The Business Guide to the Low Carbon Economy: California

Outlines California's climate change policy and offers a detailed framework for calculating and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and purchasing offsets. Includes focus areas for each sector, reference lists, and profiles of successful strategies

An Assessment of Acne, Stress, and Psychological Symptoms in College Students: A Daily Diary Study

Acne is one of the most common and burdensome skin diseases in the United States. Many factors, such as stress and psychological symptoms are believed to contribute to the development and exacerbation of this skin disease, and prior research suggests a cyclic relationship between these factors and acne. College students are known to experience heightened levels of stress and psychological morbidities; yet, most of the previous research on acne and these factors have been limited to adolescents. As such, the current study aimed to assess the relationships between acne, stress, depression, and anxiety in college students over a longitudinal period using daily diary methodology. The results suggest a relationship between daily stress and final reports of acne symptoms and acne quality of life. Contradictory to predictions, there were no significant correlations found between daily objective acne and final stress measurements; however, there were significant correlations found between daily stress and final subjective acne. Furthermore, there were no significant correlations found between daily depression and daily objective or subjective acne. Finally, there were no significant correlations between daily anxiety and daily objective acne, yet a positive relationship was found between daily anxiety and daily subjective acne. These results suggest the importance of stress in the exacerbation of acne and also demonstrate the need for more research to better understand the relationship between acne, stress, and psychological morbidities. Future studies should further investigate these relationships using longitudinal methodology

Heroes or Villains: Placing Narcocorridos in the Mexican Corrido Tradition

In this paper I sought to understand whether narcocorridos represent an aberration or a continuation of the corrido tradition. Drawing upon the subaltern theories advanced by Antonio Gramsci, we find that corridos represent a form of cultural communication in an extremely class stratified society. The concept of the social bandit as conceived by the British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm sheds further light on how and why heroes—or anti-heroes—are treated not only as real men, but archetypal manifestations of agency and self-determination that is out of reach for all but a few. Exploring the historic roots of the Mexican corrido we see that the narcocorrido is deeply rooted in Mexican culture, and like the traditional corridos of the Revolutionary period represent a narrative attempt to reconcile complex and often contradictory elements of daily life in a country ‘at war.

Seeking God by strange ways : cults and societies in fin de siècle literature

The general consensus regarding the role of Christianity at the fin de siècle is that while it did not cease to exist, technological and scientific advances had eroded the faith of many educated Victorians. Here, the term “seeking” suggests a spiritual journey with the aim of attaining a true understanding of the universe, which in occult circles is called esoteric knowledge or “gnosis”. One of the purposes of this thesis is to demonstrate how “seeking God by strange ways” in fin de siècle literature is a spiritual rite of passage to locate God in man and involves “lifting the veil” between this world and the spiritual realm. The late nineteenth century traveller seeking God enters a “period of margin” or transitional phase between two fixed states. As liminality is characterized by transformation or a process of “becoming”, some liminal beings live outside their normal environment and raise questions concerning their self, the existing social order and “the new hedonism”.The novels and authors featured here have been chosen to illustrate this thesis because they describe alternative religious cults and societies and spiritual rites of passage, while exploring social and cultural transitions. This exploration often brings with it abjection, marginalization and alienation. In addition to raising questions of “gender inversion”, sexual equality with notions of the “equalization of women and men” and “psychic androgyny”, the occult and mystical revival laid great stress on individual evolution and perfection. The novels chosen illustrate that the goal of the occult journey was to transcend humankind and to become superlative human beings endowed with higher and divine genius. This advancement of humanity is linked to social and political reform; new opinions with regard to sexual equality, and the condition of women, evidenced in the term “the New Woman”. The thesis also examines physical excess, the recognition of sin and “unorthodox sexuality” as expressions of occult, spiritual and mystical desire

Unpacking the Temperament Weight Relationship: The Mediating Role of Food Preferences

The current study examined the mediating role of possible food preferences on the temperamentweight relationship among 18-month-old toddlers. Parents of 37 typically developing toddlers completed the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ). During a lab visit toddlers’ weight and recumbent length were measured and recorded. Toddlers also completed a sequential touching task to examine their ability to categorize a healthy group of foods and an unhealthy group of foods. The only temperament measure found to associate with both child weight status and food categorization was inhibitory control. Toddlers’ food categorization was not found to mediate the relationship between inhibitory control and their weight status. The results of this study suggest that there is a continued need for a nonparent report measure of food preferences

"Mad Scientists, Narrative, and Social Power: A Collaborative Learning Activity"

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories “The Birthmark” (1843) and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” (1844) encourage critical thinking about science and scientific research as forms of social power. In this collaborative activity, students work in small groups to discuss the ways in which these stories address questions of human experimentation, gender, manipulation of bodies, and the role of narrative in mediating perceptions about bodies. Students collectively adduce textual evidence from the stories to construct claims and present a mini-argument to the class, thereby strengthening their skills in communication and cooperative interpretation of ethical dilemmas. This exercise is adaptable to shorter and longer periods of instruction, and it is ideal for instructors who collaborate across areas of expertise

"Nathaniel Hawthorne's Warring Doctors and Meddling Ministers"

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s stories “The Rejected Blessing” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” dramatize ideological com-petition among doctors and clergymen from Renaissance Italy to colonial Boston over care of the body. In the context of Hawthorne’s life, these stories show his foresighted theorizing of medical hegemony and its dangers to public and individual health