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Challenging the Ideas of “Japan” and “Japanese Language” in Foreign Language Education: Linguistic Landscapes Project
No full textThis book aims to offer ideas and examples of pedagogy in the undergraduate classroom; case studies of syllabi that showcase pedagogies aimed at the deconstruction of concepts such as “Japan,” “Japanese,” or “Japanese society”https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eas_books/1009/thumbnail.jp
Archangels of Funk : Episodes from the Continuing Drama of Cinnamon Jones: Scientist, Artiste, and Hoodoo Conjurer
No full textThe Water Wars have scrambled the world. Flood refugees are on the run. Disrupters and the nostalgia militia roam the roads, wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet Lords troll the internet, solidifying their power, while Cinnamon, her three Circus-Bots, and two dogs work with a community of farmers, Motor Fairies, and Wheel-Wizards to provide housing, health care, and education for flood refugees. As Cinnamon confronts threats from the Darknet Lords and the nostalgia militia, she must determine how best to honor her elders and her history while building a future for herself and her charges. It\u27s not going to be easy -- Provided by publisherhttps://scholarworks.smith.edu/the_books/1007/thumbnail.jp
Detailed Study of a Rare Hyperluminous Rotating Disk in an Einstein Ring 10 Billion Years Ago
Get PDFHyperluminous infrared galaxies (HyLIRGs) are the rarest and most extreme starbursts and found only in the distant Universe (z ≳ 1). They have intrinsic infrared (IR) luminosities LIR ≥ 1013 L⊙ and are commonly found to be major mergers. Recently, the Planck All-Sky Survey to Analyze Gravitationally-lensed Extreme Starbursts project (PASSAGES) searched ~104 deg2 of the sky and found ~20 HyLIRGs. We describe a detailed study of PJ0116-24, the brightest (μLIR ≈ 2.6 × 1014 L⊙, magnified with μ ≈ 17) Einstein-ring HyLIRG in the southern sky, at z = 2.125, with observations from the near-IR integral-field spectrograph VLT/ERIS and the submillimetre interferometer ALMA. We detected Hα, Hβ, [N ii] and [S ii] lines and obtained an extreme Balmer decrement (Hα/Hβ ≈ 8.73 ± 1.14). We modelled the molecular-gas and ionized-gas kinematics with CO(3–2) and Hα data at ~100–300 pc and (sub)kiloparsec delensed scales, respectively, finding consistent regular rotation. We found PJ0116-24 to be highly rotationally supported (vrot/σ0, mol. gas ≈ 9.4) with a richer gaseous substructure than other known HyLIRGs. Our results imply that PJ0116-24 is an intrinsically massive (Mbaryon ≈ 1011.3 M⊙) and rare starbursty disk (star-formation rate, SFR = 1,490 M⊙ yr−1) probably undergoing secular evolution. This indicates that the maximal SFR (≳1,000 M⊙ yr−1) predicted by simulations could occur during a galaxy’s secular evolution, away from major mergers
Storytelling with Art and Augmented Reality
No full textThis short article highlights a story telling activity designed for K12 & K16 students learning a foreign language. Stories help in memorizing and remembering new words because they influence memory mechanisms like visualization, emotion, movement, and using tone of voice
Associations Between State‐Level Structural Stigma and Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Mental Health
No full textAbstract: Introduction Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) face high levels of discrimination, which in turn is related to mental health inequalities. Structural stigma perpetuated by macro-level forces (social norms, laws, and policies) constrains opportunities and resources for SGMY, thereby contributing to downstream mental health outcomes. While a large body of work has explored SGMY’s increased risk for adverse mental health outcomes, little research has directly examined the roles of structural factors on SGMY mental health.
Methods: In the current study, we employed structural equation modeling to examine the association of laws and policies explicitly aimed at SGMY with depression and self-esteem outcomes in a diverse national sample of youth (N=17,112) surveyed between April and December 2017.
Results: The presence of protective laws and the absence of antagonistic laws in the state SGMY lived in were associated with decreased depression and increased self-esteem. Sensitivity analyses revealed that this association held only for cisgender sexual minority youth. Trans and nonbinary (TNB) youth reported uniformly higher levels of depression and lower levels of self-esteem, neither of which were associated with SGMY equity-focused laws, possibly refecting higher baseline levels of interpersonal and societal stigma directed at TNB youth.
Conclusions: These fndings suggest the importance of implementing laws and policies specifcally aimed at protecting SGMY and removing laws targeting SGMY, while revealing the need for greater support for TNB youth specifcally.
Policy Implications: The presence of laws explicitly aimed at protecting SGMY and the absence of laws targeting SGMY are linked to lower depression and higher self-esteem among sexual minority youth. There is a need for trans youth-specifc protective laws as well
Conscious Selection: Critical Consciousness Informs Cultivation of Social Networks in a Living and Learning Community
Get PDFIncreased popular discourse about societal inequities highlights the importance of critical consciousness (CC) as a developmental competency for youth. Peer dialogue has been implicit to theories of CC, but we know little about how critical reflection, action, and sociopolitical efficacy inform interpersonal mechanisms through which social networks are selected in developmentally salient contexts. We used social network analysis methods to explore the role of CC components in how late adolescents cultivated their peer affiliation and friendship networks within a specific context of a college living and learning community. Participants (n = 37; 67.6% female; Mage = 18.18 years, 56.81% White) nominated individuals with whom they have positive interactions (437 nominations at wave 1) and friendships (157 nominations at wave 1) at two waves. At wave 1, participants reported on their CC components, frequency of daily inequities, and sociodemographic information. Stochastic actor-oriented models were used to model how CC at wave 1 predicted how youth selected peer affiliations and friendships. Sociopolitical efficacy was positively associated with popularity in the affiliation network and activity in the friendship network. Critical action was negatively associated with both popularity and activity in the affiliation network and activity in the friendship network. These results provide new insights into how CC informs the ways young people cultivate their social networks in developmentally salient settings. This work highlights the need to better understand the relational implications of CC
The Role of Gpr37 in the Developing and Regenerating Retina
No full textMüller glia are a unique type of glial cell in the eye that mediate diverse physiological functions. In the teleost but not mammals, they become multipotent progenitors in response to injury. Scientists are endeavoring to utilize teleosts’ regeneration ability to aid individuals with retinal injuries. GPR37, an orphan G protein-coupled receptor, is highly expressed in retinal Müller glia and brain oligodendrocytes. Although GPR37 may downregulate oligodendrocyte maturation, its roles in the retina are unknown. GPR37 has been shown to be a positive regulator of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway, which regulates aspects of eye development and regeneration. We therefore hypothesize that Gpr37 is essential for both the development and regeneration of the retina in zebrafish. We examined the expression of the paralogs gpr37a and gpr37b during zebrafish\u27s early development. Both gpr37a and gpr37b are expressed in discrete patterns in the developing zebrafish: gpr37a is almost exclusively expressed in Gfap+ Müller glia within the inner nuclear layer (INL) of the retina; in contrast, gpr37b shows high expression in distinct layers of the retina as well as in the forebrain and olfactory bulb. To test whether Gpr37 may play a role in regulating retinal regeneration, we examined Gpr37’s expression following light-induced retinal injury. Interestingly, some gpr37a-expressing cells dispersed from the INL into the photoreceptor layer. Efforts to produce a gpr37a promoter knockout zebrafish line are underway. Lastly, to contrast the role of GPR37 in regeneration-incompetent mammals, we are characterizing the healthy and injured retina of GPR37 -/- mice. Our preliminary observations suggest that loss of GPR37 reduces WNT signaling and increases MAPK activities. Considering GPR37 has been shown to be neuroprotective and regulates gliosis during CNS injury, GPR37’s potential role in Müller glia-mediated injury repair may provide exciting insights into regenerative medicine
Calibrating Coronagraphic Spectroscopy on the HST Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
No full textCoronagraphic imaging allows us to study faint features around bright objects, and can be combined with long-slit spectroscopy by adding an occulting bar in the slit. Coronagraphic spectroscopy thus provides high contrast, spatially resolved spectra at close angular separation. Currently, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is the only instrument capable of performing visible light coronagraphic spectroscopy (λ ∼ 2900-10270˚A). However, this mode is rarely used and not supported by the science pipeline. We build a spectral reduction method, calibrate the performances and limitations of this mode, and create contrast curves as a function of wavelength for future reference and observation planning. The full pipeline includes basic reduction, defringing, centering, point spread function (PSF) subtraction, noise estimation, and spectral extraction. We test the pipeline on archival observations of GJ 784, which was used as a PSF reference star for the debris disc host AU Mic. These observations were taken in the G750L mode (a low-resolution spectrum (R ∼ 500) covering wavelengths between 5200∼10270˚A). Two epochs of observations were taken in 2012 and 2021, and classical reference differential imaging (RDI) on these two datasets established a baseline scenario for PSF subtraction. We use the standard deviation of noise as a metric of contrast at various wavelengths and separations. Our estimation suggests the 1α contrast at 1” is on the order of 10−5 ∼ 10−6. Our dedicated calibration program (Proposal ID: 17902) explores the possibility of using coronagraphic spectroscopy on close separation systems. We discuss the impact on contrast estimation when a central star is placed at non-default locations behind the occulting bar. The non-default locations allow us to place the center object closer to the edge of the bar to study companions and environments at extremely close (200 mas) separation. The calibration program also observed a white dwarf companion, HD 114174B, with an easily modeled spectrum. We use this observation and an unknown brown dwarf that falls into the slit in the previous close separation observation to validate our contrast estimation
Understanding Plant Functioning During Drought for Individuals with Variable Carbon Stores
No full textClimate change driven drought has posed a significant threat to plants throughout the world. With this current climate crisis, it is imperative to understand the mechanisms by which plants respond to drought conditions in order to make predictions about ecosystem functioning. Despite their importance, the physiological mechanisms by which plants adapt to water scarcity are not yet fully understood. While many studies have been done to understand xylem dysfunction, few have looked into the phloem tissue and its role in whole plant functioning during drought conditions, as well as how carbon and water dynamics interact during drought. The phloem is responsible for transporting carbon and sugars throughout the plant, making it a key tissue in plant functioning. Carbon and water interactions can also be observed both in the phloem tissue as well as by observing the plant leaves during the wilting process. This study seeks to understand the mechanisms by which phloem transport and leaf turgor are affected during drought in Ricinus communis, a phloem-bleeding species. To study this, I manipulated carbon stores and performed a drought experiment. I found that phloem transport can continue after stomatal conductance ceases through a doubling of phloem sap concentration. Additionally, limiting access to light can affect the production of carbon in shaded plants, hindering the plant’s ability to maintain phloem and leaf turgor/functioning during drought. This suggests that carbon stores are a key factor in a plant’s ability to maintain functioning during drought, which has cascading implications for thinking about the interactions between whole-plant functioning and climate change