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Feminine agency and masculine authority: women\u27s quest for autonomy in monastic life
Get PDFFrom the earliest days of the Christian church women eagerly sought to pursue a life of devotion to Jesus Christ. This led to the foundation of women’s monastic communities, also known as convents. The path to a life in holy orders within the male dominated church was fraught with challenges to women’s authority to be the authors of their own religious experiences. Women were defined by early church fathers including Tertullian, Ambrose, and Jerome as lesser human beings than their male counterparts, inheritors of the sin of Eve and led by their inherent sexual deviance and demonic susceptibility. It is within this misogynistic worldview that women struggled to live an authentic religious life. This paper covers a broad sweep of women’s experiences with the masculine church from the sixth to the sixteenth century. Beginning with an example of one of the earliest monastic communities for women, the monastery of St. John in Arles, France, which was founded in the sixth century, the reader will gain insight into the workings of a community of women living in perpetual enclosure. The following centuries introduce three exceptional abbesses, leaders of women’s communities and champions of women’s agency: Hildegard of Bingen, Clare of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila. These women sought not only to live as followers of Christ and shepherds of their communities of women but also to support other women in the church and to aid in the reform and betterment of the church. The vagaries of women’s lives in the church, the challenges placed before them by men, and their efforts to stay true to their desires to live their lives in imitation of Christ are the focus of this thesis
Theoretical studies of naphthoquinone reactivity toward amines
Get PDFQuinones are a class of organic compounds containing a six-membered unsaturated cyclic ring with two carbonyl groups and are biologically relevant due to their ability to participate in redox reactions. Experiments have showed that quinones can induce protein modifications including oligomerization and polymerization by binding to proteins. To complement these experimental studies, theoretical studies of naphthoquinone reactivity toward an amino group were conducted. The reactions between three naphthoquinones, 1,2-naphthoquinone (ONQ), 1,4-naphthoquinone (PNQ), and 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (HNQ), and methylamine, a N-containing nucleophile, were investigated. For each naphthoquinone, the first step of both 1,2- and 1,4-additions at all possible C=O positions were examined. For ONQ and HNQ, it was found that the 1,2-additions are more likely to occur than the 1,4-additions, while for PNQ, the 1,4-addition is more likely. The computations showed that ONQ is predicted to be the most reactive, followed by HNQ, and lastly PNQ. All theoretical calculations were performed using a hybrid density functional theory method, MPW1K, in conjunction with the 6-31+G(d,p) basis set
Evaluation of different research methodologies for acoustic monitoring of anuran populations
Get PDFAmphibians are important for a wide variety of reasons. However, in recent years their global populations have seen a sharp decline. It is therefore increasingly important to conduct research relevant to their protection and success. The main way this is accomplished with anurans is through the monitoring of male vocalizations. This can take the form of Manual Call Surveys, Automated Recording Systems, or some hybridization of the two. However, selection of the proper research method can be complex and time-consuming, and use of the incorrect method can result in wasted funding and useless data. Very few studies have been recently published comparing the different methods in relation to anurans, and none of them have provided a user-friendly guide for selecting methods. This paper aims to both summarize the wide importance of amphibians and research related to them, as well as provide a simple guide and thought-process for selecting the proper anuran research method. This will be done via a dichotomous key-like guide leading to the method most appropriate for the study of interest
A deep learning approach to estimate replicative lifespans from yeast cell images
Get PDFThe budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an important model organism for cellular aging. A common metric for determining the lifespan of budding yeast cells is the replicative lifespan (RLS), how many times a mother cell divides in its lifetime. Traditionally, determining the RLS of yeast cells is a tedious manual process. To address this challenge, our long-term goal is to develop an automated RLS estimation process. Recently microfluidics-based methods have been developed, which generate time- series of images of individual cells. This work is focused on classifying these images into categories which can be used to estimate the RLS. We test three different deep learning models and found that all of the models have diverse and complementary errors, so we developed an ensemble of models that combine the best single models which led to high overall accuracy, precision and recall
Translating historical documents of Longwood\u27s lost interiors into a virtual reality representation of the rotunda
Get PDFThis study uses virtual reality to realize the never completed interior of Longwood, the largest octagonal home in the United States. This 30,000 sq. ft. home, designed by Samuel Sloan, is located in Natchez, MS. Construction halted due to the onset of the Civil War. Where once a lack of money prevented it from being completed, the structure in now preserved in its unfinished state under a deed for preservation. Many have speculated about what Longwood would have looked like, if finished. Using the historical narrative inquiry method, this investigation sought to discover to what extent an accurate virtual representation could be created of Longwood’s rotunda based on existing primary and secondary resources
Relations between self-regulation, divergent thinking, and perceived stress in emerging adults
Get PDFThis study investigated the relationships between self-regulation and stress, self-regulation and creativity, and perceived stress as a mediator for the relationship between self-regulation and creativity. Questionnaires were administered to undergraduate students to individually access each construct. Creativity was measured through divergent thinking and self-regulation was measured through the SRS and effortful control. Regression analyses were run to determine the relationships between the constructs. A negative association was found between effortful control and stress. Individual positive relationships were found between effortful control and all of the creative thinking styles except convergent-unpleasant. Lastly, the indirect effect of effortful control on the convergent-unpleasant thinking style as mediated by stress was significant. This is a notable finding when considering previous research on the topic is contradictory
White backlash as a result of black integration in Chattanooga Public Schools lesson plan and workbook
Get PDFhttps://scholar.utc.edu/primary-source-instructional-materials/1007/thumbnail.jp
Working with Wildlife: The Effect of Stressors and Resources on Burnout and Engagement for Animal Caretakers
Get PDFEmployee stress can result in negative impacts both to the employee and to their organization. While all jobs are subject to stressors to some degree, certain occupations can face exceptional stressor levels or highly unique stressors because of the nature of the work. The proposed study aims to identify the common stressors for animal caretakers and the effects these stressors may have on employee engagement and burnout. The study will also examine the potential stress-buffering effects of personal and contextual resources. The project will examine common stressors that have been discussed in previous literature, as well as gain perspective on unique stressors to animal caretakers within zoos and aquariums. The study will specifically measure perceptions of environmental, social, and financial stressors within a sample of animal caretakers to determine the prevalence of each stressor and the relationship each stressor has with an employees’ level of engagement, burnout, and turnover intentions. I expect that each stressor will be related to less engagement, more burnout, and more turnover intentions. I will also examine the extent that resources of safety culture, as well as work centrality modify the impact of stressors on burnout, engagement, and turnover intentions. I expect that safety climate and work centrality may buffer the employees from the negative effects of stressors. Results from this study can be used to inform employee interventions to counter stressors in this unique field
Detecting Impression Management: Improving Conditional Reasoning Test Validity with Forced-Choice Survey
Get PDFWhether you are an instructor trying to relate to their students, an employee trying to impress their boss, an athlete trying to intimidate their opponent, or anywhere in between; everyone uses impression management in some form or another. The primary purpose of our study is to develop a conditional reasoning test that can detect an individual’s dominant impression management strategies as well as abnormal levels of impression management. The conditional reasoning test would be utilized by employers to detect the use of impression management strategies among job applicants, allowing employers parse potentially misleading or false information provided during the selection process. Currently, we have established a conditional reasoning test that should predict preferred impression management response types. Additionally, we are looking to create a secondary forced-choice survey to be administered after the conditional reasoning test. By forcing participants to select impression management responses, we believe this will provide valuable insight into participants preferred impression management strategies in an applicant-type position which can be compared to participants’ results of the conditional reasoning test in order to establish its validity
Leader-follower pacing style discrepancies and their relationships with individual stress and performance
Get PDFWorkers have different pacing styles, which are defined as how workers distribute their effort over time to complete a task. Some workers prefer a high rate of initial effort, some choose a medium rate of consistent effort, and others enjoy a high rate of effort near the task’s due date. Furthermore, shared mental models among workers help reduce stress and increase performance by keeping everyone on the same page. As a result, it is predicted that discrepancies between leader and follower pacing styles may be one unshared mental model that positively relates to individual stress, negatively relates to individual performance, and negatively relates to group performance. To test these hypotheses, previously collected data from a high fidelity aviation simulation lab will be analyzed. This lab includes a leader who manages several followers to safely coordinate flights. If the aforementioned hypotheses are supported, then pacing styles may be important to consider with Leader-Member Exchange Theory. This theory posits that leaders and followers share a relationship built upon growth through work. If the leader and follower have different approaches to work, though, the leader-follower relationship could be strained. To further understand the leader-follower dynamic, this study’s variables are encouraged to be considered