Book Review: My Year of Meat

Book Review: My Year of Meat by Clara Young

Black Women Entrepreneurs: Understanding the Challenges and Proposing Policy for Equitable Change

Black Women Entrepreneurs: Understanding the Challenges and Proposing Policy for Equitable Change examines the obstacles that Black women entrepreneurs face that make building successful businesses challenging. When it comes to businesses in the United States, Black women fall behind compared to their white counterparts and the impact of this transcends their communities. The most paramount consequence of the absence of successful Black women entrepreneurs is advocacy in decision making that ultimately impacts Black communities and the country at large. Black women endure systematic oppression that is directly linked to a long history of racial and gender inequality that affects their entrepreneurial experience. Particular challenges related to strong business relationships, access to funding and opportunities have prevented Black women entrepreneurs from success. When Black women entrepreneurs do not succeed, our economy and society suffer because they represent a great percentage of entrepreneurs who are not able to reach their fullest potential. Change is needed on a systemic level to address the inequalities that Black women entrepreneur’s experience. In this paper, I propose a local-wide policy using the city of Boston as the basis to introduce how communities can make an impact by investing in the success of Black women entrepreneurs

Creating resonance in emptiness with visual theatre : how the metaphorical potential of puppets, objects and images in theatre can be used to explore the constructed nature of reality and the complexity of the self

Includes the performance script of the play.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-93).The aim of this explication is to set my practical theatre research, and the production Dolos in particular, in a theoretical framework and performance historical context. Since the central theme of Dolos is the construction of reality and the consequent attachment to aspects of the self, my study draws on the ideas proposed by Phenomenology and Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy.According to these two philosophical systems, the concept of reality is subjective and relative. This leads me to question the functioning of meaning-making in artistic practice. Metaphor is explored as a vehicle for the meaning-making process and for the creation of resonant experience in theatre and performance. The production style of Dolos is one that I have defined as Visual Theatre, a theatre of puppets, objects, visual and theatrical images. Visual Theatre is examined in the context of theatre as an artistic medium; it is then contextualised in terms of its 20th development through the Century; and definitions are offered of the major elements at play within Visual Theatre. A series of interviews conducted with five creator/ directors from four South African companies working in the general terrain of Visual Theatre is used to contextualise current practice in South Africa and to locate my own work. The interviews are used to establish trends of thought around the object/puppet and its relationship in theatre to constructed reality. The views of these practitioners on their own creative process as well as my observations about their practical work are used as examples throughout

Lifestyle in Cardiovascular Disease

__Abstract__ Globally, the burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still increasing. However, in recent decades, better treatment modalities have led to less cardiovascular related deaths. After years of research, we now generally accept that lifestyle factors are the most important risk factors for the burden of CVD and lifestyle is a target for preventive treatment strategies. Lifestyle has a prominent role in health care and patient-related outcomes such as quality of life, physical and psychosocial functioning. Via promoting a healthy lifestyle in the setting of primary prevention the risk of developing CVD can be significantly reduced. To reduce cardiovascular risks it is essential to provide resources for lifestyle changes besides established medical therapy. These resources should be intertwined in the setting of primary and secondary prevention to achieve the highest effectivity in stimulating individuals to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors. There is increased interest in using psychological intervention programs for CVD, in which stress management and behavioral changes play an important role. Increased attention is also being paid to potential beneficial mind-body practices. These practices such as meditation, mindfulness training, relaxation or breathing exercises and yoga are increasingly popular in the general population and more commonly used in the western world. In this thesis, our aim was to evaluate and provide insight in the current role of lifestyle behaviours and lifestyle factors in CVD. Additionally, we aimed to improve our knowledge of the effectiveness of selected lifestyle interventions in individuals with, or at increased risk of developing CVD

Never Draw Unless You Mean to Shoot : United States Department of State\u27s Responses to Property Seizures in Latin America

This thesis examines the U.S. Department of State\u27s diplomatic handling of disputes over the seizure of U.S.-owned property in Latin America between 1937 and 1973. Seizures in Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru and Chile are used as case studies, and provide examples of successful and unsuccessful diplomatic outcomes. Several key factors are analyzed in each dispute, including Several key factors are analyzed in each dispute, including whether the Department took a conciliatory or confrontational approach toward each country, the kind of economic pressure applied, the situations under which the Department opted for official diplomatic involvement, and the types of informal facilitative assistance provided to U.S. claimants. The thesis then attempts to determine which measures helped to resolve outstanding disputes and which did not

Spectral properties of finite laser-driven lattices of ultracold Rydberg atoms

We investigate the spectral properties of a finite laser-driven lattice of ultracold Rydberg atoms exploiting the dipole blockade effect in the frozen Rydberg gas regime. Uniform one-dimensional lattices as well as lattices with variable spacings are considered. In the case of a weak laser coupling, we find a multitude of many-body Rydberg states with well-defined excitation properties which are adiabatically accessible starting from the ground state. A comprehensive analysis of the degeneracies of the spectrum as well as of the single and pair excitations numbers of the eigenstates is performed. In the strong laser regime, analytical solutions for the pseudo-fermionic eigenmodes are derived. Perturbative energy corrections for this approximative approach are provided.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure