Showing papers by "Albion College published in 2018"

A comparative analysis of metabarcoding and morphology‐based identification of benthic communities across different regional seas

Abstract: In a world of declining biodiversity, monitoring is becoming crucial. Molecular methods, such as metabarcoding, have the potential to rapidly expand our knowledge of biodiversity, supporting assessment, management, and conservation. In the marine environment, where hard substrata are more difficult to access than soft bottoms for quantitative ecological studies, Artificial Substrate Units (ASUs) allow for standardized sampling. We deployed ASUs within five regional seas (Baltic Sea, Northeast Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and Red Sea) for 12–26 months to measure the diversity and community composition of macroinvertebrates. We identified invertebrates using a traditional approach based on morphological characters, and by metabarcoding of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene. We compared community composition and diversity metrics obtained using the two methods. Diversity was significantly correlated between data types. Metabarcoding of ASUs allowed for robust comparisons of community composition and diversity, but not all groups were successfully sequenced. All locations were significantly different in taxonomic composition as measured with both kinds of data. We recovered previously known regional biogeographical patterns in both datasets (e.g., low species diversity in the Black and Baltic Seas, affinity between the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean). We conclude that the two approaches provide complementary information and that metabarcoding shows great promise for marine monitoring. However, until its pitfalls are addressed, the use of metabarcoding in monitoring of rocky benthic assemblages should be used in addition to classical approaches rather than instead of them.

Attitudes Toward and Beliefs about Transgender Youth: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the United States and India

Abstract: Using an internet-based survey, we examined attitudes toward transgender youth in the United States and India, two cultures with differences in conceptualizations of gender and treatment of transgender individuals in society, law, and religion. We found generally positive attitudes toward transgender youth in our U.S. (n = 218), but moderately negative ones in our Indian (n = 217), sample. Consistent with the literature on prejudice against transgender adults in many Western societies, general social conservatism in the form of religious beliefs and political ideology, gender-specific conservatism in the form of gender binary belief, and endorsement of environmental rather than biological causes of transgender identity were the best predictors of U.S. participants’ attitudes, although personal contact with gender and sexual minorities also played a role at the bivariate level. These findings suggest that the processes underlying prejudice against transgender youth are similar to those that foster adult-directed transphobia in that cultural context. In contrast, religion-based disapproval and environmental causal attributions were the best predictors of Indian respondents’ attitudes, whereas gender binary belief played only a minor role, and political conservatism and personal contact no role at all. Our regression analyses accounted for considerably more of the variability in U.S. than in Indian participants’ attitudes, highlighting the need for additional (qualitative) work to identify the factors that promote transprejudice in India. We discuss these findings in light of cross-cultural differences between the two countries in terms of our predictors and consider implications for efforts to reduce prejudice against transgender youth.

Partial migration of the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum (Bonnaterre), from the Dry Tortugas Islands

Abstract: Nurse sharks have not previously been known to migrate. Nurse sharks of the Dry Tortugas (DRTO) mating population have a highly predictable periodic residency cycle, returning to the Dry Tortugas Courtship and Mating Ground (DTCMG) annually (males) or bi- to triennially (females) during the June/July mating season. For 23 years we have followed the movements of 76 recaptured adults of a total of 115 tagged adults. Telemetry detections of 40 females tagged with acoustic transmitters show that most tagged and presumably post-partum females are continuously present in the DRTO in the fall, winter and early spring following the June mating season but these females depart in late March to early May. Detections reveal these females avoid the DTCMG completely during the next mating season, returning from late summer to fall. Telemetry records of nine of 17 adult males that co-habited with these females in the DTCMG depart DRTO waters every July. Both sexes may overwinter in the DRTO. Between 2011 and 2016 three males and five females with transmitters were detected to move up the west coast of Florida outside of the mating season as far north as the waters off Tampa Bay (335 km). Six others were only detected in the lower Florida Keys (292 km). Nine sharks returned to DRTO; one returned six times. Some overwintered and some resumed courtship in June, demonstrating both resident and migratory contingents within their population, partial migration and an ability to navigate with high spatial and temporal precision.

Faculty mentoring faculty: career stages, relationship quality, and job satisfaction

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to understand faculty mentoring experiences across career stages and the influence of mentoring relationship quality on job satisfaction. The study participants were faculty members from a consortium of liberal arts colleges in the USA. The theoretical lens draws from scholarship on career stages, developmental networks, and working alliances.,The analysis is based on a subset of 415 faculty member responses about mentoring from a larger data set on faculty development. The online survey was conducted in Spring 2014. Frequencies, χ2, regression equations, and confirmatory factor analysis were computed using R statistical software.,Over half the faculty members were both mentors and proteges; although, a sizable minority of faculty members did not engage in mentoring. Early-career faculty members were significantly more likely to have a mentor than were mid- or late-career faculty members. For both mentors and proteges, the higher they rated the quality of the mentoring relationship, the more job satisfaction they reported; this finding was greatest for mid-career (associate rank) faculty members. Participants reported significantly higher relationship quality with their mentors than with their proteges.,The results may not generalize to faculty members who work at other institution types, for example, research-intensive or two-year schools, or to non-US higher education contexts. Statements made regarding those who do not participate in mentoring are speculative on the part of the authors.,Institutions may need to develop support for faculty members who may not desire to engage in mentoring. More attention may be warranted to create individual and institutional supports focused on high-quality mentoring.,This study extends the literature on mentoring by establishing that many employees serve in mentor and protege roles simultaneously. Further, employees engage in mentoring relationships across career stages as mentors and as proteges. The authors developed a reliable measure of mentoring relationship quality that may be used in future mentoring studies. Higher quality mentoring relationships were associated with significantly greater job satisfaction.

No Change in the Recent Lunar Impact Flux Required Based on Modeling of Impact Glass Spherule Age Distributions

Abstract: The distributions of 40Ar/39Ar-derived ages of impact glass spherules in lunar regolith samples show an excess at <500 Ma relative to older ages. It has not been well understood whether this excess of young ages reflects an increase in the recent lunar impact flux or is due to a bias in the samples. We developed a model to simulate the production, transport, destruction, and sampling of lunar glass spherules. A modeled bias is seen when either (1) the simulated sampling depth is 10 cm, consistent with the typical depth from which Apollo soil samples were taken, or (2) when glass occurrence in the ejecta is limited to >10 crater radii from the crater, consistent with terrestrial microtektite observations. We suggest that the observed excess of young ages for lunar impact glasses is likely due to limitations of the regolith sampling strategy of the Apollo program, rather than reflecting a change in the lunar impact rate. Plain Language Summary Lunar regolith samples collected by the Apollo astronauts contain impact glass spherules that record the age of formation in the Ar-Ar isotope dating system. There are as many spherules with measured ages within the last 500 million years as there is in the previous 4 billion years of lunar history, and it has remained a mystery as to whether this is because the impact rate was higher in the recent past, or if there was some process that was biasing these samples toward a young age. We have developed a three-dimensional computer model that simulates the production, transport, destruction, and sampling of impact-generated glass spherules on the Moon. Using reasonable assumptions that are backed up from data on Earth craters, we are able to reproduce the observed excess of young spherule ages seen in the Apollo samples assuming that impact rate has not changed over the last three billion years. We find that the young age bias is only seen because the Apollo samples were collected in the upper few centimeters of the lunar surface. Future glasses collected from the upper few meters of the surface should have ages that better reflect the true rate of impacts over time.

Continuous Flow Synthesis of Platinum Nanoparticles in Porous Carbon as Durable and Methanol-Tolerant Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Abstract: The development and commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) as energy conversion devices remains a challenge despite their advantages in terms of energy density and energy-conversion efficiency. The bottleneck for the development of DMFCs is mainly caused by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode of fuel cells, and the effect of the so-called methanol crossover in state-of-the-art Pt/C electrocatalysts. Herein, we report for the first time an easily scalable continuous flow method based on ultraspray pyrolysis (USP) for the preparation of Pt nanoparticles directly embedded on highly porous carbon spheres. A study on the effect that post-synthesis treatment procedures have on the level of graphitization and catalytic properties is described. Use of USP results in a substantial reduction of the final Pt content with respect to typical Pt/C electrocatalysts, while yielding also excellent durability and tolerance to methanol crossover under acidic conditions. These results demonstrate that the USP method reported herein is a good candidate for its use in the preparation of ORR catalysts in commercial applications.

Physical Activity, BMI, and Blood Pressure in US Youth: NHANES 2003–2006

Abstract: Purpose: The objective of this study was to examine the independent and combined association of physical activity and body mass index (BMI) with blood pressure in youth. Methods: Youth aged 8–18 years from the 2003–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) with BMI, blood pressure, and physical activity (accelerometer) were included in the analyses. A total of 2585 subjects (1303 males; 47% of all 8- to 18-year-olds) met these criteria. Results: Obese youth had a systolic blood pressure that was 8 mm Hg higher than normal weight youth. A significant interaction between BMI and physical activity on blood pressure was found (P < .001), and group differences among the BMI/activity groups showed that the 3 obese groups and the overweight/least active group had significantly higher systolic blood pressure than the normal weight/active group across all analyses. The overweight/least active and normal weight/least active groups had significantly higher diastolic blood pressure than the norma...

Parenchyma, Collenchyma, and Sclerenchyma

Abstract: The plant body plan is quite simple, encompassing four organs (leaf, stem, root, flower), three basic tissue types (epidermal, vascular and ground), and three cell types (parenchyma, collenchyma, and sclerenchyma). Parenchyma cells are living cells, bound by a primary cell wall, and many of them are capable of differentiation into any other cell type. Parenchyma is the most diverse and versatile cell type and comprises the majority of cells in most plants. Collenchyma cells are the least common plant cell type. They have a primary cell wall and provide support in herbaceous or temporary organs such as petioles and leaves. Sclerenchyma cells have a lignified and strong secondary cell wall and are usually dead at maturity. Sclerenchyma cells are found wherever a plant needs strength and support, such as fibers, stone cells, wood, and water-conducting cells.

Survey Data Harmonization and the Quality of Data Documentation in Cross-national Surveys

Abstract: Many social phenomena bare the imprint of regional and global social, economic, and political processes, and therefore should be studied in a comparative framework. However, inequalities in survey coverage across various regions and the lack of uniform data collection and documentation standards in cross-national survey projects pose a serious limitation to comparative research. While previous efforts to advance cross-national research usually produce a new dataset, we argue that the answer to these problems is actually better integration of existing data. This paper focuses on the assessment of the quality of data documentation, an important, although often neglected, element of any data analysis that is especially crucial for data harmonization projects. We assessed the quality of surveys based on information provided in survey documentation: questionnaire pre-testing, translation method, sampling, presence of fieldwork control, as well as unit and item non-response. Finally, we discuss incorporating documentation measures into substantive analyses, as well as the potential for standardization of survey documentation and the survey process itself.

Model Matching Theory: A Framework for Examining the Alignment between Game Mechanics and Mental Models

Abstract: The primary aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive review and elaboration of model matching and its theoretical propositions. Model matching explains and predicts individuals’ outcomes related to gameplay by focusing on the interrelationships among games’ systems of mechanics, relevant situations external to the game, and players’ mental models. Formalizing model matching theory in this way provides researchers a unified explanation for game-based learning, game performance, and related gameplay outcomes while also providing a theory-based direction for advancing the study of games more broadly. The propositions explicated in this article are intended to serve as the primary tenets of model matching theory. Considerations for how these propositions may be tested in future games studies research are discussed.

3CAP: categorizing the cognitive capabilities of Alzheimer’s patients in a smart home environment

Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive illness that affects more than 5.5 million people in the United States with no effective cure or treatment. Symptoms of the disease include declines in memory and speech abilities and increases in aggression and insomnia. Recent research suggests that NLP techniques can detect early cognitive decline as well as monitor the rate of decline over time. The processed data can be used in a smart home environment to enhance the level of home care for Alzheimer’s patients. This paper proposes early-stage research in software engineering and natural language processing for quantifying and evaluating the patient’s cognitive state to determine the required level of support in a smart home.

Modified Brave Spaces: Calling in Brave Instructors:

Abstract: In recent years, instructors teaching about controversial issues such as race and ethnicity have drawn increasingly on the ideas of “safe” and “brave” spaces to encourage and facilitate dialogue du...

Conflicts and Consistencies in Creativity Research and Teaching.

Abstract: The interdisciplinary topic of creativity is both fascinating and controversial In this review, we begin by highlighting the many ways that researchers conceptualize and define creativity, focusin

Insights on victim testimony and transitional justice: A response to Angelina Snodgrass Godoy

Abstract: A judicial process does more than hold perpetrators accountable. It also allows victims to speak. (Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations1)On May 22, 2014, the United Nations Securit...

Community Composition and Diversity of Coastal Bacterioplankton Assemblages in Lakes Michigan, Erie, and Huron.

Abstract: The Laurentian Great Lakes, including Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, located in the eastern part of North America are considered the largest of freshwater lakes in the world; however, very little is known about the diversity and distribution of indigenous microbial assemblages within these vast bodies of freshwater systems. Therefore, to delineate the microbial structure and community composition in these aquatic environments, combinations of high-throughput sequencing and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) approaches were utilized to quantitatively characterize the occurrence, diversity, and distribution of bacterioplankton assemblages in six different sites located along the coastal regions of Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Phylogenetic examination showed a diverse bacterial community belonging to 11 different taxonomic groups. Pyrosequencing results revealed that the majority of the sequences were clustered into four main groups, i.e., Proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes, Actinobacteria, and Cyanobacteria, while fluorescent in situ hybridization also showed the numerical dominance of members of the Gammaproteobacteria and the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium in the six lake sites examined. Overall, the assemblages were shown to be quite diverse in distribution among the lake sites examined, comprising mostly of various heterotrophic populations, with the exception of the Lake Erie-Sandusky Bay site with more than 50% domination by autotrophic Cyanobacteria. This indicates that combinations of factors including water chemistry and various anthropogenic disturbances as well as the lake morphometric characteristics are probably influencing the community structure and diversity of the bacterial assemblages within the systems.

Poetry, Media, and the Material Body : Autopoetics in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Abstract: From the Romantic fascination with hallucinatory poetics to the turn-of-the-century mania for automatic writing, poetry in nineteenth-century Britain appears at crucial times to be oddly involuntary, out of the control of its producers and receivers alike. This elegant study addresses the question of how people understood those forms of written creativity that seem to occur independently of the writer's will. Through the study of the century's media revolutions, evolving theories of physiology, and close readings of the works of nineteenth-century poets including Wordsworth, Coleridge and Tennyson, Ashley Miller articulates how poetry was imagined to promote involuntary bodily responses in both authors and readers, and how these responses enlist the body as a medium that does not produce poetry but rather reproduces it. This is a poetics that draws attention to, rather than effaces, the mediacy of the body in the processes of composition and reception.

CAL: A Smart Home Environment for Monitoring Cognitive Decline

Abstract: The increased growth of the aging population (i.e., 65 years or older) has led to emerging technologies in health care that provide in-home support to patients using devices throughout the household. Such smart home environments can monitor and interact with patients and their doctors/caregivers to augment patient medical data for diagnosis than can be generated via traditional doctor visits. Moreover, smart homes are enabling older adults to stay at home longer as opposed to permanent moves to assisted living or nursing facilities, increasing health and well-being and decreasing overall costs to the individual and society at large. This paper proposes Cognitive Assisted Living (CAL), a cyber-physical system comprising a network of embedded devices for collecting and analyzing patient speech patterns over time for monitoring cognitive function beginning in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Specifically, CAL will analyze patient speech patterns and spatial abilities, via a set of daily interactions, to provide a longitudinal analysis of speech deterioration, a significant indicator of cognitive decline resulting from Alzheimer's disease. Understanding the rate of cognitive decline can enable caregivers and health care professionals to better manage the patient's daily care and medical requirements. Additionally, the patient's cognitive state can be shared across household devices to increase the patient's comfort and better accommodate lifestyle changes. To these ends, we describe the architecture of the proposed system, the methods to which we will detect cognitive decline, and specify how the system will provide continuing fault tolerance and data security at run time.

Recognition of Miconia sect. Sagraeoides (Melastomataceae: Miconieae) and associated nomenclatural changes

Abstract: Recent phylogenetic studies incorporating DNA sequence data have corroborated the suspected non-monophyly of many currently recognized genera of tribe Miconieae (Melastomataceae), which includes about 1800 species restricted to the Neotropics. The genus Mecranium, comprising 24 species endemic to the Greater Antilles and their satellite islands, appears to be a monophyletic exception within the tribe. However, the continued recognition of Mecranium as a genus, at best, would render Miconia paraphyletic. The most practical solution to the problem of non-monophyletic circumscription of genera in the Miconieae is the recognition of a broadly defined Miconia, with the taxonomic recognition of its subclades as subgenera and sections. Here the Mecranium clade is recognized as a section within a broadly circumscribed Miconia, all recognized species are listed, and 26 new names and nomenclatural combinations are published. In addition, the section is described, and the phylogenetic relationships of its species are discussed briefly based on molecular and morphological phylogenetic analyses.

Miconia clasei, a New Species of Miconia sect. Calycodomatia (Miconieae: Melastomataceae) from the Sierra de Bahoruco, Dominican Republic and a Closer Look at Species Relationships in the Sandpaper Clade

Abstract: Recent collections in the Sierra de Bahoruco represent a previously undescribed species of Miconia sect. Calycodomatia from the Greater Antillean Sandpaper clade. We herein describe the new species as Miconia clasei, provide a phylogenetic analysis to determine close relatives, and compare it morphologically with its closest relatives and phenetically similar taxa. We also expand on previous analyses of the Sandpaper clade, including more individuals per species than previously analyzed, and two taxa never before analyzed phylogenetically. We show that several species within the Sandpaper clade are indeed cladospecies, while others appear to be non-monophyletic.

Developmental outcomes of an individualised complementary feeding intervention for stunted children: a substudy from a larger randomised controlled trial in Guatemala

Abstract: Objective Stunting is a common cause of early child developmental delay; Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of stunting globally. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of an intensive community health worker-led complementary feeding intervention on early child development in Guatemala. We hypothesised that the intervention would improve child development over usual care. Design A substudy from a larger individually randomised (1:1 allocation ratio), parallel-group superiority trial, with blinding of study staff collecting outcomes data. Setting Rural, indigenous Maya communities in Guatemala. Participants 210 stunted children (height-for-age z-score ≤−2.5) aged 6–24 months, previously randomised to usual care (106) or an intensive complementary feeding intervention (104). 84 in the intervention and 91 in the usual care arm agreed to participate. Interventions Community health workers conducted monthly home visits for 6 months, providing usual care or individualised complementary feeding education. Main outcome measures The primary outcomes were change in z-scores for the subscales of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID), Third Edition. Results 100 individuals were included in the final analysis, 47 in the intervention and 53 in the usual care arm. No statistically significant differences in age-adjusted scores between the arms were observed for any subscale. However, improvements within-subjects in both arms were observed (median duration between measurements 189 days (IQR 182–189)). Mean change for subscales was 0.45 (95% CI 0.23 to 0.67) z-scores in the intervention, and 0.43 (95% CI 0.25 to 0.61) in the usual care arm. Conclusions An intensive complementary feeding intervention did not significantly improve developmental outcomes more than usual care in stunted, indigenous Guatemalan children. However, both interventions had significant positive impacts on developmental outcomes. Trial registration number NCT02509936. Stage Results.

Faculty development in liberal arts colleges: a look at divisional trends, preferences, and needs

Abstract: This research explores faculty development through the lens of academic division as an important, career defining characteristic of the professoriate. Relying on data from a longitudinal, mixed-met...

CAPTCHA: Machine or Human Solvers? A Game-Theoretical Analysis

Abstract: CAPTCHAs have become an ubiquitous defense used to protect open web resources from being exploited at scale. Traditionally, attackers have developed automatic programs known as CAPTCHA solvers to bypass the mechanism. With the presence of cheap labor in developing countries, hackers now have options to use human solvers. In this research, we develop a game theoretical framework to model the interactions between the defender and the attacker regarding the design and countermeasure of CAPTCHA system. With the result of equilibrium analysis, both parties can determine the optimal allocation of software-based or human-based CAPTCHA solvers. Counterintuitively, instead of the traditional wisdom of making CAPTCHA harder and harder, it may be of best interest of the defender to make CAPTCHA easier. We further suggest a welfare-improving CAPTCHA business model by involving decentralized cryptocurrency computation.

Video killed the writing assignment

Abstract: We move pretty fast in the introductory astronomy class at Albion College (Albion, MI)—13.7 billion years of astronomy in about 15 weeks (one semester). Thus, it is virtually impossible to talk about all of the really interesting things that are happening in our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe, or about the really cool people and instruments that make our observations possible. This may or may not be a problem because students take this course for different reasons—to satisfy a graduation requirement, because it fits in their schedule, and/or because they are interested in astronomy in general.

Shadow Modernism: Photography, Writing, and Space in Shanghai, 1925–1937. By William Schaefer. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2017. xi, 292 pp. ISBN: 9780822369196 (paper, also available in cloth and as e-book).

Abstract: used today in creating Chinese characters via their pinyin spellings on computers, cell phones, and other digital devices. The breadth and depth of Mullaney’s research are evident, especially in his short chapter on typists in the early Mao years. Mining local Chinese archives, which have tended to be more open than central ones, Mullaney details how such model typists as Zhang Jiying changed the placement and proximity of characters on the tray bed to better suit the increasingly politicized and routinized public textual productions under Mao. Such practices would be continued in the digital age by “predictive text,” widely used today in input methods for Chinese and other languages. With this wide-ranging, engagingly written, and provocative history of the Chinese typewriter, Mullaney has whetted our appetite for expanded research on Chinese and global information technology in the computer era. Indeed, he uses the conclusion of the present volume to outline the next one. While useful, I would have liked to see the conclusion also contain at least some further analyses of interesting issues raised in the book. For example, how does this history of text-based technolinguistic communication compare with that of those based on audio and video, such as radio and television? Do we risk presentism if we fault the early advocates of Chinese language reforms, including the “abolitionists,” for their radical positions because they did not anticipate that the digital revolution could and would eventually make Chinese “a world script”? What does it mean when we see parallels in practices between analog and digital technologies such as “input” and “predictive text”? Likely we will learn more about these and so many other intriguing subjects that Mullaney has pioneered in future works by him and others.

The Nature of Plants

Abstract: The “Nature of Plants” provides a general overview of the unique structure, function, and evolution of plants and serves as a general introduction to the larger textbook. The chapter begins discussing the importance of pigments that provide the ability to harvest light via photosynthesis, leading the way for producing anabolic compounds necessary for growth. This chapter contains information that identifies other important aspects of plants such as cell walls, plant life cycles, meristematic growth, and fruit dispersal that is limited to the angiosperms. A general discussion of plant evolution, organs, and plant diversity is included. The chapter concludes by clarifying the importance of scale in understanding plant structures and by identifying the many ways that the terms, primary and secondary, are associated with plant development and anatomy.