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All The Math
No full textWelcome to All The Math, a free and open education resource dedicated to assisting computer science practitioners like yourself in mastering key mathematical topics!
Our resource collection includes free online computer science courses by award-winning lecturer Dr. Stephen Davies. Driven by a passion for teaching, Stephen has crafted these courses to provide you with a refreshing and innovative approach to learning math for computer science.https://scholar.umw.edu/oer/1000/thumbnail.jp
Re-Imagining Tibetan Buddhist Mandalas: The Practical Incorporation of Contemporary Aesthetics with Traditional Vajrayana Symbolism
Get PDFVajrayana or Tantric Buddhism, along with its beliefs and practices, has largely remained hidden from the world; however, the rich tradition has much to offer religiously, philosophically, and through its artwork. This project provides a brief overview of Tibetan Buddhist history, the development of the field of aesthetics, and the methods through which these areas can be combined in a re-incorporation and re-imagining of traditional Vajrayana symbolism present in Vajrayana mandalas in and with contemporary aesthetic ideas
Engaging Drama: Does Drama Increase Student Engagement in a Second-Grade History Class?
Get PDFThis research investigated how drama integration benefitted students’ academic achievement and their engagement in history. This study integrated drama and history in a second-grade class, by allowing students to create tableaus to present and share information. The study used pre and post assessments, an attitudes survey to measure students’ attitudes towards history before and after integration, and the researcher also recorded student engagement at the beginning and end of drama integration. This study showed significant improvement in student content knowledge through the use of tableaus, and inconclusive results as far as engagement and student attitudes were concerned
The Relationship Between Water Temperature and Proximity to Surface Urban Heat Islands within the Lower Chesapeake Bay Watershed for the Summer of 2019
Get PDFSurface urban heat islands (SUHIs) are land surfaces with high concentrations of impervious surfaces like roofs, roads, sidewalks and other infrastructures that trap, absorb, and re-emit heat throughout the day/night and typically present higher temperatures than their surrounding rural areas. In this study, I evaluate how presence of and distance to SUHIs are associated with water temperature in the lower Chesapeake Bay watershed for the summer of 2019. When heavy precipitation events occur, flooding creates stormwater runoff, which is exposed to the hotter temperatures in urban areas. This introduces thermal pollution to nearby rivers and streams disrupting aquatic ecosystems. The hypothesis for this research is that the closer water temperature points are to SUHIs, the warmer the temperature measured will be. To assess this, I processed Landsat 8 and 9 scenes in order to derive land surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and normalized difference build-up index (NDBI). I also processed land cover from the national land cover dataset (NLCD) and a digital elevation model (DEM) from which I derived flow direction (FD) and flow accumulation (FA). I used water temperatures measured by water quality stations from 25 sources as well. If areas with a surface temperature were half a standard deviation above the agricultural land cover LST average, they were defined as SUHIs, following Kaplan et al. (2018). The other datasets were used to extract other factors that can impact temperature or the relationship between distance to SUHIs and temperature. In addition, I also processed local climate zones (LCZs) to validate the identified SUHIs. To extract distance from SUHI areas and the water temperature datapoints, I used ArcGIS’s Euclidean Distance and Direction Distance tools. These were calculated for various cases, including; no-distance (contained within SUHI), omni-directional distance, and upstream/downstream distance. Some of these methodological attempts were more successful 2 than others. Overall results do not show a strong relationship between warmer water temperatures and proximity to SUHIs; therefore, in general terms, the hypothesis is not supported. However, there are some noteworthy findings; a) there are warmer water temperatures near urban centers where most of the SUHIs are located; b) elevation has the strongest influence and highest significance on water temperature with the trends of the variables explored (i.e., at higher elevations, the water temperature is cooler while at lower elevations, the water temperature is warmer); and, c) Euclidean distance to SUHIs and NDVI are other significant factors. With more time and resources, I would include more data on environmental confounding factors and use improved methods to calculate various distance measures, which would likely help tease out more specific relationships between water temperature and SUHIs as well as to interpret their correlations
A Rhetorical Criticism of “Bothsidesism” in Journalism
Get PDFIn recent years, a term called “bothsidesism” has come into public use as both a critique of journalists participating in false balance and as an expectation that journalists should cover all sides of an issue—no matter if a side’s claims are unfounded. I argue that bothsidesism is problematic because 1) bothsidesism is a fallacious rhetorical tactic that minimizes objective fact; 2) the term “bothsidesism” and the act of practicing it both reinforce bipartisan thought, which stymies political action; 3) false balance is at odds with the role of a journalist; and 4) false balance is perpetuated by comment sections. I offer alternative tactics for reporting and directions for future research. This project was sponsored by Dr. Emily Crosby for COMM 460: Seminar in Digital Rhetoric
Demythologizing Homer: Investigating Religion in Minoan Crete
Get PDFThe Minoan civilization of Bronze-Age Crete has, until recently, been obscured in mythological uncertainty. As a prehistoric civilization, the available evidence for historic analysis is sparse and ambiguous. This paper evaluates the material evidence for ritual activity to chart the religious developments of Minoan Crete. In the earliest periods of their civilization, the Minoans practiced animism, which reflected their ideals towards survival and cooperation. As their prosperity grew due to technological advancements, a social hierarchy formed. The emerging elite employed religion to justify their claim to power by appropriating religion, which culminated in a dual-monotheistic Knossian theocracy. This lasted until a period of Mycenaean occupation on Crete, through which the Mycenaeans established political control through religious syncretism. After the Mycenaean authorities withdrew to the mainland, the Minoans continued to practice polytheism until the ultimate collapse of their civilization. Punctuated by periods of natural disasters, these developments show how religion can be used by the social elite as a tool to accumulate wealth and power
goddess of.
Get PDFMy chapbook, “goddess of.”, is a compilation of poems that channel the larger-than-life personalities of the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses. I completed this project over the course of a semester in my ENGL470 course, Seminar in Creative Writing: Poetry. Professor Bylenok, who sponsored this project, was instrumental in the development of my poetry into a fully-fledged collection. My chapbook explores disillusionment, love, loneliness, and fear. At its core, it’s about having to live with yourself – even if it’s embarrassing, ugly, or painful. It’s a chance to feel as powerful as the gods themselves, or as pathetic as their devotion to the one thing they can control. I want the people that read my work to see themselves in someone else, to know that their emotions have been felt since the days of Zeus and Hera. Thank you to Professor Bylenok and the entire English department for your constant support and encouragement
Like a Shadow or Even a Dream : Memory and Haptic Motifs on Classical Attic Funerary Stelai
Get PDFDuring the third quarter of the fifth century BCE, Athens witnessed the revival of funerary stele reliefs. Sculpted motifs representing touch and interaction, often situated within familial scenes, characterized the grave monuments and contributed strongly to their tactility. Haptic stele motifs promoted the construction of memory by heightening the depiction of lasting bonds between living and deceased individuals. Grave reliefs provide a lasting representation of the deceased, while also serving as conspicuous reminders of the permanence of death. However, Attic funerary stelai provided a physical substitute for the departed towards which the living could direct their continued care and dedication. This work centers on interpreting fourth-century stelai as reflections of haptic imagery’s ability to promote viewers’ engagement. The depiction of grave-visit scenes on white-ground lekythoi, which often represent graveside visitors adorning and touching stelai, strengthens these interpretations. As visitors interacted with stelai at the gravesite, they created continuity between the scenes depicted on the reliefs and their own actions, encouraging a negotiation of their separation from the deceased and an understanding of mortality. Emotional, sensory, and tactile interaction with stelai and their haptic motifs allowed for the development of an enduring bond and lasting remembrance of the deceased
Speaking to the Head and the Heart: Prioritizing Empathetic Communication in the Post-COVID Workplace
Get PDFAs of August 2022, COVID-19 continues to affect our daily lives in physical, psychological, and financial ways. Many vulnerable individuals are struggling to adapt to returning to work and as a result, employee morale is at risk. In times of crises, empathy is needed in the workplace to support one another, but many leaders and employees may not have a firm grasp of the concept. This article seeks to define empathetic communication and explore the need for prioritizing empathy amid the current post-COVID-19 workplace. Through a literature review of empathy, psychological safety in the workplace, and crisis leadership, the author explains how the development of empathetic communication must be intentional to achieve sustainable change and lead to long-term organizational success. Practical recommendations are provided on how organizations should define empathetic communication, provide training for leaders and employees, and incorporate empathetic communication as a standard of responsibility for every employee to be assessed on a regular basis
Ch. 32: Aeroflot Routes to Baghdad: Soviet-Iraqi Relations during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1981)
No full textThis chapter appears in the book, Russian-Arab Worlds: A Documentary History. Edited by Eileen Kane, Masha Kirasova, and Margaret Litvin.
Chapter Summary: This chapter presents a 1982 internal report of the Soviet national airline, Aeroflot. The report shows how officials at the world’s largest airline responded to reduced demand after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988), seeking to maintain the Moscow-Baghdad route that had opened in 1964. Aeroflot sought to serve the interests of the “Soviet colony” in Iraq, enhance Soviet prestige, earn hard currency, and salvage its alliances with Muslim-majority countries after invading Afghanistan in 1979. The Iraqi government, meanwhile, shaped its relationship with the Soviets by limiting Aeroflot’s operations and advantaging its own carrier, Iraqi Airways, in flying passengers and cargo on the airlines’ shared route.https://scholar.umw.edu/hist_amst_books/1014/thumbnail.jp