The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Dance: Nietzschean Transitions in Nijinsky\u27s Ballets

This project compares the career of the early 20th century ballet dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky, to Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory of the tragic arts. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872) and elsewhere, Nietzsche argues that artists play the central role in communal mythmaking and religious renewal; he prescribes the healing work of the “tragic artist” to save modernity from the decadence and nihilism he identifies in scientism, historicism, and Christianity. As a dancer, and especially as a choreographer for the Ballets Russes (1912-1913), Nijinsky staged a kinetic response to modern culture that not only displayed shared concerns with Nietzsche, but also, as I argue, allow him to be interpreted as Nietzsche’s archetypical tragic artist. By juxtaposing the philologist-philosopher and dancer-choreographer as artists, I situate the emergence of Modern Art as a nascent movement still bound to Romanticism even while rebelling against it, and as an attempt to reinterpret art in a mythic (and thoroughly modern) context

Follow up study of 129 first grade children

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Strengthening Africa’s Contributions to Child Development Research: Introduction

The articles in this Special Section are based on contributions to an SRCD-sponsored invitational conference held in Victoria, Canada, in February 2009. This introductory article establishes the rationale for focusing on Africa as part of an effort to advance a more inclusive science of child development, provides a brief overview of the thrust of the other articles in the section, describes 2 research capacity-building initiatives that emerged from the conference, and concludes with reflective perspectives on conceptual and methodological considerations for a future African child development field

Civil Rights Suspended: An Analysis of New York City Charter School Discipline Policies

Over the past few years, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) has assisted an increasing number of parents who have contacted them with concerns about charter school suspensions and expulsions. In helping parents with these cases, AFC found that charter school discipline policies were not always readily available.In this report, AFC sent Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the three New York City charter school authorizers and, to the extent possible, charter schools opening in NYC during the 2013-2014 school year seeking, among other things, copies of their discipline policies. Charter schools are required to comply with FOIL requests, and most charter schools responded. From the FOIL responses and charter school websites, AFC was able to review 164 discipline policies from 155 of the 183 charter schools operating in NYC during the 2013-2014 school year. These discipline policies came from large charter school networks as well as from small, independent charter schools. While charter schools should be able to discipline their students, they must uphold the rights of their students and provide them with a fair discipline process. The Charter Schools Act requires charter school authorizers to ensure that charter applications include discipline policies and procedures that comport with the law. Yet, all three authorizers of New York City charter schools have approved charters for schools that have legally inadequate discipline policies

Maternal literacy and health behavior: a Nepalese case study

This article addresses the question of whether literacy could be mediating the relationships of schooling to maternal health behavior in populations undergoing demographic transition. Recent studies in which literacy was directly assessed suggest a literacy pathway to demographic change. The literacy skills of 167 urban and rural mothers of school-aged children in Lalitpur District of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal were assessed by tests of reading comprehension, academic language proficiency, health media skills and health narrative skill, as part of studies in the urban and rural communitiesthat included a maternal interview and ethnographic fieldwork on the contexts of family life, health care and female schooling. Regression analysis of the data indicates the retention of literacy skills in adulthood and their influence on health behavior; ethnographic evidence shows that selective bias in school attainment does not account for the results. Further direct assessment studies are recommended

Comparative genetics of Enterococcus faecalis intestinal tissue isolates before and after surgery in a rat model of colon anastomosis.

We have recently demonstrated that collagenolytic Enterococcus faecalis plays a key and causative role in the pathogenesis of anastomotic leak, an uncommon but potentially lethal complication characterized by disruption of the intestinal wound following segmental removal of the colon (resection) and its reconnection (anastomosis). Here we hypothesized that comparative genetic analysis of E. faecalis isolates present at the anastomotic wound site before and after surgery would shed insight into the mechanisms by which collagenolytic strains are selected for and predominate at sites of anastomotic disruption. Whole genome optical mapping of four pairs of isolates from rat colonic tissue obtained following surgical resection (herein named "pre-op" isolates) and then 6 days later from the anastomotic site (herein named "post-op" isolates) demonstrated that the isolates with higher collagenolytic activity formed a distinct cluster. In order to perform analysis at a deeper level, a single pair of E. faecalis isolates (16A pre-op and 16A post-op) was selected for whole genome sequencing and assembled using a hybrid assembly algorithm. Comparative genomics demonstrated absence of multiple gene clusters, notably a pathogenicity island in the post-op isolate. No differences were found in the fsr-gelE-sprE genes (EF1817-1822) responsible for regulation and production of collagenolytic activity. Analysis of unique genes among the 16A pre-op and post-op isolates revealed the predominance of transporter systems-related genes in the pre-op isolate and phage-related and hydrolytic enzyme-encoding genes in the post-op isolate. Despite genetic differences observed between pre-op and post-op isolates, the precise genetic determinants responsible for their differential expression of collagenolytic activity remains unknown

The Shape of LITTLE THINGS Dwarf Galaxies DDO 46 and DDO 168: Understanding the stellar and gas kinematics

We present the stellar and gas kinematics of DDO 46 and DDO 168 from the LITTLE THINGS survey and determine their respective Vmax/sigma_z,0 values. We used the KPNO's 4-meter telescope with the Echelle spectrograph as a long-slit spectrograph. We acquired spectra of DDO 168 along four position angles by placing the slit over the morphological major and minor axes and two intermediate position angles. However, due to poor weather conditions during our observing run for DDO 46, we were able to extract only one useful data point from the morphological major axis. We determined a central stellar velocity dispersion perpendicular to the disk, sigma_z,0, of 13.5+/-8 km/s for DDO 46 and of 10.7+/-2.9 km/s for DDO 168. We then derived the maximum rotation speed in both galaxies using the LITTLE THINGS HI data. We separated bulk motions from non-circular motions using a double Gaussian decomposition technique and applied a tilted-ring model to the bulk velocity field. We corrected the observed HI rotation speeds for asymmetric drift and found a maximum velocity, Vmax, of 77.4 +/- 3.7 and 67.4 +/- 4.0 km/s for DDO 46 and DDO 168, respectively. Thus, we derived a kinematic measure, Vmax/sigma_z,0, of 5.7 +/- 0.6 for DDO 46 and 6.3 +/- 0.3 for DDO 168. Comparing these values to ones determined for spiral galaxies, we find that DDO 46 and DDO 168 have Vmax/sigma_z,0 values indicative of thin disks, which is in contrast to minor-to-major axis ratio studies

Effects of Gender and Hypovolemia on Sympathetic Neural Responses to Orthostatic Stress

We tested the hypothesis that women have blunted sympathetic neural responses to orthostatic stress compared with men, which may be elicited under hypovolemic conditions. Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and hemodynamics were measured in eight healthy young women and seven men in supine position and during 6 min of 60° head-up tilt (HUT) under normovolemic and hypovolemic conditions (randomly), with ∼4-wk interval. Acute hypovolemia was produced by diuretic (furosemide) administration ∼2 h before testing. Orthostatic tolerance was determined by progressive lower body negative pressure to presyncope. We found that furosemide produced an ∼13% reduction in plasma volume, causing a similar increase in supine MSNA in men and women (mean ± SD of 5 ± 7 vs. 6 ± 5 bursts/min; P = 0.895). MSNA increased during HUT and was greater in the hypovolemic than in the normovolemic condition (32 ± 6 bursts/min in normovolemia vs. 44 ± 15 bursts/min in hypovolemia in men, P = 0.055; 35 ± 9 vs. 45 ± 8 bursts/min in women, P \u3c 0.001); these responses were not different between the genders (gender effect: P = 0.832 and 0.814 in normovolemia and hypovolemia, respectively). Total peripheral resistance increased proportionately with increases in MSNA during HUT; these responses were similar between the genders. However, systolic blood pressure was lower, whereas diastolic blood pressure was similar in women compared with men during HUT, which was associated with a smaller stroke volume or stroke index. Orthostatic tolerance was lower in women, especially under hypovolemic conditions. These results indicate that men and women have comparable sympathetic neural responses during orthostatic stress under normovolemic and hypovolemic conditions. The lower orthostatic tolerance in women is predominantly because of a smaller stroke volume, presumably due to less cardiac filling during orthostasis, especially under hypovolemic conditions, which may overwhelm the vasomotor reserve available for vasoconstriction or precipitate neurally mediated sympathetic withdrawal and syncope