Metaphysical Concepts In West African Prose: Spiritual Significance And Aesthetic Implications

This dissertation examines how West African prose in English is informed and shaped by the underlying African world-view and its expression in the beliefs and practices of the ethnic group from which each writer originates. The world-view is of a cosmos controlled by multiple deities and spirits, a world in which the gods exist for man and in which power is not dichotomized as spiritual and physical, nor as good and evil. The study includes one autobiography and sixteen novels by eight writers from five ethnic backgrounds: Chinua Achebe (Igbo), Elechi Amadi (Ikwerre), Ayi Kwei Armah (Akan), Kofi Awoonor (Ewe), T. O. Eschewa (Igbo), Buchi Emecheta (Igbo), Flora Nwapa (Igbo), and Wole Soyinka (Yoruba).;Each of the texts studied is written in the mode of realism but is centred in one or more metaphysical concepts or elements extant in west Africa. Forest spirits figure in Soyinka\u27s childhood memoir Ake and water spirits in Achebe\u27s Anthills, Amadi\u27s The Concubine, Armah\u27s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Fragments, Awoonor\u27s This Earth, My Brother ..., Nwapa\u27s Efuru, and Soyinka\u27s The Interpreters. The last-named, however, is focused on the Yoruba Pantheon, as is Soyinka\u27s second novel, Season of Anomy. The Igbo chi and the belief in reincarnation are paramount in Achebe\u27s Things Fall Apart and Emecheta\u27s The Joys of Motherhood. The Igbo custom of osu on which Emecheta\u27s The Bride Price and Amadi\u27s The Slave are centred also plays a role in Achebe\u27s No Longer at Ease. Priests are the major figures in Achebe\u27s Arrow of God and Echewa\u27s The Land\u27s Lord, as are traditional Akan healers in Armah\u27s The Healers.;The significance of these spiritual concepts is explained through material drawn from studies by African and Western philosophers, theologians, anthropologists, literary critics, and art historians and critics, as well as from autobiographies of West African public figures and from news reports of current events. Moreover, other writings by the authors of the texts discussed clarify their understanding of the key spiritual concepts.;The literary works are interpreted and evaluated from the Afrocentric point-of-view arrived at by this exploration of many diverse texts

Counting Is Not Enough: Investing in Qualitative Case Reviews for Practice Improvement in Child Welfare

Outlines the value of quality case service reviews in child welfare systems, requirements for building and sustaining a robust process and adapting it under limited state budgets, and recommendations for jurisdictions, initiators, and national leadership

Measuring Pedagogical Content Knowledge Using Multiple Points of Data

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is the intersection of a teacher’s knowledge of content, pedagogy, and of the context of the learning situation, including her students. Many different methods have been used by researchers to study PCK. We propose that PCK cannot be measured through one approach. Rather, it is more accurately measured by triangulating data gathered through observation of instructional events, teacher interviews, and assessments of content knowledge. This is illustrated through a case study of Maria, a paraeducator leading small group reading intervention lessons in a kindergarten classroom over a period of 10 weeks

Understanding the use of telehealth in the context of the Family Nurse Partnership and other early years home visiting programmes:A rapid review

OVERVIEW: This rapid review sought to understand the use of telehealth in early parenthood programmes sharing similarities with the Family Nurse Partnership. METHODS: A rapid review protocol was developed in accordance with Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Guidance. Medline, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were developed using population, intervention, comparator, outcome, study design, and timeframe components. Two reviewers searched, screened, and extracted data. AMSTAR was used for critical appraisal. Results were synthesised narratively. RESULTS: Searches yielded 18 studies out of 881 for inclusion. Findings were identified across seven domains: acceptability and accessibility; therapeutic relationships; flexibility offered by telehealth; participation and engagement; confidentiality and privacy; equipment and technical considerations; and training and support. CONCLUSION: Telehealth provides unique opportunities to improve access to early years health services for young mothers. However, considerable accessibility barriers remain in the form of connectivity issues, access to appropriate technology, and the acceptability of remote healthcare delivery. This review presents a timely overview of the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of telehealth in early parenthood and family-based programmes

Depictions of Diversity in Libraries in Children’s Literature – A Content Analysis

This study utilizes content analysis to identify how children’s picture books visually depict diversity in modern library settings, and if they propagate any negative messages about marginalized groups. Fifty-five picture books reviewed include those published in the United States between 2010-2020, set in a modern library and that include only human characters. Library user and librarian diversity are explored in terms of race, age, gender, and disability. This study is intended to inform librarians, educators, parents, authors, and book publishers on library-related book content that children (and others) consume, to enhance diversity in collection development and book use, and to inspire the filling of any book gaps in diversity identified. As books do depict the diversity of the library profession while still upholding the stereotype of a librarian as being a White, able-bodied adult woman, there is a need for books to encourage the continuous growth of racial, age, gender, and especially disability diversity of librarians through visual representation. Picture books set in the library no longer capture only White library users, typically including several Black, Indigenous or People of Color, but there is still great progress to be made in including more non-Black persons of color, as well as more adults, older adults, and users with disabilities. Books reviewed create a positive picture of the library and all its librarians and users.Master of Science in Library Scienc

The poverty of place : a comparative study of five rural counties in the Missouri Ozark

Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 1999.Research on nonmetro poverty indicates that it tends to be both geographically discrete and persistent over time. Low income counties have been shown to have a negative effect on the income of bordering counties, increasing their poverty rates. These characteristics of rural poverty are evidenced throughout the U.S.A. by the existence of clusters of persistent low income counties. Although the existence of regions of poor rural counties have been noted since 1974, little county-level research has been done to further the understanding of the dynamics driving this phenomenon or to discover what types of public policies are likely to be successful at breaking up these areas of persistent poverty. The existence of a five county group in the south central Missouri Ozarks which contains four persistent low income counties clustered around a fifth county which has never been designated persistently poor creates an anomaly which invites study. This dissertation examines this cluster of counties in an attempt to discover why, contrary to what is expected, the county at the center of this group has been notably more prosperous over time than her persistently poor neighbors. When Lyson's concept of economic distance is applied to the five county region a relationship between the degree of county remoteness/isolation and low income appears to emerge. The counties with the highest remoteness value are found to have the lowest per capita income. Furthermore, the relationship between degree of remoteness/isolation and per capita income is found to be persistent over time, and indicates that the relationship between remoteness and income is ongoing. Research shows that the advantaged county developed transportation routes out of the region early in its history, reducing its isolation. The four persistent low income counties remain relatively isolated to date. Research conducted in this dissertation indicates that the relative isolation of the four counties is an important contributory factor to their persistent low income over time. The findings underscore the importance of the reduction of isolation to economic development. Further, they indicate that state investment in efficient transportation and technology routes in and out of persistent low income counties may be an important step towards breaking up clusters of persistent nonmetro poverty.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-271)

Product Quality Analysis of Pencil Skirts: How Does Production Affect the Garment?

Madison Hataway is an undergraduate student in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana Tech University. Julia Morrison is an undergraduate student in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana Tech University. Sadie McGill is an undergraduate student in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana Tech University. Kathleen Heiden is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana Tech University

Textile Properties of Pencil Skirts: Does Price Matter?

Madison Hataway is an undergraduate student in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana Tech University. Julia Morrison is an undergraduate student in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana Tech University. Sadie McGill is an undergraduate student in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana Tech University. Kathleen Heiden is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Ecology at Louisiana Tech University

Effect of social status on behavioral and neural response to stress

Individuals respond differently to traumatic stress. Social status, which plays a key role in how animals experience and interact with their social environment, may influence how individuals respond to stressors. In this study, we used a conditioned defeat model to investigate whether social status alters susceptibility to the behavioral and neural consequences of traumatic stress. Conditioned defeat is a model in Syrian hamsters in which an acute social defeat encounter results in a long term increase in submissive behavior and a loss of normal territorial aggression. To establish social status, we weight matched and paired Syrian hamsters in daily aggressive encounters for two weeks to create dominant/subordinate relationships. We also included controls which were exposed daily to a clean empty cage for the same 14 day period. Twenty-four hours after the final pairing or empty cage exposure, subjects were divided into defeat and no defeat groups. Individuals in the defeat group received three 5 minute social defeats at 5 minute intervals in the cage of a larger aggressive hamster. Individuals in the no defeat group were exposed to the empty cage of a larger aggressive hamster at the same time intervals. In experiment 1, subjects of both groups were tested for conditioned defeat with a non-aggressive intruder 24 hours after social defeat training. In experiment 2, brains were collected 65 minutes following social defeat training and immunohistochemistry was performed for c-Fos protein, a marker of neural activation. We quantified the number of c-Fos immunopositive cells in brain regions known to be involved in stress and aggression, including the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, medial amygdala, and lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus. We found that subordinate animals showed significantly more conditioned defeat behavior than did dominants or controls, and subordinates showed significantly less c-Fos immunoreactivity than did dominants in all these brain regions. These results suggest that decreased neural activity in these brain regions corresponds to an increased susceptibility to conditioned defeat. In sum, social status plays an important role in how animals respond to social stressors and this corresponds to activity in specific brain areas