Developing Risk Assessment Skills: The Role of Parental Attitudes and Nature Play

The current culture in the United States seeks to minimize the amount of risk that children are exposed to. However, the opportunity to take risks, try one’s strengths, and experience uncertainty and failure have been shown to increase resiliency, independence, and overall well-being (Little & Sweller, 2015). Young children need the opportunity to take physical risks in their play in order to develop these traits and their understanding of their environment and the natural world around them. This action research study sought to understand parental attitudes towards young children taking physical risks and how they impact children’s risk-taking behaviors and the development of their risk-assessment skills. Nine children were observed and their parents surveyed. A strong relationship was found between parental attitudes towards hypothetical risk-taking scenarios and children’s actual risk-taking behaviors during play. Parents who rated hypothetical scenarios as more risky tended to have children who exhibited risk-averse behaviors, while parents who ranked hypothetical scenarios as less risky tended to have children prone to taking risks

Alien Registration- Murray, Emily (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/22131/thumbnail.jp

Psychology of Advertising: The Effect of Self-Monitoring and Message Framing on Advertisement Persuasion

The current study examined the interaction between self-monitoring and message framing on overall advertisement evaluation. Seventy-six undergraduate students (56 females and 20 males) at a small liberal arts school were exposed to a 2(Self-monitoring: High vs. Low) x 2(Message Framing: Promotion-framed advertisement vs. Prevention-framed advertisement) between-subjects design. The participants were shown three advertisements, one of which was framed in either a promotion-focused or prevention-focused manner. The participants then filled out a series of questionnaires and were classified as being high or low self-monitors. It was hypothesized that the participants who were classified as high self-monitors would evaluate the promotion-framed advertisement more favorably and the participants who were classified as low self-monitors would evaluate the prevention-framed advertisement more favorably. The results supported our hypothesis and an interaction

The combined effects of soil fertility and soil amendments on the growth and mycorrhizal associations of American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius)

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are fungi that form symbiotic associations with 70-90% of plant families. They are known to allow for the extension of the root system as well as an increase in plant size by assisting with the uptake of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The role that AMF play in plant health and success has led to the development of commercial inoculum, which is used in agricultural settings. However, soil fertility, and soil amendments are known to affect AMF and plant associations. This study intends to look at how cultivated American Ginseng seedlings are affected by commercial inoculum. This greenhouse study examines how soil type (2 levels), liming (2 levels), and inoculation (2 levels), affect plant growth. Two distinct soil types were collected from the field. Stratified American ginseng seeds were planted in cone-tainers in a regulated greenhouse system in a factorial design, with fifteen cone-tainers for each treatment combination. At seven months, seedlings were measured for root length, stem length, leaflet width, above-ground biomass, and percent infection Additionally, roots of American Ginseng plants planted in Rowlesburg, WV in a field plot design were examined for arbuscular mycorrhizal association while spores from this field site were counted and quantified. Liming had greatest effect on most parameters including root length, stem length, leaf width, and leaf length (

Integration of Native American Medicinal Plants into the Heber W. Youngken Jr. Garden

Healthcare among Native American tribes was focused on all aspects of a patient’s life, such as physical, spiritual, and environmental elements. Healthy outcomes were obtained by maintaining a balance among all of these components. This “bio-psycho-socio-spiritual” approach to healthcare was thought to not only play a role in the health of a certain individual, but the health of the tribe as a whole. An illness was not only precipitated by a physical source, but by an imbalance of these components. Medicinal plants served as an integral role in direct physical healing, as well as an important element for the execution of traditional ceremonies. Since physical and spiritual health were inherently related, the body could not heal unless the spirit did as well. The goal of the Heber W. Youngken Jr. Medicinal Garden is to emphasize the role nature can play in healing and overall wellness. The integration of Native American medicinal plants from tribes that inhabited the Rhode Island area will increase awareness of traditional and natural practices. It is felt that many of these medicinal plants could be incorporated into current healthcare initiatives as well. The basis of this honor’s project is to highlight the importance of traditional Native American practices regarding herbal medication use. Native American tribes used a holistic treatment approach with a combination of herbs, therapies, ceremonies, and prayers to prevent or treat a range of both acute and chronic illnesses. Native plants played a fundamental role in this healing process. The Heber W. Youngken Jr. Medicinal Garden will serve as a centralized location of native medicinal herbals, so as to provide students of the University of Rhode Island and the general Rhode Island community an opportunity to view these plants and expand their understanding of how nature can play a role in healthcare. As an example, the use of a medicinal plant like tobacco, also known as Lobelia inflata, was used for topical and systemic healing, as well as serving as a vital component for Native American ceremonies. Topically, tobacco was made into a poultice or cold infusion to heal body aches, bites and stings, abscesses, or sores. Systemically, the plant was chewed, made into an infusion, or a tincture for its emetic properties and to help with a sore throat, asthma, or the prevention of colic. Tobacco, along with sweet grass, sage, and cedar, were the four staple plants used in Native American ceremonies. The burning of tobacco during ceremonies honored and welcomed guests, blessed both food crops and an upcoming hunt, provided communication with the “Creator,” and bound agreements between tribes to ensure the general welfare of the community. Seven other plants are highlighted in detail in the accompanied report

Tropes of Blood, Body And The Ground of The Law: Becoming, Being And Beyond Wife On The Early Modern Stage

This project focuses on the representation of women on the early modern stage in three exemplary texts: the anonymous domestic tragedy Arden of Faversham, and two city comedies, Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday and Dekker and Thomas Middleton’s The Roaring Girl. Whether playing the role of adulterous wife, performing the role socially striving wife, or resisting the role of laboring wife, these female characters were on stage not only for entertainment, but also for examination and scrutiny by an early modern audience. Playwrights used characterizations of women and wives and their relationships to the economy as vehicles through which to discuss concerns regarding autonomous behavior within and outside of marriage. I read alongside these representations other social fictions including conduct manuals and law that defined and shaped the boundaries for appropriate behavior for women. In each play, female characters’ behaviors in and toward marriage negotiate the strict legal and social order. The stage representations offer a space where women gain autonomy while offering new representations for the role of wife to a consuming audience. I am interested in how these characters work to redefine the work of ‘wife’ as part of this larger shifting economy. Chapter one examines the relationship between women’s work, the institution of marriage and the ways these two intersect with the instability of the protocapitalist economy of early modern England. Chapter two examines the anonymous Arden of Faversham as Alice challenges her role as protector of blood-law and creates space for discourse about female autonomy. Chapter three looks at Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday and examines wifely social striving and the reimagining of the role of wife. Chapter four contrasts Moll’s autonomy outside of marriage against the autonomy of the shopkeepers’ wives within marriage in The Roaring Girl, and argues that women influence and hold economic power outside the grasp of male authority. I conclude that women’s central occupation is that of wife and we see, set against the shifting social and economic background that women participated in reshaping the definition and understanding of the role and expectations of wife in the larger context of the political economy

Introduction: doing rural cultural studies

The guest editors of the Rural Cultural Studies section introduce the articles