A discussion of the Pearl stanza as an approach to the poem

Pearl, written in the second half of the fourteenth century, remains today an intriguing combination of lyric and narrative poetry. Dramatic throughout, it at the same time has an emblematic quality which is developed through symbolic ornamentation. Both of these levels work toward a cyclic effect, and the end of the poem is a return to the beginning. Themes work against and/or with each other to create tensions, and even these tensions are at times elusive. Much scholarship on the Pearl has sought to find the key to disentangling the shifting themes which are so abundant in this psychological vision. In most cases, however, questions concerning the artistic nature and the structural form of Pearl are never raised. At the end of his interpretation, René Wellek called attention to the fact that Pearl scholarship is wanting in this type criticism. The actual study of the artistic value of the poem is still in its beginnings," he wrote. "Even the obvious approach through questions of meter and structure has not been much utilized hitherto.

Justice reasoning and responsibility reasoning in relation to commitment and happiness in long-term marriages

Marriage, as a microcosm of society, involves the moral dilemmas of conflicting rights, competing claims, and responsibility for decisions. This study focused on the moral development of the individual-in-relationship using commitment and happiness as the common ground. The purposes of this study were (a) to describe justice reasoning and responsibility reasoning of individuals in long-term marriages and (b) to assess the relationship of justice and responsibility reasoning to commitment and perceived happiness. Separate in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 individuals in 15 long-term marriages. Data collected were responses to three hypothetical dilemmas, four real-life dilemmas, and questions on commitment and happiness

Instability of contingencies of self-worth: the role of approach-avoidance temperament

Self-esteem has multiple facets and individuals can derive their feelings of self-worth from specific domains in life (i.e., competition, approval of others, virtue; Crocker & Wolfe, 2001). Additionally, research on self-esteem suggests that it evolved as a social monitoring system, known as the sociometer (Leary, Tambor, Terdal, & Downs, 1995). The function of the sociometer is to alert individuals to changes in their relational value to others, which in turn influences their self-esteem, and ultimately their behavior (Leary, Tambor, Terdal, & Downs, 1995; Park & Crocker, 2008). A better understanding of the connection between self-evaluations and behavior can be gained by considering how individuals derive their feelings of self-worth. While people are motivated to succeed and avoid failure, this may particularly be true in the domains from which people derive their feelings of self-worth. Additionally, approach-avoidance motivation may further influence the relationship between evaluations in contingent domains, self-esteem, and behavioral outcomes. The present study expands this research by investigating how approach-avoidance motivation affects the relationship between contingencies of self-worth, self-esteem, and behavioral outcomes. Therefore, I hypothesized that individuals with low self-esteem and avoidance motivation would shift away from a domain that receives negative feedback. Those with high self-esteem and approach motivation, however, would increase the value placed on a domain after receiving negative feedback and positive feedback. Results suggest that avoidantly motivated individuals’ self-worth became increasingly contingent upon other’s approval no matter the feedback they received

The Occurrence Of The Spiral Aftereffect In Children

No abstract available

Considering Black male consciousness within the context of genre : a framework for engaging and analyzing bodies of literature that center Black male bodies and their racialized experiences

Considering Black Male Consciousness within the Context of Genre: A Framework for Engaging and Analyzing Bodies of Literature that Center Black Male Bodies and their Racialized Experiences represents primarily the union of genre studies and Tommy J. Curry’s (2017) Man-Not—a theory that accounts for the historical/societal gendering of Black males, a practice that does not account for the various masculinities, or genres represented by Black manhood. The coupling of these concepts ultimately leads to the culmination of Black Male Consciousness (BMC) as genre and a related set of signposts for analysis to be used in the secondary English classroom. The historical underpinnings of Curry’s (2017) work with genre in relation to Black men and boys along with the conceptual frameworks presented by genre systems are rarely, if ever, met with a level of pedagogical nuance necessary for disrupting deficit models of being that are continuously used to construct and perpetuate caricatures associated with Black male bodies in both literature and in life. As such, the Black Male Consciousness (BMC) as genre framework aims to help readers (both teachers and students) make meaning from Black males’ lived experiences—as presented by Black males—while creating a space in which readers are urged to interrogate social constructs and internalized beliefs around Black manhood

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiac procedure activity in England and associated 30-day mortality

BACKGROUND: Limited data exists on the impact of COVID-19 on national changes in cardiac procedure activity, including patient characteristics and clinical outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS AND RESULTS: All major cardiac procedures (n = 374,899) performed between 1st January and 31st May for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 were analysed, stratified by procedure type and time-period (pre-COVID: January-May 2018 and 2019 and January-February 2020 and COVID: March-May 2020). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the odds ratio (OR) of 30-day mortality for procedures performed in the COVID period.Overall, there was a deficit of 45,501 procedures during the COVID period compared to the monthly averages (March-May) in 2018-2019. Cardiac catheterisation and device implantations were the most affected in terms of numbers (n = 19,637 and n = 10,453) whereas surgical procedures such as MVR, other valve replacement/repair, ASD/VSD repair and CABG were the most affected as a relative percentage difference (Δ) to previous years' averages. TAVR was the least affected (Δ-10.6%). No difference in 30-day mortality was observed between pre-COVID and COVID time-periods for all cardiac procedures except cardiac catheterisation (OR 1.25 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.47, p = 0.006) and cardiac device implantation (OR 1.35 95% CI 1.15-1.58, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Cardiac procedural activity has significantly declined across England during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a deficit in excess of 45000 procedures, without an increase in risk of mortality for most cardiac procedures performed during the pandemic. Major restructuring of cardiac services is necessary to deal with this deficit, which would inevitably impact long-term morbidity and mortality

The Set of Measures on the Reduction of Agrarian Risks in the Conditions of Interstate Integration

Выполнен сравнительный анализ уровня самообеспеченности основными продуктами питания государств-участников ЕАЭС. Выявлены рискообразующие факторы в аграрной сфере и потенциальные угрозы продовольственной безопасности. Обоснована значимость производственных и финансовых аграрных рисков для целей производства необходимого количества сельскохозяйственного сырья и продовольствия в Республике Беларусь. Предложен комплекс мероприятий по снижению уровня аграрных рисков, реализация которых будет способствовать обеспечению необходимых параметров продовольственной безопасности.A comparative analysis of the level of self-provision with essential foods of the countries of Eurasian Economic Union is carried. Risk factors in the agrarian sphere and potential threats for the food security are revealed. The significance of production and financial agrarian risks for the purposes of producing necessary quantity of agricultural raw materials and food in the Republic of Belarus is justified. The set of measures for reducing the level of agrarian risks is proposed, the implementation of which will facilitate providing necessary parameters of food security

Global parameter search reveals design principles of the mammalian circadian clock

Background: Virtually all living organisms have evolved a circadian (~24 hour) clock that controls physiological and behavioural processes with exquisite precision throughout the day/night cycle. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which generates these ~24 h rhythms in mammals, consists of several thousand neurons. Each neuron contains a gene-regulatory network generating molecular oscillations, and the individual neuron oscillations are synchronised by intercellular coupling, presumably via neurotransmitters. Although this basic mechanism is currently accepted and has been recapitulated in mathematical models, several fundamental questions about the design principles of the SCN remain little understood. For example, a remarkable property of the SCN is that the phase of the SCN rhythm resets rapidly after a 'jet lag' type experiment, i.e. when the light/ dark (LD) cycle is abruptly advanced or delayed by several hours. Results: Here, we describe an extensive parameter optimization of a previously constructed simplified model of the SCN in order to further understand its design principles. By examining the top 50 solutions from the parameter optimization, we show that the neurotransmitters' role in generating the molecular circadian rhythms is extremely important. In addition, we show that when a neurotransmitter drives the rhythm of a system of coupled damped oscillators, it exhibits very robust synchronization and is much more easily entrained to light/dark cycles. We were also able to recreate in our simulations the fast rhythm resetting seen after a 'jet lag' type experiment. Conclusion: Our work shows that a careful exploration of parameter space for even an extremely simplified model of the mammalian clock can reveal unexpected behaviours and non-trivial predictions. Our results suggest that the neurotransmitter feedback loop plays a crucial role in the robustness and phase resetting properties of the mammalian clock, even at the single neuron level