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Tears in a Bottle
No full textThe process of writing Tears in a Bottle has been both a labor of love and a struggle. I first began writing this story—a story of compounded trauma, grief, morality, and faith- during my first year in Exhaustion. I started writing this story because I was frustrated with the books I was reading, where characters deal with insurmountable traumas and still manage to come away with a happy ending. Sometimes, people don’t get a break from trauma. It builds and builds until the person has a breakthrough or a breakdown. That is Leah Young. The thing she wants most is withheld from her in a cruel way. She simultaneously believes God will give her the children she wants while also believing God is punishing her with the multiple miscarriages she’s experienced.
The beginning of this story has undergone multiple iterations, primarily focused on a change in point of view. I was trying to find the best voice to establish a solid foundation for why Leah’s losses sent her into a complete mental breakdown and set the stage for her fight with God. I want to discuss the possibility of changing this to a first-person narrative. It’s the only other point of view I think would fit with this story, but I wonder if it’s too close. I did try using the third person, present tense, but it didn’t feel right for the story as I wrote it. I kept changing between the 1st and 3rd person, using the past tense.
Admittedly, I spent most of the time—until this month—on the buildup. I chose to show Leah’s miscarriages through memory. She is the only character I have written that goes back into a clear memory. And I want the memories to end once Leah breaks down and attempts to fix God’s mistakes. I don’t think I have successfully done this yet. I still feel like the memories are taking up most of the story, and I would like to focus on this during the defense. Miscarriage is such a sensitive topic, and I am trying to be respectful and careful in my handling of it. How can I do that without it taking up most of the story? I know I need to edit down the first half, but I’m struggling with it.
I’ve also added the idea of a garden to this last version. I’d also like to focus on this aspect because, in the next revision, I envision the garden building on the magical and spiritual aspects of it. I think I did well with introducing the garden, but I think it fell off halfway through the novel. The garden represents both life and death, as seen in Leah and the environment. When she first got the garden, it was dead or nearing death (the apple trees), and she took time and care to nurture it back to life. The spiritual and magical aspects are tied to her memorial garden. I’m trying to find a way to make that clear with her putting the fetuses of her children in the soil of that earth. I also want to illustrate how the garden withers when Leah’s faith withers. I don’t think I did that successfully, and I would like feedback on that.
While writing this, I noticed something here that is nodding at generational traumas, focusing on the women in Leah’s life. I want them to be a focal point of the story, but I’m unsure how to incorporate them without detracting from the narrative. How do you read this? Do you have any ideas on how I can successfully write about the maternal women in Leah’s life? Should Caleb’s relationships with his paternal side also be showcased?
My original idea for this story was to have Leah and Caleb have a loving and faithful relationship, but I needed a way for Leah to help the women commit suicide and not have Caleb around to find out what she’s doing. I am not satisfied with the aspect of the baby being born out of wedlock that I’ve written, and I would like to find a way to change it.
I would also like to focus on Leah’s faith in this story. Does it seem like she loves God before she breaks down? Or a better question: does her faith seem genuine or superficial? I’m trying to show her dedication to her religion, but I’m unsure how that’s coming off. It must be obvious to make her re-engagement with God as his adversary believable.
When you read this, you will notice that the first half is more polished than the latter. When we get to Leah and helping others with suicide, it is not as built out as the first part. I found the beginning the most difficult because it’s almost the most essential part. I needed to get into Leah's psyche. But I still focused too much on this. I want feedback on what parts aren’t necessary for you, knowing that the heart of the story is Leah’s mental decline into becoming an adversary of God and the Angel of Death for mothers like her. I’m wondering if I should begin the novel at this point and weave Leah’s memories of her miscarriages throughout her interactions with the women she’s chatting with and “helping.”
I would also like feedback on Caleb. What do you think of him? How is his character working or not working for the story? Does he need scenes with his parents? Is the case he’s working on taking over the story? What can I do better with the subplot and Caleb’s character?
Finally, thanks for reading this. I welcome any feedback you may have that I haven’t addressed in this abstract. I’ve chosen you all as my committee because I’ve had classes with you and respect your opinions and knowledge in the area I am writing about. Please feel free to focus on the aspects of this story that matter most to you.REAL Fellowship
Delaney FellowshipMaster of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)2030-05-1
The Effect of Visualization on Students’ Understanding of Bayesian Inference and Corresponding Probability Concepts in an Innovative Learning Module
No full textBayesian reasoning - the optimal process of updating a hypothesis or belief with the acquisition of new information - is a critical aspect of both everyday decision-making and statistics education, but strategies for effectively teaching the topic in the classroom remain elusive. This study leverages the findings of prior research on facilitating Bayesian reasoning by utilizing a visualization, called the bar display, as a method for teaching Bayes theorem and its underlying probability concepts. Data were collected from a university’s statistics in psychology course, wherein students were taught and tested on Bayesian reasoning either with (visual condition) or without (nonvisual condition) the bar display. In addition to testing the immediate efficacy of the bar display, data was also collected to test long-term retention and the potential benefits for low numeracy/high anxiety students. Students were also recruited for qualitative interview sessions that allowed for further exploration of solving strategies. Results indicated engagement with the bar display as a method for visually approximating answers to Bayesian question, and students in the visual condition provided more accurate answers to Bayesian reasoning questions before training and at long-term assessment. Evidence from the interviews uncovered a theme of false equivalency between joint and conditional probabilities that the bar display was ill-equipped to address. Recommendations for future work are discussed, including the development of an interactive bar display for use in classroom curriculums that may further facilitate students’ understanding of Bayesian concepts.Research activities were supported by NSF grant DUE-1842537Master of Science (M.S.
Extending the grazing season in New England
No full textLivestock farmers need diverse tools to meet the challenge posed by climate change. Four research projects explored methods for grazing season extension to improve farm resiliency. 1) Cereal rye (Secale cereal L.) and triticale (x Triticosecale Wittm. ex A. Camus.) were interseeded in existing cool-season pastures. Herbage accumulation increased by 0.5 Mg dry matter (DM) ha–1 after interseeding 135 kg ha–1 of rye and triticale. Adding 45 kg N ha–1 also increased herbage accumulation by 474 kg DM ha–1. 2) Three experiments on crabgrass (Digitaria ciliaris (Retz.) Koeler and Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.) examined varietal differences, seeding rate and timing, harvest management, and haylage quality. Crabgrass performed best grown from early summer to late summer for the best balance of herbage accumulation and nutritive value (2.70-3.95 Mg DM ha–1 and 15.0-16.0% crude protein (CP) for D. sanguinalis). D. sanguinalis was best as a one-cut forage and produced good quality silage seeded at 6.7 kg ha–1 with 56 kg N ha–1. D. ciliaris can be a productive multi-cut forage when fertilized between cuttings (3.66 Mg DM ha–1 and 18.7% CP over two harvests). 3) Six brassica cultivars were intercropped with oats and peas at various seeding rates. When vegetative brassicas were seeded at 1.7-3.4 kg ha–1 with 50-75 kg ha–1 oats and 34-50 kg ha–1 peas, they produced an average of 2620 kg DM ha–1 with 22.6% CP. Flowering mustard (Brassica juncea (L.) Czern.) performed best when seeded at 5.0 kg ha–1 in mixtures (3654 kg DM ha–1, CP: 19.7%). 4) Tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb.) Darbysh.), orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.), and their combination were evaluated with five nitrogen treatments. Adding nitrogen fertilizer or including legumes increased herbage accumulation by 0.88-1.54 Mg DM ha–1 to a total of 2.8-4.3 Mg DM ha–1 with as much as 11.0% CP. Overall, these four cropping systems demonstrate effective strategies to extend the grazing season from early spring to late fall, improving both farm productivity and resilience in the face of climate change.Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant LNE20-399
Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant GNE22-300Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Cyclic Prosodification and Prosodically-encoded Linearization
No full textThis thesis explores the nature of cyclicity in natural language from the perspective of syntax and its interface with prosody. It has been widely assumed in the literature of syntax that syntactic objects are cyclically transferred into each interface for sound and meaning, called Spell-Out, and a Spell-Out domain is defined as a propositional unit. It has, however, been argued in the literature of syntax-prosody mapping that prosodic relations, including linear ordering, are cyclically computed at each Spell-Out. These prosodic relations must be preserved through a derivation, which in turn suggests that a Spell-Out domain is prosodically defined. I therefore entertain the following two hypotheses: (i) a Spell-Out domain is defined as a prosodic unit, and (ii) linearization is encoded as an aspect of prosody. The hypothesis in (i) predicts cyclic mappings of a syntactic structure onto a prosodic structure, where prosodic relations are established at each cycle, and a derivation should crash if they are not preserved. Under the hypothesis in (ii), it is predicted that linear ordering is fixed between two elements only when a prosodic relation is established between them. By examining Focus Prosody and Strong Start in Japanese, I argue for these hypotheses. As a consequence of the arguments in the thesis, the domain of Focus Prosody and a prosodic phrase correspond to a Spell-Out domain in Japanese, assuming that a Strong Start relation is established in a phonological phrase. In addition to this, linear ordering information is a by-product of relative prosodic prominence relation of Focus Prosody and the Strong Start relation in Japanese. Examining the hypothesis in (ii) is key to understanding why natural language exhibits its variety of linear ordering.2019 Fulbright Graduate Study Program
2024 UMass Amherst Summer Dissertation Fellowship FundingDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
BIOENGINEERED TRABECULAR BONE ORGANOID MODELS TO STUDY BONE AGING AND BONE CANCER METASTASIS
No full textBone is an organ critical to human health and becomes compromised by diseases, such as osteoporosis and bone cancer metastasis, in which a high unmet need for pharmacological interventions exists. An inability to visualize and functionally recapitulate dynamic, bone-specific processes on the surface of mineralized bone tissue has hindered drug development efforts. Mice have proved helpful in modeling bone-targeting drug efficacy and toxicity, but a significant gap remains between pre-clinical results and human effects. Current in vitro models struggle to reproduce the bone surface's dense, mineralized collagen fiber matrix in a platform that enables rapid and high throughput monitoring of bone metabolic processes and disseminated tumor cell (DTC) behavior.
Here, we report a biomaterial-based model of the osteogenic niche to enable direct quantification and tracking of long-term bone remodeling, the process in which old bone is continually degraded, and new bone is formed, and metastatic processes, where cancer cells migrate from the primary tumor site before colonizing the bone surface, with high fidelity and analytical power. We reproduced the surface of trabecular bone by culturing human and murine osteoblasts on our key material, demineralized bone paper (DBP). DBP are finely sliced, semitransparent sections of demineralized bone matrix that retain lamellar bone's intrinsic collagen fiber structure. This native collagen fiber structure directs rapid osteoblast mineralization forming new bone tissue. Here, we demonstrate how this model can be applied to quantify and characterize bone metabolic and metastatic processes.
Using DBP-layered models, we report that the semitransparency of DBP enables multiplex, non-endpoint characterization of bone anabolic and catabolic processes. Mineral deposition can be longitudinally monitored by measuring decreasing rates of light penetrance through the semitransparent matrix of DBP, and time-lapse imaging of resorption pit formation integrated with an AI-powered image segmentation analysis pipeline enables rapid and label-free quantification of osteoclast remodeling rates. We demonstrate that co-culture of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells on osteoblast remineralized DBP enables quantification of individual DTC fates and recapitulates DTC dormancy and subsequent drug resistance. We then predictively model the effects of sequential chemotherapy and senolytic therapy on DTC cytotoxicity, osteoblast cytotoxicity, and anabolism. Lastly, we report the importance of bone ECM in regulating tumor dormancy as microenvironmental modulation of dormant DTCs promotes spontaneous cell cycle re-entry.
The microphysiological bone organoid presented here will unlock doors for new areas of research and commercial opportunities such as 1) high throughput and scalable chemical library screening for bone metabolic drugs. 2) Mechanistic studies into regulating tumor dormancy, drug resistance, and relapse. 3) Dormant tumor-targeting and microenvironmental-targeting drug studies.Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Carjack Consecutive Interpreting Scenario (English-Arabic)
No full textOverview: This is a consecutive interpreting scenario for interpreter practice purposes. In the recording, a male prosecutor examines a female witness in a carjack case.
Instructions for use: Use the recording to practice consecutive interpreting in the legal setting. Record your performance and compare it to the text after you finish. It is recommended to repeat the exercise as many times as needed
Carjack Consecutive Interpreting Scenario (English-Russian)
No full textOverview: This is a consecutive interpreting scenario for interpreter practice purposes. In the recording, a male prosecutor examines a female witness in a carjack case.
Instructions for use: Use the recording to practice consecutive interpreting in the legal setting. Record your performance and compare it to the text after you finish. It is recommended to repeat the exercise as many times as needed
Library Use and Student Success: Focus on First Generation Students
No full textThis study seeks to test for relationships between use of library study rooms, materials, and instruction with student success as measured by retention to the second year, graduation within four years and grades. A cohort of 4,605 first time undergraduate students were considered. Findings show that students who had checked out materials, had library instruction, or using used library study rooms had higher GPAs, retention to the second year, and greater likelihood for graduation in four years. Many of these relationships between library use and student success were particularly strong for first generation college students for whom academic engagement is particularly important
Example Department Personnel Committee Guidance on 2025 Higher Education Impacts
No full textThis document provides a generic template that any Department Personnel Committee can adapt to reflect the broad impacts that have shaped their departmental faculty's activity and achivements in contexts of disruption. The adapted DPC Impact Statement can be attached to all departmental faculty personnel files for that year, providing important context and guidance to reviewers of any given faculty member's file - be they internal to the university, or external reviewers. This template is adapted from the DPC Pandemic Impact Statement first composed by the UMass Amherst Sociology Department's Personnel Committee in 2021, with thanks to the original creators