indicate the relationship between the location of broadband and the location of firms varies by firm size and industry. This suggests firm size and industry membership are critical considerations when evaluating the impact of ICTs on firm location decisions. The third and final paper examines the challenges associated with benchmarking regional development given the pervasive and related technological and industrial changes in the U.S over the past thirty years. Findings suggest multivariate approaches for benchmarking regional development are preferred over univariate approaches given the demonstrated divergence in univariate indicators in recent years. In sum, these three studies provide important information regarding the measurement of regional competitiveness in the global information economy, as well as information about the spatial relationship between firm location and broadband provision; which is likely to be a critical locational consideration for firm in specific sectors of the U.S economy

The Importance of Broadband Provision to Knowledge Intensive Firm Location

Despite the volume of literature afforded knowledge work and innovations in information and communications technologies (ICTs), few studies have examined the importance of ICTs to firms in knowledge industries. This study will develop spatial econometric models to examine the relative importance of the level of broadband provision to knowledge intensive firms in select U.S.  metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Results demonstrate the need for both a spatial econometric and a metropolitan area specific evaluation of this relationship. They also suggest potential spillover effects to knowledge intensive firm location, which may explain why some regional economies are relatively more successful at stimulating firm growth in this increasingly important sector of the U.S economy.

Psychological Inflexibility Predicts Suicidality Over Time in College Students

Objective: It is essential to identify modifiable risk factors that can be targeted to reduce suicidal ideation (SI) and behavior in college students. Psychological inflexibility, a pattern of responding to internal experiences in a literal and rigid way, and attempting to control those experiences even when it interferes with valued living, could theoretically lead to SI or increase its intensity. Method: Psychological inflexibility and its component processes were tested as a predictor of SI in a longitudinal survey of college students (n = 603, age M = 20.62, 68.9% female, and 94.0% White) in a series of cross-sectional and longitudinal hierarchical regression models, controlling for relevant predictors such as distress and baseline SI. Interactions were also tested between psychological inflexibility and distress, cognitive defusion, values obstruction, and values progress in predicting SI. Results: Psychological inflexibility predicted SI cross-sectionally and longitudinally, controlling for distress and baseline SI. Psychological inflexibility interacted with distress, cognitive fusion, and values progress such that distress, cognitive fusion, and values progress had the strongest association with suicidal ideation among those who were high in psychological inflexibility. Conclusions: Psychological inflexibility may be a useful mechanism to target for suicide prevention in college students