“Much improved of late”: ecogothic readings of improvement in American and British novels, 1798-1852

Until recent years ecocriticism has focused almost exclusively on nature-centered texts, heralding Henry David Thoreau’s Walden as its urtext. As scholars are broadening the field’s canonical and theoretical range, they are now recognizing Gothicism’s long-held concerns about ecology, and they have termed this new area of critical inquiry the ecogothic. Framing the ecogothic as a critical lens rather than a literary mode, this dissertation broadens the ecocritical range by considering how writers use Gothicism to contest environmentally harmful ideologies. It expands this subfield by examining what I define as principal characteristics of the Gothicization of nature—deformity, isolation, transgression, and sterility—and explores how this representation enables texts to challenge widely held improvement discourses. Specifically, it argues that from the late eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century, Gothic texts deploy these characteristics to combat the idea of improvement, illustrating the devastating ecological and societal effects of its reliance on the nature-culture binary. This transnational dissertation considers four novels that represent improvement as catalyzing ruin. Wieland illuminates the culturally dysfunctional entanglement of women and nature and employs that link to criticize improved spaces as sites of early American patriarchal violence. Frankenstein demonstrates improvement’s negative consequences, and, deploying the nonbinary Creature, the novel challenges the improvement norm’s reliance on the nature-culture dichotomy. Jane Eyre depicts Jane as an object of improvement and demonstrates how such an emphasis continually fails her, meanwhile suggesting the ruinous effects of rejecting improvement outright. And The House of the Seven Gables emphasizes (female) Nature as culture’s improver to criticize the divisive binaries that uphold the idea of improvement. “Much improved of late” contributes to ecocriticism by considering how Gothicism enables writers to question and combat exploitive human engagements with the natural environment

The effects of self-regulatory strength depletion on perceived exertion during 30 minutes of treadmill exercise

The purpose of this research was to determine if self-regulatory strength depletion induced by performing a modified Stroop task would influence rate of perceived exertion (RPE) during 30 minutes of treadmill exercise. Research indicates that self-regulatory strength can be depleted and performance on subsequent tasks that require self-regulation can be diminished (Muraven and Baumeister, 2000). Participants completed the modified Stroop task (experimental condition) and the color word task (control condition) before performing treadmill exercise at ventilatory threshold for 30 minutes. The modified Stroop task and the color word task were completed on separate days, and the order that participants completed tasks was randomly assigned. Self-regulatory strength depletion did not impact RPE, F(1,12) = 1.63, p > .05, partial ç2 = .12, or exercise heart rate, F(1,12) = .01, p > .05, partial ç2 = .00. Yet experiencing selfregulatory strength depletion on the first day resulted in significantly lower RPE when selfregulatory strength was not depleted on the second day, F(1,11) = 9.01, p < .05, partial ç2 = .45. The results of this study have implications for perceptions of future exercise sessions when selfregulatory strength is or is not depleted

Innocence Framing And Public Trust In Police

Since the late 1980s, wrongful convictions, exonerations, and the accompanying innocence movement have gradually gained prominence as important contemporary issues facing the modern American justice system. Research has documented the rise of the “innocence frame” in media discourse. Yet, little is known about the innocence frame’s effect on public opinion. Framing information in separate, distinct ways may yield different results. In this paper, I compare the impact of thematic and episodic framing of wrongful conviction information for trust in police. Providing factual numbers on exonerations gives respondents opportunity to view wrongful convictions as an institutional, systematic issue, and erodes trust in police. Regarding the episodic frame, providing information in the form of a narrative will evoke empathy, but not create a feeling of systematic blame. I further discuss the implications of my findings for wrongful convictions, framing theory, and trust in police

A study to determine the effect of a nutrition program on the eating habits of a group of first grade children

Within recent years the need for nutrition education throughout our nation has become more and more apparent. Of the million men examined physically by Selective Service before May, 1941, approximately 400,000 were found unfit for military service. It was estimated by Brigadier General Lewis B. Hershey that probably one-third of these were suffering from disabilities directly or indirectly connected with nutrition. The chief single cause for rejection was bad teeth.1 The National Nutrition Conference called in May, 1941, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt focused public attention on the necessity for an all-out program to improve the nation's health by education concerning right food habits and food values. Our present emergency has pointed out the need for better nutrition; it has not created it. It has jogged us out of a rut, made us think what might be done, and wonder what is the most effective way to do it

The effect of exercise on Myocardial Na+/H+ exchanger-1 (NHE1)

The myocardial Na+/H+ exchanger–1 (NHE1) plays a major role in regulation of intracellular pH and its upregulation has been implicated in increased ischemia–reperfusion injury and other pathologies. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a major by–product of reperfusion and is known to enhance NHE1 activity via ERK1/2 signaling. However, neither NHE1 activity nor its regulation by H2O2 has been examined in response to exercise. Therefore, we examined the effect of aerobic exercise training on intrinsic NHE1 activity, H2O2–mediated activation of NHE1, and H2O2–induced phosphorylation of ERK1/2 using isolated adult ventricular myocytes. Adult female Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into sedentary (S, n=10) and exercise–trained (E, n=8) groups. Heart weight:body weight and plantaris muscle cytochrome c oxidase activity was significantly greater by 6.8% and 1.9 fold, respectively, in E animals compared to S animals. NHE1 activity was determined in cells loaded with the pH fluoroprobe 2’,7’–bis –(2 –carboxyethyl)–5 –(and –6)–carboxyfluorescein (BCECF). NHE1 activity was 161% greater in E myocytes compared to S myocytes (0.57 ± 0.10 v 1.49 ± 0.18 fmol/min), which is attributed to the 55% greater cell volume (22.2 ± 0.6 v 34.3 ± 1.1 pL) and 48% greater buffering capacity (28.79 ± 0.72 v 42.65 ± 0.79 mM/pH unit) of E cells. Stimulation with HvO2 enhanced NHE1 activity in S and E but to a significantly lower level in E myocytes (1.55 v 0.64 fold). As assessed by Western blotting, H2O2 stimulation also increased phosphorylation of ERK1/2. There was no difference in the density of H2O2–stimulated phosphorylation between S and E; however, E myocytes were observed to have significantly less total ERK1/2. No difference was observed in either cardiomyocyte NHE1 content or catalase and glutathione peroxidase activity. Our data indicate that aerobic exercise training increases NHE1 activity at physiological intracellular pH and attenuates the H2O2–mediated activation of NHE1 activity

Love is always a cigar: Gatsby and Fight Club with recourse to freud AND Britney, Lolita, and the American morality fetish

This study seeks to trace the trajectory of American sexuality and gender identity as they relate to late capitalism. Meditating on the intertextuality of The Great Gatsby and Fight Club and on the cultural trajectory depicted in the novels, I will argue that the American myth of exceptionalism comes at the expense of the female body. Inasmuch as the grounding principle of the American dream is the freedom to garner capital and to consume and inasmuch as the female body symbolically figures the American landscape, the American identity is traumatized. Examining the text of Lolita and the commodification of the image of Lolita vis-à-vis a "reading" of the pop-stardom and social controversy of Britney Spears, I will argue that the trauma issues in a morality fetish - a condemnation of the overt sexuality of the young girl that represses the guilt of complicity in the very culture and economy that collude to exploit her in the first place

Sex-typed attitudes, sex-typed contingency behaviors, and personality characteristics of male caregivers

The present study was designed to investigate the sex-typed attitudes, sex-typed contingency behaviors, and personality characteristics of male caregivers. The data for sex-typed attitudes were collected from The Sex-Typed Attitude Checklist, drawn from a study by Williams and Bennett (1975). The Adjective Check List (Gough & Heilbrun, 1965) assessed the personality characteristics of the respondents, and The Fagot-Patterson Checklist (1969) was employed to determine the sex-typed contingency behaviors of the male and female caregivers. A contrasting samples survey design was implemented. A random sample of 20 male caregivers who had adopted a traditionally feminine occupation was contrasted to 20 male engineers who were employed in a more traditionally masculine occupation. The male engineers were matched to the male caregivers on age, education, and years of experience. The contrasting variables were the sex-typed attitudinal preferences for boys and girls and the personality characteristics between the two groups. An additional group of 20 female caregivers matched by day care center, age, education, and experience was included to provide additional contrasts on the sex-typed attitudes and personality characteristics of the male caregivers. The sex-typed contingency behaviors of the male caregivers were also compared with those of the females

An assessment of the relationship between institutional planning, resource development and institutional effectiveness in selected two-year community colleges in the Southern Association region

This study focused on the variables of institutional planning, resource development and institutional effectiveness. The purpose of the study was to assess relationships among institutional planning, resource development and institutional effectiveness. The assessment addressed the following questions: (1) how is the level of commitment to institutional planning related to institutional effectiveness? (2) how is the level of commitment to resource development related to institutional effectiveness? (3) how is the level of commitment to institutional planning related to resource development? The literature regarding institutional planning, resource development and institutional effectiveness suggested positive relationships between variables. The new accreditation criteria set forth by SACS necessitates that a comprehensive planning function be implemented by institutions to achieve institutional effectiveness

Gender, power and leadership style : perceptions of selected senior level North Carolina community college administrators

Although much has been written on gender, power, and leadership, there is still a lack of consensus as to whether men and women lead and use power in the same ways. The purpose of this study was to explore whether self-reported leadership style and power are significantly different in men and women senior level administrators of the North Carolina Community College System. This was accomplished by sending the Leader Effectiveness Adaptability Description (LEAD) and the Power Perception Profile to 20 male and 20 female randomly selected senior level administrators across the North Carolina Community College System. Sixteen males and sixteen females completed the instruments and returned them for analysis. The dominant leadership style and differences were determined by descriptive statistics and a chi square. Power differences were determined by a manova

Everyday movements of errantry

Everyday Movements of Errantry examines Édouard Glissant’s theory of errantry, defined as sacred wanderings which result in the development of relational identities, as a means of diminishing Othering practices that occur across various aspects of identity. Though scholars of Caribbean literature have long examined errantry in spatial practices, such as migration, exile, and displacement, my approach focuses on errantry perceived in embodied, everyday movements in the texts Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson, A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul, The Dragon Can’t Dance by Earl Lovelace and Opal Palmer Adisa’s It Begins with Tears. Each text provides a different view of power relations, whether in power, subjugated, or fluctuating, which informs a character’s use of Othering practices. I analyze these texts’ micro-narratives to uncover everyday movements of errantry, which, I argue, inform characters’ identity constructions as members of various racial, classed, gendered, and sexual groups. I contend that as characters’ micro-movements bring them into contact with their Other, practices of Othering diminish as a character’s errantry increases. With the diminishment of Othering practices, characters develop relational identities, which are pluralistic in nature. I argue that these small-scale embodied movements of errantry operate to perform and to secure pluralistic identities for Caribbean subjects, influenced by both their root cultures and new interrelations with Others