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The Varied Response of Cherokees to Land Allotment
No full textThis paper analyzes Cherokee opposition to allotment, a United States policy, expressed in the 1887 Dawes Act and other U.S. legislation and executive orders, that coerced tribal nations to break their communally held lands into private holdings, or allotments. This paper argues that the shifting beliefs, political views, and grassroots movements surrounding allotment, and its closely related issues, were both based in and influenced by personal and political interests, as well as from traditional, collective Cherokee values and spirituality
Escape from the Floating World : Kabuki Theater in Conflict with the Bakufu Government of Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868)
No full textUkiyo 浮世, the “floating world” of the Tokugawa 徳川 era (1600–1868) in Japan, holds a particular fascination that endures to this day. For townfolk and samurai alike, this realm of beauty and entertainment represented an escape from the ordinary, a place where pleasure took priority above all other concerns. However, for the entertainers themselves, this demi-monde was not a temporary refuge from the mundane – quite the opposite. Their occupations conferred them to a strange and, in many ways, unenviable position in society, as caste structure and governmental restrictions isolated performers of the period physically and socially
Pink Silk Dress/Butterfly (image 3)
No full text“When a mountain girl wants a new dress, she catches a butterfly of the desired color, and crushes it between her teeth...”
Given to the University’s Museum by Mrs. B.J. Wade, this pink flowered sprigged dress possibly dates to the early 1900s and could be worn in a variety of settings; including the possibility of “Play Parties.” “Play Parties” are described by Mary Celestia Parler in CBS’ The Search: Folklore in Arkansas as similar to a dance, consisting of folksong instead of instrumentals, hand-swings rather than waist swings and a game that is directed through song.9While this specific garment may not have been worn for events such as this, one thing that remains to be true across cultures and generations is the desire to don a new outfit for a special occasion. Randolph’s conversations with community members proves this to be true as the saying goes, “When a mountain girl wants a new dress, she catches a butterfly of the desired color and crushes it between her teeth...”10
9 Parler, Mary Celestia. “CBS’ The Search: Arkansas.” YouTube, 1950. https://youtu.be/0JX5vQFDln4?si=4lRyBQw26nkPYzED.
10 Randolph, Vance. “Ozark Superstitions.” The American Journal of Folklore 46, no. 179, March 1933.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/uamucc/1006/thumbnail.jp
Synthesis of Pillar[n]arenes and Bridge-Functionalized Pillar[n]arenes via Cyclic and Acyclic Acetals
No full textPillar[n]arenes are macrocyclic compounds consisting of ‘n’ hydroquinone units linked by para-methylene bridges. Since their first report of facile synthesis 17 years ago, pillararenes have attracted significant interest due to their versatile functionality, electron-rich cavity, crystalline nature, and planar chirality. These unique properties have enabled a broad range of practical applications, including small molecule separation, formation of one-dimensional and two-dimensional channels, drug delivery systems, and enhanced emissive and fluorescent properties. The ease of synthesis of pillararenes has been one of the key factors in their widespread adoption and continued exploration in supramolecular chemistry and material science. Despite the efficiency and broad substrate scope of traditional pillararene synthesis, it relies exclusively on paraformaldehyde as the source of methylene bridges. However, paraformaldehyde releases formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, at ambient conditions causing safety concerns. In this study, we demonstrated that cyclic and acyclic acetals of formaldehyde serve as safer and nonaqueous alternatives to paraformaldehyde. This novel approach preserves the efficiency and simplicity of traditional pillararene synthesis while significantly improving safety by reducing formaldehyde exposure. Using paraformaldehyde for pillararene synthesis does not allow for substitutions on the methylene bridge of pillararenes. This limitation can be addressed by employing acetals. This study demonstrated that using cyclic acetals of acetaldehyde as the bridge source allowed for the synthesis of methyl-substituted-methine-bridged pillar[6]arenes. Notably, introducing a methine bridge introduced chiral centers and shifted the thermodynamic equilibrium towards one stereoisomer of the corresponding pillar[6]arene, providing access to a stereoselective synthetic protocol for pillar[6]arene with an improved yield of 43%. This strategy significantly enhances the safety profile of pillararene synthesis and expands the structural diversity of pillararenes. This broadened diversity could lead to more applications across various fields
Assessment of Social Media Use and Strategies for Combating Misinformation Among Extension Educators in Arkansas
No full textThis study assessed the use of social media by Extension educators in Arkansas and examines strategies for identifying and combating misinformation within agricultural extension services. Guided by the Uses and Gratifications Theory, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and the Third-Person Effect Theory for objectives one, two, and three, this research employed quantitative and qualitative approaches, specifically, two quantitative cross-sectional surveys and a qualitative focus group study developed into a three article dissertation. The first article assessed the extent to which Extension educators utilize social media for professional activities, revealing that social media is predominantly used for event announcements, program marketing, and educational content dissemination, with limited adoption for interactive engagement, collaboration, and impact assessment. The second article applied the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to identify key factors influencing educators’ acceptance and use of social media. Findings indicated that perceived usefulness, ease of use, and social influence significantly impact social media adoption. At the same time, barriers such as time constraints, lack of training, and absence of institutional incentives hinder its effective use. The third article employed qualitative methods to explore educators’ experiences, challenges, and strategies for identifying and combating misinformation. Participants acknowledged the prevalence of misinformation on social media and emphasized the need for digital literacy training, fact-checking mechanisms, and institutional support to address misinformation effectively. Results also highlighted variations in social media adoption based on job roles and gender, with 4-H & Youth Development agents demonstrating the highest usage levels and female educators engaging more frequently than their male counterparts. The study’s findings contribute to the growing body of literature on social media use in extension education, providing practical recommendations for enhancing digital communication strategies, improving social media training programs, and strengthening efforts to mitigate misinformation in agricultural extension services
Tree-Based Differential Item Functioning Detection Methods: Exploring Their Performance in Diverse Measurement Scenarios
No full textDespite the availability of numerous methods for detecting differential item functioning (DIF), the continued development and evaluation of innovative, data-driven approaches remains essential. Tree-based methods, in particular, represent a significant advancement in DIF detection. Unlike some traditional techniques, they can simultaneously screen multiple variables for DIF without discretizing continuous variables, and do not require the pre-specification of focal and reference groups; capabilities that are especially valuable in today’s diverse and multifaceted assessment contexts. However, research systematically examining the performance of these methods under realistic measurement conditions is limited. This dissertation, in three simulation studies, critically examines the robustness and practical limitations of global and item-focused recursive partitioning approaches across a broad range of empirically realistic conditions. Additionally, effect size measures are incorporated alongside statistical significance, another understudied topic with tree-based methods, to identify DIF on the item-level with the global methods, and to enhance practical interpretation of DIF detection for both methods. In the first study, the Rasch tree method is evaluated for dichotomous items, demonstrating strong detection capabilities under balanced DIF conditions and large DIF magnitudes, but reduced accuracy with unbalanced DIF and higher contamination rates. The second study compares two item-focused trees for dichotomous data, Rasch-IFT and Logistic-IFT methods, finding that the methods generally yield high item-level true positive rates, though with a tendency to overidentify negligible and moderate DIF underscoring the importance of integrating an effect size criterion. The final study extends this work to polytomous items, comparing the global partial credit tree, PCM-TREE, to the item-focused partial credit tree, PCM-IFT. While PCM-TREE offers conservative and reliable DIF screening in terms of identifying which covariates induce DIF, PCM-IFT excels at identifying item-level DIF, particularly with continuous covariates. Collectively, these studies provide evidence supporting the validity of tree-based methods as flexible tools for DIF detection, while also identifying conditions in which their effectiveness is limited. The studies provide guidance for practitioners in selecting appropriate methods for complex, real-world testing scenarios and contribute to advancing fairness in educational and psychological assessment