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Problems in Forensic Science and How to Improve
Get PDFCrimes typically leaves evidence that needs to be analyzed to uncover the happening of an event through the identification, individualization, association and reconstruction. There are many different types of evidence such as hair, fingerprints, blood, shoe impressions, bite identification and blood. There are many problems and limitations in forensics that has detrimental results to people and the criminal justice system such as wrongful convictions. To combat the problems, policies, procedures and methods will need to be reevaluated
A Study on Engineering Students' Collaborative Project Development Skills
No full textSurvey that collects quantitative and qualitative data that can be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.The use of technology by educational institutions and students has increased dramatically in recent years. Engineering education, in particular, focuses on techniques that help students gain Industry 4.0 skills. Students should learn to merge their technical abilities with computer skills as well as learn to operate in a collaborative setting as a result of this transition. The use of digital tools to improve teamwork and carry out group tasks effectively is becoming a standard aspect of engineering education. Students have historically struggled to work on group assignments due to variables such as clashing schedules, geographic distances, various learning styles, and varied backgrounds. For faculty members and instructors teaching the courses, establishing effective communication channels and, as a result, developing solid teams to collaborate on group projects has been a difficulty. Virtual communication, enabled through online collaboration tools, has been invented as a result of recent technological advancements. These online collaboration tools assist students in developing a functioning model for completing their projects successfully. This research project presents a state-of-the-art examining how current engineering education handles computational needs and combines Industry 4.0 skills. The use and impact of computational tools, as well as the use of online collaboration platforms in engineering education, were investigated in this conceptual study. This research study involved students and instructors from several engineering and computer science programs, and the data gathered from the research was examined
FRAGILE: AN EXPLORATION OF THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS OF GENDER ROLES
No full textABSTRACT
My recent work is about the expectations of people, especially in their gender roles, but my particular focus is on women and the struggles they endure day to day in a world that still lacks equity and equality. This body of work responds to contemporary society’s expectations for women, and the way women fight to change these subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, expectations about gender roles, domesticity, body image and violence against women. I explore these social constructs and constrictions through the concept of “boxes” and “labels.” For instance, I take a highly functional but overused and overlooked object like a cardboard box as a jumping off point. I examine the meanings of this object, including the promise of a present inside, something bright, shiny, and new–-a sign of change. But I also investigate how the “box” format is confining, prescribed and claustrophobic. To counteract this limiting aspect, I focus on surface treatment and distort a standardized box label with language that echoes through most women’s minds because of the social and gender conditioning starting at a young age. I aim to show how the standardization and commercialization of the common box must be overridden by each of us to find our own voice and individualism. I make abstract work that is personalized, emotional, unique, and meaningful, adding “labels” that have defined how women should look, act and participate in an oppressive patriarchal world. My text, however, satirizes the original standard verbiage in ways that challenge and rewrite the labels we are forced to deal with or fit into. Gender norms can be broken down with discussions and education, something my work attempts to inspire
WHAT DID COVID CHANGE? A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY OF RURAL SCHOOL PRINCIPAL COMMUNICATION
Get PDFBackground: The rural school principal was faced with an unprecedented situation with the shutdown of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent literature on schools and COVID-19 mainly focus on instructional practices. This article examines the communication practices in the rural setting for the campus leader. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to explore the difference that COVID-19 precautionary measures made on the communication practices of the rural school principal during the 2020-2021 academic school and beyond. It focused on the changes to the communication practices due to the response to COVID-19, and the rural school principal’s perceived changes on future communication practices. Research Design: The methodology was qualitative, specifically analyzing each principal as one of three case studies. The practices explored involved the interactions between the principal and the teachers, students, and parents. Findings: Three themes emerged from the virtual interviews. The use of technology for communication, targeted communication, and increased teacher support were the themes developed through analysis of the interview transcripts. These rural principals continually adapted to the increased workload, communicating with a more intentional, effective skillset. Conclusion: Principals were already utilizing good communication practices pre-COVID-19. With the school shutdowns and precautionary measures placed on school districts, rural school principals continued the use of emails, group texts, phone calls, and social media platforms to get information out and check on those they serve
A QUESTION OF CONTROL: VIOLENCE AND LATE MEDIEVAL SOCIETY DURING THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR
Get PDFThe military communities operating within the scope of the Hundred Years War have received significant attention in recent years. Nevertheless, the study of violence—both state-sanctioned and otherwise—during the late-medieval period is still largely incomplete. Existing studies of statehood and the development of “proto-fiscal military states” during the fourteenth and fifteenth century are often limited, overwhelmingly in their focus upon exclusively royal-seigniorial powers and the economic limitations of European monarchs. Incorporating a wide range of ecclesiastical and common perspectives, alongside traditional examinations of royal centralization, allows one to expand studies of the monopolization of violence beyond royal-seigniorial power and into a broader context.
My analyses of attempts to monopolize violence are centered on two facets of authority during the late-medieval period: ecclesiastical authorities and a combination of urban burghers and rural commons, known as popular authorities. I argue that royal-seigniorial power—despite its incredible influence—was not the only impetus for an effective monopolization of violence during the Hundred Years’ War, but rather one part of a complex and often contradicting myriad of competing political, economic, social, and religious motivations, propagated by all aspects of medieval society. Furthermore, I demonstrate how military communities operating independent of royal power—primarily, though not limited to, the routiers—served as a catalyst for extensive societal change and the evolution of professional military service
Sacred Music at the Court of Emperor Leopold I (r. 1658-1705)
Get PDFLeopold's tenure as Holy Roman Emperor, while unexpected, lasted almost half a century, from 1658-1700. As the second oldest child in the family Leopold was trained in religious and intellectual pursuits, which left him rather ill-suited for the prestigious post that was to be filled by his older brother Ferdinand, who died unexpectedly in 1654, leaving Leopold as heir apparent. Considering his education, it is utterly unsurprising that Leopold was a deeply religious ruler, a tenacious Roman Catholic who also happened to be a prolific patron of the arts. Occupying the throne a decade after the financial drain of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) abated, Leopold was able to dedicate substantial resources to architectural, theatrical, and musical pursuits. Historian Maria Goloubeva (2000) has studied Leopold's glorious representation in architecture, literature and on the opera stage. Musicologists have examined the secular Italian cantatas composed at Leopold's court (Bennett 1980), the keyboard music penned by Leopold's imperial composers (Harris 1967), and instrumental ensemble music of the period (Vaillencourt 1991). The sacred music performed at the court of this profoundly pious emperor, however, has yet to be systematically studied. This lacuna in the musicological research is likely the result of many musical sources that have been unfortunately lost and the scattered nature of the surviving sources. There is, however, a catalog of the sacred music library of Leopold I, the Distinta specificazione. While many of these compositions listed in this source do not survive, this catalog provides relevant information about many of the pieces listed including the genre of the work, the feast celebrated by the composition, and the instrumentation or voicing of the composition. A textual incipit is sometimes provided as well. Also extant is a detailed list of the sacred ceremonies that were granted musical accompaniment at Leopold's court, Kilian Reinhard's Rubriche generalie per la funzioni ecclesiastiche musicali di tutto Anno. Finally, there are a substantial number of compositions that were penned by composers who were employed by Leopold that do survive today. While many of these works are not published in modern edition and are found mainly in partbooks or manuscripts scattered throughout various archives in central Europe, cataloguing the titles and instrumentations of these works as well as the feasts for which they were composed provides another piece of the puzzle that is the sacred music repertoire performed for Leopold I. These sources facilitate the reconstruction of Emperor Leopold's individual approach to Catholic piety according to the feasts or objects of devotion that were celebrated with particularly extraordinary musical accompaniment. Once we reconstruct Leopold's distinct Catholic piety, we can attempt to track how his approach to Catholic devotion resonated throughout his diverse and scattered empire
INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP AND COACHING: THE INFLUENCE OF PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP ON TEACHER SENSE OF PURPOSE AND BELONGING
No full textThis final composite scholarly delivery explores the influence of instructional practices on teacher sense of purpose and belonging through three separate artifacts. Each artifact has its own title page, abstract, keywords, content, and references. The first artifact, a review of literature is a traditional review of research on instructional leadership and instructional practices. The second artifact is a case study that can be utilized for educating master’s and doctoral candidates in the field of education leadership. The article was written as a submission to the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. The final artifact is an empirical study on instructional leadership and instructional practices as it relates to teacher sense of purpose and belonging
Evaluation of Rapid Wort Color Method for Dark Malts, Temperature and pH
No full textSpectrophotometry and ONE Way ANOVAThe rapid wort color method is an American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) method used to evaluate the color contribution of malts to beer color measured as the Standard Reference Method (SRM). SRM is important to brewers as it helps them predict the relative color of beer that they manufacture and evaluate how close the final product color is to the style of beer being produced. This method involves the heating of a solution of malt and deionized water followed by filtration and analysis of the resulting solution using a spectrophotometer. This study evaluated the effect of water pH and initial water temperature on color extraction in malts using this method. Use of an inclusion method based on the Hot Steep Sensory method is also evaluated. Results and recommendations for method modification will be presented
The Moderation Effect of Mindfulness on Stress and Non-Clinical Dissociation
No full textDissociation has previously been studied in clinical and non-clinical populations, with relation to both mindfulness and stress. However, previous literature has not examined all three together within an experimental design. The study examined the moderating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between stress and dissociation within a non-clinical college population. It was hypothesized that a stress-inducing task would induce peritraumatic dissociation. It was also hypothesized that mindfulness would buffer the impact of stress on peritraumatic dissociation. A Mann-Whitney non-parametric test was conducted to examine the statistical differences in dissociation between the stress-inducing and nonstress-inducing conditions. A simple moderation analysis was conducted to examine the moderation effect of mindfulness on the relationship between stress and peritraumatic dissociation with anxiety, depression, and trait dissociation as covariates. Mindfulness did not moderate the relationship between stress and dissociation. Stress had a positive and significant effect on dissociation, while the effect of mindfulness was not significant. The study has the potential to increase knowledge of the three constructs together within a non-clinical sample. Further implications may be made from the current study, such as checking individual’s progress while conducting mindfulness trainings to ensure the trainings are working as intended
Material Characterization of Cotton Gin Waste Biochar for Use in Panhandle Soils
Get PDFDesign of Experiments (DOE), physical-chemical material characterizationCotton gin waste (CGW) is a large quantity byproduct from cotton fiber and cotton seed oil production in the Texas Panhandle (700 lbmass/bale, 1.7 million tonnes/year of CGW) and many large cotton growing regions globally. As there is little economic value for CGW, it is can be churned into soils to increase organic carbon, composted, fed as a low nutrition supplement for animals, burned or gasified for energy/heat, or simply landfilled as a waste. In general, most “beneficial†uses are more properly described a more elaborate form of disposal. We sought to examine CGW for biochar production (CGW-BC) on a small scale with an eventual application for soil amendment. As a soil amendment, many plant-based biochars have the potential advantage of acting as slow release fertilizers, aiding soil health, increasing soil water holding capacity (WHC), increasing long-term soil organic matter, and sequestering carbon which would other be mineralized to CO2 in a short timeframe. Biochar is highly variable in its production yield and quality according to production and post-production decisions. Using previous experience with cotton seed waste biochar, we determined to produce sixteen (16) CGW-BC variants according to the two temperatures (450°C, 600°C), four pyrolysis times (10, 20, 40, 60 min), and two types of post-treatment (crush-sieve with mild acid wash, crush-sieve with DI wash only, 2 x 4 x 2 = 16). We made all CGW-BC in small batches of approximately 15 g dry initial dry mass which results in nominal final mass of 5 g dry mass biochar. We then examined these biochar variants using the material characterization techniques that will have import for CGW-BC use in soil—XRD, SEM-EDS, TGA and surface characterization by a Micromeritics 3Flex physisorption analyzer. The use of XRD reveals the amorphous nature of biochar, and the SEM-EDS reveals surface morphology and the predominant presence of carbon (>75%) and TGA data demonstrates the thermal stability of biochar. The use of the 3Flex allows us to use multiple adsorptive gases. We used CO2 at a range of low relative pressure (P/Po = 0.00-0.30) and cold temperature (T = 0°C) to determine total and pore-size dependent surface area (m2/g biochar) and volumes (cm3/g biochar) in biochar at the micropore scale of 3.30-7.70 Å. We also used water vapor isotherms (adsorption-desorption) to examine the potential for attraction and retention of water when CGW-BC is deployed in soil environments. The results of this work are on-going. The current range of total micropore surface areas found are on the order of 200-400 m2/g, a relatively high surface area considering the modest amount of energy and materially used to create the biochar. On-going work will suggest the general performance of biochar when added to soils and will provide more optimal conditions for producing biochar according to that which has the lowest bulk density, greater surface area, increased microporosity, or enhanced mineral/nutrient solid phase concentrations. This early work in CGW-BC material characterization will provide promising candidates for inclusion in soil+biochar mix and incubation experiments in root and non-root systems