Browsing by Subject "Transformation"

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District level coherence making as a prerequisite for school transformation : a study of a Texas school district developing and implementing a learning framework
(2019-05) Dynis, Deana Nickole; Olivárez, Rubén; Collier, Denise; DeMatthews, David; Sharpe, Edwin
In the almost twenty years since the inception of No Child Left Behind in 2001, the United States has experienced school reform efforts at an unprecedented rate. Federal and State legislatures have attempted to leverage high stakes accountability systems in order to force change with little success. Likewise, grassroots efforts have been attempted by networks of school districts, but have lacked the resources to make systemic reforms. With the literature emphasizing the role of the district in education reform and transformation, the challenge appears to be how school districts can balance the demands of the high stakes accountability system still in place, while providing an environment supportive of the innovation necessary to transform the system. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore and understand the perspectives of educators, campus principals, and central office administrators regarding the coherence provided by a district created and implemented learning framework. The following research question guided the study: How do classroom educators, campus principals, and central office administrators of a school district focused on transformation experience coherence through a district created and implemented learning framework? The researcher utilized a mixed methodology study design with a sequential transformative strategy in order to explore and understand the lived experiences of the district’s elementary educators, elementary principals, and central office administrators. The quantitative data tool included a district-wide survey with yes/no, Likert scale, and open response questions. The qualitative methods included individual interviews, a focus group, and the review of district documents. A purposeful sampling strategy was utilized to select 2 central office administrators, and 1 elementary campus principal from each of the 3 middle school feeder patterns. A snowball strategy was utilized to select the classroom educators to participate in the study. The analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data resulted in a narrative supporting the creation of themes relating to how the classroom educators, campus principals, and central office administrators experience and understand the level and impact coherence provided by the district created learning framework. Implications for practice evolving from this study extend to researchers, campus principals, central office administrators, and superintendents.
Everything is liquid
(2014-05) Swan, Taylor; Rifkin, Ned; Higgins, Kathleen Marie
If we are to imagine universal reality--a reality where both subjectivity and objectivity exist--mapped as a hollow sphere, the outer shell that defines its physical presence would be the objective reality and the vacuum of space encased would be subjectivity. The hollow core is not defined by--or representative of--a singular piece of the shell, but only of the shell in its entirety. The human subject solely roams this inner space since they are nothing outside themselves. Their task is to wander the spectrum of subjectivity completely until they have reached objectivity. The objective reality only defines shape and mass. It is concrete and monolithic. Energy is distributed equally along its surface and each point reinforces the structural existence of the adjacent points. All of humanity is a varying degree of subjectivity, but the spectrum is finite with objectivity always at one end; objectivity is subjectivity's ultimate experience. Death is the crystallization into the shell of objectivity for the subject becomes pure matter and form that is severed from will. It seems then the only real limit to an individual’s experience is death, the human's subjective experience permeating into objectivity and transforms from a state that is on the inside perceiving out, to a state that is outside of itself, which is to say nothing. It is possible to observe this transformation as a continuous seam of reality with varying degrees of transformation, and not a bold division of two states.
The (fe)male shifts shame : androgyny and transformation in Marie de France, Gerald of Wales, and the Volsungasaga
(2013-05) Gutierrez-Neal, Paula Christina; Wojciehowski, Hannah Chapelle, 1957-; Blockley, Mary
Transformation is inherently entwined with the transgression of borders; for male shifters, there is an acquittance of this transhuman breach, but not so for female shifters. Gerald of Wale's History and Topography of Ireland depicts two werewolves: the male's shapeshifting is all but disregarded, while the female's own transformation is depicted in detail and effectively shames her into silence. In addition, the Volsungasaga also contains werewolves: Sigmund and Sinfjotli don wolfskins, but soon regret their transformations. However, neither is shamed for the shapeshifting, and indeed, Sinfjotli successfully twists the experience to his advantage. The female werewolf, King Siggeir's mother, however, is killed and her identity as a "foul" witch exposed. There are also the human-to-human transformations of Signy/a witch and Sigurd/Gunnar. Signy expresses shame for the incident; Sigurd and Gunnar's plot is revealed, but neither is condemned: the tale passes over the shapeshifting in favor of the narrative drama. Furthermore, Marie de France's Bisclavret perpetuates the same pattern: the male werewolf is praised and exonerated for his transhuman nature while the wife's pseudo-shapeshifting is met with condemnation and shame. However, Marie de France's Yonec attempts to break this pattern, with the shapeshifter Muldumarec transgressing not only the animal/human binary but that of the male/female. His androgyny is conferred onto his beloved, who also undergoes transformations but is spared the shaming consequences via Muldumarec. While this sharing of androgyny breaks the pattern and keeps the beloved from condemnation, it ultimately fails in breaking the patriarchal underpinnings of the pattern itself.
Humble alchemy
(2014-05) White, Shalena Bethany; Williams, Jeff, M.F.A.
This master's report addresses the conceptual and material investigations that were explored within my artistic research made at the University of Texas at Austin between 2011 and 2014. These works are a confluence of adornment, sculpture and installation art. These pieces incorporate ancient and contemporary metalworking techniques with raw, organic material. The notion of elegant ornamentation is expanded beyond the body into the adornment of architecture. The potential for transformation and reinvention within found elements is explored within this work. The natural resources I work with have gone through a cycle, which is interrupted when the objects are removed from the earth. I see my process in relationship to alchemical concepts of transmutation. Through manipulation, common matter evolves into precious material. The refined, meticulous craftsmanship conveys a sense of reverence and honor towards the common material. This intervention with the material is an act of preservation and veneration. This work explores my sense of intrigue about the extraordinary potential of mundane materials, and investigates conventional notions of material value.
Leaping through the momentum of decline, a small-town planning initiative
(2020-05-07) Winton, Gregory Scott; Oden, Michael; Lieberknecht, Katherine
The report addresses the question: “How can a town that has experienced decades of decline stop that momentum through internal actions and activities”? The question is addressed with literature review of causes of rural decline. A discussion is also included on reasons to save declining places. Research on the extent of declining towns in Texas is presented as well as literature review on the extent of rural depopulation within the United States. Best practices and resources available to rural Texas towns are presented. The philosophy of permaculture is submitted as a discipline a town should adopt for town systems, including eight types of capital that may be present within a town. Systems thinking is presented as an organizational development tool for town revival with the idea that personal self-improvement and an internal transformation of community members is how to address the decline. Sierra Blanca, Texas is woven through the narrative to provide examples and context. Recommended practices the town could adopt and a perspective labeled as Leap Town are offered as a lens a town can use to structure their own vision for revival. It is based upon the idea that a town would leapfrog to the 22nd-century in their thinking and actions. Sierra Blanca is also discussed as an example where a recovery center is helping to effect change by bringing manpower, potential future residents, and a presence of hope to the community.
Managing academic and personal life in graduate studies : an interactive qualitative analysis of graduate student persistence and transformation
(2011-08) Winston, Rachel Anne; Roueche, John E.; Northcutt, Norvell; McClenney, Kay; McCombs, Maxwell; Butler, Jess; Reddick, Richard; McCoy, Danny
This study examines the impact of academic and personal life on graduate student persistence and transformation. Of particular interest are the relationships, emotions, and life management skills required throughout the graduate experience and how socialization, emotional intelligence, and advising aid students through their academic program. With an average of seven to eight years required to complete a doctoral program, life happens. Students enter and leave relationships, children are born, family members have emergencies, health issues arise, and emotional growth takes place. Therefore, students transform not only academically, but in many ways. These are intertwined as evidenced by the data-derived system representation. The importance of understanding the interconnected links in graduate experience spans academic, social, economic, and societal spheres. Each year hundreds of thousands of students enter graduate school. However, for doctoral students, there is an enormous gap between acceptance and completion. After seven years, approximately 50 percent complete their program and after ten years the rate climbs to only 57 percent (Council of Graduate Schools, 2010). This study offers a systemic representation and a four-stage model of graduate student development, incorporating student-identified factors: Faculty Impact, Life Management, Relationships, Playing the Game, Growth/Transformation, Emotions, and Reward/Purpose. Stage I: Orientation and Socialization Stage II: Adjustment and Transition Stage III: Navigation and Transformation Stage IV: Completion and Advancement The results, presented as a systems-based model, along with analysis, may be used to support faculty, advisors, and administrators in creating better advising, orientation, evaluation, and support systems. Departmental policies may be improved to identify at-risk students, provide mentorship opportunities, or obtain continual feedback to understand the underlying factors that may stop students from progressing. This research might also help identify students during the application/admission process. The methodological framework used to create the system produced in this study is Interactive Qualitative Analysis (Northcutt & McCoy, 2004), a methodology that provides the quantitative rigor of algorithmically generated data analysis, combined with the qualitative descriptiveness of interviews, in order to provide insights into the drivers of graduate school persistence. This methodology uses a systematic, protocol-driven research procedure to construct a unified, descriptive diagram to illustrate the phenomenon.
Simplified engineering of Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 and evolutionary strategies for genome minimization
(2019-09-24) Suárez, Gabriel Antonio; Barrick, Jeffrey E.; Alper, Hal S; Moran, Nancy A; Miller, Kyle M; Davies, Bryan W
Our ability to engineer and domesticate microbes to give them useful properties promises grand rewards in the energy, agriculture, chemical and health industries. Yet, synthetic biologists often struggle to engineer bacterial genomes despite ever-improving genome-scale models of how they function. Often, they are stymied by the sheer complexity of the cell’s underlying systems biology and by how these continue to evolve rapidly after they are engineered. Recent advances in genome stabilization and genome simplification promise to overcome these barriers and profoundly extend our understanding of basic molecular biology and cellular life. Both the natural instability of bacterial genomes and their unexplored complexity (e.g., the presence of many genes with unknown functions) underlie major challenges to be reckoned with that often lead synthetic biologists to rely on extensive experimental trial and error. The construction of cells with minimal genomes to make microbiology more predictable is riddled with difficulties. There are sometimes advantages and sometimes disadvantages for removing more and more genes to simplify a bacterial cell. Similarly, evolution is a process that may both frustrate or enable synthetic biology. It can be slowed down by removing selfish DNA elements from a genome or it can be applied to compensate for suboptimal designs. The work in this thesis explores these interactions between genome design and evolution. It asserts that rational engineering and simplification principles can lay stronger foundations for engineering microbial cells so that more complex and ambitious designs can be successfully built, but that evolution is also a necessary tool to achieve extreme simplification of a living cell to make it robust enough for research and industrial demands to achieve the potential of synthetic biology. Our model organism is Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1, a highly naturally transformable and metabolically versatile soil bacterium. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to A. baylyi genetic engineering and the current state-of-the-art in bacterial genome stabilizing and streamlining projects. Chapter 2 describes our rational engineering efforts to reduce A. baylyi ADP1 genome instability– mainly by deleting all transposable elements from its genome–and the beneficial phenotypes in the ADP1-ISx strain that resulted from this work. Chapter 3 describes improved A. baylyi genome engineering methods and how they were used in the first stage of a genome streamlining project. We also describe a “Golden Transformation” protocol that speeds up and simplifies the steps needed to make precise edits to the A. baylyi genome and also show that the native CRISPR-Cas system is functional and can be reprogrammed using this method. Chapter 4 describes how we begin to test how compensatory evolution of reduced genomes can open new pathways to more extreme genome minimization by restoring fitness that is lost after deleting many dispensable genes from a genome. Chapter 5 discusses future directions for making improvements that further stabilize and streamline the A. baylyi genome. Together, the work presented in this dissertation presents concepts, tools, and insights into strategies that were successful and unsuccessful for building a better and simpler Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 genome. These approaches can also be applied to other bacterial species to propel the goals of synthetic biology forward
TGF-β/Smad signaling is important for v-Rel mediated transformation
(2010-05) Tiwari, Richa; Bose, Henry R.; Tucker, Phillip W.; Dudley, Jaquelin P.; Tian, Ming; Van Den Berg, Carla
The v-rel oncogene is the most efficiently transforming member of the Rel/NF-κB family of transcription factors. Identification of genes or signal transduction pathways that contribute to v-Rel transformation provide insight into the mechanisms of tumorigenesis by Rel/NF-κB proteins. In these studies, the contribution of TGF-β/Smad signaling to v-Rel transformation was assessed. TGF-β/Smad signaling regulates several cellular processes, including growth, differentiation, and apoptosis and has been implicated in a number of different cancers. Using microarray technology and Northern blot analysis, key components of the TGF-β/Smad pathway (tgf-β2 and tgf-β3 ligands, TGF-β type II receptor, and receptor-activated smad3) were identified with upregulated mRNA expression in v-Rel-transformed fibroblasts and lymphoid cells relative to control cells. A corresponding change in their protein levels was also observed. Further analysis revealed elevated levels of the phosphorylated, active form of Smad3, which correlated with its increased DNA-binding activity in v-Rel transformed cells. In contrast, the overexpression of c-Rel resulted in little to no alteration in the RNA and protein expression of members of the TGF-β/Smad pathway. Further studies demonstrated that elevated TGF-β/Smad signaling is required for the transforming ability of v-Rel. Blocking TGF-β signaling with a kinase inhibitor of TGF-β type I receptor inhibited the activation of Smad3 and dramatically reduced the ability of v-Rel transformed cells to form colonies in soft agar. Overexpression of a constitutively active form of Smad3 in the inhibitor-treated cells restored their ability to form colonies in soft agar close to the levels seen in untreated cells. Additional experiments with dominant negative Smad3 also revealed its ability to hinder the oncogenic potential of v-Rel. In complementary experiments, a stimulatory effect on v-Rel transformation was observed with cells treated with recombinant TGF-β2 ligand or overexpressed with wild-type Smad3. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that TGF-β signaling is crucial for the transformation potential of v-Rel and is primarily mediated by Smad3 activity.
Transformational indicators : deciding when to develop transformable products
(2010-08) Camburn, Bradley Adam; Wood, Kristin L.; Jensen, Dan
Transformable products (or transformers), those with two or more functional states, are increasingly utilized by our society. As the mobility and complexity of life increases, so must the adaptability of the products which we use. We need new design techniques to develop more adaptable devices, such as transformers. The purpose of this study is to propose a response to the question “When is it preferable to implement a design approach focused on developing transformable products over an approach focused on developing primary function, non transforming products?” Our response to this question comes in the form of a method. The method helps a designer or design team consider the benefits of developing a transformer at an early stage in the design process. Research includes a deductive and an inductive study which are used to identify transformation indicators or context properties and usage factors that identify when it is preferable to build a transformable device. Static function-state indicators are also presented. These are contrary to transformation indicators in that they identify contexts suitable for developing non-transforming devices. Our technique seeks to improve the outcome of a design project by encouraging the consideration of transformable solutions and aiding in the selection of an appropriate design process. This method for testing the presence of these indicators in exemplary design contexts is presented. One such application is the design of an autonomous bridge-health monitoring system.