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Torsion heating in complex plasma crystals.
No full textThe study of plasma has yielded advancements in fields ranging from manufacturing to medicine for millions worldwide. A subfield of plasma study involves introducing microparticles to plasma, forming a newer field called complex/dusty plasmas. Complex plasmas host analogous structures to naturally occurring ones, like crystals, and may be studied to observe previously inaccessible features and effects in naturally occurring systems. Microparticles levitated in the plasma may form two-dimensional crystalline structures where features only available to plasma systems may occur, like the ion wakefield. The combination of microparticles in the plasma creates an ion wakefield that drives the formation of several static and dynamic structures in plasma crystals, most notably in this work, two spinning particles straddling a crystal monolayer called torsions. Torsions have been observed previously, and some aspects of their motion have been studied, but the energy and structural perturbations of the torsion have not been fully revealed. A new diagnostic linked to the particle amplitude of motion will be introduced as a novel mechanism for measuring particle perturbation and heating of the plasma crystal. The motion and structural impact of single torsions in a lattice are examined, and their combined effects lead to a new lattice state called a hot crystal. The single torsion analysis is extended to pairs of torsions in the lattice, where the motion between torsions is amplified along with the structural perturbations to the lattice, creating an even hotter crystal. This work aims to fill the gaps in torsions' motion and structural perturbations and provide a base for torsions as a novel melting mechanic in complex plasma systems
To the pointe : a narrative inquiry study understanding studio teacher experiences using culturally relevant pedagogy when teaching classical ballet.
No full textEmbracing culturally relevant practices in art studio spaces empowers ballet instructors to dismantle the cycle of perpetuating marginalizing training methods. The literature underscores Eurocentric aesthetics consistently marginalize dancers from minoritized communities (James, 2020; Kerr-Berry, 2012; Walker, 2019). Despite educators across different learning spheres actively implementing culturally relevant pedagogies (CRP) to overhaul limiting learning environments (Boyd et al., 2022; Duffy & Powers, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1995), few empirical studies comprehensively assess ballet studio training practices (Papaefstathiou, 2013; Trajkova et al., 2019). Studies seldom robustly explore components of the ballet training process, including the attire (Radell et al., 2020) and content (Walker, 2019), like the repertoire educators use to train young dancers in a culturally relevant manner (McCarthy-Brown, 2017). Capturing instructors' stories implementing CRP in a ballet studio setting subsequently enriches existing literature and narrows the current knowledge gap, demonstrating how to apply theory into practice. In this study, I explored how four studio ballet educators perceived CRP and their strategies to make ballet performance conventions culturally relevant. I recruited instructors with ties from the Los Angeles-based ballet studio teaching community and engaged in a narrative inquiry design to capture their stories in the field. This study's theoretical framework (CRP) helped frame semi-structured ballet item protocols and interview questions to collect data. Both data sources assisted in reconstructing the participant's core story (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Polkinghorne, 1995), which captured the events that led to an instructor diverging from the restrictive elements of traditional ballet training. This study delineates how the instructors implemented CRP's three canons into practice through pertinent themes. Subsequently, this study's findings support CRP as an invaluable framework to help ballet studio instructors transform restrictive training spaces. The instructors' compelling narratives encapsulated their experiences implementing attire and movement reforms. Additionally, their approaches to positioning ballet repertoire as a learning supplement maximized their dancers' ballet knowledge beyond mere kinetic acquisition. This study revealed how to apply culturally relevant teaching methods that foster inclusive learning spaces for adolescent ballet students. Implications include suggestions for ballet studio instructors, dance studio owners, ballet students, and their families and recommendations for future research
Creative personality and academic achievement.
No full textCreative potential is composed of creative ability, creative personality, and domain expertise. A recent meta-analysis found a positive relationship between creative ability and academic achievement. However, the relationship between creative personality and academic achievement among K-12 students is not well studied. To expand the literature on this topic, I conducted four studies that investigated the relationship between creative personality and academic achievement among K-12 students. I used data from a university-based talent identification program for high ability or gifted students. Personality is composed of deep traits, which have a strong biological root, and of shallow traits, which are developed through the environment. A deep-seated trait is openness to experience, part of the Big-5 personality theory, while a shallow trait or characteristic adaptation is creative self-concept. Openness to experience is composed of two aspects: intellectual openness, and senso-aesthetic openness. Creative self-concept is composed of creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity. The first paper investigated the relationship between the two facets of creative self-concept (i.e., creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity) and academic achievement in grade 4-9 students. The third and fourth studies investigated whether aspects of openness to experience (i.e., intellectual openness and senso-aesthetic openness) were associated with academic achievement in grade 4-10 students. The first paper found that intellect was positively associated with academic achievement in grade 4-10 students. However, senso-aesthetic openness was negatively associated with some domains of achievement in grades 7-10 high ability students. The second paper found that creative self-efficacy was generally not associated with academic achievement, while creative personality identity was
Community college technical education pathways : a qualitative single case study of first-year college students’ major choice.
No full textAll high school students in the state of Texas are required to select a career and technical education pathway and take courses aligned with that pathway. Career and technical education courses are considered foundational courses, and the expectation is that students will enroll in a technical education major at a community college after graduating from high school. However, only a small percentage of graduating high school students will enroll in a technical education major. One of the many challenges faced by community colleges today is recruiting high school graduates to enroll in technical education majors.
To understand the aspects that influence students to choose either a technical education major or an arts and sciences major, I designed a single case study with two embedded units (technical education majors and arts and sciences majors), utilizing Hossler and Gallagher’s three-phase college choice model as the guide to this qualitative study. The community college that I chose has low enrollment in its technical education majors compared to the total number of high school graduates each year in its service area. Upon emailing all first-year students at this institution, ten students completed a demographic survey, and I selected six students who met the criteria for inclusion in the study. I interviewed the students to find out about their decisions to select a particular major. I also brought in other artifacts from the college and the high schools to use in triangulation.
The purpose of this study was to identify the aspects or influences which have affected first-year community college students’ choice of major, specifically researching two groups of first-year community college students: those who decided not to pursue a technical education major and those who decided to select a technical education major. The study found that all the students had received little to no counseling in high school about enrolling in a community college technical education major. Further research is needed to help identify specific types of counseling that would work best in getting more high school students interested in enrolling in a community college technical education major
A descriptive single case study exploring Black and Latinx mathematics elementary teachers' experiences developing mathematical knowledge for teaching through a community of practice.
No full textBlack and Latinx mathematics elementary teachers face barriers to developing mathematical knowledge for teaching. Teacher preparation programs provide abbreviated mathematics courses (Marder et al., 2020), imparting a generic understanding of mathematics insufficient for effective mathematics instruction (Nabb & Murawska, 2020; NCTQ, 2022; Rahman et al., 2022). Transformational mathematics professional development eludes Black and Latinx teachers, often employed in majority-minority and economically disadvantaged student populated schools (Brantlinger, 2020; Garcia & Weiss, 2019) with limited funding for vital training. Instead, many Black and Latinx teachers experience facilitator-focused mass workshops (Braseth, 2021; Carney et al., 2019) that emphasize curriculum navigation and fidelity, promoting participant spectatorship (Darling-Hammond et al, 2017) rather than developing mathematical knowledge for teaching through active learning (Peltier et al., 2020; Polly et al., 2018; Shurr et al., 2021), collaboration (Johnson et al., 2018; Vallavicencio et al., 2021), and differentiation (Kraft et al., 2018; Novak & Weber, 2018).
This descriptive, single case study explored five Black and Latinx mathematics elementary teachers’ experiences developing mathematical knowledge for teaching. Five interviews and one focus group captured teachers’ reflections. Data analysis revealed nine patterns associated with the three structural components of the communities of practice framework: domain, community, and practice (Wenger et al., 2002). Three themes emerged. Theme one, sub-domains of MKT developed, highlighted specific sub-domains of MKT that the teachers developed through the campus mathematics community. Theme two, limited social learning, described teachers’ participation level in social learning activities. Theme three, communal norms, highlighted participants’ similar practices.
The findings aligned with Wenger’s (1998) and Wenger et al.’s (2002) communities of practice theory on individuals’ level of participation. The teachers’ level of participation epitomized the peripheral group level, the most populous and least active group in a community of practice. Members of the peripheral group limit their engagement in activities that require a shared repertoire, mutual engagement, and joint enterprise (Wenger et al., 2002). Results from this study highlighted that participants’ current level of social learning fostered partial development of MKT. Findings serve as a structure to ameliorate, expand upon, and cultivate MKT developing communities of practice for Black and Latinx mathematics elementary teachers
Low-dimensional materials for energy harvesting and storage : a theoretical approach.
No full textLow-dimensional materials are an intriguing class of materials subjected to the quantum confinement effect, enabling these systems to possess unique and tunable optoelectronic properties. Herein, first-principles-based density functional theory simulations are utilized to explore the optoelectronic landscape of edge-functionalized phosphorene quantum dots while assessing their potential in energy conversion devices. Additionally, this dissertation introduces a novel class of stable 2D transition metal-based compounds coined as aXMenes with great promise in energy conversion and storage applications. This work aims to unravel a microscopic understanding of these novel low-dimensional material candidates while using well-established descriptors to determine their candidacy in energy conversion and storage applications. The findings provide insight into emerging trends such as the dependance of orbital energy shifts in phosphorene quantum dots on the electron-donating or withdrawing nature of edge groups, the anisotropic absorptions and emissions of these quantum dots, and the influence of alloying on potential enhancements in metallicity and density of states near the Fermi level in 2D transition metal candidates. By utilizing established descriptors employed in theoretical predictions for materials, this work identifies prospective candidate systems in energy conversion and storage applications. These include novel graphene and phosphorene-based quantum dot van der Waals heterostructures for visible light conversion, 19 stable and metallic 2D transition metal compounds as potential electrode material, as well as a selected subset of these compounds for employment as electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction and as anode materials for Li, Na, and K ion batteries
Science and social studies on the back-burner : examining factors that impact 3rd and 4th grade educators' instructional time and choice in Central Texas.
No full textNationally in the U.S. education system, science and social studies instructional time and choice in the elementary years have been on the decline. Despite regulated district instructional minutes and fixated curriculums, science and social studies are not receiving the allocated time required for best practice. Furthermore, with education becoming increasingly centered around high-stakes testing, educator instructional choice is at an all time low. Until recently, research has focused primarily on the trends of time and choice decrease for these two subjects as well as national and state policies in place that contribute to the decrease. This study looks to address factors that impact 3rd and 4th grade educators' instructional time and choice when it comes to science and social studies, therefore identifying changes that need to be made to ensure that elementary students are receiving the education that they need, and arguably deserve
"Strengthening with the strength of the flourishing nation" : evangelical assistance to settler colonialism in Texas.
No full textSince the American settlement in Texas, Native Americans in the region faced epidemics, violence, and land loss due to westward expansion. By 1845, most were decimated or expelled from the Republic of Texas. I argue that evangelical leaders assisted and participated in this Euro-American conquest of Texas. Methodist and Baptist newspapers advertised Texas as a land of agricultural and religious opportunity by linking economic progress with spiritual growth. Missionaries and preachers, including Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians, immersed themselves into settler life by engaging in the commodification of land and the slave-based cotton economy. They saw Texas as fertile ground for religious and moral development, focusing their evangelistic efforts on white settlers while justifying land seizure and dehumanizing Natives. Evangelicals also contributed to settler violence, either by participating in armed conflicts or reinforcing racialized narratives that framed Native Americans as threats, supporting militia campaigns against indigenous communities and Mexicans
Paleoclimate and paleoenvironments of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age : the UNESCO World Heritage Joggins Fossil Cliffs of Nova Scotia revisited.
No full textDuring the late Paleozoic ice age, the fault-bounded equatorial Cumberland Basin of Nova Scotia experienced rapid subsidence, accumulating kilometer-thick fluvial sedimentary units derived from two highlands to the northwest and southeast. Major variations are recorded in the paleosols exposed at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, ranging from oxidized and well-drained paleosols with recognizable vertic features to highly reduced organic-rich paleosols. These different soil lithologies suggest alternating conditions between well-drained floodplain environments and water saturation associated with overall poor soil development. Although halokinetic subsidence of the Cumberland Basin is known to have been operative during deposition of these units, previous research favored glacio-eustatic processes as the primary forcing mechanism of sedimentation. A total of 474 fluvial aggradational cycles were identified within a kilometer-thick interval and show a fluctuating accommodation history with a very abrupt nature. The series of fluvial aggradational cycles was used to develop threshold autoregressive models based on (1) their thickness, (2) their paleosol thickness, (3) their sandstone content, and (4) their paleosol-to-sandstone ratio. For each model, results suggest no evidence of statistically significant cyclicity, contradicting the hypothesis that fluvial sedimentation was mainly driven by glacio-eustatic cyclothems. Additionally, a total of 7 lithologies were recognized through 1,655 beds. Evaluation of 8 spherical semivariograms suggests no evidence for cyclicity in the frequency, order, or distribution of the data based on lithologies, although some covariance was found at distances between 550 and 750 m suggesting similar processes controlling sedimentation in the lower and upper Joggins Formation. Our results suggest that Joggins records tectonically induced ponding of a part of the sedimentary basin, allowing more extensive preservation of abundant coal and organic-rich units, as well as still-standing fossil forests exposed along the cliffs. These new results suggest that tectonic subsidence of the Cumberland Basin during the late Paleozoic ice age was a more important driver of fluvial sedimentation than previously thought. This novel application of the TAR methodology provides a mathematical description of the sediment accumulation history of terrestrial basins when applied to conformable sedimentary successions, along with the means of linking paleosol development to climatic processes
"The Prometheus project".
No full textThis creative thesis explores both the struggles and opportunities that the current rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence poses for society, arguing that, while artificial intelligence is exceedingly beneficial, care must be taken to retain fundamental parts of the human experience at the risk of falling into the trap of a dull utopia. It takes the form of science fiction novella, as science fiction is uniquely posed to provide inspiration for the future development of advanced technologies while simultaneously answering important questions about the relationship of humanity with its technology. The world of The Prometheus Project centers around a young man who, because of advanced artificial intelligence, has grown from a young age with no outlook for the future nor any sense of personal drive. Isaac Hale, forced into a journey by forces outside of his control, must learn to live and take action for himself or lose the opportunity forever