Little Darling Marguerite

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/2001/thumbnail.jp

An Embodied Approach to Sexual Education: Developing a Method for Disabled Adults

Abstract Sexual education is often a topic that gets neglected when it comes to the general public. Schools lack thorough curriculums, often approaching the subject from a fear-based perspective of pushing abstinence only, as opposed to teaching about healthy and safer sexuality. One can imagine, then, the disparity in education among disabled populations. In this thesis, I create and enact a method to educate intellectually and developmentally disabled adults on topics relating to sexual education in an embodied way. This thesis takes into account the current research on dance/movement therapy, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and sexual and somatic psychotherapy to develop a method of creating sexual education workshops. The topics come from the current literature as well as directly from individuals who were to be participants. The topics include consent, boundaries, healthy relationships, and safer sex and dating. Each workshop consisted of psychoeducation, discussion, an embodied activity, and an art-based reflection. Reflections from the writer are included in the discussion. Accessible Abstract There is a lot of missing information when schools teach sexual education, especially for disabled people. Disabled adults deserve learning about and having sex if they want to. In this paper, I talk about creating workshops that teach sexual education to disabled adults. These workshops include activities that have to do with feelings in one’s body. The topics of the workshops are consent, boundaries, healthy relationships, and safer sex and dating

Language as a Facet of Identity: The Cases of Catalonia & Kurdistan

This thesis explores the relationship between language and national identity, using case studies of Catalonia and Kurdistan.&nbsp;</p

Successful digital strategies of five large- and small-circulation city magazines

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia.Evidence shows there is no "one size fits all" approach to the digital strategies of city and regional magazine websites. With small budgets and few online-only staff members, editors must consider how and when they want to disseminate content for their online audience while still retaining unique benefits for their print subscribers. This research examines how city and regional magazine editors strategize their publication's digital content for optimal success. It also discusses specific challenges these niche, locally focused publications are facing in the current media climate and best strategies for success at this time. The editors who participated in this project include Jason Heid of DMagazine.com, Tom McGrath of Philadelphia, Amanda Heckert of Indianapolis Monthly, Katie Pollock Estes of 417 and Zach Dundas of Portland Monthly. These leaders were candid and offered insights that counter the traditional thinking about city magazines and their audiences -- namely, that success of the print operation and the digital operation need not be in conflict

Influence of SNAP Participation and Food Environment on Nutritional Quality of Food at Home Purchases

A growing body of research describes how individuals make food shopping decisions in both time and space. The FoodAPS dataset provides a unique opportunity for understanding these patterns among a large sample across income, SNAP status, and settings. We addressed three questions in our research: (1) Where do participants shop for food at home (FAH) and how do individual characteristics interact with store characteristics and distance? (2) How does the nutritional content of foods purchased change as time from SNAP distribution increases? and (3) How does store choice influence the nutritional quality of FAH purchases? We used a conditional logit model to answer the first question, determining that overall, participants choose full-service supermarkets, larger stores, and stores closer to home but that store choice is influences by SNAP status, ethnicity, race, sex, car ownership and the level of urbanization of the county of residence. For the second question, we used general linear modeling to determine changes over time in dietary quality of FAH purchases, as measured by composite Health Eating Index (HEI) score. We found an increase in HEI-2010 score in the days immediately following SNAP distribution followed by a decrease until 20 days after distribution and then a moderate increase to the end of the SNAP-cycle. For the final question, we used a generalized estimating equation (GEE) model for repeated-measures to analyze the impact of store type on composite HEI score of FAH events. We found that purchases made at limited assortment stores had significantly higher HEI scores while dollar stores had significantly lower HEI scores than purchases at conventional supermarkets. Participating in SNAP had significant positive impact on composite HEI scores, relative to households income-eligible for SNAP but not participating. These results require closer consideration but have important implications for policies relating to what types of foods stores should be subsidized, through healthy food financing initiatives and SNAP and WIC authorization, and the way SNAP benefits are distributed over the course of the month

Evaluating ex situ rates of carbon dioxide flux from northern Borneo peat swamp soils

This study quantified CO2 emissions from tropical peat swamp soils in Brunei Darussalam. At each site, soil was collected from areas of intact and degraded peat and CO2 flux, and total organic content were measured ex situ. Soil organic content (20-99%) was not significantly different between intact and degraded forest samples. CO2 flux was higher for intact forest samples than degraded forest samples (1.0 vs. 0.6molCO2m-2s-1, respectively) but did not differ among forest locations. From our laboratory experiments, we estimated a potential emissions of 10-20tCO2ha-1y-1 which is in the lower range of values reported for other tropical peat swamps. However, our results are likely affected by unmeasured variation in root respiration and the lability of resident carbon. Overall, these findings provide experimental evidence to support that clearance of tropical peat swamp forests can increase CO2 emissions due to faster rates of decomposition

In the search for low-cost year-round feeds: Pen-level growth performance of local and crossbred Ugandan pigs fed forage- or silage-based diets versus commercial diet

Smallholder pig farmers in East Africa report that lack of feed, seasonal feed shortages, quality and cost are key constraints to pig rearing. Commercially prepared pig diets are too expensive and people and pigs compete for food. Smallholder farmers typically feed nutritionally unbalanced diets, resulting in low average daily gain (ADG) and poor farmer profits. Our objective was to compare the ADG of Ugandan pigs fed forage- or silage-based or commercial diets. Ugandan weaner-grower pigs were randomly assigned to forage- or silage-based diets or commercial diet. Pigs were weighed every 3 weeks from 9 to 32 weeks of age. Pen-level ADG and feed conversion were compared across diets using multiple linear regression. The ADG of pigs fed forage- or silage-based diets was lower than those fed commercial diets between 9 and 24 weeks of age (p  0.05). Between 28 and 32 weeks, pigs fed forage-based diets had lower ADG than those on other diets (p  0.05). Least squares mean ADG (g/pig/day) for pigs fed forage- or silage-based diets or commercial diet were 36, and 52, and 294 respectively at 9–15 weeks; 163, 212, 329 at 15–19 weeks; 112, 362, 574 at 20–24 weeks and 694, 994, and 1233 at 28 to 32 weeks of age. It was concluded that forage- and silage-based diets are unsuitable for small, newly weaned pigs. Feeding forage- or silage-based diets to finishing pigs is more suitable. Forage- and silage based diets are year-round low-cost pig-feeding strategies that will improve the growth performance of East African pigs, thereby increasing pig farmer income and food security

Sexual selection, automata and ethics in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss and Olive Schreiner's Undine and From Man to Man

This paper brings together two related areas of debate in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The first concerns how the courtship plot of the nineteenth-century novel responded to, and helped to shape, scientific ideas of sexual competition and selection. In The Mill on the Floss (1860), George Eliot strikingly prefigures Darwin's later work on sexual selection, drawing from her own extensive knowledge of the wider debates within which evolutionary theory developed. Maggie Tulliver's characterisation allows Eliot to explore the ethical complexities raised by an increasingly powerful scientific naturalism, where biology is seen to be embedded within morality in newly specific ways. The second strand of the paper examines the extension of scientific method to human mind and motivation which constituted the new psychology. It argues that there are crucial continuities of long-established ethical and religious ideas within this increasingly naturalistic view of human mind and motivation. The contention that such ideas persist and are transformed, rather than simply jettisoned, is illustrated through the example of Thomas Henry Huxley's 1874 essay on automata. Turning finally to focus on Olive Schreiner's Undine (1929) and From Man to Man (1926), the paper explores the importance of these persistent ethical and religious ideas in two novels which remained unpublished during her lifetime. It argues that they produce both difficulty and opportunity for imagining love plots within the context of increasingly assertive biological and naturalistic accounts of human beings

Adventure Mode: A Speculative Rideshare Design

Most smart city projections presume efficiency, predictability, and control as core design principles for smart transportation. Adventure Mode is a speculative design proposal developed as part of a research project with a major automotive company that proposes uses and interactions for Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and rideshare advancements that defy these normative presumptions. Adventure Mode reframes the focus of moving vehicles from destination-based experiences to journey-based ones. Adventure Mode pushes the probabilities for unexpected encounters and anonymous play in increasingly predictable and predicted urban environments. It embraces the submission to algorithmic decision and chance as a ludic modality in human-computer interactions and urban artificial intelligence

Social disadvantage in early psychosis and its effect on clinical presentation and service access, engagement and use

Incidence of psychosis varies geographically due to factors such as social disadvantage. Whether this influences the clinical presentation and/or engagement of those experiencing psychosis remains relatively understudied. This study analysed data from young people across Australia accessing ultra-high risk (UHR) or first episode psychosis (FEP) services delivered through the headspace Early Psychosis (hEP) program between June 2017 and March 2021. The cohort was categorised into low, middle, and high tertiles of social disadvantage using the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD). Data from 3089 participants aged 15–25 were included (1515 UHR, 1574 FEP). The low and middle tertiles for both cohorts had greater percentages of those not in education or employment (NEET), with First Nations or culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Clinical presentations to services were similar across all tertiles in both cohorts, however, functioning at presentation varied significantly within the FEP cohort. Significantly lower numbers of direct services were provided in the low tertile of both cohorts, with significantly poorer engagement in the initial three-months also occurring for these young people. This variation in early psychosis service patterns associated with geographical variation in social deprivation demonstrates the need for further research and fine tuning of national early psychosis services.</p