She's the four-leaf clover in the city Katrina turned over : the historical Sister Gertrude Morgan and her post-Hurricane Katrina specters

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on November 13, 2009).Thesis advisor: Dr. Richard J. Callahan, Jr.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2009.In the 1960s and 1970s, Sister Gertrude Morgan, artist, musician, street preacher and prophet, lived and ministered throughout the city of New Orleans. Through her artwork, music, preaching, and literal interpretation of the apocalyptic books of the Bible, she placed herself and New Orleans within the biblical text, playing a significant role in the coming apocalypse. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has seen the emergence of multiple Sister Gertrude specters. The historical Sister Gertrude is the inspiration for these Sister Gertrude specters, but ambiguous relationships exist between the historical Sister Gertrude and each post-Hurricane Katrina specter. Each of the specters pulls at a specific element of Sister Gertrude's life, work, and/or image. The four specific specters explored in this thesis were created by: Philadelphia DJ King Britt, the New York Times, commemoration efforts, and Preservation Hall owner Benjamin Jaffe. The tensions inherent in each of these specters cannot be understood without their comparison to the historical Sister Gertrude. Despite these tensions, the historical Sister Gertrude and her specters remain connected. Today's specter creators' search for authentic New Orleans by adapting Sister Gertrude runs parallel to Sister Gertrude's efforts to make New Orleans sacred through her religious worldview. The process happening in both cases is similar. In the concluding chapter, the Sister Gertrude specters are examined in light of the New Orleans rebuilding process.Includes bibliographical references

Improving Student Outcomes: A Framework for Effective Oral Feedback

“Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, but this impact can be either positive or negative” (Hattie & Timperley, 2007, p. 81). However, finding time and developing an approach for structured and quality feedback often proves problematic. Providing feedback may seem valueless if students do not interact with it, thus we developed the 5R+ feedback method as a solution using VoiceThread as the platform

Enhancing General Chemistry Labs to Construct Engaging, Colorful Experiments

General Chemistry I (CHEM 121) sets the foundation for the chemistry education of Valparaiso students; therefore, it is critical that the CHEM 121 lecture and laboratory courses provide rich learning experiences that are meaningful, focused and both academically and visually engaging. In this project, two new or significantly revised laboratory experiments were incorporated into the curriculum during the Spring 2018 semester for the first time: 1) The Limiting Reagent in Action: Determining the Formula of a Precipitate and 2) The Analysis of Microplastic Pollution in Local Soil. The common goal of both labs were to increase student understanding of challenging general chemistry concepts by enhancing student engagement. In the case of Experiment 1, this was accomplished by improving the visual appeal of the reactions employed; in the case of Experiment 2, this was accomplished by directly connecting course material to study real-world pollution problems facing NW Indiana. Results of this experimentation and its impact on student learning in CHEM 121 are described

The Mason Music & Memory Initiative (M3I)

Educational Objectives 1. Explain the benefits of a nonpharmacological intervention, such as the M3I, for persons with dementia. 2. Describe the work of M3I and its collaboration with students and faculty throughout the state. 3.Highlight lessons learned and future directions for the M3I

Pathogen-induced hatching and population-specific life-history response to waterborne cues in brown trout ( Salmo trutta )

Hatching is an important niche shift, and embryos in a wide range of taxa can either accelerate or delay this life-history switch in order to avoid stage-specific risks. Such behavior can occur in response to stress itself and to chemical cues that allow anticipation of stress. We studied the genetic organization of this phenotypic plasticity and tested whether there are differences among populations and across environments in order to learn more about the evolutionary potential of stress-induced hatching. As a study species, we chose the brown trout (Salmo trutta; Salmonidae). Gametes were collected from five natural populations (within one river network) and used for full-factorial in vitro fertilizations. The resulting embryos were either directly infected with Pseudomonas fluorescens or were exposed to waterborne cues from P. fluorescens-infected conspecifics. We found that direct inoculation with P. fluorescens increased embryonic mortality and induced hatching in all host populations. Exposure to waterborne cues revealed population-specific responses. We found significant additive genetic variation for hatching time, and genetic variation in trait plasticity. In conclusion, hatching is induced in response to infection and can be affected by waterborne cues of infection, but populations and families differ in their reaction to the latte

Semantic Web repositories for genomics data using the eXframe platform

Background: With the advent of inexpensive assay technologies, there has been an unprecedented growth in genomics data as well as the number of databases in which it is stored. In these databases, sample annotation using ontologies and controlled vocabularies is becoming more common. However, the annotation is rarely available as Linked Data, in a machine-readable format, or for standardized queries using SPARQL. This makes large-scale reuse, or integration with other knowledge bases very difficult. Methods: To address this challenge, we have developed the second generation of our eXframe platform, a reusable framework for creating online repositories of genomics experiments. This second generation model now publishes Semantic Web data. To accomplish this, we created an experiment model that covers provenance, citations, external links, assays, biomaterials used in the experiment, and the data collected during the process. The elements of our model are mapped to classes and properties from various established biomedical ontologies. Resource Description Framework (RDF) data is automatically produced using these mappings and indexed in an RDF store with a built-in Sparql Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL) endpoint. Conclusions: Using the open-source eXframe software, institutions and laboratories can create Semantic Web repositories of their experiments, integrate it with heterogeneous resources and make it interoperable with the vast Semantic Web of biomedical knowledge