Images of Women in Renaissance Literature: A Selected Bibliography of Scholarship

This bibliography offers a representative selection of scholarship on the image of woman in English literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As one would expect, a large percentage of the items listed here were published in the last five or six years, but a surprising number of significant, detailed studies of woman\u27s place in Renaissance society were written in the early decades of this century. Moreover, the 17 studies that I have listed from the 1940s and 195Os are among the most valuable of the items that appear here - both in their scholarly concern for facts and in their imaginative application of those facts to literary problems. Much remains to be done, of course, but it is both reassuring and exciting to see how many fine scholars and critics have been working with the difficult problems that these cross-disciplinary studies present

SYMPATHETIC REACTIVITY DURING MEDITATION

Decreased sympathetic reactivity is one of the generally accepted standards in Western medicine to examine meditation’s benefit to health. This study investigated the research question: why did seven advanced meditators from an esoteric school who use an active meditation style with accelerated breathing reflect more variable sympathetic activation during meditation and recovery relative to baseline measures. A single-case study embedded design was used to analyze eleven psychological/psychophysiological measures. Analyses revealed meditators were characterized by thin boundaries, high absorption, high dissociation, and minimal self-perceived stress. They displayed significantly increased: electrodermal reactivity during meditation and recovery, heart rate during meditation, and bilateral hand temperatures during recovery. These outcomes are consistent with research demonstrating positive correlation between high hypnotizability and electrodermal reactivity, sympathetic increase with accelerated breathing meditations, and are inconsistent with decreased sympathetic activation in most passive meditation studies. Findings support other research that active meditation styles with accelerated breathing prompt sympathetic activation and minimize self-perceived stress. Discussion explores the implications for health and well-being in terms of autonomic reactivity and whether sympathetic reactivity during meditation and recovery are indicative of mind-body incongruence or an outcome of meditation style

Effectiveness of tailored lifestyle interventions, using web-based and print-mail, for reducing blood pressure among rural women with prehypertension: main results of the Wellness for Women: DASHing towards Health clinical trial.

Background Lifestyle modification is recommended for management of prehypertension, yet finding effective interventions to reach rural women is a public health challenge. This community-based clinical trial compared the effectiveness of standard advice to two multi-component theory-based tailored interventions, using web-based or print-mailed delivery, in reducing blood pressure among rural women, ages 40–69, with prehypertension. Methods 289 women with prehypertension enrolled in the Wellness for Women: DASHing towards Health trial, a 12-month intervention with 12-month follow-up. Women were randomly assigned to groups using a 1:2:2 ratio, comparing standard advice (30-minute counseling session) to two interventions (two 2-hour counseling sessions, 5 phone goal-setting sessions, strength-training video, and 16 tailored newsletters, web-based or print-mailed). Linear mixed model methods were used to test planned pairwise comparisons of marginal mean change in blood pressure, healthy eating and activity, adjusted for age and baseline level. General estimating equations were used to examine the proportion of women achieving normotensive status and meeting health outcome criteria for eating and activity. Results Mean blood pressure reduction ranged from 3.8 (SD = 9.8) mm Hg to 8.1 (SD = 10.4) mm Hg. The 24-month estimated marginal proportions of women achieving normotensive status were 47% for web-based, and 39% for both print-mailed and standard advice groups, with no group differences (p = .11 and p = .09, respectively). Web-based and print-mailed groups improved more than standard advice group for waist circumference (p = .017 and p = .016, respectively); % daily calories from fat (p = .018 and p = .030) and saturated fat (p = .049 and p = .013); daily servings of fruit and vegetables (p = .008 and p \u3c .005); and low fat dairy (p \u3c .001 and p = .002). Greater improvements were observed in web-based versus standard advice groups in systolic blood pressure (p = .048) and estimated VO2max (p = .037). Dropout rates were 6% by 6-months, 11.4% by 24 months, with no differences across groups. Conclusions Rural women with prehypertension receiving distance-delivery theory-based lifestyle modifications can achieve a reduction of blood pressure and attainment of normotensive status

Test/score/report: Simulation techniques for automating the test process

A Test/Score/Report capability is currently being developed for the Transportable Payload Operations Control Center (TPOCC) Advanced Spacecraft Simulator (TASS) system which will automate testing of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) and Mission Operations Center (MOC) software in three areas: telemetry decommutation, spacecraft command processing, and spacecraft memory load and dump processing. Automated computer control of the acceptance test process is one of the primary goals of a test team. With the proper simulation tools and user interface, the task of acceptance testing, regression testing, and repeatability of specific test procedures of a ground data system can be a simpler task. Ideally, the goal for complete automation would be to plug the operational deliverable into the simulator, press the start button, execute the test procedure, accumulate and analyze the data, score the results, and report the results to the test team along with a go/no recommendation to the test team. In practice, this may not be possible because of inadequate test tools, pressures of schedules, limited resources, etc. Most tests are accomplished using a certain degree of automation and test procedures that are labor intensive. This paper discusses some simulation techniques that can improve the automation of the test process. The TASS system tests the POCC/MOC software and provides a score based on the test results. The TASS system displays statistics on the success of the POCC/MOC system processing in each of the three areas as well as event messages pertaining to the Test/Score/Report processing. The TASS system also provides formatted reports documenting each step performed during the tests and the results of each step. A prototype of the Test/Score/Report capability is available and currently being used to test some POCC/MOC software deliveries. When this capability is fully operational it should greatly reduce the time necessary to test a POCC/MOC software delivery, as well as improve the quality of the test process

User Engagement Associated with Web-Intervention Features to Attain Clinically Meaningful Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance in Rural Women

Objective: Purely web-based weight loss and weight-loss maintenance interventions show promise to influence behavior change. Yet, little is known about user engagement with features of web-based interventions that predict clinically meaningful weight loss (≥5% bodyweight loss). This study examines level of website feature engagement with the likelihood of attaining ≥5% bodyweight loss after 6 and 18 months participation in a web-based intervention, among rural women at high risk of obesity-related diseases and disability. Methods: In this secondary analysis of clinical trial data of 201 rural women, we examined weight change and user engagement, measured as clicks on specific web-based intervention features (messaging and self-tracking), as associated with clinically meaningful weight loss (baseline to 6 months) and weight-loss maintenance (6 to 18 months). Results: Generalized estimating equations, adjusted for age, intervention group, and intervention phase, revealed high engagement with messaging predicted whether women achieved ≥5% weight loss at 6 months and at 18 months. There was no effect of self-tracking. Conclusions: Being engaged with messages was associated with attaining clinically meaningful short-term and longer-term weight loss. This trial is registered with NCT01307644

Associations of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Fatness with Metabolic Syndrome in RuralWomen with Prehypertension

This study investigated the associations of fitness and fatness with metabolic syndrome in rural women, part of a recognized US health disparities group. Methods. Fitness, percentage body fat, BMI, and metabolic syndrome criteria were assessed at baseline in 289 rural women with prehypertension, ages 40–69, enrolled in a healthy eating and activity communitybased clinical trial for reducing blood pressure. Results. Ninety (31%) women had metabolic syndrome, of which 70% were obese by BMI (≥30 kg/m2), 100% by percentage body fat (≥30%), and 100% by revised BMI standards (≥25 kg/m2) cited in current literature. Hierarchical logistic regression models, adjusted for age, income, and education, revealed that higher percentage body fat (P \u3c 0.001) was associated with greater prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Alone, higher fitness lowered the odds of metabolic syndrome by 7% (P \u3c 0.001), but it did not lower the odds significantly beyond the effects of body fat. When dichotomized into “fit” and “unfit” groups, women categorized as “fat” had lower odds of metabolic syndrome if they were “fit” by 75% and 59%, for percentage body fat and revised BMI, respectively. Conclusion. Among rural women with prehypertension, obesity and fitness were associated with metabolic syndrome. Obesity defined as ≥25 kg/m2 produced results more consistent with percentage body fat as compared to the ≥30 kg/m2 definition

Erratum to ‘‘Associations of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Fatness with Metabolic Syndrome in Rural Women with Prehypertension’’

In the original paper, the authors discovered a computer coding error that resulted in 33 of the women’s ages being incorrectly recorded. All analyses were repeated for this paper using the corrected age dataset, as all our logistic regression analyses in the published paper were adjusted for age.The repeated analyses, using the corrected dataset, lead to minor changes that needed to be reported to the results in the published paper. These corrections did not change the conclusion of the published paper.The authors apologize for any inconvenience