Narrative Design in an American Tragedy

The mere living of your daily life is drastic drama I look into my own life and I realize that each human life is a similar tragedy. The infinite suffering and deprivation of great masses of men and women upon whom existence has been thrust unasked appals me. My greatest desire is to devote every hour of my conscious existence to depicting phases of life as I see and understand them. Every human life is intensely interesting. Theodore Dreiser, 1907 interview with New York Times Saturday Review of Books How do we know the "power" or the "compassion" know them differently, that is, from the power or compassion we may read into a news story except by Dreiser's control? Except, in other words, by his grasp of the human materials and his rhythmic organization of them, the vibrance which is the life of fictional illusion, that mutual interpenetrationof part and whole which gives us the sense of preternatural fulfillment? Except, in short, by art? � Robert Penn Warren, "Homage to Theodore Dreiser on the Centenary of His Birth~ Theodore Dreiser occupies a unique niche in the history of American letters. No other author considered "important," with the possible exception of James Fenimore Cooper, is presented by his critical advocates in such an apologetic, defensive, and extra-literary manner. Undoubtedly, some readers--under the influence of criticism--have been averse to consideration of Dreiser as an artist with a self-conscious literary methodology, and this mistaken impression has led some critics to the ironic position of granting Dreiser the verisimilitude and power of his creations while deriding him as both thinker and craftsman. This position constitutes a critical red herring because it is based on the assumption that content is an entity separable from form, thus avoiding the form/content relationship that would necessarily be discussed in regard to a novel by Faulkner, Dos Passos, or even Kerouac. I reject the idea that Dreiser's successes are achieved in spite of his style. Rather, I contend that in An American Tragedy Dreiser's technique--particularily his skillful manipulation of narrative voice--is integral to the novel and responsible for its effect on the reader. The technique of An American Tragedy is far different from that of Sister Carrie. Such variation suggests an author who knew how to vary his methodology depending on the effect he desired to create for his readers, something more than the "primitive" image given circulation by both Dreiser's critical enemies such as Lionel Trilling and his advocates such as H. L. Mencken. Understanding why we understand the character of Clyde Griffiths is as important as recognizing levels of irony in Billy Budd or structural patterns in Go Down, Moses. Instead of emphasizing in isolation, what Dreiser means, I shall be discussing theme in the context of technique in the first book of An American Tragedy (Clyde's childhood) , detailing an intricate four-level structure to the narrative which illustrates Dreiser's view of human epistemology, morality, and decision-making in such a way as to complement the novel's depiction of maturation.Englis

Using Participatory Focus Groups Of Graduate Students To Improve Academic Departments: A Case Example

The authors report on a participatory focus group evaluation of an academic department. The 20 participants, and the majority of the evaluators, were graduate students in that department. The authors report on their methods, their reflections, ethical issues they encountered and what they did about them, and how they used the results

The Role of Emotions in Fieldwork: A Self-Study of Family Research in a Corrections Setting

In this study, we document a reflexive process via bracketing techniques and the development of a conceptual map in order to better understand how emotions that arise in the field can inform research design, implementation, and results. We conducted a content analysis of field notes written by a team of researchers who administered an interview to caregivers bringing children to visit an incarcerated family member at a local jail. Our self-examination revealed themes around the team\u27s discomfort connected to the institutional jail setting and intense emotions regarding the life situations of study participants, their treatment by jail staff, and our own concerns about leaving the research setting. We offer recommendations for scholars conducting research in similar environments with vulnerable participants

A new model for magnetoreception

Certain migratory birds can sense the earth's magnetic field. The nature of this process is not yet properly understood. Here we offer a simple explanation according to which birds literally `see' the local magnetic field: Our model relates the well-established radical pair hypothesis to the phenomenon of Haidinger's brush, a capacity to see the polarisation of light. This new picture explains recent surprising experimental data indicating long lifetimes for the radical pair. Moreover there is a clear evolutionary path toward this field sensing mechanism: it is an enhancement of a weak effect that may be present in many species.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, version of final published pape

Unexpectedly long incubation period of Plasmodium vivax malaria, in the absence of chemoprophylaxis, in patients diagnosed outside the transmission area in Brazil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In 2010, Brazil recorded 3343,599 cases of malaria, with 99.6% of them concentrated in the Amazon region. <it>Plasmodium vivax </it>accounts for 86% of the cases circulating in the country. The extra-Amazonian region, where transmission does not occur, recorded about 566 cases imported from the Amazonian area in Brazil and South America, from Central America, Asia and African countries. Prolonged incubation periods have been described for <it>P. vivax </it>malaria in temperate climates. The diversity in essential biological characteristics is traditionally considered as one possible explanation to the emergence of relapse in malaria and to the differences in the duration of the incubation period, which can also be explained by the use of chemoprophylaxis. Studying the reported cases of <it>P. vivax </it>malaria in Rio de Janeiro, where there is no vector transmission, has made it possible to evaluate the extension of the incubation period and to notice that it may be extended in some cases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Descriptive study of every malaria patients who visited the clinic in the last five years. The mean, standard deviation, median, minimum and maximum of all incubation periods were analysed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>From the total of 80 patients seen in the clinic during the study time, with confirmed diagnosis of malaria, 49 (63%) were infected with <it>P. vivax</it>. Between those, seven had an estimated incubation period varying from three to 12 months and were returned travellers from Brazilian Amazonian states (6) and Indonesia (1). None of them had taken malarial chemoprophylaxis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The authors emphasize that considering malaria as a possible cause of febrile syndrome should be a post-travel routine, independent of the time elapsed after exposure in the transmission area, even in the absence of malaria chemoprophylaxis. They speculate that, since there is no current and detailed information about the biological cycle of human malaria plasmodia's in Brazil, it is possible that new strains are circulating in endemic regions or a change in cycle of preexisting strains is occurring. Considering that a prolonged incubation period may confer advantages on the survival of the parasite, difficulties in malaria control might arise.</p

Challenges for IT-Enabled Formative Assessment of Complex 21st Century Skills

In this article, we identify and examine opportunities for formative assessment provided by information technologies (IT) and the challenges which these opportunities present. We address some of these challenges by examining key aspects of assessment processes that can be facilitated by IT: datafication of learning; feedback and scaffolding; peer assessment and peer feedback. We then consider how these processes may be applied in relation to the assessment of horizontal, general complex 21st century skills (21st CS), which are still proving challenging to incorporate into curricula as well as to assess. 21st CS such as creativity, complex problem solving, communication, collaboration and self-regulated learning contain complex constructs incorporating motivational and affective components. Our analysis has enabled us to make recommendations for policy, practice and further research. While there is currently much interest in and some progress towards the development of learning/assessment analytics for assessing 21st CS, the complexity of assessing such skills, together with the need to include affective aspects means that using IT-enabled techniques will need to be combined with more traditional methods of teacher assessment as well as peer assessment for some time to come. Therefore learners, teachers and school leaders must learn how to manage the greater variety of sorts and sources of feedback including resolving tensions of inconsistent feedback from different sources

A comparative, randomized clinical trial of artemisinin/naphtoquine twice daily one day versus artemether/lumefantrine six doses regimen in children and adults with uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Côte d'Ivoire

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Drug resistance in <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>poses a major threat to malaria control. Combination anti-malarial therapy, including artemisinins, has been advocated to improve efficacy and limit the spread of resistance. The fixed combination of oral artemether-lumefantrine (AL) is highly effective and well-tolerated. Artemisinin/naphtoquine (AN) is a fixed-dose ACT that has recently become available in Africa.</p> <p>The objectives of the study were to compare the efficacy and safety of AN and AL for the treatment of uncomplicated <it>falciparum </it>malaria in a high transmission-intensity site in Ivory Coast.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We enrolled 122 participants aged 6 months or more with uncomplicated <it>falciparum </it>malaria. Participants were randomized to receive either artemisinin/naphtoquine or artemether/lumefantrine with variable dose according to their weight. Primary endpoints were the risks of treatment failure within 28 days, either unadjusted or adjusted by genotyping to distinguish recrudescence from new infection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among 125 participants enrolled, 123 (98.4%) completed follow-up. Clinical evaluation of the 123 participants showed that cumulative PCR-uncorrected cure rate on day 28 was 100% for artemisinin/naphtoquine and 98.4% for artemether/lumefantrine. Both artemisinin-based combinations effected rapid fever and parasite clearance.</p> <p>Interpretation</p> <p>These data suggest that Arco^®could prove to be suitable for use as combination antimalarial therapy. Meanwhile, pharmacokinetic studies and further efficacy assessment should be conducted before its widespread use can be supported.</p