19468 research outputs found
Sort by
Using Process Mapping As A Tool To Improve Institutional Procedures For Rural Transfer Students: An Action Research Study
No full textThis study investigated the transfer pathway between a rural university and a community college to understand what procedural barriers exist for student degree attainment within existing structures. Process mapping was used as the intervention to examine the influence of enrollment and student services processes and investigate the perceptions of process mapping among student affairs staff and allow them to make suggestions for changes to policy and procedure in their work. Participants were selected for their role in the transfer process at one of the two institutions and convergent mixed methods methodology through a constructivist lens was used to collect and analyze the data. A focus group and post-intervention survey were used with participant-established process maps and transcripts of process mapping activities to triangulate the data sources in this study. The findings in this study suggest that process mapping may serve to improve collaboration across institutional partnerships. The benefits of process mapping that were found include new ways of thinking, identifying institutional trends, trust, learning, and transparency. The changes in policy and practice resulting from this study include 1) utilization of Transfer Services 2) revision of a 2-year College Transfer Grant application 3) establishing blanket information sharing between institutions. Equipping professionals at colleges and universities with the skills and knowledge to carry out this method of institutional learning and systematic improvement is influential in improving their overall process and productivity toward institutional goals. Suggestions for the work of practitioners include 1) making process mapping part of routine assessment, 2) providing opportunities for interinstitutional collaboration, 3) considering transfer in process design, and 4) providing strategic transfer programming.EducationDoctor of Education (Ed.D.
“Do not grieve excessively”: Rabbis Mourning Children Between Law and Narrative in Rabbinic Laws of Mourning and Soloveitchik’s Halakhic Man
No full textIn “‘Do not grieve excessively’: Rabbis Mourning Children Between Law and Narrative in Rabbinic Laws of Mourning and Soloveitchik’s Halakhic Man,” Shira Billet highlights a rabbinic literary trope of rabbis who focus on performing commandments and teaching Torah upon losing a child and analyzes it in relation to a modern example of this trope found in Joseph Soloveitchik’s Halakhic Man. Although such stories of diminished mourning for children have been understood negatively by modern readers as touchstones of a general Jewish ethos that prioritizes the observance of commandments over the love of children, this article offers a framework for rethinking both the rabbinic sources and the modern story, uncovering emotional complexity and pathos hidden within them. By bringing together rabbinic literature and the modern work of Soloveitchik, this analysis crosses disciplinary boundaries in a way that aims to productively expand the scholarly toolbox for approaching questions at stake for modern Jewish thought insofar as it inherits rabbinic texts
Host Defense Peptide Piscidin and Yeast-Derived Glycolipid Exhibit Synergistic Antimicrobial Action through Concerted Interactions with Membranes
No full textDeveloping new antimicrobials as alternatives to conventional antibiotics has become an urgent race to eradicate drug-resistant bacteria and to save human lives. Conventionally, antimicrobial molecules are studied independently even though they can be cosecreted in vivo. In this research, we investigate two classes of naturally derived antimicrobials: sophorolipid (SL) esters as modified yeast-derived glycolipid biosurfactants that feature high biocompatibility and low production cost; piscidins, which are host defense peptides (HDPs) from fish. While HDPs such as piscidins target the membrane of pathogens, and thus result in low incidence of resistance, SLs are not well understood on a mechanistic level. Here, we demonstrate that combining SL–hexyl ester (SL-HE) with subinhibitory concentration of piscidins 1 (P1) and 3 (P3) stimulates strong antimicrobial synergy, potentiating a promising therapeutic window. Permeabilization assays and biophysical studies employing circular dichroism, NMR, mass spectrometry, and X-ray diffraction are performed to investigate the mechanism underlying this powerful synergy. We reveal four key mechanistic features underlying the synergistic action: (1) P1/3 binds to SL-HE aggregates, becoming α-helical; (2) piscidin–glycolipid assemblies synergistically accumulate on membranes; (3) SL-HE used alone or bound to P1/3 associates with phospholipid bilayers where it induces defects; (4) piscidin–glycolipid complexes disrupt the bilayer structure more dramatically and differently than either compound alone, with phase separation occurring when both agents are present. Overall, dramatic enhancement in antimicrobial activity is associated with the use of two membrane-active agents, with the glycolipid playing the roles of prefolding the peptide, coordinating the delivery of both agents to bacterial surfaces, recruiting the peptide to the pathogenic membranes, and supporting membrane disruption by the peptide. Given that SLs are ubiquitously and safely used in consumer products, the SL/peptide formulation engineered and mechanistically characterized in this study could represent fertile ground to develop novel synergistic agents against drug-resistant bacteria.Applied Scienc
Old Series: Volume 2, Number 2 (February 1993)
No full textWelcome back, folks. It has been a long break since Vol 2.1 in August ’92, but we are back in force, with enough to say for two volumes. Splitting up our sayables in two, this means we will return rather shortly with Vol 2.3. You could begin Vol 2.2 immediately by skipping down a page; otherwise, this Forward will greet you with a little theme: the force of sayables. According to Sextus, the Stoic philosophers said that thoughts refer to things only by way of certain “sayables” (lekta), which are the things as signified or as said. As displayed in BITNETWORK discussions, postmodern Jewish philosophers join the Stoa in noting that signification has at least three elements and not just two: that is, that we can’t reflect on things without reflecting on what we say about things and how we say it. It is not apparent, however, that the Stoa went as far as their Second Temple contemporaries in noting (albeit non-philosophically and non-diagrammatically) the performative force of sayables: that is, that divine speech (dibbur) creates and that, in its image, human saying is also a form of doing (a “faith that works” is one of Edith Wyschogrod’s phrases). As evidenced in their activities of the past months, BITNETWORK folks do not only say that sayables are doables (speaking philosophies of performative discourse); they also do things in the saying and about the saying
Dataset: Global seamless tidal simulation using a 3D unstructured-grid model
No full textDataset: We present a new 3D unstructured-grid global ocean model to study both tidal and non-tidal processes, with a focus on the total water elevation. Unlike existing global ocean models, the new model resolves estuaries and rivers down to ~8m without the need for grid nesting. The model is validated with both satellite and in-situ observations for elevation, temperature and salinity. Tidal elevation solutions have a mean complex RMSE of 4.2 cm for M2 and 5.4 cm for all 5 major constituents in the deep ocean (the RMSEs for the other 4 constituents (S2, N2, K1, O1) are respectively: 2.05cm, 0.93cm, 2.08cm, 1.34cm). The non-tidal residual assessed by a tide gauge dataset (GESLA) has a mean RMSE of 7 cm. For the first time ever, we demonstrate the potential for seamless simulation, on a single mesh, from the global ocean into several estuaries along the US west coast. The model is able to accurately capture the total elevation, even at some upstream stations. The model can therefore potentially serve as the backbone in a global tide-surge and compound flooding forecasting framework.Virginia Institute of Marine Scienc
Old Series: Volume 1, Number 3 (November 1991)
No full textAt the AAR annual meeting, we hope you will be able to participate in three discussions concerning postmodern Jewish philosophy. What is Postmodern Jewish Philosophy? NU? What IS it, after all? This is an opportunity for Bitnetwork members to discuss the question face-to-face, to reach no answer (except perhaps to declaim questions that begin in the fashion of to on?), to but decide anyway on how to fashion the Bitnetwork. Our agenda will be, first, to search for the identity of postmodern Jewish philosophy, perhaps like Socrates chasing the Sophist. The points of departure are: the contents of the last Bitnetwork (#2, with comments on the Question by Samuelson, Gibbs, Meskin, Silberstein, et. al); the two statements by Kepnes and Ochs appended below; and your responses, initiated by Greenberg and Silberstein. Suspending discussion after an hour, we hope to close by planning the next issue(s) of the Bitnetwork. To stimulate discussion, here are a passionate statement by Kepnes on the purpose of postmodern Jewish philosophy, and a phlegmatic statement by Ochs on its methods of inquiry
