Northeastern Illinois University

ABSTRACT For most of its afterlife, Twin Peaks has been read as an exemplary postmodern text. Importantly, the show's first season coincided with the publication of Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism. But what happens if we read the show in relation to a different text published at roughly the same time: Bill McKibben's The End of Nature? As McKibben argues, in order to develop an ecological imagination, we need to abandon the Romantic concept of “nature.” In Twin Peaks, I argue, Lynch dissolves the concept of “nature” by practicing a dialectical aesthetics that reveals how ecological relations and capitalist relations are inextricable.

Post-baccalaureate (post-bac) programs can be instrumental in strengthening science training and expanding STEM career opportunities for junior trainees. Many of these sponsored programs are designed to increase research exposure for underrepresented minorities, including African American, Hispanic, Native American, and first-generation college students, among others. Recruiting trainees to post-bac programs can be challenging for reasons including a lack of awareness about available programs. To address this gap, an Open House event was created with the goal of raising awareness and generating interest among potential students for future post-bac programs. Students were recruited from partnering Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to attend a 2-day event at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI) and a Research-Intensive (R1) institution. During the visit, students toured both campuses, learned about various post-bac programs and research opportunities, and interacted with faculty, current graduate students, and a former post-bac scholar. Transportation, lodging, and meals were provided. Participants completed voluntary pre- and post-surveys. Results indicated that attendees, the majority of whom were underrepresented minorities in STEM, left with a stronger understanding of post-bac programs and how these experiences could support their future careers in STEM and that students' attendance at the event made it more likely they would apply to available post-bac programs. Mentor and MSI faculty survey responses highlighted their strong support for participating in future recruitment events. These findings demonstrate that in-person Open House events, built on collaborative partnerships across institutions, are an effective strategy for increasing awareness and encouraging participation in post-bac training programs-particularly among underrepresented student populations.

This poster presents a practical model for transatlantic collaboration in computer science education through a blended mobility program between Karlsruhe University of Education (Germany) and Northeastern Illinois University (USA). The program funded by the European Union (Erasmus+) combines virtual and physical mobility phases, enabling students to participate in collaborative courses such as Physical Computing and Cybersecurity without interrupting their home semester. We share insights from the program's first implementation cycle, including student feedback and preliminary data on learning outcomes. This model demonstrates how EU-US cooperation can effectively support practical, hands-on computer science courses in a blended learning environment. Our work highlights challenges and best practices for designing sustainable, international blended mobility programs in computer science teacher education, offering valuable implications for institutions seeking to foster global collaboration in computer science education.

The increasing integration of digital tools into vocational rehabilitation (VR) service delivery has reshaped counselor roles, creating both opportunities and challenges for job satisfaction and workforce retention. This study examined how technology-related attitudes, motivation, perceived digital barriers, and organizational support predict job satisfaction among 296 VR counselors in state and community rehabilitation settings. Hierarchical regression analysis assessed the unique contribution of each predictor beyond demographic characteristics. Organizational support for digital technology use emerged as by far the strongest predictor (β = .30, p < .001), followed by optimism toward technology (β = .17, p < .05) and years of experience (β = .14, p < .05). Technological proficiency showed a negative association in the final model (β = –.15, p < .05). The final model accounted for 23% of the variance in job satisfaction, with organizational support attenuating the effects of motivation and perceived barriers. Findings underscore that digital transformation in VR requires more than technological upgrades. It depends on cultivating an organizational climate that values, equips, and empowers staff. Leadership engagement, resource provision, and clear communication can enhance counselor resilience, mitigate strain from new responsibilities, and sustain positive work attitudes. Policies should integrate infrastructure investments with organizational development to ensure that counselors are prepared and supported to deliver high-quality, equitable services in digitally evolving environments.

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) over Chicago is strongly modulated by interactions between the lake breeze and the urban heat island. This study focuses on characterizing the thermodynamic and kinematic processes governing the Chicago urban heat is

Public vulnerability databases, such as the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), document vulnerabilities and facilitate threat information sharing. However, they often suffer from short descriptions and outdated or insufficient information. In this paper, we introduce <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Zad</i>, a system designed to enrich NVD vulnerability descriptions by leveraging external resources. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Zad</i> consists of two pipelines: one collects and filters supplementary data using two encoders to build a detailed dataset, while the other fine-tunes a pre-trained model on this dataset to generate enriched descriptions. By addressing brevity and improving content quality, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Zad</i> produces more comprehensive and cohesive vulnerability descriptions. We evaluate <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Zad</i> using standard summarization metrics and human assessments, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing vulnerability information.

ABSTRACTAnimal coloration is a complex phenotype that may be affected by genetics, evolution, ecology, and environment. Disentangling the impact of environment on phenotype can often be done in laboratory studies, but the results do not necessarily correspond to the natural variation present in the wild. Painted turtles are a brightly colored freshwater species that inhabit a variety of environments in North America. There is known to be plasticity in the melanin coloration of the shell of painted turtles in a lab setting, but this has not been measured in the wild. The bright skin coloration that gives painted turtles their name is caused by carotenoids, which can only be obtained from an organism's diet in vertebrates. Though the availability of carotenoids likely varies between environments, and there is evidence that some of the carotenoid‐based coloration in this species is a visual signal, it is unknown if or how environmental variation impacts coloration in the wild. To address this, we measured the effect of the environment on turtle coloration by assessing multiple populations of painted turtles in northern Wisconsin. We measured water clarity and aquatic plant density at each site where turtles were caught. We found that females had brighter carapaces than males, and that plastron brightness varied with water clarity and plant density, despite its ventral orientation. We also found that neither water clarity nor plant density predicted carotenoid chroma, despite reason to believe that light environment and carotenoid availability should impact a visual signal. These findings suggest that colorful phenotypic traits in this turtle species are complex and their potential role as visual signals requires more research. It is crucial to understand the different phenotypes of painted turtles since coloration may influence fitness in this species, and since laboratory studies are unable to represent natural variation.