Living on the Edge: Consumption and Class at the Keith Site

Ceramics from the Keith Site, a farmstead in upstate New York, are principally expensive, early nineteenth century table and tea vessels. Documentary evidence places the site occupation at the mid-century which is confirmed by TPQ dates. Moreover, the site\u27s residents were lower class farmers and other artifact classes show little investment in consumption. These discrepancies become clear when we consider the high diversity of ceramic vessels, which we would expect if the site residents purchased older, cheaper vessels in odd lots. Consumer choise models rest on ideologically loaded assumptions of free will and unlimited choice in the market place. The lower class residents of the Keith Site had very restricted choice in their material culture. Thus, their ceramics do not simply mirror their class standing or express their identity, but rather tell the tale of their struggles within the milieu of rural class relations, struggles in which production and female labor were crucial

Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Turkey

Turkey is often visualized as a modern nation-state having a perfect balance of Eastern and Western cultural mores and traditions within dominant ideological constructions and representations, but on closer inspection, one can detect conflicts and contradictions within various texts—particularly in regards to depictions of gender and sexual identity. Upon its foundation as a nation, Turkey embarked on a state-centered, elite-driven path toward modernization and Westernization while also seeking to produce a monolithic culture. At the time, it was widely believed that Turkey could not rank among modern, Western countries without the emancipation of women. As a result of the founding of the Republic and Turkey’s quest for a unified culture, women were granted a number of legal rights and enjoined to take up their place in the public sphere. In recent years, this model of state-centered secular modernity and state feminism has come under intense scrutiny and criticism as Islamists, Kurds, feminists, and others demand their claims for recognition and force a rethinking of current understandings of Turkish identity and subjectivity, specifically regarding gender and the place and role of women in society. These controversies, contradictions, and ambiguities are reflected in women’s lives and are waged by various factions over women’s bodies within ideological constructions of identity and this study seeks to examine these disjunctures and contradictions as reflected in modern Turkish literature and culture.Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Turkey is an essential tool for scholars and students of Middle Eastern literature, Turkish literature and culture, gender and sexuality studies, modern and postmodern literature, postcolonial and feminist literature and studies, cultural studies, religious studies, and women’s studies and seeks to place a microscopic view on a marginalized and embattled group

Negotiating Gender and Sexaulity in Contemporary Turkey

Turkey is often visualized as a modern nation-state having a perfect balance of Eastern and Western cultural mores and traditions within dominant ideological constructions and representations, but on closer inspection, one can detect conflicts and contradictions within various texts - particularly in regards to depictions of gender and sexual identity. Upon its foundation as a nation, Turkey embarked on a state-centered, elite-driven path toward modernization and Westernization while also seeking to produce a monolithic culture. At the time, it was widely believed that Turkey could not rank among modern, Western countries without the emancipation of women. As a result of the founding of the Republic and Turkey’s quest for a unified culture, women were granted a number of legal rights and enjoined to take up their place in the public sphere. In recent years, this model of state-centered secular modernity and state feminism has come under intense scrutiny and criticism as Islamists, Kurds, feminists, and others demand their claims for recognition and force a rethinking of current understandings of Turkish identity and subjectivity, specifically regarding gender and the place and role of women in society. These controversies, contradictions, and ambiguities are reflected in women’s lives and are waged by various factions over women’s bodies within ideological constructions of identity and this study seeks to examine these disjunctures and contradictions as reflected in modern Turkish literature and culture. Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Turkey is an essential tool for scholars and students of Middle Eastern literature, Turkish literature and culture, gender and sexuality studies, modern and postmodern literature, postcolonial and feminist literature and studies, cultural studies, religious studies, and women’s studies and seeks to place a microscopic view on a marginalized and embattled group

The L.E.A.D. Project: Leading educational achievement through dialogue 2010

The L.E.A.D. Project: Leading Educational Achievement Through Dialogue 2010 is the report of the research team from the University of Notre Dame Australia funded by the Australian Government Quality Teacher Program. It is a multi-site case study which gathered data on high performing secondary schools in the Catholic system of Western Australia The data was gathered from 9 secondary schools in the Catholic system. All Principals and Deputy Principals (Curriculum) were interviewed for the study. Focus groups of Heads of Learning were interviewed, in total 32 Heads of Learning participated. Focus groups of teachers were interviewed, in total 38 teachers participated in the interviews. Focus groups of recent past students were interviewed, in total 26 past students participated in the interviews. Focus groups of parents were interviewed, in total 28 parents participated. In addition a 21 item Likert scale survey was used to gather data from all teachers in the 9 schools in the study, a total of 447 teachers responded to the Likert scale (Appendix A)

Harmful or helpful : perceived solicitous and facilitative partner responses are differentially associated with pain and sexual satisfaction in women with provoked vestibulodynia

Introduction.  Provoked vestibulodynia (PVD) is a highly prevalent vulvovaginal pain condition that negatively affects women's emotional, sexual, and relationship well-being. Recent studies have investigated the role of interpersonal variables, including partner responses. Aim.  We examined whether solicitous and facilitative partner responses were differentially associated with vulvovaginal pain and sexual satisfaction in women with PVD by examining each predictor while controlling for the other. Methods.  One hundred twenty-one women (M age = 30.60, SD = 10.53) with PVD or self-reported symptoms of PVD completed the solicitous subscale of the spouse response scale of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory, and the facilitative subscale of the Spouse Response Inventory. Participants also completed measures of pain, sexual function, sexual satisfaction, trait anxiety, and avoidance of pain and sexual behaviors (referred to as “avoidance”). Main Outcome Measures.  Dependent measures were the (i) Pain Rating Index of the McGill Pain Questionnaire with reference to pain during vaginal intercourse and (ii) Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction Scale. Results.  Controlling for trait anxiety and avoidance, higher solicitous partner responses were associated with higher vulvovaginal pain intensity (β = 0.20, P = 0.03), and higher facilitative partner responses were associated with lower pain intensity (β = −0.20, P = 0.04). Controlling for sexual function, trait anxiety, and avoidance, higher facilitative partner responses were associated with higher sexual satisfaction (β = 0.15, P = 0.05). Conclusions.  Findings suggest that facilitative partner responses may aid in alleviating vulvovaginal pain and improving sexual satisfaction, whereas solicitous partner responses may contribute to greater pain

Impact of male partner responses on sexual function in women with vulvodynia and their partners: a dyadic daily experience study

Note de l'éditeur : This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. / Cet article ne constitue pas la version officielle, et peut différer de la version publiée dans la revue.Objective: There is a paucity of research investigating the role of interpersonal variables in vulvodynia—a prevalent, chronic, vulvo-vaginal pain condition that negatively affects many aspects of women’s sexual health, emotional well-being and intimate relationships. Cross-sectional studies have shown that male partner responses to painful intercourse are associated with pain and sexual satisfaction in women with vulvodynia. Partner responses can be solicitous (attention and sympathy), negative (hostility and frustration), and facilitative (encouragement of adaptive coping). No research has assessed the influence of daily partner responses in this population. Further, there is limited knowledge regarding the impact of partner responses on sexual function, which is a key measure of impairment in vulvodynia. Methods: Using daily diaries, 66 women (M age = 27.91, SD = 5.94) diagnosed with vulvodynia and their cohabiting male partners (M age = 30.00, SD = 8.33) reported on male partner responses and sexual function on days when sexual intercourse occurred (M = 6.54, SD = 4.99). Drawing on the Actor-Partner Interdependence model (APIM), a multivariate multilevel modeling approach was adopted. Results: A woman’s sexual functioning improved on days when she perceived greater facilitative and lower solicitous and negative male partner responses, and when her male partner reported lower solicitous responses. A man’s sexual functioning was poorer on days when he reported greater solicitous and negative responses. Conclusions: Findings suggest that facilitative male partner responses may improve sexual functioning whereas solicitous and negative responses may be detrimental. Partner responses should be targeted in psychological interventions aimed to improve the sexual functioning of affected couples

Relationship satisfaction moderates the associations between male partner responses and depression in women with vulvodynia : a dyadic daily experience study

This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the journal. It is not the copy of record. / Cet article ne constitue pas la version officielle, et peut différer de la version publiée dans la revue.Vulvodynia is a prevalent vulvovaginal pain condition that interferes with women’s psychological health. Given the central role of sexuality and relationships in vulvodynia, relationship satisfaction may be an important moderator of daily partner responses to this pain and associated negative sequelae, such as depression. Sixty-nine women (M age = 28.12 years, SD = 6.68) with vulvodynia and their cohabiting partners (M age = 29.67 years, SD = 8.10) reported their daily relationship satisfaction, and male partner responses on sexual intercourse days (M = 3.74, SD = 2.47) over 8 weeks. Women also reported their depressive symptoms. Relationship satisfaction on the preceding day moderated the associations between partner responses and women’s depressive symptoms in several significant ways: (1) On days after women reported higher relationship satisfaction than usual, their perception of greater facilitative male partner responses was associated with their decreased depression; (2) on days after women reported lower relationship satisfaction than usual, their perception of greater negative male partner responses was associated with their increased depression; (3) on days after men reported higher relationship satisfaction than usual, their self-reported higher negative responses were associated with decreased women’s depression, and higher solicitous responses were associated with increased women’s depression, whereas (4) on days after men reported lower relationship satisfaction than usual, their self-reported higher negative responses were related to increased women’s depression, and higher solicitous responses were associated with decreased women’s depression. Targeting partner responses and relationship satisfaction may enhance the quality of interventions aimed at reducing depression in women with vulvodynia

Modified embedded-atom method interatomic potentials for the Mg-Al alloy system

We developed new modified embedded-atom method (MEAM) interatomic potentials for the Mg-Al alloy system using a first-principles method based on density functional theory (DFT). The materials parameters, such as the cohesive energy, equilibrium atomic volume, and bulk modulus, were used to determine the MEAM parameters. Face-centered cubic, hexagonal close packed, and cubic rock salt structures were used as the reference structures for Al, Mg, and MgAl, respectively. The applicability of the new MEAM potentials to atomistic simulations for investigating Mg-Al alloys was demonstrated by performing simulations on Mg and Al atoms in a variety of geometries. The new MEAM potentials were used to calculate the adsorption energies of Al and Mg atoms on Al (111) and Mg (0001) surfaces. The formation energies and geometries of various point defects, such as vacancies, interstitial defects and substitutional defects, were also calculated. We found that the new MEAM potentials give a better overall agreement with DFT calculations and experiments when compared against the previously published MEAM potentials.Comment: Fixed a referenc

Beam Orientation Optimization for Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy using Adaptive l1 Minimization

Beam orientation optimization (BOO) is a key component in the process of IMRT treatment planning. It determines to what degree one can achieve a good treatment plan quality in the subsequent plan optimization process. In this paper, we have developed a BOO algorithm via adaptive l_1 minimization. Specifically, we introduce a sparsity energy function term into our model which contains weighting factors for each beam angle adaptively adjusted during the optimization process. Such an energy term favors small number of beam angles. By optimizing a total energy function containing a dosimetric term and the sparsity term, we are able to identify the unimportant beam angles and gradually remove them without largely sacrificing the dosimetric objective. In one typical prostate case, the convergence property of our algorithm, as well as the how the beam angles are selected during the optimization process, is demonstrated. Fluence map optimization (FMO) is then performed based on the optimized beam angles. The resulted plan quality is presented and found to be better than that obtained from unoptimized (equiangular) beam orientations. We have further systematically validated our algorithm in the contexts of 5-9 coplanar beams for 5 prostate cases and 1 head and neck case. For each case, the final FMO objective function value is used to compare the optimized beam orientations and the equiangular ones. It is found that, our BOO algorithm can lead to beam configurations which attain lower FMO objective function values than corresponding equiangular cases, indicating the effectiveness of our BOO algorithm.Comment: 19 pages, 2 tables, and 5 figure