Written and unwritten rules: the use of alcohol by fraternities: a study of one college

The written and unwritten rules surrounding the use of alcohol by fraternities was examined at one college. Qualitative research techniques were employed to interview 29 students who were classified as independents and members of fraternities. These students were interviewed in focus groups and segregated by affiliation.;Changes were made to the College\u27s alcohol policy just prior to the interviews. Implicit themes that emerged include: (a) social life centered around Greek Letter organization activities; (b) Greek organizations tend to dominate the campus culture; (c) members of Greek Letter organizations and independents perceive recent changes to the College\u27s alcohol and party policies differently, and; (d) social life was viewed as declining and drinking occurred secretly or off-campus. Explicit themes that emerged include: (a) fraternities perceived that recent changes were imposed on them with little input; (b) the College was more socially active under the old alcohol and party policies, and; (c) enforcement of the alcohol policy was inconsistent.;This research was conducted at one small private, four-year institution where most students were from the same state and approximately 35% of the students were members of Greek Letter organizations. Given these limitations, readers should not generalize or assume transferability to other institutions or fraternities at other schools

The New Atlantis

25 p. Note on the e-text: this Renascence Editions text is that of The Internet Wiretap edition, prepared by Kirk Crady from scanner output provided by Internet Wiretap. From Ideal Commonwealths, P.F. Collier & Son, New York. (c)1901 The Colonial Press, expired. This book is in the public domain, released August 1993

Pharmaceutical Product Development: Intranasal Scopolamine (INSCOP) Metered Dose Spray

Motion sickness (MS) has been a problem associated with space flight, the modern military and commercial air and water transportation for many years. Clinical studies have shown that scopolamine is the most effective medication for the prevention of motion sickness (Dornhoffer et al, 2004); however, the two most common methods of administration (transdermal and oral) have performance limitations that compromise its utility. Intranasal administration offers a noninvasive treatment modality, and has been shown to counter many of the problems associated with oral and transdermal administration. With the elimination of the first pass effect by the liver, intranasal delivery achieves higher and more reliable bioavailability than an equivalent oral dose. This allows for the potential of enhanced efficacy at a reduced dose, thus minimizing the occurrence of untoward side effects. An Intranasal scopolamine (INSCOP) gel formulation was prepared and tested in four ground-based clinical trials under an active Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although there were early indicators that the intranasal gel formulation was effective, there were aspects of formulation viscosity and the delivery system that were less desirable. The INSCOP gel formulation has since been reformulated into an aqueous spray dosage form packaged in a precise, metered dose delivery system; thereby enhancing dose uniformity, increased user satisfaction and palatability, and a potentially more rapid onset of action. Recent reports of new therapeutic indications for scopolamine has prompted a wide spread interest in new scopolamine dosage forms. The novel dosage form and delivery system of INSCOP spray shows promise as an effective treatment for motion sickness targeted at the armed forces, spaceflight, and commercial sea, air, and space travel markets, as well as prospective psychotherapy for mental and emotional disorders

Pharmacokinetics of Intranasal Scopolamine Gel Formation During Antiorthostatic Bedrest - A Microgravity Analog

Space Motion sickness (SMS) is an age old problem for astronauts on both short and long duration space flights. Scopolamine (SCOP) is the most frequently used drug for the treatment of motion sickness (MS) which is currently available in transdermal patch and tablet dosage forms. These formulations of SCOP are ineffective for the treatment of SMS. Intranasal dosage forms are noninvasive with rapid absorption and enhanced bioavailability thus allowing precise and reduced dosing options in addition to offering rescue and treatment options. As such, an intranasal gel dosage formulation of scopolamine (INSCOP) was developed and Pharmacokinetics (PK) and bioavailability were determined under IND guidelines. The present clinical trial compares PK and bioavailability of INSCOP in 12 normal, healthy subjects (6 male/ 6 female) during ambulation (AMB) and antiorthostatic bedrest (ABR) used as a ground-based microgravity analog. Subjects received 0.2 and 0.4 mg doses of INSCOP during AMB and ABR in a four-way crossover design. Results indicated no difference between AMB and ABR in PK parameters after 0.2 mg dose. Clearance (Cls) decreased with a concomitant increase in maximum concentration and area under concentration versus time curve (AUC) during ABR after the 0.4 mg dose. This difference in AUC and Cls at the higher but not the lower dose during ABR may suggest that ABR may affect metabolism and/or clearance at higher doses of INSCOP. These results indicate that dosing adjustment may be required for treatment of SMS with INSCOP in space

Preliminary Evaluation of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Packing Materials for Flight Medication Dispenser (FMD) Technology Development

With the advent of longer duration space missions, pharmaceutical use in space has increased. During the first 33 space shuttle missions, crew members took more than 500 individual doses of 31 different medications . Anecdotal reports from crew members described medications as generally "well tolerated" and "effective". However, reported use of increased medication doses and discrepancies in ground vs. flight efficacy may result from reduced potency or altered bioavailability due to changes in chemical and/or physical parameters of pharmaceutical stability. Based on preliminary results from a ground-based irradiation and an inflight study on pharmaceutical stability, three susceptible medications, Amoxicillin/Clavulanate and Sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim antibiotics tablets and promethazine (PMZ), an antihistamine were selected for testing using two types of Oliver-Tolas bags, TPC-1475(Clear) and TPF-0599B (Foil) for radiation Shielding effectiveness. The material composition of the bags included aluminum coated Mylar sheathing coated with multifunctional nanocomposities based on polyethylene with dispersed boron-rich nanophases. Two bags of each medication were irradiated for different time intervals with 14.6 rad/min to achieve 0.1 Gy, 1 Gy and 10 Gy of cumulative radiation dose. Active pharmaceutical content (API) in each medication was determined and results analyzed. No significant difference in API content was observed between control and irradiated samples for both antibiotic tablets suggesting both types of bags may offer protection against gamma radiation; results with PMZ were inconclusive. These preliminary results suggest that Oliver-Tolas TPL-1475 and TPF-0599B materials may possess characteristics suitable for protection against ionizing radiation and can be considered for designing and further testing of FMD technology

William Cowper’s The Task: A Study in Transition

Hidden deep in the shelves of most libraries in England and America is an obscure, dusty volume of poetry containing one of the minor classics in the English language, a poem entitled The Task. Written by the eighteenth-century poet William Cowper, this very long and loosely structured poem won widespread recognition and acclaim in its day, only to gradually fade into a premature oblivion. Today The Task is known primarily to a handful of literary scholars whose arcane and esoteric business it is to go beyond the turnpikes of literary history into the labyrinthine lanes and paths of our literary past. This is an unfortunate situation, for William Cowper and his The Task have much to offer the world in which we live. The Task is a poem which offers a fertile soil for literary scholarship, since in this poem one can see a link between the neo-classic and the romantic. In addition, Cowper’s great poem carries a soothing spiritual message similar in content to that of Thoreau’s Walden. It is a message that needs urgently to spread in an age where insensitivity and spiritual dryness seem to everywhere flourish. Since The Task was first published in 1785, it should be obvious that it would be more romantic than neo-classic. And so it is. Cowper’s abandonment of the heroic couplet, his attempts to make more natural the language of poetry, his love and close observations of the natural world, and the spontaneous, associational structure of The Task show the poem to be essentially romantic in nature. However, some of the finest portions of this poem were written in the neo-classic tradition; thus Cowper’s The Task may be viewed as a transitional poem, a poem which provides a link between Romanticism and Neo-Classicism. In short, an Augustan poet could not have written The Task; similarly, a poet of the romantic school could hardly have produced a poem so replete with stock diction and didactic advice as The Task. It is truly unfair and unfortunate that the term “transitional poem” has come to connote a work of art somehow lacking in quality, and perhaps this is the stigma which has relegated The Task into a most undeserving obscurity. This connotation is based upon absolutely no, or at best erroneous, logic. Logically, it seems as though a work of art which draws from the best of two worlds should have the potential of being of the highest literary quality. Cowper succeeded in unconsciously blending together the characteristics of two opposite literary schools in The Task, and while the poem is not ----- masterpiece, it is a minor classic worthy of attention and study. Living most of his life in the seclusion of the little village of Olney, Cowper bequeathed to posterity a poem of spiritual solace. Implicit in Cowper’s defense of a life of retirement is an appeal to man’s spiritual half, a plea to cultivate a life which engenders the nourishment of one’s soul. Like good poetry anywhere, Cowper’s purpose in writing The Task was to enrich, ennoble, encourage; and in an age which threatens to abolish man’s spiritual side, this poem is laden with wisdom and comfort. This study of Cowper and The Task is an attempt to discuss the work as a transitional poem with all the competence and accuracy of scholarship which it deserves. Hopefully the study will be rendered with the sensitivity and understanding its spiritual message requires

Reading incest: tyranny, subversion, and the preservation of patriarchy

British literature is rich in stories crafted around the problem of incest. Incest has long been seen as a universal, or near-universal, taboo, yet dynasties have been founded upon it--and have fallen because of it. This dissertation explores usage of the incest theme in the medieval and early modern literary periods, and into the mid-eighteenth century, a time which saw the emergence of a new form of literature named by one of its creators as Gothic. While incest remains firmly taboo across this long period of time, writers and storytellers appropriate it to reflect some of the anxieties attendant upon their times. To understand the usefulness of incest in mirroring societal disarray across centuries, it is necessary to first understand the historical background of consanguineous relationships, a history which is full of ambiguities and contradictions. Thus incest seems a natural choice for John Gower, who relies on incest in his Confessio Amantis, and in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, where it is used to allegorize the misdeeds of tyrannical kings who fail to rule wisely, and lead themselves and their people to misery. Given the popularity of drama in the early modern period, it is through this genre that the usage of incest best reveals the anxieties of this age, anxieties which include not only tyrannical kings but also the risks of increasing female autonomy. Incest in Shakespeare's Pericles, Beaumont and Fletcher's A King, and No King and John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi works to showcase the dangers of uncertainty when it comes to matters of inheritance, especially when the inheritance involves the throne. Added to this is the fear that rising female agency might eventually succeed in completely undermining the patriarchal and monarchical social structures that were still believed by many to be divinely ordained. By the mid-eighteenth century, changes in economic and political systems appeared to threaten the institution of the family, and incest proved to be a useful metaphor for expressing these anxieties. I conclude that reading incest across four centuries of literary works reveals that while societal threats change over time, a common desire to preserve, uphold, and defend patriarchy remains