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Advocating for Ableist Practices: nNazi Propaganda against the Disabled between 1933-1941
Get PDFThis paper looks at the major themes and evolution of Nazi Germany’s propaganda campaign against people with various disabilities. The perspective of people concerning the disabled altered based on time and location. However, most had more negative imaginings of the disabled. For the Nazi’s, this was doubly true. Germany had prior campaigns against the disabled, however they would take it to another level during the Third Reich. Propaganda resolved around differing societal issues which offered various justifications for persecution of the disabled. Most tailored toward issues more practical to the average German citizen. Financial concerns, ethical questions, and calls for a better society were all argued in these propaganda pieces. Evolution was the prevailing concept that the Nazi Government pushed. For them, the implementation of these ideals was critical for reasons of nature and Germany’s progression. However, they included text which portrayed the disabled’s death or sterilization as a sacrifice they were doing for the betterment of the German nation. The Nazis ultimately got their desired outcome, many disabled German citizens were killed or sterilized
A Man, a Family, and a Story: Influences on the Creation of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan
Get PDFAll that is needed to reach Neverland is a little faith, trust, and pixie dust; at least, this is what children are told when they first hear the story of Peter Pan. However, understanding the story of Peter Pan, which wrestles with topics of love, fear, and growing up, is more complex than merely flying toward the second star to the right and straight on till morning. The early life of James M. Barrie was filled with a deep desire to gain affection after his family faced a great tragedy when he was a child, and this longing is seen throughout his stories. However, his life and writing were changed forever once Barrie met the Llewelyn Davies family, which led to the creation of the boy, Peter Pan. When crafting the character of Peter Pan, Barrie incorporated much of his distraught childhood, his interactions with the Llewelyn Davies family, and his realization of the inevitability of growing up to create the tales of an immortalized boy who never had to grow up
Restoration Reparations: A Communication Analysis
Get PDFA communication analysis examining recent rhetoric about the Church\u27s involvement in reparations. To do so, the symbolic communication of Boston\u27s Embrace Monument is examined as a symbolic representation of reparations through the lens of Thompson and Kwon\u27s Restoration Reparations model. Implications for the church were drawn from the findings
No One Likes a Mad Woman: The \u27Big Reputation\u27 of Rebekah Harkness
Get PDFThis paper examines the complex legacy of American socialite Rebekah Harkness (1915-1982), exploring how her reputation was shaped by both public scrutiny and her philanthropic contributions to the arts. While Harkness is often remembered for her scandalous personal life and extravagant behavior, this research argues that her cultural impact, particularly through the establishment of the Harkness Ballet and Harkness House for Ballet Arts, deserves deeper scholarly attention. This study reveals how Harkness navigated high society expectations while pursuing artistic ambitions that, despite her tumultuous personal life and controversial public image, led to significant contributions to American dance culture through her patronage and innovative approach to ballet training
A Qualitative Sociopsychological Study of Expectancy Violation and Uses and Gratifications Theories Pertaining to Phubbing Behavior and Reception in Generation X Women
Get PDFThe overall aim of this dissertation project was to examine the effects of phone snubbing, called phubbing, on Generation X women born between 1965 and 1980 who reside in the United States. This qualitative dissertation explored the experiences Generation X women have with the reception and action of the act of phubbing others through 18 semi-structured interviews via dyadic face-to-face conversation. The study’s findings indicate that Generation X women dislike being phubbed, negatively impacting conversational, communication, and relational satisfaction. Further indications suggest Generation X women typically try to avoid phubbing others, except for the felt need to check on their children or aging parents. To mitigate the negative communication effect of phubbing, most participants first share the need for a potential phub with their conversational partners, which seems to ameliorate the negative phubbing effect
Accelerated Evolution: NSGA-III & Tree Based Nondominated Sorting
Get PDFGenetic algorithms (GAs) are a unique subset of optimization algorithms that are widely used in solving multi-objective engineering design optimization problems. Although a large number of GAs exist in literature, with many available in Python and C/C++ libraries, new algorithms are still needed to continuously improve the solution quality and/or computational efficiency. In the previously developed optimization software GimOPT [1], the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) [2] was implemented with a dominance-tree based sorting technique [3] that offers great computational efficiency over other implementations. In this research, NSGA-III [4] was implemented into GimOPT using the dominance-tree based sorting algorithm. The speedup of this implementation in plain C++ was evaluated by comparing it to existing libraries such as pymoo for NSGA-II and NSGA-III, and the solution quality of GimOPT’s NSGA-II and NSGA-III were compared using benchmark problems. The results showed that this implementation of NSGA-III offers significant improvement on the computational speed of pymoo and simultaneously bolsters solutional quality in comparison to GimOPT’s NSGA-II. This new implementation of NSGA-III will relieve researchers of prior computational restraints and empower them to tackle new and difficult multi- and many-objective optimization problems.
References
[1] H. Fang, M.F. Horstemeyer (2006). A generic optimizer interface for programming-free optimization systems. Advances in Engineering Software, 37(6), 360-369. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2005.10.002)
[2] K. Deb, A. Pratab, S. Agarwal, T. Meyarivan (2002). A fast and elitist multi-objective genetic algorithm: NSGA-II. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 6(2), 182-197. (https://doi.org/10.1109/4235.996017)
[3] H. Fang, Q. Wang, Y. Tu, M.F. Horstemeyer (2008). An efficient non-dominated sorting method for evolutionary algorithms. Evolutionary Computation, 16(3), 355-384. (https://doi.org/10.1162/evco.2008.16.3.355)
[4] K. Deb, H. Jain (2014). An Evolutionary Many-Objective Optimization Algorithm Using Reference-Point-Based Nondominated Sorting Approach, Part I: Solving Problems with Box Constraints. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 18(4), 577-601. (https://doi.org/10.1109/TEVC.2013.2281535
EFFECTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON THIRD-GRADE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC AND BEHAVIORAL PERFORMANCE
Get PDFThe purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to investigate the relationship between witnessing domestic violence and third-grade students\u27 academic performance and behavioral conduct, with a focus on gender differences. Additionally, the study explored the connection between exposure to domestic violence and English Language Arts achievement. The research involved 280 third-grade students and parents at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in southwestern Georgia. Participants were part of social-emotional learning programs. Data collection included parent observation surveys, end-of-grade test scores (using the Georgia Milestones End-of-Grade assessment), and a child survey (the Violence Exposure Scale for Children – Revised). The study also employed the Child Behavior Rating Scale – Parent Form to observe student behaviors throughout the semester. Statistical analysis procedures were used to analyze the data. The results indicated significant relationships between exposure to domestic violence and both academic performance and behavioral conduct, with notable gender differences. The study concluded that exposure to domestic violence negatively impacted students\u27 educational experiences. Recommendations for further research included exploring interventions and support systems to create safer and more conducive learning environments for affected students
Phase-Field Model for Polymer Composite Solidification
Get PDFPredicting the mechanical properties of polymer composites depends on the structure of the material formed during solidification. Materials engineers must investigate the dependence of these parameters on the geometric features of the composite, and this study does so with the Phase Field Method. This method has been developed for polymer solidification over approximately the past 25 years and is here used to produce 2D simulations of composites containing solid circular particles. Simulations were performed in MOOSE (Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment) by (1) replicating a model from the literature then (2) modifying the geometry to include randomly distributed particles. The size and number of particles were varied in the simulations to understand their relationship to each other and the composite’s sensitivity to them. It was found that the visual distortion of the solidifying crystals is more sensitive to the number of particles than their size. Additionally, the liquid material often does not solidify onto the particles from the crystal side, which, as explained later and justified with the literature, is likely due to the nature of heat diffusion surrounding the particles. The simulations performed here give an understanding of crystallization in polymer composites and are foundational for predicting the mechanical properties of such materials
Evaluation of Human Cadaver Tissue for Undergraduate Medical Histology Education
Get PDFHistology is a foundational component of medical education, providing critical insights into tissue structure and function. While undergraduate biomedical sciences students traditionally use animal tissues for histological studies at Liberty University, this research explores the feasibility of using human cadaveric tissue to enhance undergraduate medical histology education. The research question guiding this study is: “Can human cadaver tissue serve as a viable and educationally valuable alternative to animal tissue in undergraduate histology education?†We hypothesize that cadaveric tissue will display preserved histological structures comparable to live tissue references, making it a useful educational tool. To test this hypothesis, testicular and ovarian tissue samples (~1 cm³) were collected from two cadaveric donors provided by the University of Maryland State Anatomy Board (Donor 1: Male, White, 73 years old; Donor 2: Female, White, 88 years old). Following dissection, tissues were washed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and 70% ethanol. Paraffin-embedded tissues were sectioned at 5-micron thickness, stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E), and examined under a light microscope. The structural integrity of blood vessels, surface epithelium, connective tissues, and gonad-specific components was assessed and compared to online histological references of biopsy tissue samples. Preliminary results indicate that cadaveric tissues retain fundamental histological features, including intact blood vessel endothelium enclosing erythrocytes and leukocytes, surface epithelium with underlying stromal structures, and ovarian cysts observed in the female tissue. These findings suggest that human cadaveric tissues could significantly enhance undergraduate histology education by providing students with realistic, clinically relevant samples. Future research will focus on expanding this study to include additional tissue types, such as brain, liver, and skeletal muscle which have been collected, to further validate cadaveric tissue as an effective resource for medical education
A Man, a Family, and a Story: Influences on the Creation of J. M. Barrie\u27s Peter Pan
Get PDFThe purpose of this project is to investigate the direct influence James M. Barrie’s life had on the character of Pan in his beloved work, Peter Pan. The research reveals distinct connections between Barrie’s life and the character of Pan that can be traced from his childhood to the time of the story’s publication. Many researchers have provided insight into Barrie’s personal life, but there is a gap in relating Barrie’s life to his writing. Understanding the influence Barrie’s life had on his work leads to a deeper understanding of how Barrie views himself in his story of a boy who never grows up. To learn about Barrie’s life, the people who influenced him, and how he viewed himself in the story of Peter Pan, this project utilizes extensive research that ranges from biographies to scholarly journals. The project first outlines how the death of Barrie’s older brother, David, causes his mother to isolate herself from her children and how her depression and isolation influenced how James viewed the role of mothers throughout his work. This situation is not the only influence on James’s life, and once Barrie meets the Llewelyn Davies family, he begins crafting stories about Peter Pan. Barrie’s relationship with the Llewelyn Davies boys, especially Michael, leads to the creation of Pan through the shared experience of childlike play and expression. Being with the Llewelyn Davies boys leads to the creation of the character of Peter Pan, who reflects Barrie’s personal feelings of having never fully grown up. Through the study of Barrie’s life and its impact on his work, there is a distinct connection between Barrie’s life and his treasured story, Peter Pan, which can give readers a clearer understanding of the character of Peter and the author, J. M. Barrie