Getting Young Adults to Stop & Participate @ Your Library

Young adults can be one of the hardest demographics to get to participate in library programs in substantial numbers. Young adults, or teenagers in the 7-12 grades, tend to have busy schedules and may not have time to come to long, drawn out programs. However, just because young adults do not seem to have time to attend extensive programs does not mean they do not have time for the library. Passive programming or independent programming can draw young adults into the library and get them active in the young adult section

Does Family Matter: The Parental Roles of Young Adult Media

In young adult media there are different roles that parents of the main characters symbolize. The role of parental figures can vary in their original conception and throughout media forms. Readers and viewers have their opinions about how parental figures representation should be characterized. Sometimes parental figures are what drive the stories along in a more interesting manner. The four types of parental presences represented are: a healthy parental presence, lack of parental presence, a broken parental presence, and a substitute parental presence. Readers and viewers of young adult media have many questions about the roles that parental figures have in the young adult main characters lives. What exactly is the role of the parental figure? Should there be any parental presences at all? How does the story flow with or without them? This article will explore examples of all four different parental presences in media forms of television series and books

Enshrining, Adapting and Contesting the Latin \u3cem\u3eApology of al-Kindi\u3c/em\u3e: Readers\u27 Interactions with an Authoritative Polemic against Islam

In this study, I have examined the use of the Latin translation of the Arabic Apology of al-Kindi,, regarded as the most influential source of information about Islam for Latin readers in the Middle Ages, by some of its readers from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. My work is divided into three parts, beginning with an analysis of the writings of the man who commissioned the translation, Peter the Venerable, and Peter of Poitiers, the secretary of the first Peter and a member of the translation team. I argue that, for Peter the Venerable, the Latin translation of the Apology was the most important of all the Arabic-to-Latin translations that he sponsored and that it represented the first step in a project that he hoped would culminate in the conversion of Muslims. Second, I discuss the adaptation of the Apology by Matthew Paris and Vincent of Beauvais, two historians who used it to create narratives of early Islam, an area in which other Latin texts failed them. The final section of the thesis is devoted to the annotators who clarified the many words and references in the text likely to confuse uninitiated readers and who conveyed their own thoughts on the text\u27s author and his arguments. I found that these reader-writers were deeply invested in representing Islam accurately, a characterization not often associated with medieval Christian scholars\u27 relationships to the non-Christian religions that they studied. Zeal for accuracy led readers to the Apology in the first place and motivated them to excavate the textual clues that justified its standing, as well as to sidestep or challenge what they deemed inaccurate

A survey of root knot nematodes and resistance to Meloidogyne incognita in sweet potato varieties from Kenyan fields

AbstractThe root knot nematode, Meloidogyne is one of the most economically damaging plant parasitic nematode groups, and are widely distributed in Kenyan agro-ecosystems. The aim of this study was to determine the diversity of Meloidogyne species in Kenyan sweet potato fields and identify sweet potato varieties that exhibit resistance to M. incognita. Meloidogyne species were collected from Nyanza, Western, Eastern and Central Provinces of Kenya. Mitochondrial DNA was used to differentiate Meloidogyne species. The most common species in all sampled regions was M. incognita. Meloidogyne hapla was recorded for the first time in Kenyan sweet potato growing areas (Mosocho, Matayos, Teso South, Manyatta, and Nzaui sub-counties), while M. enterolobii was observed in Kiharu, Matayos and Mosocho sub-counties and a novel Meloidogyne sp. was identified in Kiharu sub-county. Seventy-two sweet potato varieties collected from both agricultural fields and research stations in Kenya were evaluated for resistance to M. incognita under greenhouse conditions in two separate trials. Known susceptible (Beauregard) and resistant (Tanzania) sweet potato varieties were included as controls. Responses of sweet potato varieties to M. incognita infection was assessed by the number of eggs present and level of galling on a scale of 1–5, where 0 = 0 galls and 5 ≥ 100 galls. The reproduction index (RI) was used to classify the varieties as resistant or susceptible. There was a significant difference (P < 0.001) in the number of eggs, GI and RI among the varieties tested. Forty nine sweet potato varieties were considered very resistant and may be used in breeding programs to incorporate resistance against M. incognita into commercial cultivars of sweet potato or to use them in crop rotation programmes for management of RKN. The results on Meloidogyne species diversity in Kenyan sweet potato fields will also be useful in nematode management programs