The Pursuit of Divinity: Religious Faith and Fear in Late Victorian Women\u27s Poetry

The relationship that the Victorians had with their God(s) was not an easy one. Despite the age\u27s oft mocked attachment to religiosity, many individuals underwent profound re-evaluations of their faith, spurred by the combined forces of legislation that challenged the monolithic Anglican Church and the burgeoning fields of High Criticism, scientific inquiry, and technology. For some, religious introspection led to profound spirituality and a deeper understanding of their Christian faith. Others were drawn to alternative systems of faith characterized by a fluidness of belief. Most found the process of navigating their faith to be terrifying because religion was a high-stakes venture that not only affected their everyday lives but also the afterlife. Death and dying, as well as the trappings of funereal rites and burial practices, take on particular urgency for the Victorians because garnering a comfortable place in heaven was no longer a surety. In literature, gothic conventions give voice to the anxiety that, for the Victorians, characterized issues of faith. In Goblin Market and Other Poems, Christina Rossetti engages the female corpse tradition to illustrate the misplaced fear that many of her contemporaries associated with death and the afterlife. While arguing for a renewed faith in God, Rossetti enacts a radical revision of the female corpse tradition that gives agency to the traditionally silenced, objectified dead. Mary Elizabeth Coleridge employs negative capability in Fancy\u27s Following, where she fluidly combines religious and gothic discourse to demonstrate the necessity of tempering faith with a healthy sense of questioning and doubt, as humans are incapable of fully comprehending the divine. E. Nesbit\u27s hybridizes socialism and Christianity in Lays and Legends, where she suggests that all people are divine and, thus, should be granted social, political, and financial equality, which will extend the peace and plenty of the afterlife to the physical life. In The Bird-Bride: A Volume of Ballads and Sonnets, Graham R. Tomson\u27s posits that life has no divine purpose or reward; accordingly, all experiences, both positive and negative, must be embraced as ends in and of themselves

FineComb: Measuring Microscopic Latency and Loss in the Presence of Reordering

Abstract—Modern stock trading and cluster applications re-quire microsecond latencies and almost no losses in data centers. This paper introduces an algorithm called FineComb that can obtain fine-grain end-to-end loss and latency measurements between edge routers in these networks. Such a mechanism can allow managers to distinguish between latencies and loss singularities caused by servers and those caused by the network. Compared to prior work, such as Lossy Difference Aggregator (LDA), that focused on switch-level latency measurements, the requirement of end-to-end latency measurements introduces the challenge of reordering that occurs commonly in IP networks due to churn. The problem is even more acute in switches across data center networks that employ multipath routing algorithms to exploit the inherent path diversity. Without proper care, a loss estimation algorithm can confound loss and reordering; further, any attempt to aggregate delay estimates in the presence of reordering results in severe errors. FineComb deals with these problems using order-agnostic packet digests and a simple new idea we call stash recovery. Our evaluation demonstrates that FineComb is orders of magnitude more accurate than LDA in loss and delay estimates in the presence of reordering. Index Terms—Passive measurement, latency, packet loss, re-ordering, algorithms. I

The Ursinus Weekly, January 10, 1978

Ursinus news in brief: Craft attempts prior restraint; Lilly Endowment scratched; Band hangs Mandel; Dishes returned; Cornell students march for time off • Library may curtail hours • Task force considers curriculum • Bankruptcy negates loans • C.I.A. investigates U.C. • Directory published • Tobin appointed • Employment curtailed • Opinion: Ursinus safety • Letters to the editor • A Vegetarian\u27s view • Censorship vs. student rights • Movie attack: Close encounters of the third kind • Dr. Parsons working on new book • Matty Simmons: The Man behind National Lampoon • Dylan to tour in the new year • Ursinus b-ball: marked improvement • Wrestling opens season • Men\u27s swimming • Study before you sleephttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1080/thumbnail.jp

Testing the Learnability of Writing Systems

BLS 39: General Session and Special Session on Space and Directionalit

Access to and experience of later abortion: accounts from women in Scotland

Context: Except in the presence of significant medical indications, the legal limit for abortion in Great Britain is 24 weeks’ gestation. Nevertheless, abortion for nonmedical reasons is not usually provided in Scotland after 18–20 weeks, meaning women have to travel to England for the procedure. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 23 women presenting for "later" abortions (i.e., at 16 or more weeks’ gestation) in Scotland. Participants were women who sought an abortion at a participating National Health Service clinic between January and July 2013. Interviews addressed reasons for and consequences of later presentation, as well as women's experiences of abortion. Thematic analysis attended to emerging issues and employed the conceptual tool of candidacy. Results: Delayed recognition of pregnancy, changed life circumstances and conflicting candidacies for motherhood and having an abortion were common reasons for women's presentation for later abortion. Women perceived that the resources required to travel to England for a later abortion were potential barriers to access, and felt that such travel was distressing and stigmatizing. Participants who continued their pregnancy did so after learning they were at a later gestational age than expected or after receiving assurances of support from partners, friends or family. Conclusions: Reasons for seeking later abortion are complex and varied among women in Scotland, and suggest that reducing barriers to access and improving local provision of such abortions are a necessity. The candidacy framework allows for a fuller understanding of the difficulties involved in obtaining abortions

Development of GERAS DANcing for Cognition and Exercise (DANCE) : a feasibility study

Background: Dance is a mind-body activity of purposeful rhythmic movement to music. There is growing interest in using dance as a form of cognitive and physical rehabilitation. This manuscript describes the development of GERAS DANcing for Cognition and Exercise (DANCE) and evaluates its feasibility in older adults with cognitive and mobility impairments. Methods: The progressive dance curricula were delivered for 15 weeks (1-h class; twice weekly). Participants were eligible if they were community-dwelling older adults aged 60+ with early cognitive or mobility impairment able to follow three-step commands and move independently. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment/retention, adherence, participant satisfaction, safety, and adverse events. Results: Twenty-fve older adults (mean (standard deviation [SD]) age=77.55 (6.10) years, range 68–90 years) with early cognitive (Montreal Cognitive Assessment score (SD)=21.77 (4.05)) and mobility (92% were pre-frail/frail as indicated on the Fried Frailty Phenotype) impairments were recruited from a geriatric out-patient clinic or within the community. A total of 20/25 (80%) participants completed the study. Average class attendance was 72%, and self-reported homework adherence “most-days / every day” was 89%. A stepwise progression in the dance curricula was observed with increases in motor complexity and balance demands, and 95% of participants rated the program as a “just-right” challenge. Ninety percent of participants rated GERAS DANCE as excellent, and 100% would recommend the program to a friend or family member. Over 50% of participants connected outside of class time for a self-initiated cofee club. Adverse events of falls and fractures were reported for 2 participants, which occurred at home unrelated to the dance intervention during the study period. Pre-determined thresholds for feasibility were met for all outcomes. Discussion: GERAS DANCE is a feasible and enjoyable program for older adults with early cognitive or mobility impairments. GERAS DANCE curriculum grading (duration; sequence; instructions) and motor complexity increases in agility, balance, and coordination appear appropriately tailored for this population. Future work will explore the feasibility of GERAS DANCE in new settings (i.e., virtually online, community centers, or retirement homes) and the mind-body-social benefts of dance

The Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S^4G)

The Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies S^4G is an Exploration Science Legacy Program approved for the Spitzer post-cryogenic mission. It is a volume-, magnitude-, and size-limited (d < 40 Mpc, |b| > 30 degrees, m_(Bcorr) < 15.5, D25>1') survey of 2,331 galaxies using IRAC at 3.6 and 4.5 microns. Each galaxy is observed for 240 s and mapped to > 1.5 x D25. The final mosaicked images have a typical 1 sigma rms noise level of 0.0072 and 0.0093 MJy / sr at 3.6 and 4.5 microns, respectively. Our azimuthally-averaged surface brightness profile typically traces isophotes at mu_3.6 (AB) (1 sigma) ~ 27 mag arcsec^-2, equivalent to a stellar mass surface density of ~ 1 Msun pc^-2. S^4G thus provides an unprecedented data set for the study of the distribution of mass and stellar structures in the local Universe. This paper introduces the survey, the data analysis pipeline and measurements for a first set of galaxies, observed in both the cryogenic and warm mission phase of Spitzer. For every galaxy we tabulate the galaxy diameter, position angle, axial ratio, inclination at mu_3.6 (AB) = 25.5 and 26.5 mag arcsec^-2 (equivalent to ~ mu_B (AB) =27.2 and 28.2 mag arcsec^-2, respectively). These measurements will form the initial S^4G catalog of galaxy properties. We also measure the total magnitude and the azimuthally-averaged radial profiles of ellipticity, position angle, surface brightness and color. Finally, we deconstruct each galaxy using GALFIT into its main constituent stellar components: the bulge/spheroid, disk, bar, and nuclear point source, where necessary. Together these data products will provide a comprehensive and definitive catalog of stellar structures, mass and properties of galaxies in the nearby Universe.Comment: Accepted for Publication in PASP, 14 pages, 13 figure

The Erotic and the Vulgar: Visual Culture and Organized Labor's Critique of U.S. Hegemony in Occupied Japan

This essay engages the colonial legacy of postwar Japan by arguing that the political cartoons produced as part of the postwar Japanese labor movement’s critique of U.S. cultural hegemony illustrate how gendered discourses underpinned, and sometimes undermined, the ideologies formally represented by visual artists and the organizations that funded them. A significant component of organized labor’s propaganda rested on a corpus of visual media that depicted women as icons of Japanese national culture. Japan’s most militant labor unions were propagating anti-imperialist discourses that invoked an engendered/endangered nation that accentuated the importance of union roles for men by subordinating, then eliminating, union roles for women