The Kite Runner (11th grade)

This three week unit for 11th grade English (American Literature) is for the assigned summer reading novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The first goal of the unit is to introduce the students to the concept that the established American literary canon has evolved to include diverse authors with myriad experiences and from different backgrounds. Furthermore, the lessons in this unit will introduce the concept that all language functions as rhetoric and is, essentially, an argument. Students will continue to revisit this concept throughout the year. Finally, students will explore three major themes of The Kite Runner: power/privilege, injustice, and redemption. Concurrently, students will be completing poetry exercises that are a part of San Antonio Poet Laureate, Jenny Browne’s city-wide poetry initiative - St. Anthony\u27s Lost & Found: A Poetry Exchange. Poetry is an excellent way for students to explore themes of the novel, characterization, setting, and more. Therefore, the performance assessment asks students to create a poetry publication that demonstrates their insight into the unit’s understandings. With a high-interest text and lessons that promote inquiry, problem solving, analysis, discussion, and reflection, this unit is sure to engage students and set the tone for the rest of the year

Transgender Identity and Media in Historical Perspective

Despite recent advances in the public sphere, the transgender community remains vulnerable and underrepresented in daily life. While the media has been fascinated with transgender stories since the 1930s, these stories have been skewed in ways that undermine what it truly means to be a transgender person living in the contemporary United States. The disconnect between dominant media narratives and the daily lives of transgendered people is harmful, because it shields the mainstream from the harsh realities of every day life for these individuals and allows violence, discrimination, and transphobia to continue. This study analyzes the growing visibility of the transgender movement, the way the movement is portrayed in the media, and how the gap between media narratives and lived experience affects the transgender community. This research will open discussion about the discrimination confronting the trans community in both the public and private spheres

The effect of rate of developmental growth on sow reproductive performance, body condition and productivity

Fifty littermate gilt pairs were classified according to their rate of gain during the finishing period. Body weight and backfat thickness at day 110 of gestation and weaning were recorded in addition to the sow productivity traits of total number bom, number born alive, pig birth and weaning weights and number of pigs weaned. Females were evaluated for three parities. Gilts exhibiting slower rates of developmental growth (65 kg gain in body weight) produced more pigs bom (8.6 vs. 6.4, p=.05), more born alive (8.2 vs. 6.0, p\u3c.05) and more pigs weaned (7.4 vs. 5.1, p\u3c.05) in parity one in addition to more pigs weaned in parity three (8.6 vs. 7.3, p\u3c.10) than faster gaining gilts (73 kg gain in body weight). Over three parities, slow gaining gilts produced 26.4, 25.8 and 23.4 pigs bom, bom alive and weaned, respectively, compared to 25.6, 24.0 and 20.3 pigs, respectively, for fast gaining gilts. Gilt rate of gain did not affect progeny birth or weaning weights (p\u3e.27) nor sow 110 day gestation weights or backfat thicknesses (p\u3e.25 and p\u3e.17, respectively). Fast gaining gilts were heavier at selection (106 kg vs. 96 kg, p=.0001) and at first breeding (145 kg vs. 139 kg, p\u3c.05) although the only difference observed in sow weaning weight was in parity two where slow growing gilts were heavier (159 kg vs 146 kg, p\u3c.10). Slow growing gilts gained 82 kg of body weight (BW) from selection through parity three weaning compared to a 73 kg BW gain for faster growing gilts. Slow growth rate females lost more backfat during their first and third lactations and had negative backfat gains during gestation in parities two and three. Slow growing females had lower culling rates (35%) than faster growing females (39%). Fraternal litter size tended to affect litter sizes produced by the gilts in this experiment though the effect was observed mostly in the third parity. Parity of the dam in which the gilts were born influenced pig birth weights and number weaned but not until the third parity. Correlations of gain to sow body weights were positive and moderate to high but were low for backfat thickness and productivity traits. These results indicated that fast growing females used for sow herd replacements were not reproductively nor productively superior than their slower growing littermates

Survival and feeding of subterranean termites, Reticulitermes spp., in three relative humidity regimes

Termites caused $577 million worth of damage in the United States in 1983, and approximately$1.5 billion is spent for control of termites each year. Previous research has dealt with direct control of termites, but little has been done to determine the effects of relative humidity and wood moisture on termites isolated in a wooden structure. Research was conducted to determine the effects of soil access or no-soil access in three relative humidity regimes (90 to 100%, 50 to 60%, and 30 to 40%) on survival and feeding of the eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar), and a related species, R. virginicus Banks. Wood moisture content in southern yellow pine (Pinus sp.) framing was measured, and termite damage ratings were determined for weathered pine blocks and strips in each regime. Termite survival in simulated wall voids in which termites were excluded from or allowed access to soil was determined. Colony survival at the highest humidity (90 to 100%) was full term (45 days) with 50% or more of the individuals surviving at the end of the test. The medium humidity (50 to 60%) had a greater contrast in termite survival between soil access and no-soil access voids than the lowest and highest relative humidities. At the low relative humidity (30 to 40%) significant differences in survival occurred between the soil access and no-soil access voids, but termite survival time was shortest overall. Wood moisture content in pine frames was measured every other day at each relative humidity. There were no significant differences in wood moisture content between soil access and no-soil access frames within a single relative humidity level. However, differences were detected among the relative humidity levels, as wood moisture content was significantly greater at the highest relative humidity than at the medium and low humidities. Wood weight loss and damage ratings were affected by termite survival, which was a function of relative humidity. There was a general trend of significantly higher wood loss and damage rating values for the highest relative humidity compared with the medium and low humidities

Caring for the Caregiver: Incentivizing Medical Providers to Include Caregivers as Part of the Treatment Team

More than 1 in 5 people in the United States care for a family member, friend, or neighbor with a health care need or functional disability. More family caregivers find themselves caring for multiple people (24 percent) and working while caregiving (61 percent). Family caregivers face increasing complexity meeting the medical and support needs of their care recipients; 7 in 10 do so with no paid help. Without adequate and affordable services and supports, the escalating demands on family caregivers contribute to their physical, emotional, financial strain, and decline in self-reported health.In this white paper, published by The National Alliance for Caregiving, experts discuss incentives in the existing Medicare program that could motivate health systems and providers to offer more robust support to family caregivers.Click "Download" to access this resource

Worry and the inhibition of emotionally valanced stimuli in a directed forgetting paradigm

There is considerable evidence in support of an attentional bias among clinically anxious individuals for threatening stimuli. However, a similar bias is not usually found in non-clinical anxious individuals and neither population has tended to show a response bias for mood-congruent information. We proposed that the measurement of anxiety in normals has previously been flawed due to questionnaires which do not accurately select pathological worry, the cognitive component of anxiety. First, we administered the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and selected only those with the most extreme high and low scores. At the time of testing, these subjects were given a state anxiety measure. From these scores, the high and low state anxiety within trait anxiety subjects were selected. With this selection procedure, we compared all high state anxious individuals to all low state anxious individuals. Our hypothesis was that, we would find significant differences between the high and low state within trait groups in a Directed Forgetting Paradigm. Directed forgetting was observed as a function of state within trait and the valence of the word on recall. Word fragment also showed a directed forgetting effect but no differences were seen for the worry groups. However, a secondary recognition procedure on the completed word fragments showed a bias as a function of worry group. The results are interpreted to suggest that worry has an effect on the availability episodic memory

\u3ci\u3eThe Lord of the Rings\u3c/i\u3e & \u3ci\u3eDante’s Inferno\u3c/i\u3e: The Pilgrim’s Path—a Descent into Hell

This project explores the parallels between the journeys of Dante’s Pilgrim in Inferno and Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. It asserts that these two examples are a variant of the hero’s journey, more akin to a divine pilgrimage. Through this analysis, each author’s use and repurposing of mythology and monsters to fit within a Christian narrative will be closely examined. Following the Pilgrim and Frodo, this project charts their voyages through hell (or hellish landscape) and the effects that has on each of them psychologically and spiritually. In essence, this project seeks to chart both external and internal movement of these two characters as they traverse hellish landscapes. In doing so, it is important to also examine those who seek to guide our characters through their monumental task. Lastly, the taking on of sin, the bearing the weight of the world is a component that plays a major part in each character’s internal arch and through the close reading of this process, gain an understanding of how the authors’ view individual strength, devotion, and the overcoming of evil