Who Is Still Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

One of the most well known villains of all time is the Big Bad Wolf. Usually a male entity, he has been present in child and adult literature for centuries and continues to unsettle readers in the twenty-first century. The Big Bad Wolf is consistently portrayed in a negative light because he originated in a time when wolves were feared, making him the perfect example to terrify village children. Over time, as a result of social and cultural changes, writers have transformed the wolf so that he is no longer the terror that plagued the nineteenth century. Instead, the Big Bad Wolf has become either a domesticated house pet or an audience-friendly, romantic, even sexual entity. In the process, the Big Bad Wolf is not simply a figure in children\u27s literature; he now attracts adult readers. Through the constant alterations and different perceptions of the Big Bad Wolf, he has been transformed from the original creature whose purpose is to teach children through fear to avoid danger, into two declawed versions: a romantic symbol in adult fiction and a domesticated dog in children\u27s fiction. Young adult media, such as the 2010 film adaptation of Red Riding Hood, features a heroine who has more intimate connections with the wolf character. Child-friendly animations of The Three Little Pigs and The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids reduce the originals to comedic skits that invoke joy in the viewer rather than fear. By analyzing these three film adaptations from the twenty-first century and incorporating scholarly research, I will illustrate the transformation of the wolf in a range of modern adaptations

A feminist retrieval of Aquinas' principle of the common good

grantor: University of St. Michael's CollegeThis dissertation explores the relationship between hermeneutics and ethics when a liberationist hermeneutic is employed. It draws on the insights of David Tracy, that without a process of mutually critical correlation classic texts become useless as a source of insight and guidance. In this dissertation a feminist hermeneutic is developed and applied to the principle of the common good in Aquinas' major writings. In Chapter One a feminist hermeneutic is developed drawing on the work of Sandra Schneiders (textual hermeneutics), Rosemary Radford Ruether (retrieval of doctrinal and ethical principles) and Martha Nussbaum whose work on human functioning capabilities shapes the understanding of the human person (anthropology) used in this dissertation. Chapter Two examines the principle of the common good in Aquinas' writings in the larger context of his conception of the good and the human good. The relationship between the individual good and the good of the community is explored as well as the effects Aquinas' conception of the virtue of justice has for understanding the common good. In Chapter Three the hermeneutical method developed in Chapter One is used as a lens through which the elements of the common good discussed in Chapter Two are critically examined and retrieved. Chapter Four presents a social issue through which to view the functioning of the retrieved principle of the common good. The issue that is explored is the availability of and access to health care by women in the United States. The issue is refined further to focus on the fact that African American women have a lower incidence of but a much higher mortality rate from breast cancer. While not offering a conclusion about this situation (medical researchers are pursuing this question), this chapter highlights the fact that the retrieved principle of the common good causes different questions to be asked in order to determine whether the common good of the community is authentically being pursued.Ph.D

"Keep it Sacred!": Indigenous Youth-Led Filmmaking to Advance Critical Race Media Literacy

Due to the influence of digital media, today’s educators encounter unique challenges—and possibilities—surrounding efforts to advance civic dialogue and critical literacy.  This case study, which focuses on two projects with rural Indigenous communities, describes student-led research and filmmaking as teaching pedagogy and research methodology within formal and informal educational spaces.  Findings demonstrate the potential for Indigenous counter-narratives to support place conscious and culturally revitalizing media education; increased learner motivation through student-centered pedagogy, anti-colonial education and civic engagement; and expanded intercultural dialogue and intergenerational understanding.  The study offers implications for educators, researchers, and community partners

Impact of missing data on analysis of postoperative cognitive decline (POCD)

BackgroundThere are a variety of techniques to handle missing data, such as removing observations with missing data from the analyses or estimating the missing values using various imputation algorithms. Dropping subjects from standard regression models and analyzing only completers, however, may bias results from the true value of reality. Likewise, 'last-observation-carried-forward' may not be an appropriate technique for studies measuring a particular variable over time.MethodsThis dataset was part of a larger prospective cohort study that examined postoperative cognitive decline (POCD) after surgery in older adults. Data collectors had provided the reasons for data being missing using adjectives including 'confused', 'incapable', 'stuporous', 'comatose', and 'intubated'. Data having these qualitative notations were re-coded as 'incapable' and trial scores of zero were recorded. This value of '0' indicated that the patient was cognitively incapable of performing the neuropsychological test.ResultsMissing data varied by cognitive test and postoperative day. Re-coding word list scores from missing to zero when a patient was too cognitively impaired to complete the tests improved sample size by 13.5% of postoperative day (POD) 1 and 12.8% on POD 2. Recoding missing data to zero for the digit symbol test resulted in 29.3% larger sample size on POD 1 and 22.7% on POD 2. Verbal fluency gained 15.7% sample size with re-coding for POD 1 and 13.7% for POD 2. Re-coding of each cognitive test reduced missing data sample size to 20-32% in all cognitive tests for each day.DiscussionOur data suggest that using a scoring system that enters a value of '0' when patients are unable to perform cognitive testing did significantly increase the number of patients that met the diagnosis of postoperative cognitive decline using the criteria that were determined a priori and may lessen chances of type II error (failure to detect a difference)