People and patterns

In our society there is more talk of and less freedom. We live in a confining world of people and patterns. It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate the people from the patterns. People create patterns in their desire to conform or to be nonconformist. The law-abiding and the lawless create traceable forms. Our world exists around birth, education (formal and informal), work and death. In these larger patterns exist numbers of smaller and more detailed patterns. Birth servos a dual role as first it gives life and makes one capable of individual statements, but it also tears us from all security and leaves us naked in a world of clothed people. Formal education of numbers of people, an enormous undertaking within itself, tries, in idea and ideal, to serve its needs by mass producing individuality. The informal education results in the mores, standards, the red and green lights, local customs and the everyday people and life patterns punishable by law. Work consists of labor patterns as well as patterns of personal relationships

The beauty of paradox : Mansfield Park and Christianity

The purpose of this study is to explain why Jane Austen, the creator of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, presented the readers of Mansfield Park with so seemingly unattractive a heroine as Fanny Price. Rather than being the failure many critics perceive, Fanny is a relatively successful portrayal of a Christian heroine--one who embodies the paradoxes of Christianity. Fanny is the mourner, the meek, the poor in spirit, spoken of in the Beatitudes. One significant Christian tradition, the paradox of exterior beauty masking inner corruption, is illustrated admirably by Austen in her portrayal of Mary and Henry Crawford, as well as in the novels and minor works which preceded Mansfield Park. Because good, conversely, is not always outwardly attractive, Fanny and Edmund Bertram are characterized as stiff, dry and uncomfortable people. Two complementary themes in the Gospels which also underlie Mansfield Park are the complete dependence on God which leads to surrender of concern for worldly security, and the concern for others rather than for self. Austen illustrates that the worldly wisdom of self-seeking is ultimately destructive and that a life of self-sacrifice is the only means of salvation. She shows restraint to be true freedom, since it is only in the fetters of Christ that man escapes the bondage of sin

Utilizing the writing workshop in the high school English classrooms

This paper addresses the viability of the Writing Workshop in the high school classroom. Though many theorists and educators have written on the success of using the workshop method to teach writing, most research has been focused on primary grades. This paper seeks to address the practicality of using the workshop approach in secondary grades. The literature review reflects on the current research on teaching writing. In the literature review, I consider current theories on teaching writing. Beginning with a broad perspective of writing pedagogy, I look at the theoretical reasons why the writing workshop is effective. This section also looks at the projected benefits of using the writing workshop, along with suggestions for implementing the workshop in a classroom. My own field research shows the process of implementing the writing workshop in two high school classrooms. Using primarily qualitative research, I sought to explore questions of the practicality of using the workshop approach for academic writing as well as personal writing. I recorded the outcomes of applying the writing workshop in my classrooms over five months. The research includes the process of setting up the workshop, and samples from the study. My findings reflect successful practices and further questions for using the writing workshop in secondary classrooms

Origin And Development Of The Women's Rights Movement In Eighteenth Century England

Detecting the source of the origin of the idea of the subjection of women in England was one of the major questions to be answered in this study. A further purpose of the study was to trace the development of the women's rights movement from its origin to the stage when the movement became a recognizable social phenomenon

An Investigation Of The Orientation Texture In Stereoregular Polypropylene Films

The contributions of the crystalline and the noncrystalline regions to the total orientation of stereoregular polypropylene films were measured and characterized

Paying it Forward: A Strategy for Developing a Culture of Lifelong Engagement and Inclusion for First-Generation Students

This project aims to propose a strategy for VCU to increase the engagement and connection among First-Generation VCU students to create lifelong commitment as alumni through VCU’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations (DAR). The team proposes to expand DAR’s outreach through collaboration with key VCU stakeholders (e.g., YOU First at VCU). By developing a positive undergraduate experience, students’ loyalty to VCU will result in greater engagement as alumni, paying it forward

Inflammation in sputum relates to progression of disease in subjects with COPD: a prospective descriptive study

BACKGROUND: Inflammation is considered to be of primary pathogenic importance in COPD but the evidence on which current understanding is based does not distinguish between cause and effect, and no single mechanism can account for the complex pathology. We performed a prospective longitudinal study of subjects with COPD that related markers of sputum inflammation at baseline to subsequent disease progression. METHODS: A cohort of 56 patients with chronic bronchitis was characterized in the stable state at baseline and after an interval of four years, using physiological measures and CT densitometry. Sputum markers of airway inflammation were quantified at baseline from spontaneously produced sputum in a sub-group (n = 38), and inflammation severity was related to subsequent disease progression. RESULTS: Physiological and CT measures indicated disease progression in the whole group. In the sub-group, sputum myeloperoxidase correlated with decline in FEV(1 )(rs = -0.344, p = 0.019, n = 37). LTB4 and albumin leakage correlated with TLCO decline (rs = -0.310, p = 0.033, rs = -0.401, p = 0.008, respectively, n = 35) and IL-8 correlated with progression of lung densitometric indices (rs = -0.464, p = 0.005, n = 38). CONCLUSION: The data support a principal causative role for neutrophilic inflammation in the pathogenesis of COPD and suggest that the measurement of sputum inflammatory markers may have a predictive role in clinical practice

A New Vaccine for Tuberculosis: The Challenges of Development and Deployment

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s leading causes of death due to infection and efforts to control TB would be substantially aided by the availability of an improved TB vaccine. There are currently nine new TB vaccines in clinical development, and the first efficacy trials are due to commence in 2009. There are many complex ethical issues which arise at all stages of TB vaccine development, from the need to conduct trials in developing countries to informed consent and the process of ethical review. While it is important that these issues are discussed, it may also be timely to consider the challenges which may arise if a vaccine in clinical development proves to be highly effective. We examine a number of scenarios where decisions on the deployment of a new TB vaccine may impact on the rights and liberty of the individual

Search for a Technicolor omega_T Particle in Events with a Photon and a b-quark Jet at CDF

If the Technicolor omega_T particle exists, a likely decay mode is omega_T -> gamma pi_T, followed by pi_T -> bb-bar, yielding the signature gamma bb-bar. We have searched 85 pb^-1 of data collected by the CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron for events with a photon and two jets, where one of the jets must contain a secondary vertex implying the presence of a b quark. We find no excess of events above standard model expectations. We express the result of an exclusion region in the M_omega_T - M_pi_T mass plane.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures. Available from the CDF server (PS with figs): http://www-cdf.fnal.gov/physics/pub98/cdf4674_omega_t_prl_4.ps FERMILAB-PUB-98/321-

Measurement of the B0 anti-B0 oscillation frequency using l- D*+ pairs and lepton flavor tags

The oscillation frequency Delta-md of B0 anti-B0 mixing is measured using the partially reconstructed semileptonic decay anti-B0 -> l- nubar D*+ X. The data sample was collected with the CDF detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider during 1992 - 1995 by triggering on the existence of two lepton candidates in an event, and corresponds to about 110 pb-1 of pbar p collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV. We estimate the proper decay time of the anti-B0 meson from the measured decay length and reconstructed momentum of the l- D*+ system. The charge of the lepton in the final state identifies the flavor of the anti-B0 meson at its decay. The second lepton in the event is used to infer the flavor of the anti-B0 meson at production. We measure the oscillation frequency to be Delta-md = 0.516 +/- 0.099 +0.029 -0.035 ps-1, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Physical Review