What Would Captain Underpants Do? A Literary Analysis Of Children In School

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2006Using cultural studies and critical discourse analysis as guiding theories, this study focuses on the literary representation of school experience by analyzing popular children's literature. The study focuses on literature appealing to the 8--12 year-old audience. Books of primary examination include L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, Barbara Park's Junie B. Jones series, Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby books, Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants series, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Andrew Clemenet's Frindle, C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series, Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books, Betty McDonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, and Walter Dean Meyer's Monster. The general trends found are: (1) Books featuring female protagonists are often concerned with relationships. The protagonists are frustrated that the roles and expectations of school do not allow space for discussing relationships or personal information. (2) Books featuring male protagonists generally focus on themes of power structures and how the students use subversive methods to assert their values in spite of the dominant administrative authority. (3) When books feature children who are working on character or ethical development, those children are often removed from the school context and placed in a more fantastical context. (4) The literature surveyed implies that students value unrealistically committed teachers with no interests outside of the children, who can make lessons clear, relevant, and interactive

Discrete nuclear domains of poly(A) RNA and their relationship to the functional organization of the nucleus

The functional organization of the nucleus was studied using a fluorescence microscopy approach which allowed integration of positional information for RNA, DNA, and proteins. In cells from sea urchin to human, nuclear poly(A) RNA was found concentrated primarily within several discrete transcript domains which often surrounded nucleoli. Concentrations of poly(A) RNA were coincident with snRNP antigen clusters, providing evidence for the localization of pre-mRNA splicing at these sites. The spatial relationship of transcript domains with respect to various classes of DNA was established, in that the poly(A) RNA-rich regions coincided with discrete regions of low DNA density and were non-randomly distributed with respect to specific DNA sequences. Centromeric DNA and late-replicating DNA did not overlap transcript domains, whereas a subset of early-replicating DNA may. Results indicate that transcript domains do not result directly from a simple clustering of chromatin corresponding to metaphase chromosomes bands. Finally, observations on the reassembly of these domains after mitosis suggest that the clustering of snRNP antigens may be dependent on the reappearance of pol II transcription. Implications of these findings for overall nuclear structure and function are considered, including a discussion of whether transcript domains may be sites of polymerase II transcription reflecting a clustering of active genes

Dyslexic students in higher education : a psychological study.

The experience of dyslexic students in higher education is examined in this thesis in four studies: two major and two minor. The first study focuses on autobiographical information and describes how the hypothesis and the general theme of the study emerged from personal experience. Study two presents a set of qualitative case studies, which employ Jonathan Smith's Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) technique in order to generate a set of key themes (looking for a reason, social comparison, low self-esteem and need for appropriate support) which are then developed into the questionnaire which constitutes study three. The questionnaire comprised 54 items and was retumed by 86 respondents, 38 male and 48 female. The high agree response rate; confirmed that the statements generated accurately reflected the views of respondents. Furthermore, a rich source of data was gathered from the free comment section. The information gathered from the three stUdies is then used to develop a preliminary model of dyslexia support, suggesting provision of support across the whole institution, rather than allocation of support on an individual basis. The model is evaluated in study four, via peer group review in the form of a questionnaire. The first chapter introduces the theoretical background to the thesis, reviewing the relevant psychological literature and highlighting the situation in practice and policy in the present system. Chapter two presents the writer's own personal experience in the form of an autobiographical case study (study one), thus presenting the reasoning behind the generation of the hypothesis explored within the thesis. Chapter three offers the rationale behind the employment of mixed methods within the thesis, a variety of qualitative methodological tools are discussed, including Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA); grounded theory and symbolic interaction ism. Chapter four discusses the underlying theoretical/philosophical assumptions behind the utilisation of the particular qualitative method (IPA) employed in the analysis of the case studies presented in study two. 4 Chapters five to eight evaluate and discuss the findings from studies two and three and consider the implications that these have in relation to the restrictions of the present system; offering a preliminary model of support for dyslexic students in higher education. Chapter nine presents the findings from study four (peer review questionnaire), evaluating the preliminary model of dyslexia support put forward in the previous chapter. The thesis concludes with a review of its findings (Chapter 10) and a discussion of its contribution to a wider understanding of the issues involved in supporting dyslexic students in higher education, together with implications for policy, practice and pedagogy

Dynamic changes in the higher-level chromatin organization of specific sequences revealed by in situ hybridization to nuclear halos

A novel approach to study the higher level packaging of specific DNA sequences has been developed by coupling high-resolution fluorescence hybridization with biochemical fractionation to remove histones and distend DNA loops to form morphologically reproducible nuclear halos. Results demonstrate consistent differences in the organization of specific sequences, and further suggest a relationship to functional activity. Pulse-incorporated bromodeoxyuridine representing nascent replicating DNA localized with the base of the chromatin loops in discrete clustered patterns characteristic of intact cells, whereas at increasing chase times, the replicated DNA was consistently found further out on the extended region of the halo. Fluorescence hybridization to unique loci for four transcriptionally inactive sequences produced long strings of signal extending out onto the DNA halo or loop, whereas four transcriptionally active sequences remained tightly condensed as single spots within the residual nucleus. In contrast, in non-extracted cells, all sequences studied typically remained condensed as single spots of fluorescence signal. Interestingly, two transcriptionally active, tandemly repeated gene clusters exhibited strikingly different packaging by this assay. Analysis of specific genes in single cells during the cell cycle revealed changes in packaging between S-phase and non S-phase cells, and further suggested a dramatic difference in the structural associations in mitotic and interphase chromatin. These results are consistent with and suggestive of a loop domain organization of chromatin packaging involving both stable and transient structural associations, and provide precedent for an approach whereby different biochemical fractionation methods may be used to unravel various aspects of the complex higher-level organization of the genome

Bandwidth-Centric Allocation of Independent Tasks on Heterogeneous Platforms

In this paper, we consider the problem of allocating a large number of independent, equal-sized tasks to a heterogenerous "grid" computing platform. Such problems arise in collaborative computing efforts like SETI@home. We use a tree to model a grid, where resources can have different speeds of computation and communication, as well as different overlap capabilities. We define a base model, and show how to determine the maximum steady-state throughput of a node in the base model, assuming we already know the throughput of the subtrees rooted at the node's children. Thus, a bottom-up traversal of the tree determines the rate at which tasks can be processed in the full tree. The best allocation is {\em bandwidth-centric}: if enough bandwidth is available, then all nodes are kept busy; if bandwidth is limited, then tasks should be allocated only to the children which have sufficiently small communication times, regardless of their computation power. We then show how nodes with other capabilities -- ones that allow more or less overlapping of computation and communication than the base model -- can be transformed to equivalent nodes in the base model. We also show how to handle a more general communication model. Finally, we present simulation results of several demand-driven task allocatio- n policies that show that our bandwidth-centric method obtains better results than allocating tasks to all processors on a first-come, first serve basis

National drinking water targets – trends and factors associated with target-setting

We examine how national targets change with time and show that no consistent pattern exists across all countries examined for this article during the 1980–2013 period. Instead, countries fall into different trend types including constant, increasing, and decreasing national targets with time. We found that level of coverage is one likely factor in determining the national target of a country, where countries with low coverage levels set lower national targets compared to countries with high levels of coverage. In general, most countries set ambitious national targets that require the future rate of change to be more than 20% greater than the current rate. Setting ambitious targets is related to greater progress in increasing coverage, as long as the national target does not require countries to more than triple their current rate of change. Changes in national standards of safe water were shown to have occurred, where improved technology type was not used in national standards in 1994 but was present in 2011 and 2013. Comparison of national and international targets suggests that international targets may influence national targets, with approximately 70% of countries having national targets equal to, higher than, or converging towards international targets